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Spurgeon: “Shall the Eternal fail thee?”

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“Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord and thy redeemer the Holy one of Israel.”
(Isaiah 41:14)

Get rid of fear, because fear is painful. How it torments the spirit! When the Christian trusts, he is happy; when he doubts, he is miserable. When the believer looks to His Master and relies upon Him, he can sing; when he doubts His Master, he can only groan.

What miserable wretches the most faithful Christians are when they once begin doubting and fearing! It is a trade I never like to meddle with, because it never pays the expenses, and never brings in any profit—the trade of doubting.

Why, the soul is broken in pieces, lanced, pricked with knives, dissolved, racked, pained. It knoweth not how to exist when it gives way to fear. Up, Christian! thou art of a sorrowful countenance; up, and chase thy fears.

Why wouldst thou be for ever groaning in thy dungeon? Why should the Giant Despair for ever beat thee with his crabtree cudgel? Up! Drive him away! Touch the key of the promises; be of good cheer! Fear never helped thee yet, and it never will.

Fear, too, is weakening. Make a man afraid—he will run at his own shadow; make a man brave, and he will stand before an army and overcome them. He will never do much good in the world who is afraid of men.

The fear of God bringeth blessings, but the fear of men bringeth a snare, and such a snare that many feet have been tripped by it. No man shall be faithful to God, if he is fearful of man.

No man shall find His arm sufficient for him, and His might equal to his emergencies unless he can confidently believe, and quietly wait. We must not fear; for fear is weakening.

Again; we must not fear; for fear dishonors God. Doubt the Eternal, distrust the Omnipotent? Oh, traitorous fear! Thinkest thou that the arm which piled the heavens, and sustains the pillars of the earth shall ever be palsied?

Shall the brow which eternal ages have rolled over without scathing it, at last be furrowed by old age? What! Shall the Eternal fail thee? Shall the faithful Promiser break His oath? Thou dishonorest God, O unbelief! Get thee hence!

God is too wise to err, too good to be unkind; leave off doubting Him, and begin to trust Him, for in so doing, thou wilt put a crown on His head, but in doubting Him thou dost trample His crown beneath thy feet.

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon. From a sermon titled, “Fear Not”

Comments

  1. Oh I praise God for this post today! I came here for another purpose, but this is exactly what I needed today! My wife and I have not been sleeping for fear, though we have been praying and resting on the Word with all our might. My family is under such an attack, an entirely undeserved and anti-Christian threat of dissolution by outside forces, it would make one’s heart fail, and I have been struggling to have faith, and here, here is the message from someone who has fought the same fight, and won in Christ, and passed me the victory shout from the other side! And fear is rebuked, and gone! I will refresh my mind with these true words whenever I forget them.
    Thank you, thank you, thank you, whoever posted this blog today! If the Lord led you as you prayed, you were led indeed, perhaps for many others, but certainly not least for me and my family.

    • I don’t know you, but prayed for you today. Psalm 33:27, “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

  2. 11/20/2013
    Wow, GOD is so good. In my devotional this morning, even before I went on line with Blue Letter Bible, I felt the Lord lead me to read Isaiah 41, illuminating verses 10 and 13, “Fear Not, for I am with thee.” I was going to look up something completely different when I went on Blue Letter’s site, after my devotional, but there, in the side bar was the picture and the words “Fear Not.” Exactly what I was reading about in my devotional just minutes before. It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord speaks to each and every one of us, and when he wants you to know something, HE will show you via confirmation in several different ways so that YOU GET IT!! Today HE was reminding me about trusting HIM, showing me how I am doubting HIS presence in my life, how my own fear was weakening me. To “confidently believe in HIM” which infuses me with the courage to armor up and fight the good fight. Forgive me Lord for doubting you. Thank you for revealing to me what you needed me to know today. Thank you for your goodness and mercy in my life. In all things I give thanks and praise to YOU. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
    Proverbs 3:5-6
    Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    And lean not on your own understanding;
    In all your ways acknowledge Him,
    And He shall direct your paths.

  3. So true, thank you jesus for faithful men like spurgon, please help me to apply your word in my life heart and mind

  6. thank you for this devotional I really need to be reminded not to fear man but to trust in God. He is kind. He will help me in my weakness. I do not fear God’s ability but His willingness because of my unworthiness because I am fearful, doubting and in unbelief. LORD,”Help me to confidently believe and quietly wait”

  7. Wow! This is beautiful and so perfect for what I am going through right now. Thank you for this truth and encouragement.

  8. Fear is about relying on ones self and not God. Fear starts when you leave your camp to go do battle without your helmet, breast plate and sword etc.(Eph 6:13-17)Daily study in the Word of God and Daily Prayer is the only way to seek God’s face for understanding on how to acquire this armor. Without this armor how can you stand against fear which is one of many of Satan’s weapons.

  9. I miss Chuck Smith. May God’s grace shine greatly upon him as he sits at the Master’s feet. And now like Charles Spurgeon we can enjoy his many sermons and clips hopefully from this site. Please make them readily available.
    Kindly, In Christ

  11. Going through trials like most Christians right now. But we are standing on God’s Word & His promises, but fear does try to raise his ugly head and sermons like this by great men of God like Spurgeon are necessary. Thank you so much for sharing this. It was what I need this day.

  12. I find fear of God to be natural. Not fear of God’s character, rather fear of God’s magnanimous glory.

  13. This is indeed what we need to hear today. It’s as if we are all in a small boat with a storm raging around us: the unravelling of the economy, the failure of government, now saber rattling in the Asian Pacific. So many reasons to fear. But the very act of not giving in to fear will be a testament and a witness to the unbelievers who are in that little boat with us. When they ask us how it is that we have no fear we will point to Jesus asleep in the bow of the boat.