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The sermon presents fear as morally and spiritually diverse: fear of man, worldly loss, and anxious doubt can cripple faith, while fear of God awakens conscience, produces caution, protects love, and deepens reverence. Spurgeon strongly emphasizes the certainty and sufficiency of Christ’s salvation for those who know themselves to be sinners, rejecting reliance on good works. Believers are encouraged to trust God’s preserving grace while pursuing holiness, church fellowship, undivided love for Christ, and reverent worship. The sermon closes with a direct gospel invitation to confess guilt, abandon self-righteousness, receive mercy through Jesus, and rejoice in pardon.
Theological center: Salvation is grounded in Christ’s atoning work and received by sinners who confess their guilt and rest in His mercy, not their own righteousness.
Applications: Reject sinful fear · Confess guilt and trust Christ · Guard the heart from rivals · Come to Christ in repentance
Primary texts: Ecclesiastes 8:12 · Luke 5:32 · 1 Timothy 1:15
“Yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him.” Ecclesiastes 8:12 I HAVE heard it sometimes said by wicked men, when they would arraign the justice of the Most High, that it is unjust that God should condemn men for the use of the powers which He Himself has given them. This most subtle evil has often grieved the hearts of those who are weak and ignorant, and have not seen its untruthfulness—for to speak plainly of it, it is a gross lie. God does not condemn men for the use of the powers He has given them. He condemns them for the misuse of those powers, not for employing them, but for employing them as they ought not to employ them. Not for thinking, not for speaking, not for doing, but for thinking, speaking, and doing, contrary to His law. God damns no man for the use of the powers which He has given him, let that be again repeated—but He does condemn them for the abuse of those powers, and for their impudence in daring to turn those powers, which He has given them, for His honor, against His service and against His throne. Now, my friends, there is no power which God has given us which may not be employed for God. I believe that David uttered a great truth, as well as a great exhortation to himself when he said, “Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” There is nothing in man that God has not put there which may not be employed in God’s service. Some may ask me whether anger can be brought in. I answer, yes. A good man may serve God by being angry against sin, and to be angry against sin is a high and holy thing. You may ask me, perhaps, whether ridicule can be employed? I answer, yes. I believe we may even rightly employ it in the preaching of God’s Word. I know this, I always intend to use it. And if by a laugh I can make men see the folly of an error better than in any other way, they shall laugh and laugh here, too, for ridicule is to be used in God’s service. And every power that God has implanted in man—I will make no exception—may be used for God’s service and for God’s honor. What man has gotten for himself by the fall, cannot be employed to serve God with. We cannot bring before God Adam’s robbery, to be a sacrifice to the Almighty, nor can our own carnal and sinful passions honor the Most High. But there are natural powers which God has conferred and none of these are in themselves sinful. I would have them, therefore, employed for the Master. Yea, even those powers with which it seems impossible to worship, such as the powers of assimilation, eating, and drinkin…