Spiritual Depression Pt. 7: The Fear of the Future

Spiritual Warfare and the Devil’s Relentless Opposition

Up to part seven in our study on spiritual depression, based on the book Spiritual Depression by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, which is the good old Englishman right there. To review, I just want to use one of his opening quotes.

In fact, I think this is the opening paragraph in his book. And there's almost no end to the ways in which this condition, this disease of the soul, may take us or may attack us. We have demonstrated how our adversary the devil is subtle and can even transform himself into an angel of light.

And that is very true. But it is equally true to say of him that he is relentless. And that's what we're going to kind of focus on. We've looked at how varied his attacks are and how subtle he can be.

But starting tonight, we're going to look and see how relentless he is. I mean by that that he does not cease or give up. He does not care what methods he employs so long as he can bring us down and discredit the work of God.

And he is not concerned about consistency. He does not hesitate to vary his procedure, his approach. He does not hesitate to contradict what he has said to us previously. He has but one object and one concern, and that is to bring into disrepute the name and the work of God and especially, of course, the great work of God in our redemption through the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That's kind of where we're at here so far. So introducing what our topic is, in that quotation, Dr. Jones reminds us that mankind is engaged in spiritual warfare. And that's something that we must always keep in mind.

It began in the Garden of Eden when mankind fell into sin and was cursed by God. And was it not for the promise of God to send a Redeemer for mankind, there would be no hope. Christ is that hope. And then there's another quote from the good doctor.

This is the supreme thing that sinful fallen man can be redeemed and restored and ultimately the whole of creation also. It's important that we take a good view of what's going on in this spiritual warfare.

In this spiritual warfare, we are battling the forces of evil, though they be manifested in physical form. Remember, Satan uses other people. He uses institutions. He uses the things of this world in his spiritual warfare, but don't ever lose sight of the fact that behind it all is spiritual warfare.

Satan knows the Scripture teaches the ultimate victory of Christ. Now, if he believes that or not, we can argue that. But the point is he knows the Scripture. In fact, he knows the Scriptures better than you and I know the Scriptures.

Yet he continues the battle against the Church and is described as acting as a roaring lion. So just because he knows the Scriptures doesn't mean that he has thrown up his hands. The Scripture clearly proclaims that he was defeated on the cross.

He knows that. But yet he continues to prowl about like a roaring lion and to discredit and to bring down individual Christians and the work of God as a whole. So obviously, therefore, the supreme concern of the adversary, the devil, the opponent, is to endeavor somehow or other to bring this work of God to discredit and to dishonor.

That's what he's all about. He knows he can't get your soul. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, your soul is secure. You have been given the Holy Spirit as a seal, as a pledge of your salvation. And Christ says that he will save you to the uttermost.

So no one can snatch you out of the hand of God. Satan knows that. So what does he do? He tries to use Christians in particular to discredit the work of God. Every time, and especially you see this, every time you see, especially a pastor, an evangelist, an apologist, when you see one of them fall, what happens?

People start pointing, oh, see, that's what Christianity is all about. And so every time that work is discredited, it's a minor victory for Satan. And what better way of doing that than to bring us into such a condition that we give the impression of being depressed, burdened, and miserable?

That's the reason Dr. Jones wrote this book, was over his ministry, which lasted, I think it was 40-some years, in a very prestigious church in England. And he saw that this was a major concern in the church.

And you can even see it today. And how can we see it manifested today? Just think how much the Christian counseling industry is, what it's worth in dollars and cents. It's a lot of money being paid to analysts, psychotherapists, and all kinds of other things.

And the sad part is that most of them are missing the mark because they're treating it as though it were some sort of a mental illness. Now, don't get me wrong. I know there is such a thing as mental illness.

I'm not saying that there isn't. But a lot of these spiritual issues are being treated as though they are mental issues and treated by psychology instead of coming back to the Word of God, which has the answer for spiritual issues.

Okay?

The Fear of the Future as a Common Form of Spiritual Depression

So, that was the introduction. The condition, what are we talking about? Well, most of what we've addressed so far in the first six parts of this series is things of the past, remember? Past sins, or that one great sin that looms in our minds as being unforgivable.

Remember, we looked about that, that some people are spiritually depressed because they think back of this one particular sin that they did, that they had committed, and they say, how can I really be forgiven for that?

And they treat their particular sin as though it was unforgivable.

Okay?

Or, as we talked about last week, wasting time before entering the kingdom. Some people get down because, oh, I think of all the years I wasted before coming to faith in Christ, and you can't get those years back.

Well, of course, you can, because the Lord promises that he will restore all the years that the locusts took. So, anyway. But now we come to a different aspect of this depression, and those who are depressed are anxious about the future.

Often these are the same people who were anxious about the past. And this is interesting. And look at the quotation from the good doctor here. He says, when you have put them right about the past, they immediately begin to talk about the future with the result that they are always depressed in the present.

And this may very well be one of the most common areas of spiritual depression, is the future. People get anxious about what's going to happen. You know? Look at our country today. How many people are really anxious and concerned because of what's happened in Washington, what's happened with the elections, what's happening in Albany.

All right?

We don't know. There's an uncertainty. What's going to happen with COVID? How bad is it? Is it really as bad as they make it out to be? But there's a lot of anxiety over things coming in the future. So it's very common to hear people express anxiety and anxiousness over the future.

Now, it's extremely prevalent among nonbelievers, which you can understand. What's one of the biggest fears amongst nonbelievers? What happens when I die? They don't know. They have certain hopes or just convince themselves, well, there's nothing.

I worked with a man in homicide, one of my closest and dearest friends. I love this man like a brother. He was such a good man, humanly speaking. And he had convinced himself. In fact, he was like a bulldog.

He talked to me between gritted teeth, kind of like this. And he said, you know something, Jensen? When you close your eyes, that's it.

It's all over.

I said, you're really betting your life on that, aren't you? But anyway, we had a lot of talks about that. But we also find this same depression within the Church of Jesus Christ. And that ought not to be.

Temperament, Calling, and Sacrifice as Causes of Future Anxiety

So what's the cause of this? Well, first, simply the temperament of the individual. We are all different in our makeup. Now, we've examined this temperament idea in a previous lesson, talking about some of the general causes.

Remember, we began by giving some of the general conditions of the spiritual depression. And we talked about temperament, just the makeup of the particular individual. But it bears repeating under this specific topic, the fear of the future, because it really is manifested in this particular topic.

Now, you've got to remember, as humans, we have many similarities. But we can also be different in many different ways. Just as the outer man, like how many of us are here tonight? About 25, 30 people in this room here tonight.

We all have one head, two eyes, two arms, two legs. So we're similar. We're all human. Yet we can distinguish each other. We know who's who. We know that that's Pastor Chris, that's Pastor Anthony. You can identify people, because while we're similar, there's differences.

So too, the inner man is similar, but with many distinguishing characteristics. Some people are just more prone to anxiety than others are. Some people are more prone to a particular sin. Hebrews talks about that besetting sin, or that sin that so easily entangles you.

It's not the same for everybody. And one of the things that we need to be careful of, especially if we're working through somebody who is spiritually depressed or whatnot, is not understanding that just because you don't have a particular problem in this area doesn't mean that the other person doesn't.

Or it's an easy problem to fix. There are certain things that really affect an individual because of his temperament, his makeup, that don't affect somebody else. For example, something that I have never struggled with is narcotic addiction.

It holds no... I worked undercover in narcotics. I hate drugs. I hate them with a passion. You could tempt me with anything, and I would never go towards drugs. There's other things, which I'm not going to tell you, that I struggle with day in and day out.

Sins...

Like people who don't shut their phones off. I'm kidding. I'm sure everybody here understands. There are certain things that you have no trouble with, but somebody else does. And you have to have that type of understanding if you're ever going to be a proper witness for Jesus Christ.

Just because you don't have struggle in that area doesn't mean that they don't have a real struggle. So the first cause is just the temperament. Remember, salvation doesn't take away your personality, the differences that you have or the weaknesses that you have.

And a lot of people misunderstand this. Salvation gives us the ability to handle and to deal with the weaknesses biblically. But it doesn't just... Wouldn't it be great if you were saved and zapped instantly and you have all your problems were gone, no more struggles.

But that's not God's design. That's your sanctification. So salvation doesn't change your temperament. The bent that you might have towards a particular lifestyle or a particular sin is still going to be there.

But you have the ability to work with it. Notice, all Christians don't even receive the same gifts of the Spirit. So why would we think that we would all be the same in temperament? We're not. In fact, even those with similar gifts exercise them differently.

An example, not all preachers preach the same way. Now all preachers have been given a gift to preach, otherwise they shouldn't really be in the pulpit.

All right.

But we don't all preach the same way. I mean, you look at various preachers and you see their personality coming through in how they preach and how they... And I'm not saying that it's not necessarily that one is more effective than the other.

It's just how God uses them individually as a preacher. In fact, I was once told... Somebody came into our congregation and heard me preach. And afterwards he came up and he met with me and he was a lawyer.

And a lawyer actually came to church. It was a miracle that day. Sorry, Dave. He came up to me afterwards. He says, you know how you preach? I said, what about it? He says, you preach like you're marshalling the evidence.

All right.

Marshalling the evidence is what a judge does before the case goes to the jury. And he says, you preach like you're marshalling the evidence. He says, I loved it being a lawyer. But anyway, that's just one of my particular things.

Some people are just more naturally nervous and apprehensive than others.

Okay.

And we need to keep these things in mind. The first general cause of the spiritual depression is the temperament. We have to understand that. Second cause is just the nature of the calling of the Christian.

A person gets saved and they see the greatness of the task before them. Do you realize what you are called to as a Christian?

All right.

You are being called to service in the kingdom of God. That is a high calling. You are serving the king of kings and the Lord of lords. You are part of his family, part of his church. You're part of his army.

And you have been given. There is a call on your life that is high and exalted and important. Don't ever think that, you know, as a believer, we're a small church here.

Right.

We're, you know, Sunday mornings at our largest, we're 120, 130 people maybe. And in the small little part of New York. And how many people have ever heard of outside of this area? Who's ever heard of Coram?

Right.

Nobody.

Yet, don't think for one minute that you don't have an important part in the kingdom of God right here in Coram. It's really important. And, you know, you're not even going to know in this life the impact that a biblical church will have for the kingdom of God.

I could take time right now. I could tell you at least five different stories of how people thousands of miles away have come to Christ because of the ministry of this church. It's amazing just how many times that has happened.

OK.

And so somebody comes to Christ and they see this high and lofty calling and they understand that when they hear that preached. There's so many examples in scripture and church history of the great deeds of the saints of God.

I mean, we hear not only, you know, the big names like Jonathan Edwards and John Calvin and Martin Luther. But there's all kinds of average people who we can read stories about.

All right.

So the greatness of the path before them can turn to depression as they deem themselves. I'm not worthy of this task. And that happens to people.

All right.

They compare themselves to those who have gone before them. I could never do that. They say I couldn't be like that. I'm not worthy to be part of the kingdom. And they get depressed. The greatness of the task and their acute awareness of their own deficiencies and needs oppresses them.

Says the good doctor. Which leads to the third cause. They may be depressed because of the fear of possible sacrifices they may have to endure. Now, this is related to the previous cause, but slightly different.

Perhaps they've read Fox's Book of Martyrs. How many people have read Fox's Book of Martyrs? Go read Fox's Book of Martyrs. If you have trouble sleeping, don't do it just before you go to bed.

All right.

In fact, a friend of mine, Dr. Wayne Mack, who wrote several of the Christian counseling books that I use in my counseling, especially the preparation for marriage. Anybody here that I've performed at their wedding?

No, huh?

All right.

When I prepare somebody for marriage, when they come and ask me if I'd officiate at their wedding, I have a booklet that I use. They give them.

It's a workbook.

They have to actually fill out blank pages and all kinds of other things. It's about 13 sessions long. And my friend, Dr. Wayne Mack, he's the one who wrote that book. And I remember I was at a conference taking a seminar that he was heading up.

And he was talking about somebody who came to him and had been diagnosed as being clinically depressed. And they wanted to put him into a mental hospital and everything else. But the last ditch, they brought him to Dr. Mack, who is a thoroughly biblical counselor.

And he sat down with him. He said, I found out what the problem was like that. He'd been reading the Puritans. He says, that's enough to depress anybody. And so with a couple of counseling sessions, the guy was free as a bird, you know, because he understood and put the right balance in, which is what we'll get to a little bit later.

So you've read the Fox's Book of Mortis and they're not sure that they could stand up to torment or death. You realize that some of those martyrs watched their families being slaughtered in front of them.

If only they would deny Christ.

Wow.

How do you do that? How could you see your children slaughtered in front of you when you could have prevented it by saying, I denounce Christ? And sometimes people say, I don't know if I could do that.

These are very real concerns. Aren't they? Fourth course. They may be depressed because of the fear of future in just a general sense. They may not even be able to identify what makes them apprehensive, just the unknown which lies ahead of them.

And these fears may not even be real. They could even be imaginary fears. And I don't mean that they're hallucinating. I mean, just that they perceive that this is what could possibly happen. And they just build it up in their own mind when it's not even really a real possibility.

But to them, understand something too. How somebody perceives something, it's truth to them. Ever have a panic attack? I used to scoff at panic attacks until I had one. I'm not a nervous person by nature.

My temperament is far from that. And I'm not going to get into the detail, but there was one circumstance, and I panicked. In fact, I threatened somebody if they didn't take the thing off me. But anyway, that's neither here nor there.

It was a medical procedure they wanted to do, and they were going to strap me in. I said, no, and I threw it off. I didn't realize how claustrophobic I really was. Panic attacks are real to the person having the attack, and don't ever scoff at it.

You know? And just because maybe you've never had a panic attack doesn't mean it's not real to that person. They're real to the mind of the individual who is oppressed by them. Now, there are, of course, other causes as well, but these four are sufficient to deal with the issue that is at hand today.

Biblical Remedies: Rightly Thinking About the Future

And so we come now to the cure. What do we do? What's the remedy for somebody who is spiritually depressed because of a fear of the future? First, keep the proper balance in your thinking. The first thing here, again, is to discover and to know exactly where to draw the line between legitimate forethought and paralyzing forethought.

When you start thinking about the future, it's always good. We are told we should be planning for the future.

All right?

But there comes a point where, when you start worrying about the future, that the problem comes in. Now, it is right that we should think about the future, and it's a very foolish person who does not think about it at all.

But what we are always warned against in Scripture is being worried about the future. Notice there's a big difference. To be concerned about it, to plan for it, to lay up an inheritance for your children's children.

Proverbs tells us that's the duty of a righteous man, to make sure that he's taking care of his family, even to the second generation. From Matthew 6, 33 and 34. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

You've got to put that in context. This is the end of that whole section on anxiety. Christ very specifically deals with anxiety. That's why people talk about spiritual depression. That term may not be used in Scripture, but the concept is there.

Jesus took part of the Sermon on the Mount to deal with the idea of anxiety. And what does he say? What's the major cure? Put your priorities in order. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added to you.

What are all of these things? The necessities of life. What are you going to wear? What are you going to eat? What clothing? All of these things. What are the necessities of life? Those things will be added to you.

Then look at what he says. So do not worry about tomorrow. You have it in plain, simple language. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Don't worry about tomorrow. That's in the imperative. Jesus, your Lord, your Savior, is telling you, don't worry about tomorrow. In other words, although it is very right to think about the future, it is very wrong to be controlled by it.

The difficulty with people who are prey to these fears is that they are controlled by the future. They are dominated by thoughts of it, and they are wringing their hands, doing nothing, depressed by fears about it.

In fact, they are completely governed and mastered by the unknown future, and that is always wrong. The second remedy in the book is an admonition from the Apostle Paul to Timothy. And this is really a very good one.

Paul says to Timothy, For God has not given us a spirit of timidity. King James says that's fear, which is the same word in the Greek, but of power and love and discipline. So one of the remedies of spiritual depression is to remember who you are in Christ and what he has given to you.

I remember Dr. E .V. Hill, who was a great Baptist preacher from the Watts area in California, and he was invited back to the Moody Bible Institute. He was invited there to speak to a pastor's conference, and the title of his sermon was, What do you have when you have Jesus?

And he preached the message and realized that he had so much more to say, so they invited him back. He was invited back 12 times, preaching a continuation of that same message. What do you have when you have Jesus?

Go through the scriptures and see what do you have. Who are you and what do you have when you have Jesus? And notice one of the things is it says, He has not given us a spirit of fear. What does that mean?

Are you fearful? What do you fear? It's not coming from him. Understand that. That's what he says. He has not given you a spirit of fear. Our fears are due to our failure to stir up, failure to think, failure to take ourselves in hand.

You find yourself looking to the future and then you begin to imagine things, and you say, I wonder what is going to happen. And then your imagination runs away with you. You are gripped by the thing.

You do not stop to remind yourself of who you are and what you are. This thing overwhelms you, and down you go. Notice what he's saying. You have to stop and reflect. Who are you in Christ? Who are you?

What are you in Christ? What has he given you? So remind yourself who you are through the scriptures. Remember, it's always through the scriptures. We're not talking about self-help or self-esteem here.

It's not like reach down and pull yourself up by your bootstraps. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is you have to see who you are in Christ. That's the identity you have as a believer in Christ.

Remember, he has not given us a spirit of fear. Now, this is an extremely important quote. He says, we must think of suffering in a new way.

All right?

Just let that sink in for a minute. We must think of suffering in a new way. What's our first thing about suffering? Nope, not me. I don't want that.

You know what?

A lot of times as Christians we come to Christianity as though we're coming to a buffet table. You know, and I'm going to go, all right, yeah, I want a little of the love of God. I want his grace. I want his mercy.

Suffering? No, I'm going to pass the suffering.

Right?

That's the way we view it.

All right?

By the way, the Norwegians invented the buffet table, the smorgasbord, just so that you understand that.

All right.

We must think of suffering in a new way. We must face everything in a new way. And the way in which we face it all is by reminding ourselves that the Holy Spirit is in us. Don't ever lose sight of that fact.

There is the future. There is the high calling. There is the persecution. There is the opposition. There is the enemy. I see it all. I must admit also that I am weak, that I lack the necessary powers and propensities.

But instead of stopping there, I must go on to say, yes, I know it all, but. That is such a beautiful word, especially in Scripture. Whenever you see that word, but, stop and take a good look.

But.

And the moment I use that word, but, I am doing what the apostle wants me to do. I say, but, the Spirit of God is in me. God has given me his Holy Spirit. The moment I say that, the whole outlook changes.

Good doctor's a smart man, isn't he? And remember this verse. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Philippians 4 .13. And remember the context of this. A lot of people say, oh, I can do anything that I want, you know, because I have Christ.

That's not what it's talking about. The verse is just before that the apostle Paul is saying, I know what it's like to have a lot. And I know what it's like to be abased. I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me.

But Paul doesn't even stop with, he has not given us a spirit of fear. That's the first part of it. You could say that that's kind of a negative because he's saying what he didn't give you. But he immediately goes to the positive.

But of power. He's given you a spirit of power. This is a positive reminder. Given us power. Supernatural power to live the Christian life. And yes, I use that term very, very intentionally. A lot of Christians don't like to use the word supernatural.

But that's exactly what it is. If it's above this natural realm, it's supernatural. Philippians 2, 12.

Notice.

Of course, that's talking about your sanctification, that part of your salvation. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. What does it mean to work something out with fear and trembling? It's not easy.

It's not easy to work out your salvation. God has given you your salvation by grace and through faith alone. But you have to work out, that has to work out in you in the good works that he has laid before you.

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. It is God who is working in you. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. How can you not have fear?

Because you have the spirit of power. Why? Because God is at work in you. You're not left to yourself in this. God doesn't save you and say, all right, kid, you're on your own.

No.

God says, I'm saving you and I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Oh, there's so many sermons right there. The supernatural power is not to wow people, but to enable you to accomplish the good works he has laid before you.

This is one of the issues I have with churches that focus on supernatural occurrences. Post-salvation. They're not given to be a show. Whatever supernatural power is given to you is to enable you to accomplish the good works he has laid before you.

That's what Paul tells us in Philippians. The second positive reminder, we have a period of power and love. Now, this is certainly no surprise. I mean, how can you talk about the work of God in you without talking about love?

But there is one aspect of this. Because if I were to stop and start to talk about, all right, how does love work out in the Christian life? I mean, we would be here until six o 'clock this morning, tomorrow morning.

But there's one aspect worth mentioning. And I think this is very interesting. What is the major cause of fear? Unbelief. The unknown.

Self-love.

Why do you fear something? You're afraid it's going to hurt you.

Right?

Why are you afraid it's going to hurt you? Because you love yourself. By the way, don't believe people today says, oh, the problem with him, he doesn't love himself enough.

No.

Everybody loves themselves more than they should. Take that to the bank.

All right.

And the biggest problem we have is self-love. If I think you're going to hurt me, I'm going to do whatever I have to do so that you don't hurt me.

Why?

Because I love myself. I don't particularly care for the body I'm carrying around right now. What's the remedy for self-love? Yeah.

Biblical love. Biblical love.

What's the difference between self-love and biblical love? Biblical love says deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and spirit. Just love God with everything.

And then the third positive reminder. Discipline. King James Version says sound mind. Both words are related if you look at the Greek word behind that. The Christian is given the ability to work for the kingdom.

You have the ability to discipline yourself to search out and to attain biblical wisdom. The whole book of Proverbs is a book about how to become wise. We did a study in Proverbs in this church. In fact, I'm working through Proverbs again now with the men at the men's breakfast.

We came up with a working definition for wisdom. What is wisdom? The working definition we have is wisdom is the ability to handle life with skill. I mean that in a biblical sense. How do you navigate through this world?

As a believer in Christ. Through wisdom. You know what to do in what circumstances. One of my favorite little obscure verses is mentioned by the sons of Issachar. Sons of Issachar were commended. I think it's in Chronicles.

As David counted the number of men he had from Issachar. And they were described as men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do. They were men of wisdom. We are about to encounter a brand new era in the United States of America here.

With what's going on in Washington. What do we do? We have to become like the men of Issachar. You need wisdom. Biblical wisdom, because we're going to have to navigate through a lot of stuff. When do you stand strong?

When do you give to Caesar what's Caesar's? Those are tenuous things. How do you know? You need wisdom. You find wisdom in the scriptures, specifically in the book of Proverbs. Everybody should be studying Proverbs.

Stirring Up the Gift and Facing the Future with Confidence

And in conclusion, I'm just going to close with a quote. I opened with a quote from the good doctor. I'm going to close with one. Therefore, to those who are particularly prone to spiritual depression through timorous fear of the future, I say in the name of God and in the words of the apostles, stir up the gift.

Talk to yourself. Remind yourself of what is true of you. Instead of allowing the future and thoughts of it to grip you, talk to yourself. Remind yourself of who you are and what you are and of what spirit is within you.

And having reminded yourself of the character of the spirit, you will be able to go steadily forward, fearing nothing, living in the present, ready for the future with one desire only, to glorify him who gave his all for you.

Questions? I thought this one was particularly timely that we came to this chapter right at this point. Any questions? Fear of the future.