“Hebrews 12:28-29 … for our God is a consuming fire: These words are taken from Deuteronomy 4:24 which warns Israel that their covenant relationship with God (‘our God’) would not protect them from the devouring fire of divine judgment if they incurred His jealousy by lapsing into the sin of idolatry. An abiding consciousness of the ineffable holiness of God offers the best deterrent against the commission of sin, and therefore every child of grace prays, ‘Unite my heart to fear thy name’, for he knows that it is impossible to combine a love of sin with a love of God [Psalm 86:11].” (Geoffrey B. Wilson, New Testament Commentaries, vol. 2, Banner of Truth, 2005, pg. 454.)

“It is a painful fact, that there are never lacking professing Christians who try to explain away our Lord’s miracles. They endeavor to account for them by natural causes, and to show that they were not worked by any extraordinary power. Of all miracles, there are none which they assault so strenuously as the casting out of devils…Let us beware of a skeptical and incredulous spirit in all matters relating to the devil. No doubt there is much in the subject of Satanic possession which we do not understand, and cannot explain. But let us not therefore refuse to believe it. The eastern king who would not believe in the possibility of ice, because he lived in a hot country, and had never seen it, was not more foolish than the man who refuses to believe in Satanic possession, because he never saw a case himself, and cannot understand it. We may be sure, that upon the subject of the devil and his power, we are far more likely to believe too little than too much. Unbelief about the existence and personality of Satan, has often proved the first step to unbelief about God.”

(J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark, Banner of Truth 2012, pg. 70-71)

“Let us take care that our own religion is real, genuine and true. The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians, is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services once or twice every week. But of the great spiritual warfare — its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests — of all this they appear to know nothing at all. Let us take care that this case is not our own. The worst state of soul, is when the strong man armed keeps the house, and his goods are at peace, when he leads men and women captive at his will, and they make no resistance. The worst chains are those which are neither felt nor seen by the prisoner! (Luke 11:21; 2 Timothy 2:26) We may take comfort about our souls, if we know anything of an inward fight and conflict. It is the invariable companion of genuine Christian holiness. It is not everything, I am well aware — but it is something…Do we feel anything of the flesh warring against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things we would? (Galatians 5:17.)…Do we feel anything of war in our inward man? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification.” (J.C. Ryle, Holiness, Charles Nolan Publishing, Moscow, ID, pg. 68-69.)