Fulfilling God’s Mission

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth. – Isaiah 43:5,6

There is a people to be gathered in, and we are to be the agents in gathering them. Fear not, saith the Lord, though thou walkest through the fire in fulfilling My mission. God speaks to the north, “Give up;” and to the south, “Keep not back. Bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth.” But the manner of Egypt is repeated again. The monarch said, “I will not let them go.” Jealousy is stirred. The fire burns: the coals thereof have a vehement flame. And they that come forth from the bondage of this world must walk through the fire, even as those that came forth from Egypt had to pass through water. The fire of prophecy is no poetic fiction; it is real fire. It will burn. If it doth not burn the believer, it is not for want of energy, it is because some supernatural restraint is laid on it, or some supernatural protection vouchsafed to the saint. My brethren, the Church has had very painful experience that persecution is a fire which does burn. How many ministers of Christ, when the day of tribulation came, forsook their flocks and fled…Too many have forsaken the Church as Demas forsook Paul. Their piety would not stand the fire, they could walk with Christ in silvery slippers, but they could not go barefoot; they had no objection whatever to accompany Him to His throne, but they had some slight difficulties about going with Him to His cross; they would not mind bearing the weight of His glory, but the weight of the cross of tribulation was much too great for their constitutions. Persecution is a fire which does burn…We must walk through the fire. We who are God’s witnesses must stand in its very midst, to pour the streams of living water upon the burning fuel, and if not able to quench it, at least we must strive to prevent its spread.

 Fire! Fire! Fire! by C. H. Spurgeon

Sinner, Trust the Saviour Now

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

Then (the thief) said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” – Luke 23:42,43

For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. – 2 Corinthians 6:2

Just now, the wisdom of man is (the gospel’s) worst foe, but the Lord will deliver it now. The gospel lives and reigns. Tell it out among the heathen, that the Lord reigneth from the tree, and from that tree of the curse He issues His supreme commands. The self-same day in which Jesus died, He took with Him into His kingdom and His inmost paradise a thief who had hung at His side. He liveth and reigneth for ever and ever, and calleth to Himself whomsoever He hath chosen. Let us drown the taunts of the adversary with our shouts of Hallelujah! The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah. Amen!

Dear friends, who have never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ before, how I wish you could try Him now! You feel full of sin, and full of need. Come, then, and trust the Saviour now. See whether He will not save you now. Is there one day in the year in which Jesus cannot save a sinner? Come and see whether the 17th of June is that day. Try whether He will not deliver you now from the guilt, the penalty, the power of sin. Why not come? …Oh, that the Saviour may find you! Jesus Christ is a Saviour every day, all the year round. Whoever cometh to Him shall find eternal life now. “Oh,” you say, “I am in such an unfit state; I am in all the deshabille of my carelessness and godlessness.” Come along, man, come along, just as you are. Tarry not for improvement or arrangement, for both of these Jesus will give you; come and put your trust in the great Sacrifice for sin, and He will deliver you-deliver you now. Lord, save the sinner, now! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

The Pathway of God’s People

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

…when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. – Isaiah 43:2

If you have the common afflictions of the world do not wonder. You must have them. The same thing happeneth both to the evil and to the good. You lose in business, you have reverses and disappointments, do not stagger at these in the way to heaven. You must have these; they are necessary to your spiritual health. Worse than that, you have strange temptations, you are placed in a position where you are constantly exposed to sin. It must be so. This too, is the pathway of God’s people, you must have these fiery temptations, that you, being tried in the fire, may come forth as “gold seven times purified.” You have mental anxieties. Neither let these seem a wonder to you. They fall to the lot of all the saints of the Most High. Moreover, you will have to endure the attacks of Satan, you must go through the valley of the shadow of death, and fight with Apollyon as Christian did (in Pilgrim’s Progress), you are not to be exempted from the hardness of Christian warfare. If you will mount the hill, you must climb; if you are to win the crown, you must win it by sheer might. Think not this a strange thing. And if in doing good you meet with difficulties, let not that stagger you. It is but right and natural. I tell you again, if there be any pathway in which there be not fire, tremble, but if your lot be hard, thank God for it. If your sufferings be great, bless the Lord for them, and if the difficulties in your pathway be many, surmount them by faith, but let them not cast you down. Be of good courage, and wait on the Lord, setting this constantly in your minds that He has not promised to keep you from trouble, but to preserve you in it. It is not, “I will save thee from the fire,” but “I will save thee in the fire,” not “I will quench the coals,” but “they shall not burn thee,” not “I will put out the furnace,” but “the flames shall not kindle upon thee.” Write it down and expect it to come true, that in this world thou shalt have tribulation. Only follow thy glorious Leader, be it through flood or flame.

Fire! Fire! Fire! by C. H. Spurgeon

The Path of Sorrow

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…but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. – John 15:19

No doubt the sufferings of the Church, and the fact that she has to pass through the fire, must be ascribed to the great truth that thus her God is glorified. Brethren, you and I do not glorify God much; for we have very little to suffer. The blood red crown of martyrdom is such an object of ambition, or it should be, to the believer that he might almost regret that it is not in his power to coin it. We! what do we suffer? Somebody slanders our character. What is that? Somebody abuses us in the newspaper, what is that? We are accused of one crime and another. What can it signify to a man who knows his conscience is right in the sight of God? What does he care if all the babbling tongues of all the liars in earth and hell should be let loose against him; he can bear all that and endure it quietly. It is nothing. When I read the stories of the Book of Martyrs, and note how our great reformers fought for Christ, and manfully won the victory, I blush for ourselves. Why, brethren, we live in such silken times that glory is scarce possible to us. We have much to do, but we have nothing to suffer. We cannot prove our love to Christ as they did. They indeed were a highly honored people who were permitted to glorify Christ even in the very fires. Look at it in this light, and the light afflictions you have to endure, will seem to be as nothing at all, when you think of the weight of glory which they shall bring to your Lord and to yourself. But as history confirms the statement that the Church of Christ must walk through the fire, so does the history of each individual Christian teach him that he must walk through the fire too.

“The path of sorrow and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.”

Through much tribulation we must inherit the kingdom. Think it no strange thing when the fiery trial shall happen to you.

Fire! Fire! Fire! by C. H. Spurgeon

The Lost Silver Piece

Sherry sermon 1 Comment

You who are King of kings and Lord of lords, we worship You. Before Jehovah’s awful throne we bow with sacred joy.

Sermon Text

Our Faithful Testimony

Sherry Christian Life, salvation, Character of Jesus, Attributes of God, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. – John 15:19

True Christians are aliens, foreigners, men that speak another speech, men who are actuated by different motives, men who live for different ends, who are governed by different maxima from the rest of the men of this world, therefore it is that their pathway must be one of trial and opposition. All things the Christian teaches are so dead against the pleasures of the worldling and his gain, that it is no wonder he opposes us. Men hate the gospel because the gospel does not like them. That church is never true to her Christ, nor true to herself which does not draw upon herself the hatred of ungodly men, by a faithful testimony against their sins.

It hath fared well with the Church when she hath been persecuted, and her pathway hath been through fire. Her feet are shod with iron and brass. She ought not to tread on paths strewed with flowers; it is her proper place to suffer. Christ redeemed the world with agonies, and the Church must teach the world by the example of her anguish. First of all, the blood of Christ was shed meritoriously, and afterwards the blood of His Church is shed testimonially, to win the world by suffering…There is no loss in the army of Christ when the best preachers fall, and the mightiest evangelists are put to death. They are not lost; the blood is well shed and gloriously well spent. It is buying victory. It is procuring crowns for Jesus Christ. 

Fire! Fire! Fire! by C. H. Spurgeon

In the Enemy’s Country

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When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. – Isaiah 43:2

The pure Church of Christ has always been the victim of persecution, and though she has persecuted never, but has always maintained inviolate, disunion from the state, and an utter hatred of all laws which would bind the conscience of man, yet has she been especially destitute, afflicted, tormented, and if she hath today a little breathing time, perhaps it is rather owing to the timidity which has made us keep back our sentiments, than to any charity towards ourselves. Find the Church of Christ wherever you will, and you shall find her scorned and despised of man.

“If you want to find the drunkards and sinners of the worst dye,” said one of our preachers at or before Cromwell’s time, “you can find them in Church and state, but if you wish to find the men who are holy and who serve God, you must look into the felon’s dungeons for them, for that is where they have been cast by the powers that be.” Everywhere from the first day until now, it is not respectable to be a follower of Christ. If we follow Christ fully and faithfully before God, it is not equitable and praiseworthy before men. To take up His cross and to perform the ceremonies which He ordains, man hates. To adhere to truths which never were and never can be palatable to the carnal mind of man, is, and ever has been, to excite animosity. The pathway of the Church, then, has been one of fire and flame. As it has been so with the Church, we may suspect there is some reason for it, and that reason has to be found in the great fact that the Church is in an enemy’s country. She is not among her friends; she is a pilgrim and a stranger upon the earth. 

Fire! Fire! Fire! by C. H. Spurgeon