God is Light

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. – 1 John 1:8-10.

God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all:” and consequently He cannot have fellowship with darkness. God is light, that is purity: and as the thrice Holy One He can hold no communion with iniquity. God is light, that is knowledge, for all things are known unto the Lord, and with ignorance He has no affinity. God is light, that is truth, for He can neither err, nor break His word, and therefore He cannot smile on anything that is false. We are constantly erring, first on this side and then on that, for there is darkness in us; God is light essentially, and it is not possible for His nature to be affected by either impurity or error. Out of this attribute of His nature arises the fact that the Lord always deals with things as they are. Man invents fictions, but God creates facts. We conceive of things as they appear, but God sees them as they exist. “Man looketh at the outward appearance, but God looketh at the heart.” The dress of things impresses us, but all things are naked and open before Him. The Lord never misrepresents, nor has fellowship with misrepresentation. We are for ever hurrying about with our paint and varnish and tinsel, laboring to make the meaner thing appear equal to the more precious, and spending our skill in making the sham seem as brilliant as the reality, but all this is contrary to the way of the Lord. Everything is true in God, and everything is seen in its reality by His all-discerning eye. Because He is light, He deals with things in the light, treating them as they are. If God is to deal graciously with us, we must each one stand in the light and present ourselves before Him as we are. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”

Honest Dealing with God by C. H. Spurgeon

How God Comes to Man

Sherry sermon

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

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Is This Your Last Warning?

Sherry Christian Life

Thy sins are forgiven thee. – Luke 5:20 (also, Luke 7:48)

God has striven with some of you. You have had your times of conviction. You are trying now, perhaps, to be infidels. You are trying to say now-“There is no hell-there is no hereafter.” It will not do. You know there is a hell and all the laughter of those who seek to ruin your souls cannot make you believe that there is not. You sometimes try to think so, but you know that God is true. I do not argue with you now. Conscience tells you that God will punish you for sin. Depend upon it-you will find no happiness in trying to stifle God’s Spirit. This is not the path to bliss, to quench those thoughts which would lead you to Christ. I beseech you, take off your hands from God’s arm; resist not still His Spirit. Bow the knee and lay hold of Christ and believe on Him. It will come to this yet. God the Holy Spirit will have you. I do trust that in answer to many prayers He intends to save you yet. Give way now, but oh, remember if you are successful in quenching the Spirit, your success will be the most awful disaster that can ever occur to you, for if the Spirit forsake you, you are lost. It may be that this is the last warning you will ever have. The conviction you are now trying to put down and stifle may be the last you will have, and the angel standing with the black seal and the wax may be now about to drop it upon your destiny, and say, “Let him alone. He chooses drunkenness-he chooses lust-let him have them; and let him reap the wages in the everlasting fires of hell.” Sinners, believe on the Lord Jesus: repent and be converted every one of you. I am bold to say what Peter did. Breaking through every bond of every kind that could bind my lip, I exhort you in God’s name, repent and escape from damnation. A few more months and years, and ye shall know what damnation means, except ye repent. Oh! fly to Christ while yet the lamp holds out and burns, and mercy is still preached to you. Grace is still presented; accept Christ, resist Him no longer; come to Him now. The gates of mercy are wide open today; come now, poor sinner, and have thy sins forgiven…Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Stay Focused on Following Jesus

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

He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began. – 2 Timothy 1:9

Dear Friends…let us come to the principal point and keep to it. And that point is this—that the main business of our life is to follow Jesus. And to effect this, we had better avoid all idle speculations—and indeed, questions not altogether idle had better be left alone that we may keep to the one main business of our life. I can truly say to every one of you that the main thing you have to do in this world is first to follow Christ until you find Him as your Savior or, in other words, the first thing for you to do is to look to Him, to trust in Him. 

Give up all speculating, I beseech you—give up reading books merely for the sake of curiosity, and, in God’s name, get to work for Him! The graves are filling, our cemeteries are filling, and Hell is filling too! Meanwhile, the dupes of Satan are compassing sea and land to do all the mischief that they can. If you really are what you say you are, the servant of Him who wept over Jerusalem—if you are bought with the blood He shed on Calvary’s Cross—I charge you to consecrate yourself, this very hour, to that form of Christian work to which your Master calls you and follow Him through evil report and good report! Follow Him in the path of duty and let nothing turn you aside from your lifework of glorifying God! May God bless you all, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

Our Blessed Work

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, The Holy Spirit

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before… – Philippians 3:13

“This one thing I do,” is a good motto for any man, if he does that one thing well. And the one thing that I will seek to do shall be to glorify God by following Jesus and doing the work He has given me to do! For, my Brothers and Sisters, suppose that you and I should make out the mystery of predestination? Suppose we should become adepts at prophecy? Suppose we should become exceedingly learned in a thousand subjects and yet should go down to our graves without having ever glorified God? We should find no apology for our neglect in all that we had done! Nobody will be lost, as far as I know, through my getting a wrong theory of prophecy, but thousands may be saved if I know the Truth concerning Christ and Him Crucified and preach Him with all my might! I do not know that I shall love the Savior any the less if I make a mistake about some of the great mysteries of the Kingdom, but I do know that if I give myself up wholly to His service and am the means of bringing others to do the same, I shall have no regrets compared with those I should have felt if I had neglected this all important matter. I charge all of you, men and women, in these evil days to keep close to Jesus! Follow Him with the utmost care, reverence and love. Follow Him with intense ardor and with all your heart, soul and strength—and make that the one thing for which you live! Do not let anything divert you from the straight path of obedience to your Lord, for to that you are called above everything else!

Oh, that each one of us might live to glorify God! To be like an arrow shot from Christ’s bow by His own pierced hand! To feel an impetus given to us to bear us right on to the center of the target of the Glory of God, nothing turning us aside, either to be thought good, or to be thought great, or to be thought learned, or to desire to gain honor or esteem among our fellow men—but just to glorify God by the conversion of sinners through the Holy Spirit’s blessing resting upon our labors!

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

Tend to Your Own God-Given Calling

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God

What is that to thee? follow thou Me. – John 21:22

How much some people are concerned because a certain man is so purse proud! It seems to be a sort of consolation to them to think how much better they are than he is. Another is very frivolous and they frequently bring his character into their conversation, apparently as a means of showing how superior in sobriety they are. To everyone of that stamp, Christ seems to me to say, “‘What is that to you? You follow Me,’ and then the imperfections of your neighbor will not lie so near to your heart.” I have heard of a minister who, wishing to bring the Truth of God home to the hearts and consciences of his people, said that he should like to pass a Reform Act—that everybody should reform one person and then all would be reformed. He meant that they should all reform themselves, but one man said, “The minister is quite right! Everybody is to reform one and I am going home to reform our Mary.” That is often our idea—that we must reform somebody else—but if we could bring ourselves to feel that weeding our own garden, watering our own plants and fulfilling our own vocation is what God requires of us, how much better it would be for the entire Church of Christ!

I think the same rule applies, to a large extent, to remarks concerning the general condition of Christian Churches…Some people appear to imagine that the future of the universe depends upon a meeting which they propose to hold in a month or so—yet so far God has managed the affairs of the universe without any help from them and He still reigns as universal King and Lord notwithstanding all the efforts of the Pope, the Devil and Essays and Reviews! I have come to the conclusion that instead of trying to set all my Master’s servants right at once, my first and most important work is to follow my Lord—and I think, my Brothers, that it will be wise for you to come to the same conclusion!

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

“What is that to you? You follow Me.”

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God

Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me – John 21:22

Peter wanted to know about John—“What shall this man do?” But Jesus said, “What is that to you? You follow Me.” From this answer of Christ, we learn that we are not to be curious as to what God is going to do with other people. I will tell you what thoughts have been passing through the minds of some of us. One has said, “I am a poor humble believer in Jesus. I have to struggle with poverty and need, yet God graciously helps me and I can tell of many instances of His delivering mercy.” Well, dear Friend, God is greatly glorified by this testimony! But when you go on to ask about those rich people who have everything that heart can wish, “What is God going to do with them?” I can only reply, “What is that to you? Follow Christ and be not curious about others.” It is equally wrong if a rich man says, “There are those poor people who are converted, but who cannot give much to the cause of God and who need education to enable them to teach others—what will the Lord do with them?” That is nothing to do with you, my Brother. You have to follow the Lord, yourself, and to mind your own business! …Possibly, someone says, concerning a fine orator, “A man who blazes away at that rate thinks too much of himself for God to bless him.” But Christ says, “What is that to you? You follow Me.” God has all sorts of stones in His Temple and some of them are of such a strange shape that I am glad the placing of them is not left to me, for I could not do it! I am thankful that God never sent me into the world to make people perfect, but to use them as I find them. And I believe that He also uses them as He finds them and gradually prepares them for higher uses and for the place which He means them to occupy in His Temple above. So do not say, “I am wondering what this man will do and what that man will do, and what others around me will do”—but do what you can for Christ and, as for others—leave them to the Master!

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon