No More Sin

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

…only the stump of Dagon was left to him. – 1 Samuel 5:4

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

John Bunyan represents Mercy* as laughing in her sleep. She had a dream, she said, and she laughed because of the great favors which were yet to be bestowed upon her. Well, if some of you were to dream, tonight, that the great thing had actually happened to you, that you were completely free from all tendency to sin, would not you, also, be as they that dream and laugh for very joy? Think of it—no more cause for watchfulness, no more need of weeping over the day’s sin before you fall asleep at night! No more sin to confess, no devil to tempt you, no worldly care, no lust, no envy, no depression of spirit, no unbelief—will not this be a very large part of the joy of Heaven?

The Lord has undertaken our perfect sanctification and He will accomplish it! He has brought old Dagon down and broken his head and his hands—and He will break him to shivers before long. Yes, He will take the Ark of the Lord away where Dagon shall never come into contact with it any more. He will take you—the gracious part of you, your truest and best self—away into Glory to abide with Him forever! Think of this and sing!

*from Bunyan’s book, The Pilgrim’s Progress

Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon

The Day is Coming…

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

…only the stump of Dagon was left to him. – 1 Samuel 5:4

We carry a bombshell heart about with us—and we had better keep clear of all the devil’s candles lest there should be an explosion of actual sin. These candles are common enough in the form of some plausible but skeptical friend, or in the form of amusements which are questionable. Keep clear of Lucifer’s matches! You have got enough mischief in your heart without going where you will get more!..The stump of Dagon is left. Be careful, watchful, prayerful—and loathe sin with all your soul.”

Here is mercy that though the stump of Dagon was not taken out of the Philistine temple, we may go beyond the history and rejoice that it will be taken from our hearts! The day is coming, Brother, Sister, in which there will be no more inclination in you to sin than there is in an angel! The day is coming in which your nature shall be so established in the Truth of God and righteousness and holiness that all the devils in Hell will not be able to make you think a wrong thought!

“Oh,” says one, “I wish that time would come soon.” It will come, Brother. The Lord will keep you fighting and warring, but there will come a day when a messenger will wait at your door and he will say, “The pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern. Your flesh must return to the dust and your spirit to God that made it.” And then your spirit shall open its eyes with glad surprise and find itself delivered from the body and, at the same time, delivered from all sin!..All its past sin will be washed away—no, is washed away—in the blood of the Lamb! And all its propensities, tendencies and inclinations to sin shall all be gone forever!

 Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon

The Life-long Campaign

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, repentance, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

…only the stump of Dagon was left to him. – 1 Samuel 5:4

Here is the sphere in which faith is to work—it does not talk of ended warfare but carries on the life-long campaign to ultimate victory. Faith does not say, “I have ceased the conflict”—she knows better! Faith says, “I am in the midst of it, warring with a thousand foes and looking for the victory through Jesus Christ, my Lord.” O Brothers and Sisters, be strong in faith by the power of the Holy Spirit, for you have need to be, since the stump of Dagon still remains! The lusting of the flesh abides still in the regenerate! Look at this matter again. That stump of Dagon which remained was a vile thing—it was a piece of an idol—a fragment of a monstrous image which had been worshiped instead of God!

Now, the sin which dwells in you is never to be regarded by you as anything else than a horrible, loathsome and detestable thing. After such love as you and I have known, that there should be in us even the power to be ungrateful ought to shock us! After such proof of His Truth as God has shown us, that after such faithfulness and such abundant evidences of faithfulness we should still be capable of unbelief ought to be a sorrow to us! Oh, I wish I could never sin again throughout time or eternity! Oh, that every particle of the tinder of depravity into which the devil could let a spark fall was gone from my nature! It is a mercy to have the sparks put out, but it is a pity to have even the tinder left—and there is plenty of this tinder about us all!

Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon

Fear Your Self

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

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? – Jeremiah 17:9

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. – Ephesians 6:11

It is a good thing to look at your face in a mirror, but your face is not yourself—no mirror can show you yourself. There is a certain temptation which has an affinity to the evil within you and, should Satan bring that temptation near, you will see yourself to your horror and shame! There shall then look out of the window of your countenance a man whom you did not see when you looked in the glass, for you only saw the house he lived in! So ugly is he that he makes the very house he lives in look horrible! When the angry man comes up and is visible to the naked eye, how he deforms the countenance! When obstinate old Adam comes to the window, what a dark forbidding face he wears! When that envious spirit comes up, what an evil glance there is in the eye! When the unbelieving spirit peers through the lattice, what a miserable countenance he shows compared with the face of faith and childlike confidence in God!

There is nobody in this world, dear Brothers and Sisters, that you have so much cause to be afraid of as yourself! Augustine used to pray, “Lord, deliver me from that evil man, myself.” A very appropriate prayer for a woman, too— “Lord, save me from myself.” If you are saved from yourself, you will be saved from the devil—for what can the devil do unless self joins hands with him in unholy league? But, oh, what watchfulness it will need! Here is room for faith, indeed! Faith does not decline the conflict nor puff us up with the notion that the fight is over—on the contrary, it takes to itself the whole armor of God because it sees the battle to be still raging! Faith is needed to be the shield to keep off the fiery darts and the sword with which to smite the foe.

Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon

Dying Daily

Sherry sermon Leave a 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

Yet the Stump of Dagon was Left

Sherry Christian Life, confession of sin, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

…only the stump of Dagon was left to him. – 1 Samuel 5:4

Though the fish-god was thus maimed and broken, yet the stump of Dagon was left. The original Hebrew is, “Only Dagon was left to him,” or, “only the fish”—only the fish part remained. The head and the upper portions were broken away—there remained only the fishtail of Dagon and that was all—but that was not broken. Now, this is the business which brings us so much sorrow—that the stump of Dagon is left. I wish it were not.

I have heard some say that they have no sin remaining in them. Well, dear Brothers and Sisters, may the Lord convert you! I shall say no more than that, for if there were in you enough light for you to perceive your darkness, it were better than to talk as you do. Every child of God who knows anything about himself and the experience of a real Believer, knows that there is indwelling sin in him and that to a most fearful extent, so as to make his very soul cry out in agony, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Can you draw near to God, my Brothers and Sisters, and not see that He can justly charge you with folly? Can you stand in His Presence, as Job did, and behold His Glory, and not say, “I abhor myself in dust and ashes”? Can you have dealings with Perfection and not perceive your faults? Can you come near unto the innermost court of the Temple and stand in that excessive light of fellowship which is the portion of the Lord’s chosen and not see within yourself spots and wrinkles, yes, thousands of them, so as to make you cover your face for shame and adore the amazing Grace which loves you still?

Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon

The Reigning Power of Sin is Destroyed

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

Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him. – 1 Samuel 5:4

The hands of Dagon were broken off and even thus the active power, the working power of sin is taken away. Both the palms of the idols’ hands were cut off upon the threshold, so that he had not a hand left. Neither right-handed sin nor left-handed sin shall remain in the Believer when God’s sanctifying Grace fetches Dagon down! The secret reigning power is broken and so is the manifest working power. The Christian is kept from putting forth his hand into iniquity. He is crucified with Christ and so both hands are nailed to the Cross and fastened up from performing those deeds of ill towards which the lusts of the flesh would urge him! This happened, too, if you notice, very speedily, for we are told, a second time, that when they arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face.

It does not take Grace long, when it is once in the soul, to overturn the reigning power and the active energy of sin, even when these, for a while, appear to get the upper hand. Brothers and Sisters, I hope you know this. I hope that the Spirit of God, which is in you, and the love of Christ, which reigns in you, have destroyed the power which sin once had in your souls. If it is not so, then question yourselves whether the Spirit of God is in you at all! It is not possible that the Ark should be in the temple and that Dagon should be standing there unbroken! Not till the morrow morning shall evil remain unchallenged and unmoved upon the throne!

Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon