Christian Life

In Our Purity Alone We Stand

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

“He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth: His word runneth very swiftly.”-Psalm 147:14.-15.

A Church can never be in a sound and satisfactory state for labor, she never can be in such a condition that God can smile upon her complacently, if she be mixed up with the world, if her sons and daughters be not sufficiently distinguished from the world to be manifestly God’s people…If we take into our churches those who are not converted, we swell our numbers, but we diminish our real strength. We might need to purchase a larger church-book, we might, perhaps, be able to parade our numbers before the world, and we might even flatter ourselves with our apparent prosperity till we intoxicate our own brain, but we should be going backward when we think we are going forward. We have not conquered the world; we have only yielded to it. We have not brought the world up to us, we have only brought ourselves down to it. We have not Christianized an ungodly generation, but we have adulterated Christianity. We have brought the chaste spouse of Christ to commit fornication among the people…If we could to-morrow bring into the Church a sufficient number of ungodly but moral men to double our numbers, to double our subscriptions, to double our places of worship, to enable us to double the number of our missionaries, we should, by succumbing to the temptation, procure a curse instead of a blessing. In our purity, and in our purity alone, we stand…Oh! that God might grant to each of us, who are the pastors of the Church, that unceasing vigilance and constant watchfulness whereby we shall be able to detect the wolves in sheep’s clothing, and whereby we shall be able to say calmly, sternly, yet lovingly, to those who come before us seeking communion, without satisfactory evident that they belong to the living family of God, “You must go your way until the Spirit of God hath touched your heart, for until you have received the living faith in Jesus, we cannot receive you into the number of His faithful ones.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0314.cfm

But, Blessed But

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

“One who is righteous has many adversities, but the LORD rescues him from them all.” – Psalm 34:19

Scripture does not flatter us like the story books with the idea that goodness will secure us from trouble; on the contrary, we are again and again warned to expect tribulation while we are in this body…It is the earthly portion of the elect to find thorns and briers growing in their pathway, yes, to lie down among them, finding their rest broken and disturbed by sorrow.

But, bless-ed but, how it takes the sting out of the previous sentence! “But the LORD rescues him from them all.” Through troops of ills Jehovah shall lead His redeemed scatheless and triumphant. There is an end to the believer’s affliction, and a joyful end too. None of his trials can hurt so much as a hair of his head, neither can the furnace hold him for a moment after the Lord bids him come forth of it. The same Lord who sends the afflictions will also recall them when His design is accomplished, but He will never allow the fiercest of them to rend and devour His beloved.

Lord, we thank You now in the retrospect for the trials which we have endured. Some of us have been brought very low with physical pain and mental weariness, and others have been sore smitten with bereavement, losses and crosses, and persecutions; but there is not one out of all our trials which we could have afforded to have been without. No, Lord, all has been ordered well; there was a need-be for every twig of the rod, and we desire now to thank you that we can see in looking back, how all things have even now worked together for good, though we know we cannot see the end as yet. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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Professor, Look to Thyself

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

And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? – Matthew 22:12

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? – 2 Corinthians 13:5

Notice that the king, when he thus turned a judge, dealt with this man only about himself. “How camest thou in hither?” Did I hear a whisper in some one’s mind, “Well, if I am unfit to be a church member, there are a great many others who are in the same condemnation.” What is that to you? See to thyself! When the king came in to see the guests he did not say to this man, “How came yonder persons here without the wedding garment?” His dealings were personal with him alone: “How camest thou in hither, not having on the wedding garment?” Professor, look to thyself, look to thyself. Let thy charity begin at home. Cast out the beam from thine own eye, and then mayst thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye. He fixed on the one man, made him his entire audience, and directed to him the solemn question, “Friend, how camest thou in hither?” …I cannot but know that there are some of you who are not Christians though you bear the name. Like those of old, you say you are Jews and are not, but do lie. I am not now speaking of any who have fallen into sin and have suffered our rebuke…I mean others of you whose lives are all that could be desired openly, and yet there is a worm at the heart of your profession; you are not vitally godly, you have a name to live, and you keep that name untarnished as yet, but you are dead. Search ye yourselves; let your prayer be, “Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men.” I am as concerned about myself as about you, that I should be found “accepted in the Beloved;” lest after having preached to others I myself should be a castaway! Do let it be a matter of solemn anxiety with each one. If you have never come to Jesus, come now; if you have never sought holiness of life, seek it now. If you have never had the wedding garment, it is yet procurable; go ye to Him who freely gives it, the Lord will not refuse you; go to-day and He will accept you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0976.cfm

Comforting His Own and Smiting His Foes

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

…he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment… – Matthew 22:11

The day of comfort to His saints is also the day of vengeance of our God. He who comes to comfort all that mourn comes at the same time to smite the rebellious with a rod of iron. The judge begins by seeing, “He saw there a man.” The parable represents but one such man as present, yet the king saw him at once, he fixed his flaming eyes on that one. I suppose it was a greater crowd than this, but the king fixed his eyes on the solitary offender at once. Does the parable speak of only one because we may expect to find only one hypocrite in a church? Alas! there have been many such at the wedding feast, but one only is mentioned to show us that if there were but one, God would find him out; and being many, the sinners in Zion may be the more sure that they will not escape. It is possible that none of the guests may have noticed the man’s garments; the parable makes no remark upon any expostulations made to him by others; perhaps they were all so taken up with the sight of the king, and so glad to be at the feast themselves, that they had no heart to make remarks upon others. But this is certain, that the king detected at once the absence of what was requisite to the marriage feast. It was not the presence of anything offensive, but the absence of something which was requisite. He did not say to the unworthy guest, “Thou hast rags upon thee,” or “thou art filthy.” or “thou hast an unwashed face”; he enquired solely into the absence of the peculiar badge which denoted a loving guest. God will judge, and does continually judge His church upon this question, the absence of what is absolutely necessary to being a Christian, the absence of honouring the Son, and obeying the Father…The one thing needful is to accept loyally the Lord as King. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0976.cfm

The Rebels Are Taken Away

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

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment…Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. – Matthew 22:11,13

An ungodly man may lie down in the church of God with the lambs of the flock, and nothing may lead you to suspect his true character, but when the time comes for him to make profit by sin, or to get pleasure by sin, or to escape from persecution by sin, then you find out what he is…Changes in the conditions of the church, changes in the condition of the individual, all sorts of providential events go to make up the great sieve by which the wheat and the chaff are separated. The time when the King comes in to see His guests is not the last judgment, for that is the coming of the Son and not of the Father, and if it were intended in the parable, we would read that the prince came in to see his guests. We are led to view the King Himself as continually judging professors and detecting the rebels who place themselves among the saints; by this judgment of God men are taken away from the Church in their transgressions, bound hand and foot, and cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. I do not know, my dear brethren, when God may be visiting this church, and taking away the men that are rebels in our midst, but I do know that when professors die it is not certain that all of them sleep in Jesus; but some of them are rooted up, like tares from among the wheat, and are bound up in bundles to burn. The division is going on constantly. The King’s presence is known to believers in the joy which they feel, but it is made known to hypocrites by His cutting them off and appointing them their portion in eternal woe. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0976.cfm

At the Banquet of Mercy

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

And when the king came in to see the guests… – Matthew 22:11

“The king came in to see his guests.” This, I say, was the crowning point of the entire banquet. Observe that he came in after they were in their places. They did not see him before they had entered his halls. When an inferior entertains a superior he always advances to the door to meet him and waits until he comes…but when a superior entertains an inferior the inferior may take his seat at the table, and when all is ready the noble host will come in. It is so in the banquet of mercy. You and I see nothing of God, by way of communion with Him, until first we have been brought in by the message of mercy to the marriage-feast of the gospel; for, indeed, until then a sight of God would strike us with terror-

“Till God in human flesh I see,
My thoughts no comfort find;
The holy, just, and sacred Three
Are terrors to my mind;

But when Immanuel’s face appear,
My hope, my joy, begins;
His name forbids my slavish fear,
His grace removes my sins.”

When I get to the banquet of mercy, then it is that I can dare to look at the King of kings, but not until then. What a joyous sight, a vision of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory as He appears in the gospel, feasting us upon His fatlings. An incarnate God makes God visible to us and makes us happy in the sight. “How canst thou see My face and live?” was the old question, but, behold, it is answered this day. At the marriage union of Christ with His people we see the face of the King in His beauty, and our souls not only live, but we have life more abundantly. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mat/22/11/s_951011

The King at His Feast

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

And when the king came in to see the guests… – Matthew 22:11

“The king came in to see the guests.” What an honour and privilege this was to the poor creatures whom his royal munificence had brought together! Was it not indeed the chief point of the entire festival’? What would church fellowship be if it had not the fellowship of God with it? To sit with my dear brethren and rejoice in their love is exceedingly delightful; but the best wine is fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. The king did not provide the banquet and leave his guests to eat by themselves, but he “came in,” and into every gospel church gathered according to His command the King will come. I am sure the most fervent desire of this church is that the King may personally visit us. We trust He is with us, but we want Him yet more fully to reveal Himself. Our cry is, “Come, great King, with all Thy glorious power, with Thy Spirit and with Thy glorious Son, and manifest Thyself to us as Thou dost not unto the world.” When the king came into the banqueting chamber he saw the guests, and they also saw him. It was a mutual revelation. Ever sweet is this to the saints, that their God looks upon them; His look brings no terror to our minds when we are loyal and loving. “Thou God seest me” is sweet music. We desire to abide for ever beneath the divine inspection, for it is an inspection of unbounded love. He sees our faults-it is to remove them; He notes our imperfections, it is to cleanse them away. Behold me, O great King, and lift up Thine eyes upon me, accepting me in the Beloved. What joy it is to us who are saved in Christ Jesus that we also can see Him! “Through a glass darkly,” I grant you we behold Him, for as yet we are not fit to behold the full splendour of His Godhead! but yet how sweetly doth He reveal Himself to our souls and unveils His eternal love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0976.cfm