Christian Life

The Source of Our Wisdom and Strength

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

…for thou hast a little strength… – Revelation 3:8

It is a wise thing for you that have but little strength, to keep God’s Word. The feebler you are the more closely should you keep to the Scriptures. Remember what Solomon says,-“The conies are a feeble folk,” but he puts them down as wise people, for they have their habitation in the rocks. If a disputer can once get you away from the Bible, he can swallow you alive; but if you will keep to Scripture, and handle this weapon, “It is written; it is written,” the disputer may be the arch-fiend himself, but he cannot possibly get the victory over you. Your wisdom is not to try to gain keenness of mind that you may emulate the critic, but to lay hold upon God’s Word, and cling to it, for therein shall be your safety and your victory.

Dear friends, we ought to hold fast to the truth of God, because, if we have little strength, it is there that we shall get more strength. We shall never grow stronger by leaving the eternal Word. Nay, but as we cling to God in feebleness, the divine strength of the Word is infused into our souls. Besides, God’s Word is a supporting thing, and he who quits it leaves his chief helper. He that receives it shall live, but without it there is no spiritual life. Therefore let us hold it…The Word that cometh out of Christ’s mouth is the daily manna of our heavenly life, and it behoves every Christian, however feeble or however strong, to keep the Word of God with all his might against all comers, since it is his life…My Lord will revive His buried truth as sure as He is God: the present madness will cease with its own short hour. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1814.cfm

Guard the Treasure of the Church

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

There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise… – Proverbs 21:20

What is there to praise about keeping God’s Word? I answer, because it is a holy thing to treasure up God’s Word. The solid truth of revelation, the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, a divine experience given to you by that Holy Ghost-all this is the treasure of the Church, and you are doing a holy thing when you guard it against every adversary. To this purpose are saints sent into the world-to keep this treasure of the Church against all adversaries. Truth is the jewel for which all believers must be ready to die. Solomon made shields of gold, which were borne before the king when he went into the house of the Lord; but Rehoboam took away the shields of gold, and put shields of brass in their place. It is to be feared many are doing the same at this moment. Let us bear our protest: the gold is good enough for us. Do not throw away the best for the sake of getting something that may be newer, but that must be far inferior. I hold one single sentence out of God’s Word to be of more certainty, and of more power, than all the discoveries of all the learned men of all the ages.

Warriors guard kings, and crowns, and thrones; but the living truth of the living God is infinitely more worthy of our watch. Oh for ten thousand valiant men to stand about the bed of the truth, each man with his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. Therefore, as it is a holy thing, a heavenly thing, a priceless thing, keep you God’s Word. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1814.cfm

Let Us Keep God’s Word

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 4 Comments

…for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word. – Revelation 3:8

Possibly you have not much strength as to influence: your sphere may be very narrow, and your power in it very slight. That does not matter; but it does matter that you be faithful to your Lord. If you have kept God’s word you may be wielding an influence far beyond what you imagine. Good men in the dark days of Popery found out the truth, but they only lived, perhaps, in some quiet village, or shut up in a monastery, and the most they could do was to write down what they knew and so keep it. We have met with instances where they wrote out part of the Word of God, and hid it away in a wall; and afterwards, when the wall was pulled down, the priceless record was discovered and used. Truth does not die through being buried. Some taught the gospel very quietly in their own family circle, and so kept it. Some would get a few copies of the New Testament, and go about and sell them in their baskets; and so they kept the truth. Those men of old time whose influence upon their own age seemed so little, nevertheless prepared the way for those braver spirits who, by-and-by, shone forth like the stars of the morning. Hold fast God’s word and never mind what comes of it for the moment; God’s seed may not grow in a day, but it will grow. If you only influence one child, who can tell what that child may be? If you only help to strengthen one solitary Christian woman, who knows what may come to pass by her means? We see the telegraph wires, but we do not see what messages they may carry. The ropes hang down in our belfry, but the glorious chime is aloft. We cannot see the big bells, but it is ours to pull the ropes that are near our hand, and do what God bids us to do, and music will come of it somewhere. Above all, if we have but little strength of any kind, let us keep God’s word. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1814.cfm

Obedience Commended

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

…for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. – Revelation 3:8

“Thou hast a little strength:” there are very few of you, but you have been observant of all precepts and ordinances. Some think it a great thing to be members of a popular sect, but when the great curtain rolls up, and all things are seen as they are, and not as they seem, do you not think that that church will be most commended which was truest to the teaching of the Holy Spirit in everything? Christian chivalry should make you feel it better to be a member of a church of six doing the Lord’s work conscientiously than to be a member of a church of six millions which has turned aside from it. I could not be in communion with a church whose chief guide and authority is another book than God’s Word, and whose acknowledged Head is other than the Lord Jesus Christ. I had sooner stand alone then yield with a crowd to an Act of Parliament which was passed to dictate to me the form in which I may worship God. There shall come a day when it will be found that the minorities have generally saved both the world and the church. A straggling few may reckon themselves to be the majority when they stand alone with God, for HE counts for more than all the myriads of the earth put together. The faithful, staunch, God-fearing men that would not budge an inch, or change a letter, or shape a syllable, to please all the kings and princes of the earth, shall be found to praise and honour in the day of the Lord’s appearing. These are the men that Christ shall stoop from His throne to honour: they that have trifled with His Word shall be lightly esteemed: they that have wilfully broken one of the least of His commandments, and have taught men so, shall be least in the kingdom of heaven. Blessed and happy shall He be who followeth the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Blessed shall he be who only wanted to know the Lord’s will that he might do it unquestioningly, caring nothing what the will of other people might be in the matter. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1814.cfm

Our Anchorage

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

“Thou hast kept My Word.” – Revelation 3:8

“Thus, saith the Lord.” It is not what I think; it is not what some greater man may think; it is not what may be the consensus of all the enlightened minds of the period; the decision lies with what the Lord has spoken. God’s thoughts are as high above ours as the heavens are above the earth; dare we drag them down and sit in judgment on them? If the thought of the age happens to be right, well and good; but it is not upon temporary opinion that we rest. Our faith stands not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. What is taught in Holy Scripture is sure truth to us, and every other statement must bow to it…Many say that we ought to keep “abreast of the times,” whatever that may mean; and that there is a certain “spirit of the age,” to which we should be subject. This to me is treason against sovereign truth. I know of only one Spirit to whom I desire to be subject, and that is the Spirit of all the ages, who never changes. By His teaching we are not only nineteen centuries behind the present age, but we come in at the back of all the ages of human history. If we have but little strength, we mean to let the times and the spirits go where they like, we shall keep to the Holy Spirit and to His eternal teachings. Supposing that we have not such big heads as some have, and cannot excogitate or multiply sophisms and inventions as they do, it will be no small thing to be commended at the last, in these terms-“Thou hast a little strength, but thou hast kept My Word.” Brother, cling to God’s Word; cling to infallible and immutable revelation! Whatever novelty comes up, keep to the Word of Jesus! Whatever discovery may be made by the wise men of the age, let Christ be wisdom unto you. Regard the new teachers no more than you would the wise men of Gotham, for those who oppose themselves to God’s Word are fools. Let them cry “Lo here, or lo there,” but believe them not. Here is your anchorage. The Book is our ultimatum. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1814.cfm

Believe in God’s Word

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

I know thy works…for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name. – Revelation 3:8

True believers may be likened to those mites in the cheese which eat their way into it, and penetrate into the centre by feeding upon all that lies in their way as they advance. We eat our way into the word of God, we live upon what we learn, tunnelling through the truth with receptive minds. The truth is too great for us ever to absorb it all, but daily and hourly we live upon it. We so believe it, as to treat it as a matter of fact, valuable for everyday use; this is the surest way to keep even to the end. Now, dear child of God, as I have said before, you may have but very little strength, you may often be tempted and tried, and cast down; but if you believe the word, there is more for the pleasing of God in a childlike faith than there is in the most glittering profession or in the most showy deeds. Faith is the Koh-i-noor among jewels,-the queen of the virtues. Believe in God’s word, and you have wrought a god-like work. Believe it when others contradict it, and you are a conquerer over them all. Believe it when circumstances seem to make it questionable; believe it when your own heart fails you; believe it when your sin and corruption rise within you like a fountain of foul waters: thus shall you give glory to the God of truth. Still hold on to the promise made to you in the word of God, and to the manifestation of God which is seen in Christ Jesus, and you will be doing your God the honour which He deserves at your hands, and He will say, “I know thy works; for thou hast a little strength, but thou hast kept My word.”

“Within this sacred volume lies
The mystery of mysteries;
Happiest they of human race
To whom our God hath given grace
To read, to mark, to think, to pray,
To know the right, to learn the way;
But better they had ne’er been born
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1814.cfm

Our Trust

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

I know thy works…for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name. – Revelation 3:8

“Thou hast kept My word, and thou hast not denied My name.” What does this mean?

Does it not mean that they had received the word of God; for if they had not heard it and held it they could not have kept it. It was theirs, they heard it and had no wish to hear anything else. It was theirs, they read it and searched it and made it their own. They hoarded up divine knowledge in their memories, preserved it in their affections, used it in their experience, and practiced it in their lives. They were not ashamed of revealed truth, but, on the contrary, they took it for their possession, their heritage, their treasure, their all. I trust that many of us can say that the doctrines of grace are our jewels, our estate, yes, our very life. God has put us in trust with the gospel, and we will sooner part with all that we have than be false to our trust. It is no small privilege so to be taught of the Holy Ghost as to have a taste for the gospel, a deep attachment to the truths of the covenant.

We may be sure that they loved the word of God. They had an intense delight in it. They appreciated it: they fed upon it. They stored it up as bees store away honey, and they were as ready to defend it as bees are to guard their stores. They meditated upon it; they sought to understand it; they took delight in everything which came from the mouth of God. Oh, dear child of God, you may be very little in Israel; but if you love the word of God there is a something about you in which God takes delight. He sees you at your Bible-reading, He marks you in your endeavours to get at the meaning of His word, He notes you when you sit down and meditate upon His divine thoughts, and He takes pleasure in your eagerness to know what the will of the Lord is. He says, “I know thy works”; and though you may be one of little influence and little ability, yet He is pleased with you because you are pleased with His word. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1814.cfm