Christian Life

Our Business is to Live for God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer 1 Comment

And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. – Matthew 10:22

To bring souls to Christ is my main endeavour, but it is not the ultimate proof of my ministry. My business is to live for God, to lay aside self, and give myself up wholly to Him, and if I do that I shall be accepted whatever else may happen. I wish we had the spirit of that brave old man who was condemned to the stake. They were going to burn him. He knew that the sentence was to be carried out the next morning, but with a soul full of courage, and with a merry heart, he sat the last thing at night talking with his friends-faggots and fire to face in the morning, recollect-and he said to one of them, “I am an old tree in my Master’s orchard. When I was young I bore a little fruit by His grace. It was unripe and sour, but He bore with it: and I have grown mellow in my older days and brought forth some fruit for Him by His grace. Now the tree has grown so old that my Master is going to cut it down and burn the old log. Well, it will warm the hearts of some of His family while I am burning”; and he even smiled for joy to think that he might be put to so good a purpose. I want you to have that spirit, and to say, “I will live for Christ while I am young: I will die for Him, and warm the hearts of my brethren…Oh, go to the Master’s cross to learn the way to live and die! See how He spent Himself for you, and then sally forth and spend yourselves for Him. “Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall ye be glorious in the sight of the Lord.” Though you may think that you do not succeed, your whole-hearted consecration shall be your honour in the day of the Lord. By your hallowed life, and your humble service, you shall bring glory to His name. O Lord, set us in our charges, and encourage us in the service of Thy house! “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; establish Thou the work of our hands: yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.” May the blessing of our covenant God rest upon you, my brethren, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

The Divine Economy

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises 3 Comments

And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. – John 4:37

If you really do serve the Lord thoroughly and heartily, He will accept you and acknowledge your service, even though no good should come of it. It is your business to cast the bread on the waters: if you do not find it after many days, that is not your business. It is your business to scatter the seed; but no farmer says to his servant, “John, you have not served me well, for there is no harvest.” The man would say, “Could I make a harvest, sir? I have ploughed, and I have sowed. What more could I do”? Even so our good Lord is not austere, nor does He demand of us more than we can do. If you have ploughed and if you have sowed, although there should be no harvest, you are clear and accepted. Did it never strike you that you may be now employed in breaking up ground and preparing the soil from which other labourers who come after you will reap very plentifully. Perhaps your Master knows what a capital ploughman you are. He has a large farm, and he never means to let you become a reaper because you do the ploughing so well. Your Master does not intend you to take part in the harvest because you are such a good hand at sowing; and as He has crops that need sowing all the year round He keeps you at that work. He knows you better than you know yourself. Perchance if He were once to let you get on the top of a loaded wagon of your own sheaves, you would turn dizzy and make a fall of it; so He says, “You keep to your ploughing and your sowing, and somebody else shall do the reaping.” Peradventure when your course is run you will see from heaven, where it will be safe for you to see it, that you did not labour in vain nor spend your strength for nought. “One soweth and another reapeth.” This is the divine economy. I think that every man that loves his Master will say, “So long as there does but come a harvest, I will not stipulate about who reaps it. Give me faith enough to be assured that the reaping will come, and I will be content.”

Though Christ cometh quickly He may not come for another ten thousand years, but in any case idolatry must die, and truth must reign. The accumulated prayers and energies of ages shall do the deed, and God shall be glorified. Only let us persevere in holy effort, and the end is sure. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

Do Not Be So Faint-hearted as to Give Up

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life 3 Comments

Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any fish?” They answered Him, “No.” – John 21:5

Are there any of you who fear that you have toiled in vain and spent your strength for nought? I would entreat you, dear friends, not to be satisfied with casting in the seed unless you reap some good results; yet do not be so faint-hearted as to give up because of a little disappointment. Though you cannot be satisfied without fruit, yet do not cease to sow because one season proves a failure. I would not have our friends the farmers abandon agriculture because this year they have a bad crop: if they were to measure their future prospects by the present failure, it would be a great pity. If you have preached or taught, or done work for Christ with little success until now, do not infer that you will always be unsuccessful. Regret the lack of prosperity but do not relinquish the labour of seeking it. You may reasonably be sorrowful, but you have no right to despair. Non-success is a trial of faith which has been endured by many a trusty servant who has been triumphant in the issue. Did not the disciples toil all night, and catch nothing?…Did not our Lord say that some seed would fall on stony ground, and some among the thorns, and that from these there would be no harvest? What good did Jeremiah do? I have no doubt he laboured, and God blessed him, but the result of his preaching was that he said, “The bellows are burned in the fire.” He had blown up the fire till he had burnt the bellows, but no man’s heart was melted. “Woe is me”! said he. “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears”! I do not know what was the result of Noah’s ministry, but I do know that he was a preacher of righteousness for a hundred and twenty years, and yet he never brought a soul into the ark except his own family. Poor preaching we may count it judging by the influence it exerted: and yet we know that it was grand preaching, such as God commended. Do not, then, grudge the time, or the strength, you lay out in the service of our great Lord because you do not see your efforts thrive, for better men than you have wept over failure. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

Leave Your Honour with Your God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises 3 Comments

And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle… And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. – 1 Samuel 17:28,49

Look at David. His brother asked why he had left the charge of the sheep to come down to the battle, suspecting that the pride of his heart had brought him among the soldiers and the standards. Yet nobody could bring back Goliath’s head but that young David. Take a lesson from the ruddy hero; take no notice of what your brethren say about you. Go and bring back the giant’s head. A good adventure is the best answer to evil accusations. If you are serving the Master let their scandal stir you up to more self-consecration. If they cry out against you as too forward, serve the Lord with more vigour, and you will antidote the venom of their tongues. Did you enter into Christ’s work in order to be honoured among men? Then retire from it, for you came with a bad motive. But if you enlisted purely to bring honour to Him, and to win His smile, what more do you want? What more do you want? Be not therefore disheartened because you are not applauded. Be certain of this, that to be kept in the rear rank is often necessary to future eminence. If you take a man and put him in front, and pat him on the back and say, “What a great man he is”! he will make a false step before long, and there will be an end of your hero; but when a man is brought forward by God, he is often one whom everybody criticizes, finds fault with, and declaims as an impostor, but the banter he is exposed to serves as ballast for his mind. When he comes off with success he will not be spoiled with conceit, for the grace of God will make him bow with gratitude. The sword that is meant for a princely hand, to split through skull and backbone in the day of battle, must be annealed in the furnace again and again; it cannot be fit for such desperate work until it has passed through the fire full many a time. Do not ask to be appreciated. Never be so mean as that. Appreciate yourself in the serenity of conscience, and leave your honour with your God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

Diamond Must Cut Diamond

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

It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. – Matthew 10: 25,26

I have known the day when perplexities pleased me, dilemmas afforded me delight, and instead of declining a difficult task I rather like it. Even now I enjoy puzzling over a problem, and attempting what others decline. Nothing good in this world can be effected without difficulty. The biggest diamonds lie under heavy stones which sluggards cannot turn over. That which is easy to do is hardly worth doing. In the face of difficulty the man of ardent, persevering spirit braces up his nerves, sharpens his wits, and brings all his powers into play to achieve an object that will reward his efforts. Have you great difficulties dear friend? You are not the first worker for God who has had difficulties to encounter…Any good thing, I say, especially any good thing done for God, must be surrounded with difficulties, and resisted by adversaries. Look at Nehemiah, and Ezra, and Zerubbabel, and those that built Jerusalem, the second time. These good men wrought zealously, but Sanballat and Tobiah were jeering and jesting, and trying to throw down the wall. If you build a city without difficulty, it is not Jerusalem. Be sure of that. As soon as ever you begin working for God you will find a great power working against you. If you encounter opposition, take it as a good sign…When you, my dear brother, meet with opposition, encounter it with prayer. Exercise more faith. Antagonists ought never to hinder your going forward in the cause of Christ. Diamond must cut diamond. There is nothing so hard in this world but you can cut it with something harder. If you ask God to steel your soul up to the conquering point, and to make your resolution like an adamant stone, you can cut your way through an alp of diamond in the service of your Lord and Master.

Let me inspirit you in the face of assailants. The forces ranged against you might be stumbling-blocks to fools, but they shall only prove a stimulus to men. One day your honour shall be the greater and your reward shall be the higher because of these adverse elements. Therefore, be brave and fear not, but advance in the strength of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

He Girds the Weak with Strength

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. – Zechariah 4:6

“I wish I could serve Jesus Christ like Paul, or like Whitefield-that I could range the country through proclaiming His dear name and winning thousands of converts. But I am slow of speech and dull of thought, and what I attempt produces little or no effect.” Well, brother, mind that you do what you can. Do you not recollect the parable of the men who had talents entrusted to them? I do not want to lay undue stress upon the fact that it was the man who had one talent who buried it. Yet why is he represented as doing so? I think it was not because the men of two and five talents do not sometimes bury theirs, but because the temptation lies most with the one talent people. They say, “What can I do? What is the use of me? I may be excused.” That is the temptation. Brother, do not be entangled in that snare. If your Lord has only given you one talent He does not expect you to make the same interest upon it as the man does with five; but still He does expect His interest, and therefore do not wrap your talent in a napkin. It is but with strength imparted that any of us can serve Him. We have nothing to consecrate to Him but the gift we have first received from Him. You are weak. You feel it; but what says your God to you? “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” He can make you useful though you have no extraordinary endowments. Grape-shot may do great execution, though it cannot compare with grenade or bomb-shell. A sinner may be brought to Christ by the simple earnestness of a peasant or an artisan, without calling in the aid of a professor’s learning or a preacher’s eloquence. God can bless you far above what you think to be your capacity, for it is not a question of your ability but of His aid. You have no self-reliance, you tell me. Then take refuge in God, I entreat you, for you evidently want more of the divine succor. Go and get it; it is to be had. He girds the weak with strength. “The young men shall faint and be weary, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Why, I think you are more likely to do good than if you had five talents, for now you will pray more and you will depend more upon God than you would have done if you had possessed strength of your own. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

Laid Aside Yet Serving Still

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

But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian…And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. – Exodus 2:15,21

These times need so much Christian effort that when a man asks me, “How shall I do work for Christ”? I am accustomed to say, “Go and do it.” “But what is the way to do it”? Start at once. Get at it, my brother. Do not be out of harness a minute. But suppose that you are obliged to desist awhile, do not let your interest in the cause of our Lord and Master decline…If you are put away on the shelf, do not rust there, but pray the Master to brighten you up so that when He comes to use you again you may be fully fitted for the work which He has in hand for you.

Spend your time in prayer that you may be fit for the Master’s use, and, meanwhile, be prompt in helping others. You remember that, at the siege of Gibraltar, when the fleet surrounded it and determined to storm the old rock, the governor fired red-hot shot down upon the men of war. The enemy did not at all admire the governor’s warm reception. Think how it was done. Here were gunners on the ramparts firing away, and every man in the garrison would have liked to do the same. What did those do who could not serve a gun? Why, they heated the shot; and that is what you must do. I am master gunner here generally: heat my shot for me, if you will. Keep the furnace going, so that when we do fire off a sermon it may be red-hot, through your earnest prayers. When you see your friends sitting in the Sunday-school, or standing out in the street working for God, if you cannot join them yet say, “Never mind: I will heat the shot for them. My prayers shall not be wanting, if I can contribute nothing else.” That is counsel for you who are for awhile laid on the shelf. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm