Christian Life

Leaving All to Follow Jesus

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

And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. – Mark 1:17

Beloved, what a difference there may be between one Christian and another…We know some who are saved-at least we hope they are-but oh, how few are the fruits of the Spirit; how feeble is the light they give; how slender is their consecration; how small is their likeness to Him whom they call Master and Lord. Thank God, we have seen others who live in quite another atmosphere, and exhibit a far different life. It is not a higher life, I hardly like that term, for the life of God is one and the same in all believers; but it is a higher condition of the life, more developed, more vigorous, more influential; a condition of life which has a clearer eye, and a nimbler hand, a quicker ear, and a more musical speech; a life of health, whereas too many only know life as laboring under disease, and ready to give up the ghost. There are Mephibosheths among the king’s favourites, but give me the life of Naphtali, “satisfied with favor and full of the blessing of the Lord;” or of Asher, of whom it is written, “let him dip his foot in oil.” An owl is alive though it loves the darkness, and a mole is alive though it is always digging its own grave, but give me the life of those who mount as on the wings of eagles, who live upon the fat things, full of marrow, and drink the wines on the lees well refined. These are the mightier of Israel, whose joyous energy far surpasses that of the weary and faint, whose faith is feeble and whose love is cold. Now, Peter and his friends at this time had been called from their fishing tackle and their boats to abide with Jesus in His humiliation, and learn of Him the secrets of the kingdom, which afterwards they were to teach to others. They had heard the Master say, “Follow Me,” and they had left all at His bidding. They were in the path of fellowship, boldly pressing on at their Lord’s command, so that now they had taken a grand stride in their Christian career; and that is the time, beloved, when men bring blessings on their houses. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1236.cfm

Godly Work-fellows

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

Now as He walked by the sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed Him. – Mark 1:16-18

It is a great help to a man to find godly work-fellows. If he must needs go a-fishing like Peter, it is a grand thing to have a James and a John as one’s partners in the business. How helpful it is to piety when Christian men associate from day to day with their fellow Christians, and speak often one to another concerning the best things. Firebrands placed closely together will burn all the more freely, coals laid in a heap will glow and blaze, and so hearts touching hearts in divine things cause an inward burning and a sacred fervor seldom reached by those who walk alone. Many Christians are called to struggle hard for spiritual existence through having to work with unbelievers; they are not only sneered at and persecuted, but all sorts of doubts and blasphemies are suggested, and these materially hinder their growth in the heavenly life. When they are brought into this trial in the course of providence they have need of great grace to remain firm under it. Beloved brother, if in your daily business you meet with none to help but many to hinder, you must live all the nearer to God, for you require a double measure of grace; but if in the providence of God you happen to be placed where there are helpful Christian companions, do not readily change that position, even though your income would be doubled thereby. I would sooner work with James and John for twenty shillings a week than with swearers and drunkards for sixty. You who reside with really consistent Christians are much favored, and ought to become eminent Christians. You are like flowers in a conservatory, and you ought to bloom to perfection. You live in a lavender garden, and you ought to smell sweetly. Prove that you appreciate and rightly use your privileged position by endeavoring to bring grace to your house, that it may be altogether the Lord’s. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1236.cfm

Thou Shalt be Saved, and Thy House

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

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. – Acts 16:31, 32

Heads of families, what responsibilities rest upon us! We cannot shake them off, let us do what we may! God has given us little kingdoms in which our authority and influence will tell for the better or the worse to all eternity. There is not a child or a servant in our house but what will be impressed for good or evil by what we do. True, we may have no wish to influence them, and we may endeavor to ignore our responsibility, but it cannot be done; parental influence is a throne which no man can abdicate. The members of our family come under our shadow, and we either drip poison upon them like the deadly upas tree, or else beneath our shade they breathe an atmosphere perfumed with our piety. The little boats are fastened to our larger vessel and are drawn along in our wake. O fathers and mothers, the ruin of your children or their salvation will, under God, very much depend upon you. The gracious Spirit may use you for their conversion, or Satan may employ you as the instruments of their destruction. Which is it like to be? I charge you, consider. It is a notable event in family history when the grace of God takes up its headquarters in the heart of the husband and the father: that household’s story will henceforth be written by another pen. Let those of us who are the Lord’s gratefully acknowledge His mercy to us personally, and then let us return to bless our household. If the clouds be full of rain they empty themselves upon the earth; let us pray to be as clouds of grace to our families. Whether we have only an Isaac and an Ishmael like Abraham, or twelve children like Jacob, let us pray for each and all that they may live before the Lord, and that we and all that belong to us may be bound up in the bundle of life. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1236.cfm

Become a Messenger of Salvation

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

He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. – John 1:41

Andrew followed Jesus, and having become a disciple, he desired to lead others to be disciples too. He began, as we all ought to begin, with those nearest to him by ties of relationship; “He first findeth his own brother Simon.” Beloved friend, if you are yourself saved, you should cast about you and inquire, “To what house may I become a messenger of salvation?” …Perhaps Andrew had no wife, and no children; I cannot tell. If it were so? I feel sure that he said to himself, “I must seek the good of my brother and his family.” I believe, if we are really lively and thoughtful Christians, our conversion is an omen for good to all our kinsfolk. We shall not idly say, “I ought to have looked after my own children and household, if I had any, and having none I am excused”; but we shall consider ourselves to be debtors to those who are kindred householders. I hope that some Andrew is here who, being himself enlisted for Jesus, will be the means of conquering for Jesus a brother and a brother’s household. If there be no Andrew, I hope some of the Marys and Marthas will be filled with zeal to make up for the deficiency of the men, and will bring brother Lazarus to the Lord. Uncles and aunts should feel an interest in the spiritual condition of nephews and nieces; cousins should be concerned for cousins, and all ties of blood should be consecrated by being used for purposes of grace. Moses, when he led the people out of Egypt, would not leave a hoof behind, nor ought we to be content to leave one kinsman a slave to sin. Abraham, in his old age, took up sword and buckler for his nephew Lot, and aged believers should look about them and seek the good of the most distant members of their families; if it were always so the power of the gospel would be felt far and wide. The household of which Peter was master might never have known the gospel if a relative had not been converted. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1236.cfm

A Center of Mercy

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises 5 Comments

“And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. “-Mark 1:29

Peter’s house was by no means the most notable building in the town of Capernaum…There hung the fisherman’s nets outside the door-the sole escutcheon and hatchment of one who was ordained to sit upon a throne and judge with his fellow apostles the twelve tribes of Israel. Beneath that lowly roof Immanuel deigned to unveil Himself: God with Simon. Little did Peter know how divine a blessing entered his house when Jews crossed the threshold, nor how vast a river of mercy would stream forth from his door down the streets of Capernaum. Now, dear friend, it may be that your dwelling, though very dear to you, is not very much thought of by anybody else; no poet or historian has ever written its annals, nor artist engraved its image. Perhaps it is not the very poorest cot in the place in which you live; still it is obscure enough, and no one as he rides along asks, “Who dwells there?” or, “What remarkable house is that?” Yet is there no reason why the Lord should not visit you and make your house like that of Obed-edom, in which the ark abode, or like that of Zaccheus to which salvation came. Our Lord can make your dwelling the center of mercy for the whole region, a little sun scattering light in all directions, a spiritual dispensary distributing health to the multitudes around. There is no reason except in yourself why the Lord should not make your residence in a city a greater blessing to it than the cathedral and all its clergy. Jesus cares not for fine buildings and carved stones; He will not disdain to come beneath your cottage roof, and there He will bring a treasury of blessings with Him, which shall enrich your house, and shall ensure the richest of boons to your neighbors. Why should it not be? Have you faith to pray this moment that it may be so? How much do I wish you would! More good by far will be done by a silent prayer now offered by yourself to that effect than by anything which can be spoken by me. If every Christian here will now put up the supplication, “Lord, dwell where I dwell, and in so doing make my house a blessing to the neighborhood,” marvellous results must follow. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1236.cfm

Experientially Taught by the Holy Spirit

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Holy Spirit 5 Comments

…He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. – John 14:26

The Holy Spirit teaches us by refreshing the memory. “He shall bring all things to your remembrance.” He puts all those old treasures into the ark of our soul, and when the time comes, He opens it, and brings out these precious things in right good order, and shows them to us again and again. He refreshes the memory, and when this is done, He does better, He teaches us the Word, by making us feel its effect, and that, after all, is the best way of learning. You may try to teach a child the meaning of the term “sweetness;” but words will not avail, give him some honey and he will never forget it. You might seek to tell him of the glorious mountains, and the Alps, that pierce the clouds and send their snows peaks, like white-robed ambassadors up to the courts of heaven: take him there, let him see them, and he will never forget them. You might seek to paint for him the grandeur of the American continent, with its hills, and lakes, and rivers, such as the world saw not before: let him go and view it, and he will know more of the land than he could know by all your teaching when he sat at home. So the Holy Spirit does not only tell us of Christ’s love, He sheds it abroad in the heart. He does not merely tell us of the sweetness of pardon, but He gives us a sense of no condemnation, and then we know all about it better than we could have done by any teaching of words and thoughts. He takes us into the banqueting house and waves the banner of love over us…He takes us to the cross of Christ; and He bids us put our finger into the print of the nails, and our hands into His side, and tells us not to be “faithless, but believing,” and so in the highest and most effectual manner He teacheth us to profit. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0315.cfm

The Holy Spirit Always Gives the Right Focus

Sherry Christian Life, promises, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. – 1 Corinthians 2:11

How hard it is sometimes to state a fact which you perfectly understand yourself, in such a way that another man may see it. It is like the telescope; there are many persons who are disappointed with a telescope, because whenever they walk into an observatory and put their eye to the glass, expecting to see the rings of Saturn, and the belts of Jupiter, they have said, “I can see nothing at all; a piece of glass, and a grain or two of dust is all I can see!” “But,” says the astronomer, when he comes, “I can see Saturn in all her glory.” Why cannot you? Because the focus does not suit the stranger’s eye. By a little skill, the focus can be altered so that the observer may be able to see what he could not see before. So is it with language; it is a sort of telescope by which I enable another to see my thoughts, but I cannot always give him the right focus. Now the Holy Spirit always gives the right focus to every truth. He sheds a light so strong and forcible upon the Word, that our spirit says. “Now I see it, now I understand it.” For even here, in this precious Book, there are words which I have looked at a hundred times, but I could not understand them, till at some favored hour, the key-word seemed as if it leaped up from the midst of the verse and said to me, “Look at the verse in My light,” and at once I perceived-not always from a word in the verse itself, but sometimes in the context-I perceived the meaning which I could not see before. This, too, is a part of the Spirit’s training-to shed a light upon truth. But the Spirit not only enlightens the truth, but He enlightens the understanding. ‘Tis marvellous, too, how the Holy Ghost does teach men who seemed as if they never could learn…The Spirit teaches us by enlightening the understanding. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0315.cfm