Christian Life

Superstitious Priestcraft

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, salvation 8 Comments

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. – John 8:32

Look, brethren ,and see how the nations of the earth are lying under gloomy superstition. Perhaps there is one thing in the world worse than kingcraft, and that is priestcraft. May God save us from two things-from tyrannical kings, and from priests of all sorts. Priests of any sort are bad, but superstitious priests are the worst of all. Oh, how many nations of the earth have their intellect blighted, their hopes blasted, their progress shipped, their whole history eclipsed of its glory, their state robbed of its riches, by the cursed dominancy of priests. Men are compelled to believe just what the priest chooses. Because he wears a cassock; because he has been educated in the deep mysteries of craftiness, he is to be lord over men’s consciences, and consciences and hearts are to bow before him; wherever he comes his word is to be law, his will is to open and shut the gates of heaven, for he pretends that the keys of heaven and of hades are hanging at his girdle. How shall we deliver men from these enthralling superstitions! No how but by the preaching of the gospel. You cannot make men free, even by governments; you cannot give them a thorough freedom by giving them a republic itself; for that republic must fall so long as priestcraft is there, for liberty and priestcraft agree as well together as God and devil, and no better; and until the one falls the other can never stand.

But the preaching of the gospel which teaches that believers are all priests and kings; which lifts every one of us into the high places of princes and monarchs and puts every one of us on a level with pontiffs and priests-this is the gospel which shall yet set men free, and the preaching of this, and this only, is the world’s great and grandest hope of its deliverance from the slavery of the body and the yet more accursed bondage of the soul.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0189.cfm

Christ Makes Men Free

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 18 Comments

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.- Acts 16:9

Behold, the nations of the earth this day are still the bond-slaves of tyrants-many lands are still subject to despotic dynasties, who trample men beneath their feet, as if men were but earthen pitchers to be broken in pieces by the iron wills of kings. How is liberty to be established in these lands? Shall the point of the bayonet bring liberty to these nations that still are slaves? Never, never…the preaching of the gospel is the terror of despots. If you ask what makes this land free, every candid man must say it is the open gospel and the unfettered preaching of the Word…it is the coat of arms of liberty herself. Liberty flourishes by the preaching of the Word of God. Certain it is that wherever you find Protestantism, you find liberty, and wherever you leave Protestantism behind you, you begin to feel the yoke, and to hear the groans of the oppressed. It is true that Protestantism doth not in every place produce perfect liberty, because it is not sufficiently true to itself. There are still places where the slave feels the lash, while his master calls himself a Christian; but this is not the legitimate effect of our religion, but rather the effect of a delusion which hell itself did first invent, and which nought but the deep depravity of men could ever permit to stand before the face of God’s sun. Yes, ye tyrants on your thrones, the little stone cut out of the mountain without hands shall yet break you in pieces! O great statue of tyranny with thy head of gold, and thy feet of clay, thou shalt yet totter, for this shall break thee in pieces, for the breaker is come out before us, and the King at the head of us, and who can withstand His might? What shall hold out against the mighty principle wherewith Christ makes men free?~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0189.cfm

Under His Observing Eye

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life 4 Comments

Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?- Proverbs 15:11

Your God can both see and hear: would your conduct be in any respect different, if you had a god such as those that the heathen worship? Suppose for one minute, that Jehovah, who is nominally adored in this land, could be (though it is almost blasphemy to suppose it) smitten with such a blindness, that He could not see the works and know the thoughts of man: would you then become more careless concerning Him than you are now? I trow not. In nine cases out of ten, and perhaps in a far larger and sadder proportion, the doctrine of Divine Omniscience, although it is received and believed, has no practical effect upon our lives at all. The mass of mankind forget God: whole nations who know His existence and believe that He beholds them, live as if they had no God at all. Merchants, farmers, men in their shops, and in their fields, husbands in their families, and wives in the midst of their households, live as if there were no God; no eye inspecting them; no ear listening to the voice of their lips, and no eternal mind always treasuring up the recollection of their acts. Ah! we are practical Atheists, the mass of us; yea, all but those that have been born again, and have passed from death unto life, be their creeds what they may, are Atheists, after all, in life; for if there were no God, and no hereafter, multitudes of men would never be affected by the change; they would live the same as they do now-their lives being so full of disregard of God and His ways, that the absence of a God could not affect them in any great degree…I would endeavor to set before you, God, the all-seeing one, and press upon your solemn consideration the tremendous fact, that in all our acts, in all our ways, and in all our thoughts, we are continually under His observing eye.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0177.cfm

The Wheels are Full of Eyes

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 6 Comments

As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. -Ezekiel 1:18

There is the greatest wisdom in the workings of Providence. Now you were in great distress probably, and you could not see why. The next time you are in distress, you must say, The wheels are full of eyes: I have but two eyes; but God’s wheels are full of eyes-God can see every thing; I can only see one thing at a time. I see what the plant is now, I do not know what it will be tomorrow. I know not what kind of flower that herb will yield. This affliction is a cassava root, full of poison, and would soon destroy me; but God can put that in the oven, so that all the poison shall evaporate, and it shall become food for me to live upon. This trouble of mine seems to me to be destructive: God shall get all the destroying power out of it, and it shall be made food. Now, thou tried one, groaning down in the valley, up with thine heart; away with thy tears; put thy hand on thy breast, and make thy heart stop its hard beating-thou poor soul! dash the cup of misery from thine hand; thou art not condemned; thou art a pardoned Christian. Remember that God hath said, “All things work together for good”-more still, they “work together for good to them that love God, even to them that are called according to His purpose.” O! how I would like to make your hearts like flint and steel against trouble! We cannot bear the winds of trouble; we are soon cast down and broken-hearted. When we are in prosperity, we are giants; we think we can do like Samson; we can take hold of the two pillars of trouble and distress, and we can pull them down. But once tell us that the Philistines will be upon us, and we have no power.

Next time trouble comes, disease comes, pestilence comes, smile at it, and say:

“He that has made his refuge God,
Shall find a most secure abode;
Shall walk all day beneath His shade,
And there at night shall rest his head.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm

Whatever God Ordains Must Be

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 19 Comments

Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.-1 Chronicles 29:12

What is fate? Fate is this-Whatever is, must be. But there is a difference between that and Providence. Providence says, Whatever God ordains must be; but the wisdom of God never ordains any thing without a purpose. Every thing in this world is working for some one great end. Fate does not say that. Fate simply says that the thing must be; Providence says, God moves the wheels along, and there they are. If any thing would go wrong, God puts it right; and if there is any thing that would move awry, He puts His hand and alters it. It comes to the same thing; but there is a difference as to the object. There is all the difference between fate and Providence that there is between a man with good eyes and a blind man. Fate is a blind thing; it is the avalanche crushing the village down below and destroying thousands. Providence is not an avalanche; it is a rolling river, rippling at the first like a rill down the sides of the mountain, followed by minor streams, till it rolls in the broad ocean of everlasting love, working for the good of the human race. The doctrine of Providence is not, that what is, must be; but that, what is, works together for the good of our race, and especially for the good of the chosen people of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm

Providence is Amazing

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 14 Comments

As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. -Ezekiel 1:18

Even the man that knows that every wave that dashes against the ship is washing him nearer home-that every breath of wind that rises comes to his sail and fills it, and sends it to the white cliffs of his native Albion-even the man that feels that all is for him-even he must say that Providence is amazing. O! that thought, it staggers thought! O! it is an idea that overwhelms me-that God is working all! The sins of man, the wickedness of our race, the crimes of nations, the iniquities of kings, the cruelties of wars, the terrific scourge of pestilence-all these things in some mysterious way are working the will of God! We must not look at it; we cannot look at it. I cannot explain it. I cannot tell you where human will and free agency unite with God’s sovereignty and with His unfailing decrees. This has been the place where intellectual gladiators have fought with each other ever since the time of Adam. Some have said, Man does as he likes; and others have said, God does as He pleases. In one sense, they are both true; but there is no man that has brains or understanding enough to show where they meet. We cannot tell how it is that I do just as I please as to which street I shall go home by; and yet I cannot go home but through a certain road… Last Sabbath-day I came down a certain street I do not know why-and there was a young man who wished to speak to me; he wished to see me many times before. I say that was God’s Providence-that I might meet that young man. Here was Providence, and yet there was my choice; how, I cannot tell. I cannot comprehend it… There is no half way between a mighty God that worketh all things by the sovereign counsel of His will and no God at all. A God that cannot do as He pleases-a God whose will is frustrated, is not a God, and cannot be a God. I could not believe in such a God as that.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm

The Unchangeable God

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 24 Comments

When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. -Ezekiel 1:17

The prophet saw the wheels, and he well says, they turned not when they went, they always went straight forward; they never turned to the right or to the left. Such is God’s Providence. Man marks out plans: he says, I shall build this tower; he gets it halfway up, and he finds he has not enough to finish it with; he has to pull it down, lay a smaller foundation, and build again. God never does so; He has a plan when He begins, and He carries that plan out: He lays the foundation, and always finishes the topstone. There are some who talk about God’s changing His purpose; such people do not know what God is at all. How could God change? God must either change from a better to a worse, or from a worse to a better. If He change from a worse to a better, He is not perfect now; and if He change from what He is to something worse, He will not be perfect then, and He will not be God. He cannot change. It is not possible that God should ever change or shift in any of His purposes. Can He change because He has not power? Why, sirs, He could girdle this globe with mountains, or move the hills into the sea. Can He change because He has not patience enough? What, He who from His purpose never swerves? Shall He change because He has made a mistake? Shall the Most High, Jehovah, ever have an error in His mighty mind? To err is human. With the divine Being the whole goes on, and what He has ordained shall be. On the iron rock of destiny it is written, and it cannot be altered. God moves the wheel, and the wheel goes on; and though a thousand armies stand to stop it, it goes on still. “They turned not to the right hand nor to the left when they went.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm