Christian Life

Beware the Words of Men

Sherry Christian Life, promises 4 Comments

Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary (false) humility -Colossians 2:18

The Apostle gives us this warning, “Let no man beguile you of your reward,” reminding us that these persons are very likely to beguile us. They will beguile us by their character. Have I not often heard young people say of such and such a preacher who preaches error, “But he is so good a man.” That is nothing to the point. “Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” If the life of the man should be blameless as the life of Christ, yet if he preach to you other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, take no heed of him; he weareth but the sheep’s clothing, and is a wolf after all. Some will plead, “But such and such a man is so eloquent”. Ah! brethren, may the day never come when your faith shall stand in the words of men. What is a ready orator, after all, that he should convince your hearts? Are there not ready orators caught any day for everything? Men speak, speak fluently, and speak well in the cause of evil, and there are some that can speak much more fluently and more eloquently for evil than any of our poor tongues are ever likely to do for the right. But words, words, words, flowers of rhetoric, oratory-are these the things that saved you? Are ye so foolish that having begun in the spirit by being convinced of your sins, having begun by being led simply to Christ, and putting your trust in Him-are you now to be led astray by these poetic utterances and flowery periods of men? God forbid! Let nothing of this kind beguile you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3466.cfm

Stand Fast to the Old Truths

Sherry Christian Life, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. -Isaiah 25:1

There is a certain class of persons who think that a sermon must be a good one when they cannot understand it, and who are always impressed with a man whose words are long; and if his sentences are involved they feel, poor souls, that because they do not know what he is talking about, there is no doubt that he is a very wise and learned man; and after a while when he does propound something that they can catch at, though it may be quite contrary to what they have learned at their mother’s knee or from their father’s Bible, yet they are ready to be led off by it. There are many men nowadays who seem to spend their time in nothing else but in spinning new theories, and inventing new systems, gutting the gospel taking the very soul and bowels out of it, and leaving there nothing but the mere skin and outward bones. The life and marrow of the gospel is being taken away by their learning, by their philosophies, by their refinements, by their bringing everything down to the test of this wonderfully enlightened nineteenth century to which we are all, I suppose, bound to defer. But a voice comes to us, “let no man beguile you of your reward.” Stand fast to the old truths; they will outlast all these philosophies. Stand fast to the old way of living; it will outlast all the inventions of men. Stand fast by Christ, for you want no other object of worship but Himself. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3466.cfm

Step by Step to False Worship

Sherry Christian Life, repentance, Sovereignty of God 2 Comments

However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands -Acts 7:48

One will say to you, “The place in which you worship-is it not very dear to you? That seat where you have been accustomed to sit and listen, is it not dear?”; and your natural instincts will say, “Yes. ” Then it will go a little farther. “That place is holy; it ought never to be used for anything but worship ” Then a little farther it will be, “Oh! that is the house of God,” and you will come to believe that, contrary to the words which you know are given to you of the Holy Ghost, that God dwells not in temples made with hands; that is to say, in these buildings, and you will get by degrees to have a worship of places, and a worship of days, and a worship of bread, and a worship of wine. And then it will be said to you, “Your minister, has he not often cheered you? Well then, you should reverence him; call him ‘Reverend.'” Go a little farther, and you will call him “Father”; yet a little farther, and he will be your confessor; get a little farther and he will be your infallible Pope. It is all step by step until it is done. The first step seems to be very harmless indeed. Indeed, it is a kind of voluntary humility. You look as if you were humbling yourselves, and were paying reverence to these things for God’s sake, whereas the object is to get you to pay reverence to them, instead of to God…

Recollect, you professors, you lose the reward if you lose the road to the reward…Oh! may we not be beguiled, then, so as to miss the reward of heaven at the last! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3466.cfm

Be Warned and Alert

Sherry Christian Life 5 Comments

Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind -Colossians 2:18

In Paul’s day there were some who took off the attention of the Christian from the worship of God to the worship of angels. “Angels,” said they, “these are holy beings; they keep watch over you; you should speak of them with great respect”; and then when they grew bolder, they said, “You should ask their protection”; and then after a little while they said, “You should worship them; you should make them intermediate intercessors”; and so, step by step, they went on and established an old heresy which lasted for many years in the Christian church, and which is not dead even now, and thus the worship of angels crept in.

And nowadays you will meet with men who will say, “That bread upon the Table-why, it represents the body of Jesus Christ to you when you come to the Lord’s Supper; therefore, you ought to treat that bread with great respect.” By and bye they will get a little bolder, and then they say, “As it represents Christ, you may worship it, pay it respect as if it were Christ.” By and bye it will come to this, that you must have a napkin under your chin, lest you should drop a crumb; or it will be very wicked if a drop of the sacred wine should cling to your moustache when you drink; and there will be the directions which are given in some of the papers coming out from the High Church party-absurdities which are only worthy of the nursery-about the way in which the holy bread is to be eaten, and the holy wine is to be drunk-bringing in idolatry, sheer, clear idolatry, under the presence of improving upon the too bare simplicity of the worship of Christ. Have a care of the very first step, I pray you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3466.cfm

Stay Focused on the Race

Sherry Christian Life, promises 1 Comment

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. -1 Corinthians 9:24

My brethren, we have, many of us, commenced the Christian race, or we profess to have done so, but the number of the starters is far greater than the number of the winners. “They that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize.” “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Many commence, apparently, in the Christian career, but after a while, though they did run well, something hinders them that they do not obey the truth, and they go out from us because they were not of us, for if they had been of us, doubtless they would have continued with us. Now we may expect, now that we have commenced to run, that some will come and try to turn us out of the race course openly-not plausibly and with sophistry, but with an open and honest wickedness. Some will tell us plainly that there is no reward to run for, that our religion is all a mistake, that the pleasures of this world are the only things worth seeking, that there are delights of the flesh and the lusts thereof, and that we should do well to enjoy them. We shall meet the Atheist with his sneer and with his ringing laugh. We shall meet with all kinds of persons who will, to our faces, tell us to turn back for there is no heaven, there is no Christ, or, if there be, it is not worth our while to take so much trouble to find Him. Take heed of these people. Meet them face to face with dauntless courage. Mind not their sneers. If they persecute you only, reckon this to be an honour to you, for what is persecution but the tribute which wickedness pays to righteousness, and what is it, indeed, but the recognition of the seed of the woman when the seed of the serpent would fain bite His heel? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3466.cfm

Striving is Needed

Sherry Christian Life, prayer, repentance, The Holy Spirit 7 Comments

Let no man beguile you of your reward.- Colossians 2:18

There is an allusion here to the prize which was offered to the runners in the Olympic games, and it is well for us to remark how very frequently the Apostle Paul conducts us by his metaphors to the racecourse. Over and over again he is telling us so to run that we may obtain, bidding us to strive, and at other times to agonize, and speaking of wrestling and contending. Ought not this to make us feel what an intense thing the Christian life is-not a thing of sleepiness or haphazard, not a thing to be left now and then to a little superficial consideration? It must be a matter which demands all our strength, so that when we are saved there is a living principle put within us which demands all our energies, and gives us energy over and above any that we ever had before. Those who dream that carelessness will find its way to heaven have made a great mistake. The way to hell is neglect, but the way to heaven is very different. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” A little matter of neglect brings you to ruin, but our Master’s words are “Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many, I say unto you, shall seek”-merely seek-“to enter in, and shall not be able.” Striving is needed more than seeking. Let us pray that God the Holy Spirit would always enable us to be in downright, awful earnest about the salvation of our souls. May we never count this a matter of secondary importance, but may we seek first, and beyond everything else, the kingdom of God and His righteousness. May we lay hold on eternal life; may we so run that we may obtain. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3466.cfm

Your God is Your True Joy

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, Sovereignty of God 5 Comments

Do not wonder, brethren, that the world hates you. -1 John 3:13

Don’t wonder, don’t wonder if you have discomforts here. If you are what you profess to be, you are strangers. Don’t expect the men of this world to treat you as one of themselves-if they do, be afraid. Dogs don’t bark when a man goes by that they know-they bark at strangers. When people slander and persecute you no longer, be afraid. If you are a stranger, they naturally bark at you. Don’t expect to find comforts in this world that your flesh would long for. This is our inn, not our home. We tarry here a night, we are away in the morning. We may bear the discomforts of the eventide and the night, for the morning will break soon. Remember that your greatest joy while you are a pilgrim is your God… Do you want a greater source of consolation than you have got? Here is one that can never be diminished, much less exhausted. When the creature streams are dry, go to this eternal fountain, and you will find it ever springing up. Your God is your true joy: make your joy to be in your God.

(Now what shall be said to those who are not strangers and foreigners? Oh! you dwell in a land where you find some sort of repose, but I have heavy tidings for you. This land in which you dwell, and all the works thereof, must be burned up. The city of which you, who have never been converted to Christ, are citizens, is the City of Destruction, and as is its name such shall be its end.) ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3478.cfm