Christian Life

If Thou Canst Believe

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

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. – Mark 9:23, 24

It is a great mistake to fancy that to endorse sound doctrine is the same thing as possessing saving faith, for while saving faith accepts the truth of God, it mainly concerns itself with the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and its essence lies in reliance upon Jesus Himself. I am not saved because I believe the Scriptures, or because I believe the doctrines of grace, but I am saved if I believe Christ; or, in other words, trust in Him. Jesus is my creed. He is the truth. In the highest sense the Lord Jesus is the Word of God. To know Him is life eternal. By His knowledge He justifies many. I do not know that the father in the narrative before us had heard many sermons. I am not sure that he had very clear notions about everything that concerned the Savior’s kingdom: it was not essential that he should have in order to obtain a cure for his son. It was a very desirable thing that he should be an instructed disciple, but in the emergency before us the main thing was that he should believe Christ to be both able and willing to cast the devil out of his son. Up to that point he did believe; and, though his faith may have been deficient as well in breadth as in depth, yet it enabled him to realize that the Messiah who stood before him was the Lord, and it led him to place all his reliance upon Him. He did not believe in the disciples; he had once trusted them and failed. He did not believe in himself; he knew his own impotence to drive out the evil spirit from his child. He believed no longer in any medicines or men, for doubtless he had spent much on physicians; but he believed the Man of the shining countenance who had just come down from the mountain. When he heard Him say, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth,” he at once said, “Lord, I believe.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Think on Thee

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

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.”-Mark 9:24.

When a man first lays hold upon Jesus he is very apt to be in distress, if his joy be not always at its full height (or) he is untrained in spiritual conflict, and easily dismayed (or) the tremor of his former conviction is upon him, and he is prone to relapse into it. The light which he has received fills him with intense delight, but it is not very clear and abiding; he sees men as trees walking, and is ready to conjure up a thousand fears. The weakness of newborn faith, therefore, calls for the compassion of all who love the souls of men.

This man did well in looking for the help against his unbelief to the right quarter. He did not say, “Lord, I believe; and now I will try to overcome my unbelief.” No; but “Lord help,” as if he felt that the Lord alone could do it. No physician can cure unbelief but Christ. He is the physic for it, and He is the physician too. If thou hast any unbelief, take thou the blood of Christ to cure it with. Think of Him, God in the glory of His person, tabernacling among men, working out a perfect righteousness, dying a felon’s death upon the cross in the sinner’s stead; think of Him as rising from the dead, no more to die: think of Him as ascending into heaven amidst the shouts of angels: think of Him as standing at the right hand of God with the keys of death and hell at His girdle: think of Him as always pleading the merit of His blood before the Father’s throne; and, as thou considerest concerning Him, in the power of the Spirit, thine unbelief will die, for thou wilt say, “Lord, the thought of Thee has helped mine unbelief; while I have been studying Thee, and feeding my soul on Thee, and making Thee to be as bread and wine to my soul, my unbelief has gone. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

 

 

Cling to Christ and Hold Him Fast

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

Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. -John 13:23

You can follow Christ in a general way in the activities of Christian life, and so on, but there is a peculiar way of following Him. You can get, by God’s grace, very near your Master, and by still greater grace you can keep near to Him, and keep near to Him all your lives. I have never been able to hope for perfection in the flesh, but I believe that even Christian ought to strain after even perfection itself. I am afraid we have fixed the standard of what a Christian may be a deal too low; of what a. Christian should be it would not be possible to fix the standard too high. It is not needful for a Christian to be sometimes with Christ, and sometimes to lose fellowship. It is not necessary for a Christian to be full of doubts and fears. I met an elderly Christian some years ago who is now in heaven, whose word certainly I could never dare to have doubted, who told me that by the space of forty years he had never had a doubt of his own acceptance in the Beloved, and though he had had many troubles and trials, he did not know that his communion with Christ had once been interrupted. I marvelled at him, but I marvelled a great deal more at myself that I had not tried to get into the same place. Why not? If you are straitened, it certainly is not in your God; you are straitened in your own bowels. He never gave you legitimate cause to doubt Him, nor did He ever give you a reasonable excuse for forsaking fellowship with Him. Let us, oh! let us aim at keeping as near to Jesus as John did, and not, like Peter, follow afar off. Let it be the great prayer of our lives:

“Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without Thee I cannot live.”

Why need we leave Him, Certainly He will not leave us. Oh! that we may cling to Him closely, cling to Him and hold Him fast. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

Tried By Fire and Thou Art Victorious

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

Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him…_Job 13:15

If you resolve to cling to Jesus Christ with constancy, you must expect to have many trials. God loves to try His people that He may get glory out of their trials, and I am sorry to say I have known some who in the depths of poverty, when it has suddenly come upon them like an armed man, have felt as if religion itself could not support them, and they have actually given up their profession. It is poor Christianity that cannot bear the loss of all things… It is no gold if it will not stand the fire, and it is no grace if it will not bear affliction.

There are thousands, tens of thousands upon earth who have been with Jesus wherever He has been throughout the whole of their lives, and will be with Him in death, and after death; and there are millions-there they stand-wearing their white robes and waving their palms. Listen; you may almost hear their song. These are they that overcame; they endured unto the end; they came through great tribulation, and washed their robes in the Lamb’s blood, and, therefore, are they before the throne of God. What was done, in them may be done in you. But how was it, then, that they held on and kept close to their Lord? Answer-it was not in their own strength; it was the Holy Spirit, who day by day preserved them, led them in knowledge and true holiness, purged them from sin, and at last made them to enter upon the heritage of the perfect. There was not a single moment in which they persevered apart from the Spirit’s strength. Poor human nature at its best must start aside like a broken bow. ‘Tis only grace that holds a single Christian… ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

Can Ye Cleave to Your Lord Then?

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

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. – 1 Corinthians 10:12

If there were no temptation from without, you are fickle enough in yourself. Ah! we might sooner trust the wind or rely upon the glassy waves of the ocean than trust our own frail resolutions. We are changeable, we are false; our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Let him that putteth on his harness take care not to boast as him that putteth it off. There are dangers ahead and many trials. All is not gold that glitters. Firm resolutions are not always kept; yea, let me add they are never kept if they are made in your own strength; they will go most surely, and you that promised to stand fast will soon turn aside.

There will be, with some of you, the jeers and sneers of those you work with. They will call you ill names. Perhaps they have began it already. Well that you do not know what they can invent! The Christian soldier has a gauntlet to run. The Christian worker in many a large factory has to endure a lifelong martyrdom. Men will invent all sorts of gibes and jeers against a believer in Christ, and it is a fine sport to pelt a Christian. Can ye cleave to your Lord then? Oh! if you cannot, you do not know Him, for He is worth ten thousand times ten thousand sneers, and you should count it a joy to be permitted to bear a scoff for Him. Now are you in your measure partakers with the noble host of martyrs. You cannot in these softer days earn the ruby crown of martyrdom, but you have, at least, the trial of cruel mockings. Bear up manfully, and meet their mockery with your holy bravery and patient endurance.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

The Sweetness of Jesus

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

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. -Psalm 42:1

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. -Hebrews 10:38

Can anybody suggest a reason why the lover of Christ should turn from Him? Polycarp was asked that he should curse Christ, and he replied, “Wherefore should I curse Him?” The assembly in the amphitheatre could give no answer to that; all hell could never give a reply to that. What hath He done, what hath He done that we should leave Him? What can He have done, and what is there that the world can offer that would ever repay us for leaving Him? Could we so false, so traitorous, prove as to turn away from Christ, what should we gain? A little pleasure gone in a moment, like thorns that crackle beneath the pot. What should we lose, my brethren? We should lose the joy of life; we should lose our support in tribulation; we should lose our hope in death; we should lose heaven, to inherit nothing but the blackness of darkness for ever. I cannot conceive a bribe heavy enough to weigh against Him; I cannot imagine an honour bright enough to compare with Him. I cannot conceive a disgrace that can be black enough to compare with the disgrace of deserting Him. The silver mine of Demas is a poor reward for selling His Master. All the wealth of India, could it be poured into one’s lap, were but a mockery of a soul that damned itself by casting away its confidence in Christ. To whom should we go, Master; to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. To leave Christ would be the meanest thing of which any could be capable. I suppose the devil himself, with all that he has ever done, has never been able to compass a wickedness that would equal this wickedness, if it were possible of a truly gracious soul deliberately deserting Jesus for the world, for such a soul knows the hollowness of this world’s joys; such a soul knows something of the sweetness of Jesus; such a spirit has been with Him, and has learned of Him, has had the enlightenments of His grace, has learned the faithfulness of His promise and the love of His heart. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

Think of All He Has Done for Us!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation 2 Comments

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. -Psalm 22:6

His cross is despised; let us be despised with it, for He bore shame for us. His truth is counted a lie; let us be willing to be regarded as liars, for He had reproach cast on Him. Sometimes to defend His cause has required the loss of all things; be it ours. if needs be, to lose all things for Him who gave up all-and what an all that was!-the bliss of heaven, and a life itself for us, that He might redeem our souls. The deserts of Jesus are such that it would need an angel’s tongue to tell them out, even though it were but in brief catalogue. Look at Him in what He is Himself as His Father’s darling. Look at His character; was there ever such another? Survey the beauties of His person-were there ever such charms commingled before? Think of His life, and of His death, and of what He is doing still before the throne, and surely you will feel that it is but right and just that, with Jesus, you should enter into the ship and, with Him, sail the ocean over, be it rough or be it smooth.

If we could put our feet down exactly where His feet went down, even though we had to walk up to Calvary itself, it would be our duty so to do, for His path was perfect rectitude, and in Him was no sin. We challenge heaven, with its omniscience, to detect a flaw in Him. We challenge hell, with its malice, to discover in Him an aught that is amiss. Lovers of the right and of the true, ask grace that you may be as He was. You cannot be more adamant for virtue than He. You cannot serve your God better. You cannot do better than keep close to every step that He has taken, and, whether in life or in death, to follow Him. It is right, then, because He deserves it; it is right, again because in itself it is according to the eternal rules of equity.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm