Christian Life

True Salvation

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Father 3 Comments

“I will rejoice in Thy salvation.”- Psalm 9:4

Salvation is of God because it draws toward God. If thou hast God’s salvation, thou art being drawn towards thy heavenly Father, nearer and nearer every day. The ungodly forget God; the awakened seek God; but the saved rejoice in God. Ask thyself this question, Couldst thou live without God? The ungodly man would be happier without God than he is with. It would be the best piece of news in the newspaper to thousands, if we could publish it to-morrow, that God was dead. To ungodly men it would be like ringing the bells of universal Joy; they would run riot after their own will. And where would the believer be? He would be an orphan. His sun would be blotted out; his hopes would be dead and buried. Judge by this whether thou art saved. If thou art saved, thou art drawn to God, thou seekest to be like God, thou desirest to honour God. If there be none of these things in thee, then I charge thee see to it, for thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity. God have mercy upon thee! I need not further say that the salvation is of God, and God must have all the glory of it. All on earth who are saved, and all in heaven who are saved, will ascribe their salvation entirely to the ever blessed God, and join with Jonah, who in the very depths of the sea made this, his confession of faith, “Salvation is of the Lord.”

“I will rejoice in Thy salvation.” If I were righteous, I would not say so. Had I a perfect holiness, I would not mention it in comparison with the righteousness of Christ; but being an unworthy sinner, without a single merit of my own, I will not be so foolish as to patch up a fictitious righteousness, but I will rejoice in Thy salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3503.cfm

A Moderately Religious Christian?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life 7 Comments

“…cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.” -Matthew 23:26

O Christian men and women, my brethren and sisters in the faith of Jesus Christ! How many there are of you who are content just to be saved, and merely to enter heaven. How many do we find who are saying “Oh! if I can but just get in at the door-if I can simply be a child of God!” and they carry out their desires literally, for they are as little of a Christian as possible. They would have moderation in religion! But what is moderation in religion? It is a lie; it is a farce. Doth a wife ask her husband to be moderately loving? Doth a parent expect his child to be moderately obedient? Do you seek to have your servants moderately honest? No! Then how can you talk about being moderately religious? To be moderately religious is to be irreligious. To have a religion that does not enter into the very heart and influence the life, is virtually to have no religion at all. I tremble sometimes, when I think of some of you who are mere professors…How many of you make clean the outside of the cup and platter; and because the church can lay nothing to your charge, and the world cannot accuse you, you think the outside of the cup will be sufficient. Take heed! take heed! The judge will look at the inside of the cup and platter one day; and if it be full of wickedness He will break that platter, and the fragments shall for ever be cast about in the pit of torment…Ah! gilded Christians, beautifully painted, varnished, polished, what will ye do when ye shall be found at last to have been worthless metal? When the wood, hay, and stubble shall be burned and consumed, what will ye do if ye are not the genuine coin of heaven, if ye have not been molten in the furnace, if ye have not been minted from on high? If ye are not real gold, how shall ye stand the fire in that “great and terrible day of the Lord?” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0051.cfm

Come Out of Your Iron Cage

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

Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly…-Jonah 2:1

One is saying, “Oh! I shall never be in a more unhappy state than I now am in, I have lost the light of His countenance; He hath clean gone away from me, and I shall perish.” You remember in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” the description of the man shut up in the iron cage. One says to him, “Wilt thou never come out of this cage?” “No, never.” “Art thou condemned for ever?” “Yes, I am.” “Why was this?” “Why I grieved the Spirit, and He is gone; I once thought I loved Him, but I have treated Him lightly and He has departed. I went from the paths of righteousness, and now I am locked up here, and cannot get out.” Yes, but John Bunyan does not tell you that the man never did get out. There have been some in that iron cage that have come out. There may be one here who has been for a long while sitting in that iron cage, rattling the bars, trying to break them, trying to file them through with his own little might and strength. Oh! dear friend, you will never file through the iron bars of that terrible cage; you will never escape by yourself. What must you do? You must begin to sing like the bird in the cage does; then the kind Master will come and let you out. Cry to Him to deliver you; and though you cry and shout, and He shutteth out your prayer, He will hear you by-and-bye; and like Jonah you shall exclaim in days to come, “Out of the belly of hell I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me.”

“Return, O wanderer, return,
And seek an injured Father’s face;
Those warm desires that in thee burn
Were kindled by reclaiming grace.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0051.cfm

Take Heed!

Sherry Christian Life Leave a comment

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

Ah! my friends, that old rascal self-righteousness, you will never get rid of him as long as you live. The devil was well pictured under the form of a serpent because a serpent can creep in anywhere, through the smallest crevice. Self-righteousness is a serpent; for it will enter anywhere. If you try to serve your God, “What a fine fellow you are,” says the devil. “Ah! don’t you serve your God well! You are always preaching. You are a noble fellow.” If you go to a prayer meeting, God gives you a little gift, and you are able to pour out your heart. Presently there is a pat on the back from Satan. “Did not you pray sweetly? I know the brethren will love you; you are growing in grace very much.” If a temptation comes, and you are able to resist it, “Ah!” says he at once, “you are a true soldier of the cross; look at the enemy you have knocked down; you will have a bright crown by-and-bye; you are a brave fellow!” You go on trusting God implicitly; Satan then says, your faith is very strong: no trial can overcome you: there is a weak brother, he is not half as strong as you are!” Away you go, and scold your weak brother, because he is not as big as you, and all the while Satan is cheering you up, and saying, “What a mighty warrior you are! so faithful-always trusting in God, you have not any self-righteousness.” The minister preaches to the Pharisee: but the Pharisee is not fifty-ninth cousin to you; you are not at all self-righteous in your own opinion, and all the while you are the most self-righteous creature in existence.

Ah! beloved, just when we think ourselves humble we are sure to be proud; and when we are groaning over our pride we are generally the most humble. You may just read your own estimate backwards. Just when we imagine we are the worst, we are often the best, and when we conceive ourselves the best, we are often the worst…Your candle has got the snuff of self-righteousness upon it; you want to have that taken away, and then you will burn all right. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0051.cfm

Only Christ’s, Solely Christ’s!

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

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me. –  Job 29:2

Frequently this complaint arises from idolatry. Many have given their hearts to something else save God, and have set their affections upon the things of earth, instead of the things in heaven. It is hard to love the world and love Christ, it is impossible: that is more; but it is hard not to love the creature; it is hard not to give yourself to earth; I had almost said, it is impossible not to do that; it is difficult, and only God can enable us; He alone can keep us with our hearts fully set on Him; but mark whenever we make a golden calf to worship sooner or latter it will come to this; we shall get our golden calf ground up and put into our water for us to drink, and then we shall have to say, “He hath made me drunken with wormwood.” Never a man makes an idol for himself to worship but it tumbles down on him and breaks some of his bones. There was ne’er a man yet who departed to broken cisterns to find water, but instead thereof he found loathsome creatures therein, and was bitterly deceived. God will have His people live on Him, and on none else, and if they live on anything else but Him He will take care to give them of the waters of Mara, to embitter their drink, and drive them to the Rock of purest streams. Oh, beloved, let us take care that our hearts are wholly His, only Christ’s, solely Christ’s! If they are so, we shall not have to cry out, “Oh that I were as in months past!”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0051.cfm

The Remedy for Your Grief

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

O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come. – Psalm 65:2

It is said that fat men may for a time live on the flesh they have acquired; but there is not a Christian so full of flesh that he can live on old grace. If he waxes fat he kicks, but he cannot live upon his fat. Those who are strong and mighty in themselves cannot exist without prayer. If a man should have the spiritual might of fifty of God’s choicest Christians in himself, he must die, if he did not continue to plow. My brother, cannot you look back and say, “Three or four months ago my prayers were more regular, more constant, more earnest than they are now; but now they are feeble, they are not sincere, they are not fervent, they are not earnest? “O brother, do not ask anybody what is the cause of your grief; it is as plain as possible; you need not ask a question about it. There is the cause; and where is the remedy? Why, in more prayer, beloved. It was little prayer that brought you down; it is great prayer that will lift you up. It was lack of prayer that brought you into poverty, it must be increase of prayer that will bring you into riches again.

A certain merchant wishes that he were as rich as he used to be; he was wont to send his ships over to the gold country, to bring him home cargoes of gold, but ne’er a ship has been out of port lately, and therefore can he wonder that he has had no cargo of gold? So when a man prayeth he sends a ship to heaven, and it comes back laden with gold; but if he leaves off supplication, then his ship is weather-bound and stays at home, and no wonder he cometh to be a poor man.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0051.cfm

Why Such a Leanness of Soul?

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

“Oh that I were as in months past.”- Job 29:2

For the most part the gracious Shepherd leads His people beside the still waters, and makes them to lie down in green pastures; but at times they wander through a wilderness, where there is no water, and they find no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainteth within them, and they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. Though many of His people live in almost constant joy, and find that religion’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace, yet there are many who pass through fire and through water: men do ride over their heads, (and) they endure all manner of trouble and sorrow…

One of the causes of this mournful state of things is defect in prayer; and of course the cure lies somewhere next door to the cause. You are saying, “Oh that I were as in months past!” Come, my brother; we are going into the very root of the matter. One reason why it is not with you as in months past is this: you do not pray as you once did. Nothing brings such leanness into a man’s soul as want of prayer. It is well said that a neglected closet is the birth-place of all evil. All good is born in the closet, all good springeth from it; there the Christian getteth it; but if he neglecteth his closet, then all evil comes of it. No man can progress in grace if he forsakes his closet. I care not how strong he may be in faith. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0051.cfm