Christian Life

Thorough Consecration

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

And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. – 2 Samuel 15:21

Ittai gave himself up wholly to David when he was but newly come to him, David says, “Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? But Ittai does not care whether he came yesterday or twenty years ago, but he declares, “Surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.” It is best to begin the Christian life with thorough consecration. Have any of you professed to be Christians, and have you never given yourselves entirely to Christ? It is time that you began again. This should be one of the earliest forms of our worship of our Master-this total resignation of ourselves to Him. According to His Word, the first announcement of our faith should be by baptism, and the meaning of baptism, or immersion in water, is death, burial, and resurrection. As far as this point is concerned, the avowal is just this. “I am henceforth dead to all but Christ, whose servant I now am. Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. The watermark is on me from head to foot. I have been buried with Him in baptism unto death to show that henceforth I belong to Him.” Now, whether you have been baptized or not I leave to yourselves, but in any case, this must be true-that henceforth you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. As soon as ever Christ is yours you ought to be Christ’s. “I am my Beloved’s” should be linked with “My Beloved is mine,” in the dawn of the day in which you yield to the Lord. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Loyalty to Christ

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

And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. 2 Samuel 15:21

David was now forsaken of everybody. His faithful bodyguard was all that he had on earth to depend upon, and then it was that Ittai cast in his lot with David. Now beloved, it is very easy to follow religion when she goes abroad in her silver slippers, but the true man follows her when she is in rags, and goes through the mire and the slough. To take up with Christ when everybody cries up His name is what a hypocrite would do, but to take up with Christ when they are shouting, “Away with Him! away with Him!” is another matter. There are times in which the simple faith of Christ is at a great discount. At one time imposing ceremonies are all the rage, and everybody loves decorated worship, and the pure simplicity of the gospel is overloaded and encumbered with meretricious ornaments; it is such a season that we must stand out for God’s more simple plan and reject the symbolism which verges on idolatry and hides the simplicity of the gospel.

At another time the gospel is assailed by learned criticisms and by insinuations against the authenticity and inspiration of the books of Scripture, while fundamental doctrines are undermined one by one, and he who keeps to the old faith is said to be behind the age, and so on. But happy is that man who takes up with Christ, and with the gospel, and with the truth when it is in its worst estate, crying, “If this be foolery, I am a fool, for where Christ is there will I be; I love Him better at His worse than others at their best, and even if He be dead and buried in a sepulchre I will go with Mary and with Magdalene and sit over against the sepulchre and watch until He rise again, for rise again He will; but whether He live or die, where He is there shall his servant be.” …Happy shall ye be! Your loyalty shall be proven to your own eternal glory. Ye are soldiers such as He loves to honor. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Tokens of the Power of Love

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

And David said unto Ahimelech, and is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? – 1 Samuel 21:8

There are some great sinners at this day who are wonderful tokens of the power of love. When we look round the temple and see the shields and spears hung up, we say, “Who did those shields and spears belong to?” One says, “Why, that is the shield and spear of John Newton, the old blasphemer!” Glory be to God, Christ conquered him. Whose shield and spears are those? Why, that is the shield and spear of John Bunyan, the blasphemer on the village green. God’s mercy conquered him. Yes, there will be a pillar for many of us, and I do not know which will bring Christ most honor, for He had much ado to bring us down. I wonder whether there will be a place for you, you old sailor? These many years you have been living without God and without Christ. You have been a frequenter of every place of sin, every filthy haunt in London. I do trust God’s grace will meet with you. The poor harlot, Mary, the woman that was a sinner-there hangs her shield and spear. She was a hard fighter, a very Amazon, but Christ conquered her, hung up her shield and spear, and there it shall hang for ever, to the praise of the glory of His grace, who vanquished even her, and made her His willing servant, nay, His beloved friend. What will heaven be when all of us shall be trophies of His power to save, and when our bodies shall be there as well as our souls! “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”-when not only souls, but bodies shall be in heaven too, all as trophies of what Christ has done when He plucked His people from the jaws of the grave and delivered them from the grasp of the sepulcher. Let us take care that we have good confidence, always walking by faith, be the path of our pilgrimage rough or smooth, and ever maintaining the fight of faith, however fierce our temptations or fiery our trials. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0972.cfm

The Trophies of Our King

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

And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod… – 1 Samuel 21:9

Jesus Christ, our King, has hung up many shields and spears in the house of the Lord. I shall not occupy many minutes, but I invite every believer’s heart to look at the great temple that Christ has builded, and see how He has hung it round with trophies of His victory. Sin-Christ has borne it in Himself, endured its penalty and overcome it; He has hung up the handwriting of ordinances that was against us as a trophy in the house of the Lord. He has nailed it to the cross. Satan-our great foe-He met him foot to foot in the wilderness and discomfited him-met him in the garden-overcame him on the cross. Now hell, too, is vanquished-Christ is Lord. The prince of the power of the air is but His serf. The King of kings hath led captivity captive, and all the crowns of this prince of the power of the air are hung up as trophies. Broken are their spears: their shields all battered and vilely cast away, hang up as memorials of what Christ has done. Death, too, the last enemy, Christ hath taken spoils from him when He rose again Himself from his prison house, and ascended on high, leading captivity captive. And the enmity of the human heart, my brethren. Oh! how many of these enmities has Christ hung up in the hall, for He has conquered that enmity and made the hater into a lover. My heart, your heart, all our hearts, are trophies of what Christ’s love can do. God grant that all of us may be trophies of Christ and hung up thus as memorials for ever. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0972.cfm

Victory in the Sinner’s Battle

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, The Father Leave a comment

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions…Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. – Psalm 51:1,7

Do not appeal to justice, sinner. That is against you; appeal to mercy. “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness!” This prayer he brings before God is prayer tipped with a hope in the mercy of God. Go, sinner, and plead with God and fight your sins with hope in His mercy. When he had done that, he then turns to confession: “I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.” There is no weapon to drive away guilty fears like making a clean breast of your sins. Tell your Father whom you have offended; do not plead any extenuations or mitigations. Confess that you deserve His wrath. Put yourself before the throne of God’s clemency. Confess that if it were turned to a throne of vengeance, you deserve it well. Prayers, tears, pleas for mercy, and full confession-these are weapons to conquer with.

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Hyssop was a little bunch, a brush, used to dip into the blood-a basin full of blood, and then with this brush of hyssop the priest sprinkled the guilty man, the unclean man, and he was counted clean. The master argument in this verse is blood. Oh! how this destroys our sins, how this scatters all our doubts and fears-the almighty weapon of the cross, the divine weapon of the atonement. Let sins come on, and let them be more than the hairs of my head, loftier than mountains and deeper than the unfathomed ocean, let them come on-God’s flaming wrath behind them, hell itself coming to devour me; yet if I can but take the cross and hold it up before me, if I can plead the precious blood I shall be safe, for I shall be saved and proved a conqueror, notwithstanding all. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0972.cfm

The Battlefield – Part 2

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. – Psalm 77:5,6

Going on with the strategy of war, what next? Why, in the fifth verse we read how David maintained his courage and his constancy-“I considered the days of old.” He enquired of hoary fathers, and looked back upon the inspired traditions, if I may be allowed the expression, of the early church. He wanted to see whether God ever did forsake any of his people, rightly judging that if He never did, He never would, and firmly resolving that till he could find a clear case of God’s unfaithfulness he would not yield an inch of soil, nor give up a stone of any fortress, but would hold on and fight the battle out. That inward musing helped him much. The enemy began to weary, while he recruited His strength.

But now he used another weapon. He looked to his own experience-see the sixth verse. “I called to remembrance my song in the night.” Past experience acknowledged gratefully and taken as the index of what the future will be-this is another of David’s shields and spears. And then he seemed to put a whole path of spears before the enemy, and hold up an entire wall of shields when he came to close quarters with him, and said, “Will the Lord cast off for ever? Will He be favorable no more? Is His mercy clean gone for ever? Doth His promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?” Oh! this is how to win the battle. The next time, dear friend, you find yourself downcast in trouble, do not run away because Giant Despair is so strong. Though pressed by danger and beset by foes, feed not this frenzy of the soul with gloomy black forebodings. Armed with David’s shield and spears, attack him; show a bold front, and so shall you resist the devil and find that he flees from you, and you shall come back from the conflict with louder notes of victory than you had dreamed before. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0972.cfm

The Battlefield – Part 1

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and He gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing. … – Psalm 77:1,2

Turn to the seventy-seventh Psalm, and you have a battlefield there. Should you ever have to fight the same battle, by looking through this Psalm, you will see David’s shields and spears, and you will soon learn how to screen yourself with the one, and how to do exploits with the other. Here is David fighting with despondency-an old enemy of mine. I daresay some of you are afflicted with it. But observe how he fought with it. The first weapon he drew out of the scabbard was the weapon of all-prayer. And how grandly he used it! “I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice.” Satan trembles when he hears the sound of prayer. They are the conquering legions that know how to pray. Despondency soon flies when a man knows how to ply this all-conquering and ever-useful weapon of petition to the Most High.

Then note how he used this weapon continually. “My hand was stretched out all night,” saith he. If the first prayer did not help him, he prayed again; if an hour’s prayer did not bring him peace, he would pray two hours; and all night long he kept at it. You will get a like result too, my brother, if you exercise a like perseverance-you must get a like result if you know how to linger at the mercy-seat. When he had used the weapon of prayer, what did he do next? He took out another spear. It was that of remembering God. He had long enough pored in thought over himself and his present sinfulness and weakness, and now he remembered God’s mercy, God’s faithfulness, God’s lovingkindness, God’s power, God’s covenant, God in the person of Christ. Oh! this is indeed to prepare a salvo against the enemy, and to fortify one’s own position with fresh succours. He can win the battle that knows how to use this artillery of remembering God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0972.cfm