promises

Your Good Works Before Men

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father 4 Comments

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. – Matthew 5:16

It is by such works that the mouths of gainsayers are to be stopped. One holy action is a better argument against blasphemers than a thousand eloquent discourses. You are our replies to sceptics-you who having been rescued from sin maintain a life of holiness. When they see the men that are healed, standing with Peter and John, they can say nothing against them. Oh, by your works confound gainsayers! These works, too, bring glory to God. “That they, seeing your good works may glorify your Father which is in heaven.” And these works also ensure peace to your own conscience, and have much to do with your close communion with God. “How can two walk together except they be agreed?” If ye walk contrary to Him He will walk contrary to you. Your sins will separate between you and your God, but the Holy Spirit, where He maintains holiness, maintains peace and communion in the soul. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” “If ye keep My commandments,” saith the Savior, “Ye shall abide in My love”-you shall abide in the conscious fellowship of that love, and in the enjoyment of it. May God help you, may God help you, for His name’s sake.

(Look ye here, ye who say you believe in Christ and are living in sin: what does this make of your boastings? Look you here, ye that say “I have only to believe by-and-by, and I may live as I like, and yet be saved.” Is it so? Is it so? “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where will the ungodly and the wicked appear?” …The salvation of Christ is not a salvation in sin, but a salvation from sin.) ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1029.cfm

Bring Forth the Fruits of Grace

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 9 Comments

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. -2 Corinthians 5:10

Did I hear one say, “I will avoid sin by being very retired; I will find out a quiet place where I shall not be tempted, and where I shall have few calls upon me.” Pretty soldier you who when your Captain says, “Win the victory,” reply, “I will keep clear of the fight.” No, Christian, go about your trade, go into the busy mart, attend to your business, attend to your family, attend to those matters which God has allotted to you, and glorify God in the battle of life by doing more than others. Will God enable you so to do.

(B)y our fruits we are to be known. Men will never know us by our faith, for that is within us; they know us by our works, which are visible to them. Bring forth, therefore, the fruits of grace that the world may know you have been with Jesus. Remember also that works are to be evidence at the last. It is consistent with the gospel of grace, no doubt, for it is a truth clearly revealed, that we shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or whether they be evil; and you know that when the Lord gives us the description of the judgment, He did not say to His disciples, “Ye believed in Me,” or “Ye loved Me”-these were secret matters-but He said, “I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was sick and in prison, and ye visited Me.” It is by your works ye will be judged. O believers, may grace enable you to abound in them. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1029.cfm

An Influence Before Others

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

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?…Ye are the light of the world…Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. -Matthew 6:13-14, 16

You are made on purpose to exert influence, and your Master warns you that if your influence be not salutary and good you are a hopelessly useless person for when the salt has lost its savor it is good for nothing but to be trampled under foot. You are expected, therefore, to influence others for good. You are an employer; let your influence be felt by your servants. You are a child at home; let influence be felt around the social hearth. You are, perhaps, a domestic servant; then take care that, like the little maid who waited on Naaman’s wife, you seek the good of the household. Your influence must act quietly and unostentatiously, like the influence of salt, which is not noisy but yet potent. You cannot get through this world rightly by saying, “If I do no good, at least, I do no hurt;” that might be the plea of a stone or a brick, but it cannot be an apology for savourless salt; for if when the salt is rubbed into the meat it does not season and preserve it, it is bad salt, and has not performed its work, but has caused loss to the owner, and left the meat to become putrid. And if you in this world, according to your capacity and means, do not affect other people for good, you have convicted yourself of being useless, worthless, a cumberer of the ground. The Master expects, as He has put the pungent influence of His grace into you, that you should be as salt; as He has put the burning light of His grace upon you, that you should be as a lamp, and scatter light all round. Take good heed of that. It is no saying of mine, it is the saying of Him whom ye call Master and Lord. Think you hear Him speaking it from those dear lips, which are like lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh, and instead of seeing my hands lifted up in warning, think you see the print of the nails in His hand, and let the words come home with force to your soul. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1029.cfm

So Bright is Our Prospect

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, repentance, salvation, The Holy Spirit, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. – 1 Corinthians 2:9

The ungodly man’s look-out is dark and dreary: when he dares open the window and look, what seeth he? Come hither, come hither, ungodly man, I must take thee to the battlements of thine house and bid thee look abroad. What seest thou? Ah, he closes his eyes and refuses to look, for he sees a river, the name of which is Death, and he seeth that the waves are black and foaming with the wrath of God. Look, sir, look, I pray you, for to close your eyes upon it will not dry it up. And see you what is beyond that river? Ah, he dares not think for after death to him cometh hell and the wrath of God. O man, look, I beseech thee, look, for it will be thy portion except thou relent and fly to Christ for mercy. But no, he covers his eyes, and gets him back to his gaieties, for he cannot bear to look at what will surely be his portion. But come, thou Christian, thou who hast washed thy robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; what seest thou? Suppose it should be thy lot to die before the Master comes in the Second Advent, what seest thou? “I see,” saith he, “but a couch whereon I recline and close mine eyes on earth to open them in heaven; I see angels waiting round that bed, and the Master, the Lord of life, ready to receive my spirit.” “What next do you see?” “Nay, I cannot tell you, for my eyes are dazzled with the glory, and my tongue is not able to describe what God revealeth to His children by His Spirit; but there is the never-ending glory, for ever with the Lord, the rest that knows no fear, the Sabbath without end.” Oh, the glory, the glory that lasteth on for aye in the presence of the Master whom we have served, and the Father who hath loved us of old! This is your prospect now; and brethren, as your prospect is so bright, I beseech you do ye more than others. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1029.cfm

God is Yours

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

…and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people -Hebrews 8:10

…the poorest Christian possesses more than the richest unbeliever. You shall set before me now the pauper who is a believer, and the emperor who has no faith in Christ, and I am persuaded that the poor, aged pauper would not exchange her lot though the imperial purple should be offered her. She would refuse to leave her Savior though the world were offered her. While the poor believer feels that his God is his portion he despises rather than covets the glories of the world. Brethren in Christ, you know right well that you possess the covenant of grace, a covenant rich beyond comparison…More than that, you have Christ in the covenant, and Christ is all. All the glories of His immaculate manhood and His infinite Godhead, and all His merits, and all His conquests, and all His glories, all are yours, seeing you are His. And what is most of all, God is yours. “I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.” And having God to be your God, Providence is yours-all things work together for your good. Life’s goods are yours and so are its ills; this world is yours and worlds beyond the river; time and eternity, things present and things to come, life and death, all are yours. And yet no good thing was yours by natural inheritance…they are all the gifts of the sovereign grace of God. Brethren, we are all debtors: who shall tell how much we owe?

Depths of mercy, that I, a sinner, should ever have a hope of heaven, but oh, heights of mercy! that I should be adopted into the family of God, and made a joint heir with Christ Jesus of all the heritage of the Firstborn of God; to have all that God is, and all that God has, to be the portion of my cup, this is grace indeed! My cup runneth over! Bless the Lord, O my soul!  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1029.cfm

Omnipotence Doth Gird Us

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Holy Spirit, the unbelieving life 7 Comments

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. -Matthew 5:48

(W)hat is the indwelling Spirit within us? Is He not Omnipotence Himself? The Holy Ghost who has come upon us is no influence which might be limited in its efficacy; but He is a divine person, who dwelleth with us and shall be in us. Who shall set any limit to the power of that man in whom the Holy Ghost Himself dwells? All believers must never dare to say, “That habit we cannot give up.” We can and must overturn all the idols in our hearts. We may never say, “That height of devotion I can never reach.” Brethren, Omnipotence doth gird us; God giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are never to sit down and say, “I must be a sinner up to such-and-such a point; I cannot get beyond that attainment.” What saith the Scripture? “Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect;” after this perfection we are to strain, and towards this mark of our high calling we are to press. God who dwells in us is working in us daily to will and to do according to His own good pleasure, so that we can do what the dead sinner cannot do; we can do what sinners, without the Spirit, cannot do; and, if we can, we must. Surely, it is required of a man according to what he hath, and where much is given much will be required. Let us take care that we quench not the Spirit, that by our unbelief we restrain not His divine energies; but let us strive, God striving in us, after the highest conceivable standard of holiness and of separation from the world. O Spirit of God, do Thou help us that we may be sanctified by Thy grace in spirit, soul, and body. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1029.cfm

Our Holy Conversation

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation -1 Peter 1:15

According as ye have received so will love suggest to you to render. Can any holiness be too precise in return for the infinite love which has been bestowed upon you from before the foundation of the world? Can any service be too hard to repay the suffering which your Savior bore for your redemption? Can any self-denial be too severe to prove that the Holy Spirit in you has subdued your flesh and overcome your corruptions? I say the argument appeals to your love: I will not utter it in legal tones lest you should think you hear the whip of the law behind me, but even the Master Himself would put it to you thus, “Inasmuch as I have loved you thus, and have redeemed you with such a price, and have begotten you unto Myself by the power of My Spirit, what manner of people ought ye to be in all holy conversation?” What must be expected from those so signally distinguished by the sovereign grace of God?

Again, it is certain that true Christians can do more than others. “Can,” saith one, “why, they can do nothing.” True, but through Christ that strengtheneth them they can do all things; and Christ does strengthen His people. I admit their weakness, I admit, nay, I mourn and experimentally lament, in my own person, their feebleness; but, for all that, they are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Jesus Christ lends to them His conquering energy, and, as His blood has overcome the enemy, they overcome through the blood of the Lamb. God has given them His Son, and in the power of Jesus they can and must vanquish sin. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1029.cfm