Thy Other Loves Turned into God’s Rod

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

For whom the LORD loves He corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights. -Proverbs 3:12

Christian, I would bid thee never put anything else with Christ; for as sure as ever thou dost, thou wilt have the whip for it. There never was a child of God who harboured one of the Lord’s traitors in his heart, but he always had a charge laid against him. God has sent out a search warrant against all of us; and do you know what He has told His officers to search for? He has told them to search for all our lovers, all our treasures, and all our helpers. God cares less about our sins as sins, than He does about our sins, or even our virtues, as usurpers of His throne. I tell thee, there is nothing in the world thou settest thy heart upon that shall not be hung upon a gallows higher than Haman’s. If thou lovest anything but Christ, He will make it to do penance; if thou lovest thy house better than Christ, He will make it a prison to thee; if thou lovest thy child better than Christ, He will make it an adder in thy breast to sting thee; if thou lovest thy daily provisions better than Christ, He will make thy drink bitter and thy food like gravel stones in thy mouth, till thou comest to live wholly on Him. There is nothing which thou hast, which He cannot turn into a rod, if thou lovest it better than Him; and rest assured He will do so, if thou makest it anything to rob thy Christ.

Keep thine eye, then, fixed on Jesus; for if thou dost turn away from Him, how ill wilt thou fare!~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm

Give Christ Your All

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life 3 Comments

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. -Mark 12:30

Christian, never join anything with Christ. Wouldest thou stitch thy old rags into the new garment He giveth? Wouldest thou put new wine into old bottles? Wouldst thou put Christ and self together? Thou mightest as well yoke an elephant and an emmet; they could never plough together. What! wouldst thou put an archangel in the same harness with a worm, and hope that they would drag thee through the sky! How inconsistent! how foolish! What! thyself and Christ? Sure, Christ would smile; nay, Christ would weep, to think of such a thing! Christ and man together? …No, it never shall be; He will have nothing of the sort; He must be all. Note how inconsistent it would be to put anything else with Him; and note, again, how wrong it would be. Christ will never bear to have anything else placed with Him. He calls them adulterers and fornicators that love anything else but Him; He will have thy whole heart to trust in Him, thy whole soul to love Him, and thy whole life to honor Him. He will not come into thy house, till thou puttest all the keys at His girdle; He will not allow thee to give Him all the keys but one; He will not come till thou givest Him garret, parlour, drawing-room, and cellar too. He will make thee sing-

“Yet if I might make some reserve,
And duty did not call,
I love my God with zeal so great,
That I should give Him all.”

Mark thee, Christian; it is a sin to keep anything from God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm

The Faith That Delights God

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. -Galatians 3:9

(T)he crown of Christian experience is to be delivered from all trust in self or man, and to be brought to rely wholly and simply on Jesus Christ. I say, Christian, thy highest and noblest experience is not to be groaning about thy corruption, is not to be crying about thy wanderings, but is to say-

“With all my sin, and care, and woe,
His Spirit will not let me go.”

“Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” I like what Luther says: “I would run into Christ’s arms if He had a drawn sword in His hands.” Trust is called venturesome believing; but as an old divine says, there is no such thing as venturesome believing; we cannot venture on Christ; it is no venture at all; there is no hap-hazard in the least degree. It is a holy and heavenly experience, when we can go to Christ, amid the storm, and say, “Oh! Jesus, I believe I am covered by Thy blood;” …”Lord, I believe that through Christ Jesus, ragged though I am, I am fully absolved.” A saint’s faith is little faith when he believes as a saint; but a sinner’s faith is true faith when he believes as a sinner. The faith, not of a sinless being, but the faith of a sinful creature-that is the faith which delights God. Go, then, Christian: ask that this may be thy experience, to learn each day, “He only is my rock and my salvation.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm

God’s Keeping Grace

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

And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.-Romans 11:6

Beloved, do you think you would be where you are now if it were not for divine grace? Only think what a strong temptation you had yesterday, they did “consult to cast you down from your excellency;” perhaps you were served like I am sometimes. The devil sometimes seems to drag me right to the edge of a precipice of sin by a kind of enchantment, making me forget the danger by the sweetness which surrounds it; and just when he would push me down, I see the yawning gulf beneath me, and some strong hand is put out and I hear a voice saying, “I will preserve him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom.” Do you not feel, that ere this sun goes down you will be damned, if grace does not keep you? Have you anything good in your heart that grace did not give you? If I thought I had a grace that did not come from God, I would trample it beneath my feet, as not being a godly virtue; I would guess it to be but a counterfeit, for it could not be right if it did not come from the mind of glory. It may look ever so much like the right thing: but it is certainly bad unless it came from God…  Man! think how many enemies thou hast; how many rivers thou hast to cross, how many mountains to climb, how many dragons to fight, how many lions’ teeth to escape, how many fires to pass through, how many floods to wade. What thinkest thou, man? Can thy salvation be of anything except of God? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm

Israel At the Red Sea

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You who are King of kings and Lord of lords, we worship You. Before Jehovah’s awful throne we bow with sacred joy. 

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Perfection is of the Lord Alone

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

And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. -1 Peter 5:4

The perfection we shall soon have, when we shall stand yonder, near God’s throne, will be wholly of the Lord. That bright crown which shall sparkle on our brow, like a constellation of brilliant stars, shall have been fashioned only by our God. I go to a land, but it is a land which the plough of earth hath never upturned, though it be greener than earth’s best pastures, and though it be richer than all her harvests ever saw. I go to a building of more gorgeous architecture than man hath builded; it is not of mortal architecture; it is “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. All I shall know in heaven, will be given by the Lord; and I shall say, when at last I appear before Him,-

“Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise.”

Looking back on my past life, I can see that the dawning of it all was of God; of God effectively. I took no torch with which to light the sun; but the sun did light me. I did not commence my spiritual life-no, I rather kicked and struggled against the things of the Spirit: when He drew me, for a time, I did not run after Him: there was a natural hatred in my soul of everything holy and good… I am sure you will not be many weeks a Christian, certainly not many months, before you will say, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm

Providential Mercies

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

For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater -Isaiah 55:10

Providential mercies are wholly from the Lord. It is true that rain falls from heaven, and waters the earth, and “maketh it bring forth and bud, that there may be seed, for the sower, and bread for the eater;” but out of whose hand cometh the rain, and from whose fingers do the dew drops distill? It is true, the sun shines, and makes the plants grow, and bud, and bring forth the blossom, and its heat ripens the fruit upon the tree; but who gives the sun its light, and who scatters the genial heat from it? It is true, I work and toil; this brow sweats; these hands are weary; I cast myself upon my bed, and there I rest, but I do not “sacrifice to mine own drag,” nor do I ascribe my preservation to my own might. Who makes these sinews strong? who makes these lungs like iron, and who makes these nerves of steel? “God only is the rock of my salvation.” He only is the salvation of my body and the salvation of my soul. Do I feed on the word? That word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna, but Jesus Christ Himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink. Am I continually receiving fresh increase of might? Where do I gather my might? My salvation is of Him: without Him I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I except I abide in Him.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm