Daily reflection and inspiration from the "Prince of Preachers," Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Happy New Year!
Taking a moment to wish you a wonderful year full of blessings in 2011. We're taking a bit of a break but will be back in the New Year with more inspiring excerpts!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Good Tidings of Great Joy
The joy which this first gospel preacher spoke of was no mean one, for he said, “I bring you good tidings” — that alone were joy: and not good tidings of joy only, but “good tidings of great joy.” Every word is emphatic, as if to show that the gospel is above all things intended to promote, and will most abundantly create the greatest possible joy in the human heart wherever it is received.
Man is like a harp unstrung, and the music of his soul’s living strings is discordant, his whole nature wails with sorrow; but the son of David, that mighty harper, has come to restore the harmony of humanity, and where his gracious fingers move among the strings, the touch of the fingers of an incarnate God brings forth music sweet as that of the spheres, and melody rich as a seraph’s canticle. Would God that all men felt that divine hand.
Labels:
Christianity,
Christmas,
God,
Incarnation,
religion,
Spurgeon
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sailing into Glory
Suppose, dear friend, the thought of departing from this world to the glory-world should ever startle you, let me remind you that you are not the first that ever went that way. Your vessel is in the pool, as it were, or in the dock; she is going out on her voyage; oh, but you will not go alone, nor have to track your course through paths unnavigated or unknown before!
When the Portuguese captain first went by the Cape of Storms it was a venturous voyage, and he called it the Cape of Good Hope when he had rounded it. When Columbus first went in search of the New World, his was a brave spirit that dared cross the unnavigated Atlantic. But oh, there are tens of thousands that have gone whither you go. The Atlantic that severs us from Canaan is white with the sails of the vessels that are on voyage thither. Fear not, they have not been wrecked; we hear good news of their arrival - there is good hope for you. There are no icebergs on the road, no mists, no counter currents, and no sunken vessels or quicksands; you have but to cut your moorings, and with Christ on board you shall be at your desired haven at once.
Labels:
Christianity,
death,
Heaven,
religion,
Spurgeon
Friday, December 17, 2010
He purifies us
The Lord Jesus Christ, by his Spirit, is carrying on in believers daily a purifying work; for he sits as a refiner and he purifies the sons of Levi. He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap. Let us pray that, however trying it may be to us, and whatever rough providences it may involve, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with us all in this respect. May our prayer be, “Refining fire, go through my heart!”
Let the winnowing fan be used; let our chaff be driven away, there is not a particle of it we would wish to retain. We desire to be sanctified- spirit, soul, and body- through him who leads his people without the camp that they may be separated unto himself. May we walk in the light as he is in the light, and so have fellowship one with another, and may the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleanse us from all sin.
Labels:
Christ,
Christianity,
forgiveness,
holiness,
Jesus,
religion,
Spurgeon
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Healing The World
It is only at the cross, it is only by Jesus crucified that the world can be healed. Hitherto little has been accomplished compared with our desires; and in contrast to our ambitions, next to nothing; but faith, darting beyond the things that are seen, flying into the presence-chamber of God, can behold him writing with the eternal pen, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God;” and she is sure that the tree will sweeten the waters yet. Come, brethren, let your faith prove itself by your works. Help today — today, by your gifts; help tomorrow — tomorrow, by your prayers. Help, some of you, by consecrating yourselves to mission labor.
There is a prayer I mean to continue to offer until it is answered, that God would pour out on this church a missionary spirit. I want to see our young men devoting themselves to the work, some that will not be afraid to venture and preach Jesus Christ in the regions beyond. I have not much faith in missionary societies; it gets less, I must protest, each year; yet we must never put aside one instrumentality until we have a better ready. If the Lord would send the living fire through the churches of England, if he would send from on high a divine impulse, we should see starting up here and there men who would say: “Here are we: send us.” The Spirit of God will say, “Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work,” and when this is done I look to see far happier days.
We have sweetened the waters a little; no more the suttee burns; the African is free; the slave-ship crosses no more the deep. In some regions exterminating wars have ceased; the white dove of peace flies where the raven of war was seen. Glory be to God. A few leaves cast into the waters have done this. Let us bear a whole Christ and a whole gospel amongst the nations, and lay the tree in this Marah, until at last the whole world shall drink of the sweet waters of divine love, and God shall be all in all. God bless you, beloved, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Marah, Or, The Bitter Waters Sweetened," delivered April 23, 1871. Image by Wei Zhang under Creative Commons License.
Labels:
Christ,
Christianity,
evangelism,
ministry,
religion,
Spurgeon
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Gentle Messiah
O thou who art in thine own esteem utterly worthless, only fit to be thrown away, unfit to live and unfit to die; Jesus Christ, the gentle One, will give thee mercy, if thou seek him, and in giving he will not upbraid thee. O wandering child, Jesus will introduce thee to his Father, who will kiss thee with the kisses of his love, and take off thy rags of sin, and clothe thee with glorious robes of righteousness.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Victor Emmanuel, Emancipator." Image by rohit gowaikar under Creative Commons License.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Private Prayer
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Touchstone of Godly Sincerity." Image by Alkuin under Creative Commons License.
Labels:
Christianity,
God,
prayer,
religion,
Spurgeon
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Banner of the Cross
Believe in your hearts what you profess to believe; proclaim openly and zealously what you know to be the truth. Be not ashamed to say such-and-such things are true, and let men draw the inference that the opposite is false. Whatever the doctrines of the gospel may be to the rest of mankind, let them be your glory and boast. Display your banners, and let those banners be such as the church of old carried. Unfurl the old primitive standard, the all-victorious standard of the cross of Christ. In very deed and truth — in hoc signo vinces — the atonement is the conquering truth. Let others believe as they may, or deny as they will, for you the truth as it is in Jesus is the one thing that has won your heart and made you a soldier of the cross.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Lest you also be tempted
Labels:
Christianity,
religion,
sin,
Spurgeon,
temptation
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Visit the Reformed Quotes Fellowship!
Hello Daily Spurgeon readers!
We seldom interrupt our regularly scheduled program, but I wanted to invite you to visit a brand new website called Reformed Quotes Fellowship.
RQF was the brainchild of Web luminaries Matthew Blair from The Octavius Winslow Archive and Erik Kowalker from J.C. Ryle Quotes, with just a little prod here and there from yours truly.
What's the aim of RQF?
If you have a blog or website which consistently posts a handful of Christ-centered quotes every month, or if you know of one, we invite you to join us at the Reformed Quotes Fellowship as we aim to redeem the internet for the glory of God and the benefit of His church…one Christ-centered quote at at time.
RQF was the brainchild of Web luminaries Matthew Blair from The Octavius Winslow Archive and Erik Kowalker from J.C. Ryle Quotes, with just a little prod here and there from yours truly.
What's the aim of RQF?
“The Reformed Quotes Fellowship exists to bring together those of us throughout the internet who have created and administer websites, blogs, and other media outlets that are dedicated to routinely posting quotes from writers, preachers, teachers, and scholastics of the reformed faith.
“The Fellowship is simply a gathering of such like minded people who wish to see the fame of Christ spread throughout the internet by the use of God glorifying, cross centered, gospel rich, and unashamedly reformed quotes from saints of the past and present.”
If you have a blog or website which consistently posts a handful of Christ-centered quotes every month, or if you know of one, we invite you to join us at the Reformed Quotes Fellowship as we aim to redeem the internet for the glory of God and the benefit of His church…one Christ-centered quote at at time.
Special thanks to Matt Blair for making a nice graphic that doesn't look like it will be obsolete in six months.
Labels:
Christianity,
Protestant,
Reformed,
Ryle,
Spurgeon,
Winslow
Friday, December 3, 2010
The Substance of Things Hoped For
Jesus is no more seen of human eyes; and it is well, for faith’s sight is saving, instructing, transforming, and mere natural sight is not so. Had he been here we should have regarded much more the things which are visible, but now our hearts are taken up with the things which are not seen, but which are eternal. This day we have no priest for eyes to gaze upon, no material altar, no temple made with hands, no solemn rites to satisfy the senses; we have done with the outward and are rejoicing in the inward. Neither in this mountain nor in that do we worship the Father, but we worship God, who is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth. We now endure as seeing him who is invisible; whom, having not seen, we love; in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. In the same fashion as we walk towards our Lord, so walk we towards all that he reveals; we walk by faith, not by sight.
Israel, in the wilderness, instructed by types and shadows, was ever prone to idolatry; the more there is of the visible in religion, the more is there of difficulty in the attainment of spirituality. Even baptism and the Lord’s Supper, were they not ordained by the Lord himself, might be well given up, since the flesh makes a snare of them, and superstition engrafts on them baptismal regeneration and sacramental efficacy. Our Lord’s presence might thus have become a difficulty to faith, though a pleasure to sense. His going away leaves a clear field for faith; it throws us necessarily upon a spiritual life, since he who is the head, the soul, the center of our faith, hope, and love is no more within the range of our bodily organs. It is poor believing which needs to put its finger into the nail-prints; but blessed is he that hath not seen and yet hath believed. In an unseen Savior we fix our trust, from an unseen Savior we derive our joy. Our faith is now the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
He can save
One moment will suffice, if Jesus speaks, to make the despairing happy, and the unbelieving full of confidence. What we cannot do with our reasonings, persuadings, and entreaties, nor even with the letter of God’s promise, Christ can do in a single instant by his Holy Spirit, and it has been our joy to see it done. This is the standing miracle of the church, performed by Christ today even as aforetime. Paralysed souls who could neither do nor will, have been able to do valiantly, and to will with solemn resolution. The Lord has poured power into the faint, and to them that had no might he hath increased strength. He can do it still.
I say again to loving spirits who are seeking the good of others, let this encourage you. You may not have to wait long for the conversions you aim at; it may be ere another Sabbath ends, the person you pray for may be brought to Jesus; or if you have to wait a little, the waiting shall well repay you, and meanwhile remember he has never spoken in secret in the dark places of the earth; he has not said to the seed of Jacob, “Seek ye my face in vain.”
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
On not missing the point
A man may be well versed in Scripture, both in the English and in the original tongue; he may be accustomed to read the best of commentaries, and be acquainted with Eastern manners, and yet he may be quite ignorant as to the word of God. For the understanding of this Book, as to its depth of meaning, does not lie within the range of natural learning and human research; reason alone is blinded by the excess of light, and wanders in darkness at noon day; for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Before my conversion I was accustomed to read the Scriptures, to admire their grandeur, to feel the charm of their history, and wonder at the majesty of their language; but I altogether missed the Lord’s intent therein; but when the Spirit came with his divine life, and quickened all the page to my newly-enlightened soul, the inner meaning shone forth with quickening glory. The Bible is to many carnal minds almost as dull a book for reading as an untranslated Latin work would be to an ignorant ploughman [ed. - plowman], because they cannot get at the internal sense, which is to the words as juice to the grape, or the kernel to the nut. It is a tantalising riddle till you get the key; but the clue once found, the volume of our Father’s grace absorbs our attention, delights our intellect, and enriches our heart.
Labels:
Bible,
God,
Holy Spirit,
religion,
Spurgeon
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
He that believeth on Him
Do not tell me that a sinner who believes in Jesus is to make an advance before he can say he is saved, that a man who trusts Christ is only on the way to salvation, and must wait until he has used the ordinances, and has grown in grace, before he may know that he is saved. No, the moment that the sinner’s trust is placed on the finished work of Jesus he is saved. Heaven and earth may pass away, but that man shall never perish. If only one second ago I trusted the Savior I am safe, just as safe as the man who has believed in Jesus fifty years, and who has all that while walked uprightly. I do not say that the new born convert is as happy, nor as useful, nor as holy, nor as ripe for heaven, but I do say that the words, “he that believeth on him hath everlasting life,” is a truth with general bearings, and relates as much to the babe in faith as it does to the man who has attained to fullness of stature in Jesus Christ.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Not only God but Mediator!
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "All Fulness in Christ," delivered February 26, 1871. Image by Dare*2*Dream under Creative Commons License.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Christ the Preacher
He was continually preaching the gospel. “Never man spake as this man,” may apply to the quantity as well as the quality of his utterances. All places seemed to be alike suitable to his ministry. Your gowns and your pulpits, your chancels and naves, your aisles and transepts were of no account with him. He wanted no toga or rostrum, nor did he need a preconcerted arrangement of the assembly to lend grace to his discourses when he made known the word of God to the people and astonished them with his doctrine. He could speak anywhere — even along the crowded thoroughfare, where the multitudes thronged him. He went down the lowest streets, and from the poorest beggars he didn’t turn aside. He was not thwarted by the sneers, and sarcasms, and subtle questioning of the Pharisees and Sadducees. One thought possessed him, and he persistently wrought it out. His life-sermon as so thorough that nothing of earthly splendor could allure or distract him, or break the thread. He was always and everywhere either pleading with God for men, or else pleading with men for God.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Watching for the pretenders
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Wedding Garment," delivered February 19, 1871. Image by Indy Kethdy under Creative Commons License.
Labels:
Christ,
Christianity,
religion,
revival,
Spurgeon
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Altogether Lovely
Was there ever such a life as his? I will not so much speak of his divine character, though that furnishes abundant reason for worship and adoration, but think of him even as a man. O beloved, what tenderness, what compassion, yet what holy boldness; what love for sinners, and yet what love for truth! Men who have not loved him have nevertheless admired him, and hearts in which we least expected to see such recognition of his excellence have nevertheless been deeply affected as they have studied his life. We must praise him, for He is “chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.” It were treason to be silent when the hour has come to speak of him who is peerless among men and matchless among angels. Clap, clap your hands at the thought of the marriage of the King’s Son, for whom his bride hath made herself ready.
Labels:
Christ,
Christianity,
Jesus,
religion,
Spurgeon
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Do we have compassion for souls?
If you would be like Jesus, you must be tender and very pitiful. Ye would be as unlike him as possible if we could sit down in grim content, and, with a Stoic’s philosophy, turn all the flesh within you into stone. If it be natural, then, and above all, if it be natural to the higher grace-given nature, I beseech you, let your hearts be moved with pity, do not endure to see the spiritual death of mankind. Be in agony as often as you contemplate the ruin of any soul of the seed of Adam.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Compassion For Souls," delivered February 5, 1871. Image by yugoQ under Creative Commons License.
Monday, November 8, 2010
His power in us and through us
We have nothing, we are nothing, apart from him. The past, the present, and the future are only bright as he shines upon them. Every consolation, every hope, every enjoyment we possess, we have received and still retain because of our connection with Jesus Christ our Lord. Apart from him we are naked, and poor, and miserable. I desire to impress upon your minds, and especially upon my own, the need of our abiding in him. As zealous laborers for the glory of God I am peculiarly anxious that you may maintain daily communion with Jesus, for as it is with our covenant blessings, so is it with our work of faith and labor of love, everything depends upon him.
All our fruit is found in Jesus. Remember his own words, “Without me ye can do nothing.” Our power to work comes wholly from his power. If we work effectually it must always be according to the effectual working of his power in us and through us.
Labels:
Christ,
Christianity,
Jesus,
religion,
Spurgeon
Friday, November 5, 2010
The God of Victory
What is it but a simple matter of justice that he who wrought the wonder should have the honor of it? It would have been a crying shame if Miriam had sung to the praise of Moses and Aaron at the Red Sea. They were but the outward instruments of the people’s coming out of Egypt. As she took her timbrel, she rightly said, in the hymn that Moses had given her for the occasion: “Let us sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.” So in every struggle that transpires in our hearts, in every combat waged in the world, ascribe the power to him to whom it belongs, “The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.” As before the fight in his name we set up our banner, so after the fight in his name again we give the conquering banner to the breeze. “All glory be unto him that won the victory.”
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "New Uses For Old Trophies," delivered November 20, 1870. Image by Ron Almog under Creative Commons License.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
The Deliverer Shall Come out of Zion
“In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” — Zechariah 13:1.
We do not grudge to the seed of Israel after the flesh the first application of this very precious promise. There will be a day when those who have so long refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias shall discern the marks of his mission, and shall mourn that they have pierced him. When the tribes of Israel shall lament their sin with holy earnestness, there shall be no mourning to exceed it, they shall weep even as in the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo, when the wellbeloved Josiah was slain. Discovering that their nation rejected the Son of God, when they crucified Jesus of Nazareth their deeply religious spirit shall be filled with the utmost bitterness of repentance, and each man and each woman shall cry for pardon to the Lord of mercy.
Then, close upon the heels of the weeping shall come the full and complete forgiveness; the transgression of the tribes shall be put away in one day; they shall perceive that the very side which they pierced has yielded a fountain to cleanse them from their sin; joyfully shall they behold on Calvary the brazen serpent lifted up for their healing, the Paschal Lamb slain for their redemption, the sin-offering sacrificed in their stead. What a blessed day will that be when “all Israel shall be saved" as it is written, "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”
O that you and I might live to see that happy era when all the Jewish race shall behold their Messias; for then shall the fullness of the Gentiles be gathered in. Our history is wrapped up with theirs. “Through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?”
Monday, November 1, 2010
Seeking Lost Souls
Now, there will never be a soul found till the Holy Spirit seeks after it. He is the great soul finder. The heart will continue in the dark until he comes with his illuminating power. He is the owner, he possesses it, and he alone can effectually seek after it. The God to whom the soul belongs must seek the soul. But he does it by his church, for souls belong to the church too; they are sons and daughters of the chosen mother, they are her citizens and treasures. For this reason the church must personally seek after souls. She cannot delegate her work to anybody....
When the church of God solemnly feels, “It is our work to look after sinners, we must not delegate it even to the minister, or to the City-missionary, or the Biblewoman, but the church as a church must look after the souls of sinners,” then I believe souls will be found and saved. When the church recognizes that these lost souls belong to her, she will be likely to find them.
It will be a happy day when every church of God is actively at work for the salvation of sinners. It has been the curse of Christendom that she has ventured to delegate her sacred duties to men called priests, or that she has set apart certain persons to be called the religious who are to do works of mercy and charity and of evangelization. We are, every one of us who are Christ’s, bound to do our own share; nay, we should deem it a privilege of which we will not be deprived, personally to serve God, personally to sweep the house and search after the lost spiritual treasures. The church herself, in the power of the indwelling Spirit of God, must seek lost souls.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Receiving the Great Gift of Salvation
A gift is not of merit but of grace; wages and reward are for those who earn, but a gift is a matter of charity.
O you who feel your unworthiness this morning, who have been seeking salvation earnestly, and suffering the weight of sin, Jesus will freely give to you what you cannot earn or purchase, he will give it as an act of his own free, rich, sovereign mercy; and he is prepared, if you come to him, to give it to you now, for so has he promised, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Monday, October 25, 2010
We still see Him
This world saw our Lord Jesus for a very little time, but now it seeth him no more. It only saw him with the outward eye and after a carnal sort, so that when the clouds received him and concealed him from bodily vision, this spiritually blind world lost sight of him altogether. Here and there, however, among the crowds of the sightless there were a few chosen men who had received spiritual sight; Christ had been light to them, he had opened their blind eyes, and they had seen him as the world had not seen him. In a high and full sense they could say, “We have seen the Lord,” for they had in some degree perceived his Godhead, discerned his mission, and learned his spiritual character. Since spiritual sight does not depend upon the bodily presence of its object, those persons who had seen Jesus spiritually, saw him after he had gone out of the world unto the Father.
We who have the same sight still see him. Read carefully the words of the verse before us: “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me.” It is a distinguishing mark of a true follower of Jesus that he sees his Lord and Master when he is not to be seen by the bodily eye; he sees him intelligently and spiritually; he knows his Lord, discerns his character, apprehends him by faith, gazes upon him with admiration, and looks to him for all he needs.... Faith is still the medium by which life comes to us from the lifegiving Lord. It is not only upon the first day of the Christian’s life that he must needs look to Jesus only, but every day of that life, even until the last, his motto must be, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Those rich men who serve the Lord
My dear brethren, the trials of faith are usually those of poverty, and right gloriously does faith behave herself when she trusts in the Lord, and does good, and is fed even in the land of famine; but it is possible the ordeal of prosperity is far more severe, and it is hence a greater triumph of faith, when the rich man sets not his heart upon uncertain riches, and does not suffer the thick clay of this world to encumber his pilgrimage to heaven.
It is hard to carry a full cup with a steady hand, some spilling will usually occur; but where grace makes rich men, and men in high position of power and authority to act becomingly and graciously, then grace is greatly glorified. You who are rich should see your danger; but let the case of Joseph be your encouragement. God will help you, seek you his merciful aid. There is no need that you should be worldly, there is no need that you should sink the Israelite in the Egyptian. God can keep you, even as he kept Job, so that you shall be perfect and upright, and yet be exceeding great in possessions. Like Joseph you may be at once richer and better than your brethren. It will be very hard, and you will need very, very much grace, but the Lord your God will help you, and you shall learn, like Paul, how to abound; and, like Joseph of Arimathea, you shall be both a rich man and a devout disciple.
Labels:
Christianity,
Joseph,
religion,
riches,
Spurgeon
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
A High Standard
Compare yourself with Paul, with John, with Brainerd or Rutherford, and even that is ill advice, for what were the best disciples compared with their Master? There must be no lower standard for us than the perfection of Christ. No attainment must ever satisfy us until we are conformed to his image who is the firstborn among many brethren. You will tell me I am holding up a high standard. I am; but then you have a great helper, and I will show you in a moment how you may be of good cheer concerning this business.
To purge out the old leaven many sweepings of the house will be wanted; one certainly will not suffice. You must search, and search, and search on, until you get to heaven. The motto of your life must be, “Watch, watch, watch.” For, mark you, you are sure to leave some leaven, and if you leave a little it will work and spread. Sin has evermore a swelling tendency, and until the Holy Spirit has cut up the last root of sin, evil will grow up again in the heart, at the scent of water it will bud and put forth once again its shoots. Here is work for all time, enough to keep us busy till we land in eternity.
Labels:
Christ,
Holy Spirit,
religion,
sin,
Spurgeon
Monday, October 18, 2010
What does he think of Christ?
Is yonder person a condemned or uncondemned man? Ask him what he thinks of Christ. If he replies honestly, he says, “I do not accept God’s testimony about Jesus Christ; I do not receive Jesus as my Savior.” Either he claims that he does not need a Savior or else he does not feel that Jesus is the Savior he needs. He rejects the testimony of God concerning Christ. Is not that enough to condemn a man?
If a man in the very presence of the judge committed theft or murder, he would condemn himself; but is it not a still higher offense than this, in the very presence of God to do despite to his Son, by practically declaring his work and blood to have been unnecessary? Is it not the height of daring that a soul should stand in the presence of the God of mercy and hear him say in his word, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” and that the soul should reply, “I have nothing to do with the Lamb of God”? What further witness do we want with regard to your enmity to God? He that will not believe in Christ would murder God if he could. His not believing in Christ is virtually to make God a liar.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Essence Of The Gospel," delivered December 4, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Praise Until The End
Let the book of Psalms stand as an image of the Christian’s life. If we began with the blessing of the man who delights in the law of the Lord; if we proceeded to obtain the blessing of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; if our soul learned to pant for her God as the hart for the waterbrooks; and if we went onwards till we sang, “he crowneth me with lovingkindness and tender mercies,” let us not pause now, but advance to the hallelujahs of the closing pages of our book of life-psalms.
He who ends this life with praising God will begin the next life with the same delightful employment. As our latter days are nearer the land of light, let them be fuller of song. Let us begin below the music which shall be prolonged through eternity. Like the birds, let us welcome the break of day, which faith in the close of life gladly perceives to be very near.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Repentance and Faith
Repentance is always the companion of faith. They go hand in hand. Let no man speak evil of repentance. I have been grieved within my heart when I have heard some revivalists, by innuendo at the least, speak against repentance. You will never enter heaven without repentance; and if your faith do not lead you to hate sin, and do a great deal more than merely change your mind, as these modern fanatics say, you will find it is a faith which will never estrange you from the corruptions of the flesh, enamour you of the holiness of the Spirit, and conduct you to the heaven of God’s presence. You must hate sin; you must perceive the evil of it, and you must turn from it and live, according to the instincts of the divine life communicated, as well as according to the ordinances of the divine rule made known unto you, or else you are no child of God.
Labels:
Christianity,
faith,
God,
religion,
repentance,
Spurgeon
Friday, October 8, 2010
The Determination of Christ
With what ardor did the Savior burn! Would God that selfsame fire dropped into my soul, and utterly consumed me as a living sacrifice. This would produce in each of us an abiding pertinacity. Defeated in one place we should try in another. It would be with us a determination never to be overcome in doing good. Like Jesus who sought the souls of men, not in a languid search, but over hill and dale till he went down into death’s cold shade, and traversed the sepulcher that he might deliver them, so we also in honor and dishonor, in evil report and good report, in poverty and wealth, in life and death, should still be seeking the glory of God, and the salvation of the sons of men.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
The simplicity of the Gospel
The great wonders of apostolic times were mainly wrought by men who were illiterate in the world’s judgment; they had been taught of Christ and so had received the noblest education, but in classical studies and in philosophical speculations they were but little versed, with the exception of the apostle Paul, and he came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. Yet the apostles and their followers preached with such power, that the world soon felt their presence. On the slabs of stone which mark the burial places of the early Christians in the catacombs of Rome, the inscriptions are nearly all ill spelt, many of them have here a letter in Greek and there a letter in Latin, grammar is forgotten, and orthography is violated, a proof that the early Christians who thus commemorated the martyred dead were many of them uneducated persons: but for all that they crushed the wisdom of the sages and smote the gods of classic lands. They smote Jupiter and Saturn, until they were broken in pieces, and Venus and Diana fell from their seats of power....
Even thus at this hour the culture so much vaunted in certain places is opposed to the simplicity of the gospel. Therefore I say we do not despise true learning, but we dare not depend upon it. We believe that God can bless and does bless thousands by very simple and humble testimonies; we are none of us to hold our tongues for Christ, because we cannot speak as the learned; we are none of us to refuse the Lord’s message to ourselves because it is spoken by an unlettered messenger. We are not to select our pastors simply because of their talents and acquirements; we must regard their unction, we must look at their call, and see whether the Spirit of God is with them; if not, we shall make learning to be our brazen serpent, and it will need to be broken in pieces.
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Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Seek the Spirit
Beloved, the Holy Spirit sometimes is represented as the wind, the life-giving breath. He blows upon the valleys thickly strewn with slain, and they are quickened to life. You and I, though we are made to live, often feel that life to be flagging, and almost dying. The Spirit of God can quicken us, revive in us the spark of divine life, and strengthen in our hearts the life of God. Pray for this quickening breath, and, my brother, God will give it you. As surely as you sincerely pray you shall have and feel the revival of the life within.
The Spirit of God is sometimes compared to water. It is he who applies the blood of Jesus and sanctifies us. He cleanses us, fertilises us. Well, he will come to us in that capacity. Do we feel that our sin has much power over us? O Spirit of God, destroy thou sin within us and work in us purity. Thou hast already given us the new birth by water and the Spirit, go on and complete thy work till our whole nature shall be fashioned in the image of the Great Firstborn. You shall have it if you seek it; God will give you this Spirit if this you seek for.
The Holy Ghost is revealed to us under the image of light; he illuminates the mind, he makes our natural darkness flee. Wait upon him, O child of God, that you may be led into all truth. He can make that which now perplexes you to become plain; he can uplift you into truths which are now too high for your attainment. Wait upon him! As a child of God, long to be taught of God. I do not know how to express to you the sense I feel just now of the deep condescension of God in promising to give us the Holy Spirit. He has given us his Son, and now he promises his Spirit. Here are two gifts, unspeakable in preciousness. Will God, in very deed dwell with man upon the earth? Will God dwell in man? Can it be that the infinite Spirit, God over all, blessed for ever, will dwell in my poor heart, and make my body to be his temple? It is certainly so; for as sure as it is that God will give good things to those that ask good things, he will surest of all give the Holy Spirit to them that ask for the Holy Spirit. Sit not in the dark then when the light of God will break upon you if you seek it.
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Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Mercy nailed Him to the tree
Can any man see the Son of God expiring upon Calvary, bearing the sin of man, and say that those for whom he died were worthy that Christ should die for them? It is downright blasphemy to connect any idea of merit with a gift so vast and free as the gift of Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sins. Why, sirs, had we every one of us been perfect, and had we kept God’s laws without omission, even as seraphs do in heaven, we should still have only done what was our
duty to have done; and there could have been no merit about our service which could deserve that Christ should die for us. Should the Eternal God ever be thought to be such a debtor to his creatures that he must needs veil his splendor in human form, and be despised and rejected and spat upon?
Shall it be said that the Son of God owes to man that he should bleed and die for him? I shudder while I raise the question or suggest the thought. It must be pure, spontaneous, disinterested mercy that nailed the Savior to the tree. Nothing could have brought him from the throne of glory to the cross of woe but grace, unalloyed, unbounded grace.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Cancelled guilt
We lament for sin, and we do well. I hope we shall till we reach the gates of heaven. Sin can never be too much lamented or repented of; but at the same time we are not so to mourn over sin as to forget that Jesus died, and thereby cancelled all our guilt. No, with every note of lamentation lift up the joyful strain of triumph, for iniquity is gone, Christ has finished transgression, made an end of sin, and he that believeth in him is not condemned, neither can he be, world without end.
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Lovingkindness of the Lord
The lovingkindness of the Lord is a topic that can be reached by the babe in grace, and yet will not be superfluous to the most advanced. There are topics in Scripture so profound and surrounded with such metaphysical difficulties, and rendered so much more perplexing by the wisdom, or the unwisdom, of divines, that one might almost say to the Christian thinker, “You may pass those by, for you will never get much out of them; the quartz is too hard; there is too little gold to pay for breaking up.” But when you come to this subject the unskilled convert may sit down and meditate on the lovingkindness of God, and be edified; while at the same time the most proficient Scholar in the school of Christ shall find something fresh and new every time he meditates thereon.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Integrity in our Business
Would you be willing now to be made whole?
I can imagine that you say, “I want to be like Jesus, I anxiously desire it,” and yet permit me gently and affectionately to whisper in your ear that if you knew what I meant, if you knew what Jesus was, I am not so sure that your will would very vehemently incline that way... let me remind you that when a man is whole, complete, and what a man should be, there are certain evil propensities which are expelled, and certain moral qualities which he is sure to possess. For instance, if a man be made whole before God he is made honest before men.
No man can be said to be whole while he is still guilty of injustice in his trading, in his thinking, in his conversation, or in his actions towards his neighbors. Sinner, you have been in the habit of perpetrating in your business much that would not stand the tests of God’s all-searching eye. You often say in your trading things that are not true; you excuse them by the assertion that others do the same. I am not here to listen to your excuse, but I am about to ask you earnestly, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Art thou desirous to be made from this time a thoroughly, strictly, punctiliously honest man? No more lying puffs; no more exaggerations; no more overreaching, and taking of advantage; come now, what think you of this state of things? Why, there are some who could not carry on their business at this rate; “the trade is rotten, and if you do not fall into its practices you cannot make a living; the district is low and beggarly, and none can thrive in it but cheats; we should have to shut up the shop if we were perfectly honest.” “Why,” cries one, “I should be eaten up alive in this age of competition. I cannot believe that we are to be so excessively conscientious.”
I see how it is, you do not want to be made whole.
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Not a luxury but a necessity
Remember, my brethren, it was the Holy Spirit who first of all regenerated us. If we have indeed been born again from above, our new birth was by the Holy Ghost: “Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” are we made this day spiritual men. If, therefore, we have not the Spirit, or it be possible that the Spirit be taken from us, the very essence of our spiritual life is gone; we are utterly dead, we are no longer numbered with the living people of the living God. The Holy Ghost is not to us a luxury, but a necessity. We must have the Spirit of God or we live not at all in a spiritual sense. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his; without the supernatural work of this divine person upon our nature we are not numbered with the family of God at all.
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Our Sins Wiped Out
Though our sins be written with an iron pen, and graven with the point of a diamond upon the very horns of our altars, yet will the Lord make the record to disappear when his mercy is revealed to our faith. He blots out the handwriting, which was against us, he puts it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; he makes our sins, like clouds, to pass away for ever. God can, O sinner, wipe out your transgressions so that they shall not exist, through the precious blood of Jesus be can finish your transgressions, and make an end of all your sin.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Serve Him with Joy and Gladness
Jesus the infinite deigned to be an infant; he who sustains all things was laid upon a woman’s breast. There is no man more a man than Jesus, and yet in no respect is he other than equal with God. Let us then accept the rule of Jesus. This is the ladder that Jacob saw, the bottom of which rests on the earth, near to you — your feeble feet may reach it; but the top doth reach to heaven, and now between earth and heaven, between man and God, there is a ladder that never can be broken, by which sinners may ascend to the glory of God. O love him, then; with all your hearts cherish the name and honor of the incarnate God, Immanuel. Because he is so unspeakably glorious and gracious, serve him with joy and gladness.
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Friday, September 24, 2010
Weapons of the Holy War
The club of Cain may lay Abel level with the dust, but it does not silence him; from the ground the blood of Abel continues still to cry. Martyrs may be consigned to the prison, and dragged from the prison to the stake, so that to all appearance a full end is made of the good men, but “even in their ashes live their wonted fires.” At the stake they find a platform with a boundless auditory, and from the grave their teaching cries with louder voice than from the pulpit. Like seeds sown in the earth they spring up and multiply themselves. Others arise to bear the same witness, and if need be to seal it in the same fashion.
As Pharaoh’s mighty hosts could not combat with the hail and the lightnings which plagued the fields of Zoan, and as all their chivalry could not put to flight the darkness that might be felt, even so when God sends his truth with power upon a land, battleaxe and buckler are vain in the opposers’ hands. Our appointed weapons of attack are not carnal, neither can they be withstood by shield or armor; our bowstrings cannot be broken, or the edge of our sword blunted. Let but the Lord furnish his ministers, as he did at Pentecost, with wondrous words instead of shields, and spears, and swords, and these weapons of the holy war will prove themselves to be irresistible. Fight on, O preacher; tell forth the story of the cross; defy opposition and laugh persecution to scorn, for, like thy Master, thou shalt, as his servant, ascend above all thine enemies, lead thy captivity captive, and scatter good gifts among the sons of men.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Opportunities
Yes, God will make us miss our way that souls may find theirs. He will put us into positions where we may find out his banished ones. He will bring them into contact with his earnest people in ways which will conduce to the saving result. Let us be on the look-out. He who observes his opportunities will find them plentifully given him. God devises for us, and we have but to follow the trail of providence.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Means For Restoring The Banished," delivered September 11, 1870. Image by Forest Wander under Creative Commons License.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Means For Restoring The Banished," delivered September 11, 1870. Image by Forest Wander under Creative Commons License.
Monday, September 20, 2010
His perfect justice
...[H]e so arranges all things, that apparently without effort the government of providence embraces all interests, wrongs none, but yields justice to all. Men are so little in the way of God that he never finds it needful to perpetrate an injustice even on a single man, and he has never caused one solitary creature to suffer one unnecessary pang. Herein is his greatness, that it comprehends all littlenesses without a strain: the glory of his wisdom is as astonishing as the majesty of his power, and the splendours of his love and of his grace are as amazing as the terror of his sovereignty. He may do what he wills, for none can stay him; but he never wills to do in any case aught that is unjust, unholy, unmerciful, or in any way inconsistent with the perfection of his matchless character. Here let us pause, and worship. I at least must do so; for my soul’s eyes ache, as though I had been gazing at the sun.
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Friday, September 17, 2010
The mercies of God
Everything in God is on a grand scale. Great power — he shakes the world; great wisdom — He balances the clouds. His mercy is commensurate with his other attributes, it is Godlike mercy! Infinite mercy! You must measure his Godhead before you shall compute big mercy. My soul, think for awhile, thou hast drank out of this exceeding great and wide sea, and it is all thine to drink from for ever. Well may it be called “abundant,” if it be infinite. It will always be abundant, for all that can be drawn from it will be but as the drop of a bucket to the sea itself. The mercy which deals with us, is not man’s mercy, but God’s mercy, and therefore boundless mercy....
God’s mercy is always special, but his mercy in Christ is specially special. I know not how else to describe it. His mercy in nature is bright, his mercy in providence is conspicuous, but his mercy in his dear Son, his mercy in the incarnate God, his mercy through the perfect sacrifice, this is mercy’s best wine kept to the last, mercy’s “fat things full of marrow.” When I see Jesus descending from heaven to earth, Jesus bleeding, Jesus paying all the debts of his people, I can well understand that the mercy of God in Christ must be abundant mercy.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
In the beauty of holiness
This is the only beauty which he cares for in our public services, and it is one for which no other can compensate. Beauty of architecture and apparel he does not regard; moral and spiritual beauty is that in which his soul delighteth. Worship must not be rendered to God in a slovenly, sinful, superficial manner; we must be reverent, sincere, earnest, and pure in heart both in our prayers and praises. Purity is the white linen of the Lord's choristers, righteousness is the comely garment of his priests, holiness is the royal apparel of his servitors. “Fear before him, all the earth.” “Tremble” is the word in the original, and it expresses the profoundest awe, just as the word “worship” does, which would be more accurately translated by “bow down.” Even the bodily frame would be moved to trembling and prostration if men were thoroughly conscious of the power and glory of Jehovah.
Men of the world ridiculed “the Quakers” for trembling when under the power of the Holy Spirit; had they been able to discern the majesty of the Eternal they would have quaked also. There is a sacred trembling which is quite consistent with joy, the heart may even quiver with an awful excess of delight. The sight of the King in his beauty caused no alarm to John in Patmos, and yet it made him fall at his feet as dead. Oh, to behold him and worship him with prostrate awe and sacred fear!
From The Treasury of David, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, exposition of Psalm 96:9. Image by chantrybee under Creative Commons License.
From The Treasury of David, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, exposition of Psalm 96:9. Image by chantrybee under Creative Commons License.
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Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Simply put
A person may be very industrious indeed in what he does, but if he follows a method which never can produce the result he desires, he must not be surprised when he is disappointed. You are a seeker, and I am glad you are; but if you will not put your trust in Jesus, and lay your burden down at the cross where he offered the great sacrifice, it is no marvel if you continue to seek in vain. It will be a great sorrow, but it will not be a great wonder, if you become at last despairing, and are shut up in the iron cage. O man, O woman, break away from this. May God’s Holy Spirit come to your rescue now! Give up thine own ideas of how to get peace, take God’s method of salvation, and lay hold on eternal life by trusting in the Savior slain.
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Monday, September 13, 2010
The Trumpet Shall Sound
The trumpet shall sound, and as Jesus Christ’s body rose from the dead as the first-fruits, so shall we arise, every man in his own order. Raised up by divine power, our very bodies shall be reunited with our souls to live with Christ, raised however, not as they shall be put into the grave to slumber, but in a nobler image. They were sown like the shrivelled seed, they shall come up like the fair flowers which decorate your summer gardens. Planted as a dull unattractive bulb, to develop into a glory like that of a lovely lily with snowy cup and petals of gold. Sown like the shrivelled barley or wheat, to come up as a fair green blade, or to become the golden ear. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
Come, my soul, what a promise is given thee in God’s word of the life that is to come! A promise for my soul, did I say? A promise for my body too. These aches and pains shall be repaid; this weariness and these sicknesses shall all be recompensed. The body shall be re-married to the soul, from which it parted with so much grief, and the marriage shall be the more joyous because there never shall be another divorce. Then, in body and in soul made perfect, the fullness of our bliss shall have arrived.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Profit Of Godliness In The Life To Come," delivered June 19, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Profit Of Godliness In The Life To Come," delivered June 19, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.
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Friday, September 10, 2010
Quick to Criticize?
I know we who are young beginners in grace think ourselves qualified to reform the whole Christian church. We drag her before us, and condemn her straightway; but when our virtues become more mature, I trust we shall not be more tolerant of evil, but we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Ripe Fruit," delivered August 14, 1870. Image by Georges Nijs under Creative Commons License.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Ripe Fruit," delivered August 14, 1870. Image by Georges Nijs under Creative Commons License.
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Thursday, September 9, 2010
Christ Our Intercessor
The intercession of our Lord is a mighty power, and as it wins gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, apostles, and preachers, and teachers, are called forth by divine grace. Not our colleges, our councils, our societies, or our conferences, but the intercession of Jesus is the mainstay of our strength, the secret cause of the calling of men into the mystery of the gospel.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "An Encouraging Lesson From Paul's Conversion," delivered August 7, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "An Encouraging Lesson From Paul's Conversion," delivered August 7, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Working with Him
Do not make the work of God an excuse for thine idleness, neither let thine earnest activity ever tempt thee to forget that power belongeth unto him. The Savior is a model to us in putting this just in the right form. It is God’’s work to open the blind eye; if the eye has been sealed in darkness from the birth no man can open it, God must do it; but yet the clay and the spittle must be used, and Siloam’’s pool must be resorted to, or the light will never enter the sightless eye.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Spur," delivered July 31, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.
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Tuesday, September 7, 2010
He made an end of sin
There is no way by which a sinner can escape from the guilt of sin but that which is revealed in Jesus Christ. God has sent forth his Son, his only Son. The Word was made flesh and came under the law: upon that mysterious being who combined both Godhead and manhood in one person, the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all. By imputation the transgressions of his elect have been laid upon their Covenant Head, so that he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many. He voluntarily undertook to be the substitute and covenant surety of his chosen; and in this way, by the transferring of sin from the sinner to Christ, the sinner ceases to be regarded as a sinner, and his guilt is removed. Here is the way for that sinner to approach the Father. His sin is laid upon Christ, who became the substitute for all sinners that ever have believed or ever shall believe on him, and he himself is clear....
Now, where is the sin of his people? He hath cast it into the depths of the sea. By bearing its punishment he has caused it no more to exist; it is as though it had never been; it is annihilated, it is gone, if it be searched for, it cannot be found. Jesus Christ by his taking the sin and then discharging all the liability that was due to God from that sin, has for ever finished transgression — mark the word, made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness for his people. Now, sinner, if thou wouldst get away from thy sin, Christ is the way; this is the way by which thou canst escape from it.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Way," delivered July 24, 1870. Image by Kevin Dooley under Creative Commons License.
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