A People Who Know The Truth

In the present age if any man can talk well he will get a following, whatever he may teach. I am astounded at some professors, who can hear this man to-day and that man the next, though the two are diametrically opposed. Surely there is some difference between truth and error, and mere cleverness cannot neutralize false doctrine. Our forefathers discerned between things that differed, and when false doctrine came before them they cast it out, notwithstanding the eloquence of its advocate. I do not want you to be bigots. God deliver us from their bitter spirit, but I do want you to be sound believers. There is a great difference between obstinate bigotry and a decided maintenance of that which we have believed. After all, what is the chaff to the wheat? There is a difference between the doctrines of men and the teachings of the Lord. No lie is of the truth. Garnish it as you may, it is still a lie. Oh to be rooted and grounded and built up in Christ! One of the most desirable things in this fickle age is to see around the minister of Christ a people who know the truth, and feel that the truth binds them fast to their God.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Taking Hold Upon God," delivered October 7, 1877. Image by Jeff Pang on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Never Hesitate To Stand Alone

Never hesitate to stand alone when the truth is to be confessed. Never be overawed by sacerdotalism, or daunted by rage, or swayed by multitudes. Unpopular truth is, nevertheless, eternal, and that doctrine which is scouted and cast out as evil to-day shall bring immortal honor to the man who dares to stand by its side and share its humiliation.... Through flood or flame, in loneliness, in shame, in obloquy, in reproach, follow him! If it be without the camp, follow him! if every step shall cost you abuse and scorn, follow still; yea, to prison and to death still follow him, for as surely as he sitteth at the right hand of power so shall those who love him and have been faithful to his truth sit down upon his throne with him. His overcoming and enthronement are the pledges of the victory both of the truth and of those who courageously espouse it.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Nevertheless. Hereafter." Image by rachel_thecat on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Kingdom in Men's Hearts

The Scribes and Pharisees were very fluent upon sacrifices, offerings, oblations, tithes, fastings, and the like; but what influence could all that exert over aching hearts? Jesus has imperial power over contrite spirits, because he tells them of his one real sacrifice and of the perfection which he has secured to all believers. The priests lost their power over the people because they went no further than the shadow, and sooner or later all will do so who rest in the symbol. The Lord Jesus retains his power over his saints because he reveals the substance, for grace and truth are by Jesus Christ.

What a loss of time it is to debate upon the fashion of a cope, or the manner of celebrating communion, or the color suitable for the clergyman’s robes in Advent, or the precise date of Easter. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! Such trifles will never aid in setting up an everlasting kingdom in men’s hearts. Let us talk care lest we also set great store by externals, and miss the essential spiritual life of our holy faith. Christ’s kingdom is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost!

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Jesus, The King of Truth," delivered December 19, 1872. Image by Ken Lund on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The modern spirit

The modern spirit mutters, “We are all right, every one of us.” He who says “yes” is right, and he who says “no” is also right. You hear a man talk with mawkish sentimentality which he calls Christian charity. “Well, I am of opinion that if a man is a Mahometan,* or a Catholic, or a Mormonite, or a dissenter, if he is sincere, he is all right.” They do not quite include devil worshippers, Thugs and cannibals yet, but if things go on they will accept them into the happy family of the Broad Church.

Such is the talk and cant of this present age, but I bear my witness that there is no truth in it, and I call upon every child of God to protest against it, and, like Moses, to declare that he can have no complicity with such a confederacy. There is truth somewhere, let us find it; the lie is not of the truth, let us abhor it. There is a God, let us follow him, and it cannot be that false gods are gods too. Surely truth is of some value to the sons of men, surely there must be something worth holding, something worth contending for, and something worth dying for; but it does not appear now-a-days as if men thought so. May we have a respect for God’s true church in the world which abides by the apostolic word and doctrine.

* - that is, a Muslim

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Moses' Decision," delivered July 28, 1872. Image by Nic McPhee under Creative Commons License.

Christ our Teacher

It is nothing, my brethren, to the faithful servant of Jesus Christ that a certain dogma comes down to him with the grey antiquity of the ages to make it venerable. Like a sensible man, the Christian respects antiquity, but like a loyal subject of his King, he does not so bow before antiquity as to let it become ruler in Zion instead of the living Christ. A multitude of good men may meet together, and they may, in their judgment, propound a dogma, and assert it to be essential and undoubted, and they may even threaten perils most abundant to those who receive not their verdict; but if the dogma was not authorized long before they decided it - if it was not written in the Book, the decision of the learned council amounts to nothing.

All the fathers, and doctors, and divines, and confessors, put together, cannot add a word to the faith once delivered unto the saints: yea, I venture to say, that the unanimous assent of all the saints in heaven and earth would not suffice to make a single doctrine binding upon conscience unless Jesus had so determined. In vain do men say, “So did the early church” - the early church has no supremacy over us. It is to no purpose to quote Origen or Augustine: quote the inspired apostles and the doctrine is established, but not otherwise. In the church of God it is never sufficient to say, “So thinks Martin Luther.” Who was Martin Luther? A servant of Jesus Christ, and nothing more. It is not sufficient to say, “So teacheth John Calvin,” for who is John Calvin? Hath he shed his blood for you, or is he your master? His opinion is to be respected as the opinion of your fellow servant, but in no respect as a doctor or authoritative teacher in the church - for Christ alone is Rabbi, and we are to call no man Master upon earth.

From a sermon entitled "The Head of the Church," delivered November 1, 1868. Image by Martina Rathgens under Creative Commons License.

Stand for the Truth

“Never get into religious controversies,” says one; that is to say, being interpreted, be a Christian soldier, but let your sword rust in its scabbard, and sneak into heaven like a coward. Such advice I cannot endorse. If God has called you by the truth, maintain the truth, which has been the means of your salvation.

We are not to be pugnacious, always contending for every crotchet of our own; but wherein we have learned the truth of the Holy Spirit, we are not tamely to see that standard torn down which our fathers upheld at peril of their blood. This is an age in which truth must be maintained zealously, vehemently, continually. Playing fast and loose as many do, believing this today and that tomorrow, is the sure mark of children of wrath; but having received the truth, to hold fast the very form of it, as Paul bids Timothy to do, is one of the duties of heirs of heaven. Stand fast for truth, and may God give the victory to the faithful. We must believe the gospel and maintain it, for it is committed to our trust.

From a sermon entitled "The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God," delivered June 30, 1867. Image by Richard0 under Creative Commons License.

To have a clear conscience

To have a clear conscience, to wear a guileless spirit, to have a heart void of offense, is greater riches than the mines of Ophir could yield or the traffic of Tyre could win. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and inward contention therewith. An ounce of heart’s ease is worth a ton of gold; and a drop of innocence is better than a sea of flattery. Burn, Christian, if it comes to that, but never turn from the right way. Die, but never deny the truth. Lose all to buy the truth; but sell it not, even though the price were the treasure and honor of the whole world, for “what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

From a sermon entitled "Consolation In The Furnace," delivered November 26, 1865. Image by Nick Russill under Creative Commons License.

Let your life be true

Speak the truth, but let your life be true as well as your words. Live so that you need not be afraid to have the shutters taken down, that men may look right through your actions. You are not true if you have any sinister motive, or anything to conceal. Speak in your life the truth, and let it be the whole truth too. Tell out for God all the truth as it is in Jesus, and let your life proclaim the whole teaching of truth. Let it be nothing but the truth. I am afraid many Christians tell a great deal which is not true: their life is contrary to their words; and though they speak truth with their lips, they speak falsehoods with their hands.

Suppose, for instance, I draw a miserable face, and I say, “God’s people are a blessed people,” nobody believes me, because my face tells falsehood while my mouth utters a truth; and if I say, “Yes, religion has a sanctifying influence upon its professors and possessors,” and put my hand into my neighbour’s pocket in any sort of way, who will believe my testimony? I may have spoken the truth, but I am also speaking something that is not the truth, and I am thus rendering my witness of very small effect.

From a sermon entitled "God's Witnesses," delivered August 13, 1865. Image by Calum Davidson under Creative Commons License.

What God Cannot Do

Brethren, if it be so that God cannot lie, then it must be the natural duty of all his creatures to believe him. I cannot resist that conclusion. It seems to me to be as clear as noonday, that it is every man’s duty to believe truth, and that if God must speak and act truth, and truth only, it is the duty of all intelligent creatures to believe him. Here is “Duty-faith” again, which some are railing at, but how they can get away from it, and yet believe that God cannot lie, I cannot understand. If it be not my duty to believe in God, then it is no sin for me to call God a liar. Will anyone subscribe to that - that God is a liar? I think not; and if to think God to be a liar would be a most atrocious piece of blasphemy, then it can only be so on the ground that it is the natural and incumbent duty of every creature understanding the truthfulness of God to believe in God.

If God has set forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the propitiation for sin, and has told me to trust Christ, it is my duty to trust Christ, because God cannot lie; and though my sinful heart will never believe in Christ as a matter of duty but only through the work of the Holy Spirit, yet faith does not cease to be a duty; and whenever I am unbelieving and have doubts concerning God, however moral my outward life may be, I am living in daily sin; I am perpetrating a sin against the first principles of morality.

From a sermon entitled "What God Cannot Do!," delivered May 8, 1864. Flickr photo by Wouter; some rights reserved.

Through faith in His Blood

He does not ask you to perform a pilgrimage and blister your weary feet, or to thrust an iron in your back and swing yourself aloft as does the Hindoo, he asks you not to lie on a bed of spikes or starve yourself till you can count your bones. He asks no suffering of you, for Christ has suffered for you. All he asks is than you would return to him, and what is that? That you would be unfeignedly
sorry for your past sin, that you would ask his grace to keep you from it in the future, that you would now believe in Christ who is set forth to be the propitiation for sin, that through faith in his blood you may see your sin for ever put away and all your iniquity cancelled. That is neither a hard nor a cruel demand.

From a sermon entitled "Our Miseries, Messengers Of Mercy," delivered July 14, 1861. Flickr photo by Jackie ; some rights reserved.

Love is strong as death

None among the sons of Adam can withstand Death’s insidious advances. When his hour is come, none can bid him delay. The most clamorous prayers cannot move the flinty bowels of Death. Insatiable, and not to be appeased, he devoureth and devoureth ever. That scythe is never blunted, that hour-glass never ceases to flow. Mightiest among the mighty art thou O Death. But Christ’s love is strong as death. It too can climb the mountain and lay hold upon the mountaineer, far removed from the sound of the ministration of the gospel. It too can march into the valley, and though Popery with all its clouds of darkness should cover it, yet the love of Christ can will its glorious way. What can stand against it? The stoutest must yield to it, and adamantine hearts are dashed to shivers by one blow of its golden hammer. As the sun dissolves the chains of frost and bids the will rush on in freedom, though once bound as if it were stone so doth this love of Christ wherever it cometh, give life and joy, and liberty, snap the bonds and will its way, never being retarded, never being hindered, because it is written “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” Who can measure the strength of Christ’s love? Men have defied it but their defiance hath been overcome. They have resisted long, but they have been compelled to throw down their weapons. They have crossed it but they have found it hard to kick against the pricks. They have gone on caring for none of these things, but thus the eternal counsel has decreed it — Christ must, he shall have that redeemed man, and he has had him. Jesus Christ’s love is strong as death.

From a sermon entitled "The Shulamite's Choice Prayer," delivered February 24, 1861. Flickr photo by Eric Hill; some rights reserved.

No compromise

The tendency of the present age is to temporize; we are asked continually to qualify our testimony; to cut off some portion of the truth we preach; to smooth down and polish our words. God forbid; we will not do so. Whatever we believe to be true, to the last jot and tittle we will speak it out. I hope so long as I live there will always be a straight road from my heart to my mouth, and that I shall be able to preach whatever I believe in my soul, and to keep nothing reserved. Do you the same. Though you should forsake all, and should be by all forsaken, for the truth’s sake, with Abraham’s trial and Abraham’s faith, you shall have Abraham’s honor and Abraham’s reward.

From a sermon entitled "The Call of Abraham," delivered July 10, 1859; Flickr photo by b k ; some rights reserved.

Love Christ and His Truth

Love Christ and love Christ’s truth because it is Christ’s truth, for Christ’s sake and if you love the truth you will not let it go. It is very hard to turn a man away from the truth he loves.

“Oh!” says one, “I cannot argue with you about it, but I cannot give it up: I love it, and cannot live without it; it is a part of myself, woven into my very nature; and though my opponent says that bread is not bread, and I cannot prove that it is, yet I know I go and eat it; it is wonderfully like it to me, and it takes away my hunger. He says that stream is not a pure stream. I cannot prove that it is, but I go and drink of it, and find it the river of the water of life to my soul. And he tells me that my gospel is not a true one: well, it comforts me, it sustains me in my trials, it helps me to conquer sin and to keep down my evil passions, and brings me near to God, and if my gospel be not a true one, I wonder what sort of thing a true one is: mine is wonderfully like it, and I cannot suppose that a true gospel would produce better effects."

That is the best thing to do, to believe the Word, to have so full a belief in it, that the enemy cannot pull you away.

From a sermon entitled "The Form Of Sound Words," delivered May 11, 1856.

Photo by spiralz; some rights reserved.