The counsel of the Lord stands forever

He changes not his purpose, his decree is not frustrated, his designs are accomplished. God has a predestination according to the counsel of his will, and none of the devices of his foes can thwart his decree for a moment. Men's purposes are blown to and fro like the thread of the gossamer or the down of the thistle, but the eternal purposes are firmer than the earth.

“The thoughts of his heart to all generations.”

Men come and go, sons follow their sires to the grave, but the undisturbed mind of God moves on in unbroken serenity, producing ordained results with unerring certainty. No man can expect his will or plan to be carried out from age to age; the wisdom of one period is the folly of another, but the Lord's wisdom is always wise, and his designs run on from century to century. His power to fulfil his purposes is by no means diminished by the lapse of years. He who was absolute over Pharaoh in Egypt is not one whit the less today the King of kings and Lord of lords; still do his chariot wheels roll onward in imperial grandeur, none being for a moment able to resist his eternal will.

Exposition of Psalm 33:11 from "The Treasury Of David." Flickr photo by B Mully; some rights reserved.

Our duty is our delight

The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in their language stand farther apart than “holiness” and “delight.” Ah, but believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are so blessedly married, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to divorce them. They who love God with all their hearts, find that his ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace. Such joy, such brimful delights, such overflowing bliss, do the saints discover in their Lord, that so far from serving him from custom, they would follow him should all the world cast out his name as evil.

We fear not God because of any compulsion, our faith is no fetter, our profession is no prison; we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty. No, sirs, our religion is our recreation, our hope is our happiness, our duty is our delight.

From a sermon entitled "Sunshine In The Heart," delivered June 15, 1862. Flickr photo by saintrain; some rights reserved.

Take the road of service

If you ask me where is Christ on earth, I point you to his faithful Church, called by his Spirit. As Christ was the world’s hope, so is the Church the world’s hope, and she must take up the charge as if there were not another. Instead of sending some to this town and some to that, she must hear her Master say, “Give ye them to eat.” I do fear, dear friends, that we are many of us getting into a very easy state about perishing men, because we keep out of their way. To stop your ears to the cries of the hungry, or shut your eyes to the wants of the widow and the fatherless, is not the way to relieve famine. Nor is it the way of doing good in the world, to avoid the haunts of the poor, and to leave the dens of desolation and sin.

It is ours to touch the leper with our healing finger, not to shrink from his presence; it is ours to go and find out the stripped, and wounded, and helpless of the sons of men, and then to pour in the oil and the wine. Leave the priest and the Levite, if they will, to pass by on the other side. Your Master asks of you, Christian, practical, personal service, and your Christianity is worth nothing unless it makes you heed his word - “Give ye them to eat” -unless it makes you as individual members, and as an united body do God’s work for the world’s sake and for Jesus Christ’s sake. I will tell you, the people of my charge, that the world’s salvation is given instrumentally into your hands. As far as your power lies, you are to consider yourselves as the world’s hope, and you are to act as such.

From a sermon entitled "Compassion For the Multitude," delivered June 1, 1862. Flickr photo by J. E. Fee; some rights reserved.

The angels keep watch

Unseen by us, the angels of God keep watch and ward around us. They bear up the Church’s foot lest she dash it against a stone. They cover her head in the day of battle lest the fiery shafts should penetrate her helmet; by night and by day the watchers of God keep constant guard over the blood-royal of heaven. Let us not be deceived in this matter, thinking that we have to deal here with a fancy or a myth. Angels have more to do with this world than we dream. They are more potent influences for the saints’ good than ever we have known, for they are the ten thousand chariots of God, the ten thousand times ten thousand saints of the Most High who stand in their battle array this day. If your eyes be opened, you will be able to say with the Prophet - “More are they that are with us than they that be with them.”

Reckon the angels as your friends; put them not down as though they were weak and feeble, but believe them to be strong, and then ye shall not doubt but that the Church shall be preserved as the apple of God’s eye.

From a sermon entitled "The Lord's Care Of His People," delivered April 27, 1862. Flickr photo by Tobias; some rights reserved.

The Father of Lights

The love of God changes us into its own image, so that what the Lord saith concerning us, we also can declare concerning him. God is love essentially, and when this essential love shines forth freely upon us, we reflect it back upon him. He is like the sun, the great father of lights and we are as the moon and the planets we shine in rays borrowed from his brightness. He is the golden seal, and we, his people, are the wax receiving the impression. Our heaven is to be likeness to Christ, and our preparation for heaven consists in a growing imitation of him in all things. See, brethren, how the Lord gives the word, and our heart, like an echo, repeats every syllable.

The Lord loveth his people, and we love him because he first loved us; he hath chosen his saints, and they also have made him the chosen heritage. The saints are precious to Jesus, and unto us who believe he is precious, Christ lived for us, and for us to live is Christ: we gain all things by his death, and for us to die is gain. The Church is the looking-glass in which Christ sees himself reflected; she is like a fair songstress taking up the refrain of Jesus’ canticles of love, while he sings, “My sister, my spouse,” she answers, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.”

From a sermon entitled "Choice Portions," delivered May 25, 1862. Flickr photo by Eric Hill; some rights reserved.

The praying man

If there were an edict issued that no man should pray at all, the really praying man would go into Daniel’s lions’ den, for he could no more cease to pray than cease to breathe. Can the hart in the wilderness cease from panting for the water brooks? Can a sick child cease from crying for its mother? So the living soul cries after God because he cannot help panting after him. He must pray or he must die, he must find grace or perish and therefore in his sore extremity - from an intense and awful agony of heart he cries again and again, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” This is the prayer that God heareth; such are the petitions which are acceptable to the Lord Jehovah.

From a sermon entitled "Joseph And His Brethren," delivered May 11, 1862. Flickr photo by Rosana Prada; some rights reserved.

His glorious advent

Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the LORD brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. (Psalm 14:7)

The coming of Messiah was the desire of the godly in all ages, and though he has already come with a sin-offering to purge away iniquity, we look for him to come a second time, to come without a sin-offering unto salvation. O that these weary years would have an end! Why tarries he so long? He knows that sin abounds and that his people are downtrodden; why comes he not to the rescue? His glorious advent will restore his ancient people from literal captivity, and his spiritual seed from spiritual sorrow. Wrestling Jacob and prevailing Israel shall alike rejoice before him when he is revealed as their salvation. O that he were come! What happy, holy, halcyon, heavenly days should we then see! But let us not count him slack, for behold, he comes, he comes quickly! Blessed are all they that wait for him.

From The Treasury of David, exposition of Psalm14. Flickr photo by Adam Baker; some rights reserved.

Redeeming grace and dying love

Brethren, if you would think for awhile upon the whole work of God, taking in it the Fall as being foreseen and foreknown, until the day when all the chosen seed shall meet around the throne, I think you will be struck with its glory as a whole. It was within the compass of the power of God to make creatures that would love him, to make beings that would be attached to him by the very closest ties; but - I speak with reverence - I do not see how omnipotence itself, apart from the fall and the redemption by the sacrifice of Christ, when he gave himself to die for us; could have made such creatures as the redeemed will be in heaven. Brethren, if we had never fallen and never been redeemed, we could never have sung of redeeming grace and dying love. We could not, and the angels could not; we could not have known the heights and depths, and lengths and breadths of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.

Feasted with heavenly food, we might have admired his bounty, but not as we now do when we eat the flesh of Christ; made to drink the wine pressed from heaven’s own clusters, we might have blessed the giver of the feast, but not as we now can do, when we drink the blood of Jesus as our sweet wine; pure and holy, we could have praised him, and we should have done so, but not as we now can, when we have “washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” There is a nearer relationship now than there could have been in any other way, if God had not taken humanity into alliance with himself, if the Word had not been made flesh and dwelt among us.

From a sermon entitled "Another And A Nobler Exhibition," delivered May 4, 1862. Flickr photo by Calum Davidson; some rights reserved.

God the I AM

With God, indeed, there is neither past, present, nor future. He takes for his name the “I AM.” He does not call himself the “I WAS,” for then we should conceive that he used to be something which he is not now; that some part of his character had changed, or some attribute ceased from existence, for there is an ominous sound of annihilation in the sound of the word, “He WAS.” Is it not rather a knell for the dead, than a name for the living? Nor does our Lord God speak of himself as the “I SHALL BE,” for that might lead us to imagine that he is not now something which he is to be in the ages to come: whereas, we know that his being is perfect, his essence infinite, his dominion absolute, his power unlimited, and his glory transcendent. Development is out of the question, he is all to-day that he will be in future.

Of the Lord Jesus we read that he is the Everlasting Father, and yet he has the dew of his youth. Childhood, manhood and old age belong to creatures, but at the right hand of the Most High they have no abode. Growth, progress, advancement, all these are virtues in finite beings, but to the Infinite the thought of such change would be an insult. Yesterday, to day, and tomorrow, belong to dying mortal, the Immortal King lives in an eternal today. He is the I AM; I AM in the present; I AM in the past and I AM in the future. Just as we say of God that he is everywhere, so we may say of him that he is always; he is everywhere in space; he is everywhere in time. God is today in the past; he is today already in the future; he is today in that present in which we are.

From a sermon entitled "God's Estimate Of Time," delivered April 27, 1862. Flickr photo by Sean McGrath; some rights reserved.

Accepted before God

The doctrine of the atonement is very simple. It just consists in the substitution of Christ in the place of the sinner; Christ being treated as if he were the sinner, and then the transgressor being treated as if he were the righteous one. It is a change of persons; Christ becomes the sinner; he stands in the sinner’s place and stead; he was numbered with the transgressors; the sinner becomes righteous; he stands in Christ’s place and stead, and is numbered with the righteous ones. Christ has no sin of his own, but he takes human guilt, and is punished for human folly. We have no righteousness of our own’ but we take the divine righteousness; we are rewarded for it, and stand accepted before God as though that righteousness had been wrought out by ourselves. “In due time Christ died for the ungodly,” that he might take away their sins.

From a sermon entitled "The Old, Old Story," delivered March 30, 1862. Flickr photo by Kevin Law; some rights reserved.

Now is Christ risen from the dead

So clear is the evidence of Christ’s resurrection, that when Gilbert West -a celebrated infidel - selected this subject as the point of attack, sitting down to weigh the evidence and to digest the whole matter, although filled with prejudice, he was so startled with the abundant witness to the truth of this fact, that he expressed himself a convert, and has left as a heritage for coming generations a most valuable treatise, entitled “Observations on the Resurrection of Christ.” He laid down certain laws of evidence to begin with, and then went to the matter as though he had been a lawyer examining the pros and cons of any matter in dispute; and this, which is the fundamental doctrine of our faith, seemed to him so exceedingly clear that he renounced his unbelief, and became a professor of Christianity....

We believe that the very best attested fact in all history is the resurrection of Christ. Historical doubts concerning the existence of Napoleon Buonaparte, or the stabbing of Julius Caesar, or the Norman Conquest, would be quite as reasonable as doubts concerns the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. None of these matters have such witnesses as those who testify of Him - witnesses who were manifestly truthful, since they suffered for their testimony, and most of them died ignominious and painful deaths as the results of their belief. We have more and better evidence for this fact than for anything else which is written in history, either sacred or profane. Oh! How should we rejoice, we who hang our salvation wholly upon Christ, that beyond a doubt it is established that, “now is Christ risen from the dead.”

From a sermon entitled "Resurrection - Christ The Firstfruits," delivered April 20, 1862. Flickr photo by James Emery; some rights reserved.

Preaching the wrath to come

The Lord Jesus, though the most loving of spirits, was the most awful¹ of preachers; and in his sermons, while there is everything that could melt and woo, there is no lack of the great and terrible thunderbolt, and the sounding forth of wrath to come, and the judgment which must await the impenitent. But again, you will say to me, wherefore speak you thus? Why not dwell upon more pleasant themes? Because, as the Lord my God liveth, before whom I stand, I would be free of the blood of all men.

¹ - in the old-fashioned sense of awe-inspiring or terrifying

From a sermon entitled "The Portion Of The Ungodly," delivered April 13, 1862. Flickr photo by Joe; some rights reserved.

Fishers of men

The preacher is compared to a fisherman. The fisherman’s vocation is a toilsome one; woe be to that minister who finds his calling to be otherwise. The fisherman must go forth in rough weathers, and at all hazards; if he should only fish in a calm sea he may often starve. So the Christian minister, whether men will receive the word with pleasure, or reject it with anger and wrath, must be ready to imperil reputation and risk comfort; yea, he must hate his own life also, or he is not worthy of the heavenly calling.

The fisherman’s is a rough occupation; no dainty fingers may come in contact with his nets. It is not a trade for gentlemen, but for rough, strong, fearless men, who can heave a rope, handle a tar-brush, or scour a deck. The ministry is not meant for your dainty souls who would go delicately through this world without a trial, an offense, an insult, or a sneer. Such work is meant for men who know how to do business on great waters, and can go abroad upon the sea, not fearing the spray or the waves. The fisherman’s calling, too, must be carried on perseveringly; it is not by one grand haul that a man makes his fortune; he must constantly cast forth his net. One sermon makes not a preacher; he who shall but now and then deliver himself of some carefully prepared oration, is no true minister of God. He must be instant in season and out of season; he must cast his net in all waters; he must in the morning be at his work, and in the evening he must not withhold his hand. To be a fisherman, a man must expect disappointments; he must often cast in the net and bring up nothing but weeds.

The minister of Christ must reckon upon being disappointed; and he must not be weary in well-doing for all his disappointments, but must in faith continue in prayer and labor, expecting that at the end he shall receive his reward.

From a sermon entitled "The Two Draughts Of Fishes," delivered April 6, 1862. Flickr photo by Dave Conner; some rights reserved.

Clothed in white garments

It seems that the elders sitting around the throne were represented to the illuminated eye of John as “clothed in white raiment.” Not in raiment of party-colors, whereon there were some spots, and yet some signs of whiteness. They are without fault before the throne of God; they have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” and the Spirit of God also has so thoroughly renewed them, that they are “without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing;” they have been presented holy and unblameable before the throne of God. Brothers and sisters, in this too, they are an example to us.

Oh that the Spirit of God might keep the members of this Church, that our garments might be always white. Perfection we must not hope to see here; but oh, we must aim after it. If one should never unite with a Christian Church till he found one which is perfect and free from all fault, then such a man must be a schismatic for ever, for with no Christian people could he ever join. Yet, this is what we aspire unto - to be faultless before God. We desire so to walk, and so to act among men, that our conduct may never bring a slur upon our profession - that our language, our actions, our motives, everything that is about us, may witness to the fact that we have been with Jesus, and have learned of him.

From a sermon entitled "The Elders Before The Throne," delivered March 23, 1862. Flickr photo by Benjie Ordoñez; some rights reserved.

He has never left us alone

O Lord God! Thou hast not left us at any time. We have had dark nights, but the star of love has shone forth amid the blackness; we have had our cloudy days, but our sun has never set until we have had glimpses of sunlight from heaven; we have gone through many trials, but never to our detriment, always to our advantage; and the conclusion from our past experience - at least, I can speak of my own positively - is, that he who hath been with us in six troubles, will not forsake us in the seventh. He hath said, “I will never, never leave thee, and will never, never, never forsake thee.” Do not think I repeat these “nevers” too often; I repeat the text just as I find it in the Greek. What we have known of our faithful God, goes to show that he will keep us to the end, and even to the last he will be our helper.

From a sermon entitled "The Danger Of Doubting," delivered March 16, 1862. Flickr photo by b k ; some rights reserved.

Worshipping for the wrong reasons

We have heard of some country towns - I do not think it takes place much in London, for it does not pay - where people ask “Which is the most respectable congregation in this town? We must take a seat there.” Now what are they doing when they pretend to be worshipping God? Why, sirs, if that be the reason why they go to a certain place of worship, they are following their trade on the Lord’s day, and as far as the sin of it goes, they might as well have their shop open as shut, for they carry their shops on their backs to the place of worship. We suspect that some come among us for this reason.

Christ had such followers. There were loaves and fishes to be given away, and therefore they fell into raptures; “What a sweet preacher! What a profitable ministry! We are so fed under him:” and they flocked in multitudes to listen to him that they might afterwards eat and be filled. I remember one case of this kind that came under my own knowledge. Preaching about in the country, I had often noticed in a certain county, a man in a smock frock who was a regular follower. He seemed to be amazingly attentive to the service, and thinking that he looked an extremely poor man, I one day gave him five shillings. When I preached twenty miles off he was there again, and I gave him some more help fancying that he was a tried child of God. When I was preaching in another place in the same county, he was there again, and the thought suddenly struck me whether that man did not find something more attractive in the palms of my hands than in the words of my lips, so I gave him no more. The next time I saw him he put himself in my way, but I avoided him; and then at last being again in the same county, he came up and asked me to give him something. “No,” I said, “you will not have anything now; I see what you have come for; you have only come pretending to delight in the Word, and to be so profited by it, whereas it is profit you get out of me, not profit from the gospel.” These people - there are such in all congregations - ought, at least, to be well aware that their pretended worship of God is detestable in his sight.

From a sermon entitled "God Or Self - Which?," delivered March 9, 1862. Flickr photo by Sharon Mollerus; some rights reserved.

Lord, have mercy

If it were a hard way of salvation, man would like it; but because it is so easy we cannot bear it. We are so proud, that to be saved on charity; to come to Christ and trust him to save us; to have done with saving ourselves, and to let him do it all - Oh, this is so humbling. It will just suit you then, poor soul, for you have said in the words of my text, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Come thou before God and say, “Lord, by his agony and bloody sweat, by his cross and passion, by his precious death and burial, have mercy upon me,” and he will answer thee when thou makest mention of the blood, and he will say - “Thy sins which are many are forgiven thee.”

Oh! There is hope yet, lost soul; there is hope yet! To the very gates of hell let my voice ring this morning - lost soul, there is hope yet. If thou hast passed those gates there is no hope; but this side the gate of hell there is hope for thee. Not in thyself but in Jesus is thy help found. Look to him; he dies; one look will save you. Look to him; he lives; he pleads before the Father’s throne. Faith in the living Savior will make you a living soul. May God in his mercy empty you of self, and then faith is easy, but until you are brought there, faith is impossible.

From a sermon entitled "A Sight Of Self" delivered March 2, 1862. Flickr photo by Sharon Mollerus; some rights reserved.

More milestones for The Daily Spurgeon!

Spurgeon preaching in Surrey

Thanks, gentle readers, for your continuing support! We continue to grow steadily, blessing people every day, I trust, with golden nuggets from Spurgeon. Here's what's happening:

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Rise up!

He speaks to each denomination according to its need, but to the same import, “Rise up and come away; leave deadness and coldness and wrong-doing and hardness and harshness, and bitterness of spirit; leave idleness and slothfulness and lukewarmness; rise up and come away. Come away to preach the Gospel amongst the heathen; come away to reform the masses of this wicked city; come away from your little-heartedness; from your coldness of spirit, come away: the land is, before you; go up and possess it.”

Come away, your Master waits to aid you: strike! He will strike with you; build! he will be the great master builder: plough! He himself shall break the clods; arise and thresh the mountains, for he shall make you a sharp threshing instrument having teeth, and the mountains shall be beaten small until the wind shall scatter them like chaff, and you shall rejoice in the Lord. Rise up, people of God, in this season of revival, and come away! Why sleep ye? "Arise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.”

From a sermon entitled "A Sermon For Spring," delivered February 23, 1862. Flickr photo by Jeff Kubina; some rights reserved.

Great and precious promises

The promises of God are to the believer an inexhaustible mine of wealth. Happy is it for him if he knows, how to search out their secret veins and enrich himself with their hid treasures. They are to him an armory containing all manner of offensive and defensive weapons. Blessed is he who has learned to enter into the sacred arsenal, to put on the breastplate and the helmet, and to lay his hand to the spear and to the sword. They are to the believer a surgery in which he will find all manner of restoratives and blessed elixirs; he shall find therein an ointment for every wound, a cordial for every faintness, a remedy for every disease. Blessed is he who is well skilled in heavenly pharmacy and knoweth how to lay hold on the healing virtues of the promises of God. The promises are to the Christian a storehouse of food. They are as the granaries which Joseph built in Egypt, or as the golden pot wherein the unrotting manna was preserved. Blessed is he who can take the five barley loaves and fishes of promise and break them till his five thousand necessities shall all be supplied, and he is able to gather up baskets full of fragments.

The promises are the Christian’s Magna Charta of liberty, they are the title deeds of his heavenly estate. Happy is he who knoweth how to read them well and call them all his own. Yea, they are the jewel room in which the Christian’s crown-treasures are preserved - the regalia, secretly his today, but which he shall openly wear in paradise. He is already a king who hath the silver key with which to unlock the strong room; he may even now grasp the scepter, wear the crown, and put upon his shoulders the imperial mantle. O how unutterably rich are the promises of our faithful, covenant-keeping God!

From a sermon entitled "Obtaining Promises," delivered February 16, 1862. Flickr photo by Tommy Jørgensen; some rights reserved.

Not for common purposes

Brothers and sisters, have we ever realized this truth as we ought to do? When a vessel, cup, altar, or instrument was set apart for divine worship, it was never used for common purposes again. No man but the priest might drink out of the golden cup; the altar might not be trifled with; God’s brazen lacer was not for ordinary ablution; even the tongs upon the altar and the snuffers for the lamps were never to be profaned for any common purpose whatsoever. What a suggestive and solemn fact is this! If you and I be sanctified by God the Father, we ought never to be used for any purpose but for God. “What,” say you, “not for ourselves?” My brethren, not for ourselves. Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price. “But must we not work and earn our own bread?” Verily ye must, but still not with that as your object. You must still be “diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” Remember, if ye be servants, ye are to serve not with eye service as men pleasers, but serving the Lord. If any man shall say “I have an occupation in which I cannot serve the Lord,” leave it, you have no right in it; but I think there is no calling in which man can be found, certainly no lawful calling, in which he may not be able to say, “Whether I eat or drink, or whatsoever I do, I do all to the glory of God.”

From a sermon entitled "Threefold Sanctification," delivered. Flickr photo by Louise Docker; some rights reserved.

Christians indeed

Under God the Holy Spirit our only hope for the increase of the Church and for the conversion of the world lies in the development of energy within us, in the bringing out of earnestness in Christian souls. Oh! it was not scholarship that converted the heathen world at first, for on the slabs in the catacombs we have decisive evidence that the first Christians could scarcely spell their own names. It was not the pomp of learning, the pride of philosophy, or the power of eloquence, which made the early confessors so mighty; it was their singular earnestness. The Church was all on fire. She was like a volcano; she might not be high and lofty as some of the surrounding hills, but they had summits clothed with frost, while she sent forth earnest truths like streams of lava, which burned their way, and covered all the lands. Christians in those days were Christians indeed. They believed what they professed; they knew what they spoke; they testified what they had seen; and they spoke with an unconquerable, untameable energy, which smote even the iron power of Rome and dashed it into shivers. So must it be today, and indeed so is it. Look around you; who are the most useful men in the Christian Church today? The men who do what they undertake for God with all their hearts.

From a sermon entitled "Life In Earnest," delivered February 2, 1862. Flickr photo by John Haslam; some rights reserved.

Christ is coming

Now we believe and hold that Christ shall come a second time suddenly, to raise his saints at the first resurrection; this shall be the commencement of the grand judgment, and they shall reign with him afterwards. The rest of the dead live not till after the thousand years are finished. Then shall they rise from their tombs at the sounding of the trumpet, and their judgment shall come and they shall receive the deeds which they have done in their bodies. Now, we believe that the Christ who shall sit on the throne of his father David, and whose feet shall stand upon Mount Olivet, is as much a personal Christ as the Christ who came to Bethlehem and wept in the manger. We do believe that the very Christ whose body did hang upon the tree shall sit upon the throne; that the very hand that felt the nail shall grasp the scepter; that the very foot that was fastened to the cross shall tread upon the necks of his foes. We look for the personal advent, the personal reign, the personal session and assize of Christ.

From a sermon entitled "The Two Advents of Christ," delivered December 22, 1861. Flickr photo by Calum Davidson ; some rights reserved.

Serving Him out of gratitude and love

Anything that you do by which to save yourself is a selfish act, and therefore cannot be good. Only that which is done for God’s glory is good in a Scriptural sense. A man must be saved before he can do a good work; but when saved, having nothing to get and nothing to lose; standing now in Christ, blessed and accepted — he begins to serve God out of pure gratitude and love. Then, virtue is possible, and he may climb to its highest steeps, and stand safely there without fear of the boasting which would cast him down, though he will feel even then that his standing is not in what he has done, nor in what he is, nor in what he hopes to be, but in what Christ did, and in the “It is finished,” which made his eternal salvation secure.

From a sermon entitled "Grace Exalted - Boasting Excluded," delivered January 19, 1862. Flickr photo by Jim; some rights reserved.

Be anxious for nothing

Do you see that Christian there with the sparkling eye, and the light footstep, the man who is swift to run upon his Master’s errands? That man has many troubles, but when he wakes in the morning if he retains remembrance of them, he bows his knee and leaves them with his God: he goes home, and the day has had much of sorrow in it, but he shakes the weight from his own shoulder and leaves his burden upon God. That man, with all his troubles, is more blessed than yonder professor, who has very little to vex him except that he vexes himself, by making every little thing a ground for fretfulness, magnifying every small mischance into a strange calamity, and by losing all patience, when all things suit not his proud will and dainty taste. Oh brethren! It is an ill thing for Christians to be sad. Let them rejoice, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” but they never can so long as they indulge in anxious cares.

From a sermon entitled "A Cure For Care," delivered January 12, 1862. Flickr photo by Hans Splinter; some rights reserved.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints

Shall we sorrow when the Master hath taken away what was his own? “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” The gardener had a choice flower in his beds. One morning he missed it. He had tended it so carefully that he looked upon it with the affection of a father to a child, and he hastily ran through the garden and sought out one of the servants, for he thought surely an enemy had plucked it, and he said to him, “Who plucked that rose?” And the servant said, “I saw the master walking through the garden early this morning, when the sun was rising, and I saw him bear it away in his hand.” Then he that tended the rose said, “It is well; let him be blessed; it was his own; for him I held it; for him I nursed it and if he hath taken it, it is well." So be it with your hearts. Feel that it is for the best that you have lost your friend, or that your best relation has departed. God has done it. Be ye filled with comfort; for what God hath done can never be a proper argument for tears. Do ye weep, ye heavens, because God hath veiled the stars? Dost thou weep, O earth, because God hath hidden the sun? What God hath done is ever ground for sonnet and for hallelujah. And even here, o’er the dead as yet unburied, our faith begins to sing its song — “’Tis well, ‘tis well; ‘tis for the best, and let the Lord’s name be praised now as ever.”

From a sermon entitled "The Royal Death Bed," delivered December 22, 1861. Flickr photo by Audrey; some rights reserved.

The joy of being forgiven

Talk not of the joys of the dance, or of the flush of wine; speak not of the mirth of the merry, or of the flashes of the ambitious and successful. There is a mirth more deep than these; a joy more intense; a bliss more enduring than anything the world can give. It is the bliss of being forgiven; the bliss of having God’s favor and God’s love in one’s soul; the bliss of feeling that God is our Father; that Christ is married to our souls; and that the Holy Ghost dwelleth in us, and will abide with us for ever.

From a sermon entitled "Too Good To Be True! A Paradox!," delivered December 15, 1861. Flickr photo by Louise Docker; some rights reserved.

One generation shall praise His works to another

“Instead of thy fathers shall be the children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.” — Psalm 14:16.

Men of faith are followed by men of faith. They who trust God, when they die, shall be succeeded by others who shall walk in the same divine life, and shall see the same promises fulfilled. The love which burned in the heart of one, when quenched there by death, shall burn in the breast of another; the hope that gleamed from one joyous eye, shall soon gleam from the eyes of another whom God has raised up to be his successor. The work shall not stop for want of a workman, supplication shall not cease for want of righteous men to pray; the offering of praise shall not be stayed from the absence of grateful hearts to offer joyous songs. God shall be pleased to raise up one after another, according as it is written, “Moses my servant is dead, but behold, Joshua shall go before you.”

From a sermon entitled "The True Apostolical Succession," delivered December 15, 1861. Flickr photo by Sally; some rights reserved.

Giving offense

Jesus Christ had spoken certain truths which were highly objectionable to the Pharisees. Some of his loving disciples were in great fright, and they came to him and said, “Knowest thou not that the Pharisees are offended?” Now, our Savior, instead of making any apology for having offended the Pharisees, took it as a matter of course, and replied in a sentence which is well worthy to be called a proverb, — “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Now we have oftentimes, as Mathew Henry very tritely remarks, a number of good and affectionate but very weak hearers. They are always afraid that we shall offend other hearers. Hence, if the truth be spoken in a plain and pointed manner, and seems to come close home to the conscience, they think that surely it ought not to have been spoken, because So-and-so, and So-and-so, and So-and-so took offense at it.

Truly, my brethren, we are not all slow to answer in this matter. If we never offended, it would be proof positive that we did not preach the gospel. They who can please man will find it quite another thing to have pleased God. Do you suppose that men will love those who faithfully rebuke them? If you make the sinner’s heart to groan, and waken his conscience, do you think he will pay you court and thank you for it? Nay, not so; in fact, this ought to be one aim of our ministry, not to offend, but to test men and make them offended with themselves, so that their hearts may be exposed to their own inspection. Their being offended will discover of what sort they are. A ministry that never uproots will never water; a ministry that does not put down will never build up. He who knoweth not how to pluck up the plants which God hath not planted, scarcely understandeth how to be a worker of God in his vineyard. Our ministry ought always to be a killing as well as a healing one, — a ministry which kills all false hopes, blights all wrong confidences, and weeds out all foolish trusts, while at the same time it trains up the feeblest shoot of real hope, and tends comfort and encouragement even to the weakest of the sincere followers of Christ.

Do not, then, be needlessly alarmed about our ministry. Just give us plenty of elbowroom to strike right and left. Let not our friends encumber us. Whether they be friends or foes, when we have to strike for God and his truth, we cannot spare whoever may stand in our way. To our own Master we stand or fall, but to no one else in heaven or on earth.

From a sermon entitled "The Weeding of the Garden," delivered December 8, 1861. Flickr photo by Sergio; some rights reserved.

Blessed are the peacemakers

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:9.

However peaceable we may be in this world, yet we shall be misrepresented and misunderstood and no marvel, for even the Prince of peace, by his very peacefulness, brought fire upon the earth. He himself, though he loved mankind, and did no ill, was “despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief.” Lest, therefore, the peaceable in heart should be surprised when they meet with enemies, it is added in the following verse, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Thus the peacemakers are not only pronounced to be blessed, but they are compassed about with blessings. Lord, give us grace to climb to this seventh beatitude! Purify our minds that we may be “first pure, then peaceable,” and fortify our souls, that our peaceableness may not lead us into surprise and despair, when for thy sake we are persecuted among men.

From a sermon entitled "The Peacemaker," delivered December 8, 1861. Flickr photo by Matt McGee; some rights reserved.

It is finished!

If you and I had been constrained to make satisfaction to God’s justice by being sent to hell we never could have said, “It is finished.” Christ has paid the debt which all the torments of eternity could not have paid. Lost souls, ye suffer today as ye have suffered for ages past, but God’s justice is not satisfied, his law is not fully magnified. And when time shall fail, and eternity shall have been flying on, still forever; forever, the uttermost never having been paid, the chastisement for sin must fall upon unpardoned sinners. But Christ has done what all the flames of the pit could not do in all eternity; he has magnified the law and made it honorable, and now from the cross he cries — “It is finished.”

From a sermon entitled "It Is Finished," delivered December 1, 1861. Flickr photo by Per Ola Wiberg; some rights reserved.

A day of rest

You know what Solomon says. He says — “If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct;” by which he means to say, if the man would stop and whet his tool, it would be sharp, and he would not need to expend half the strength, while he would do far more work. But here you have some who think the Sunday must be all work, work, work; instead of which, if they were to stop to whet the edge of the tool, they would do far more in the end, while their soul would not be half so soon worn out.

You have heard persons say, “I would sooner wear out than rust out.” There is no occasion for either, if we would but keep this day of rest as a perfect rest to our heart and soul; but that we can never do unless we love Christ, for a Sabbath is an impossibility to an unconverted man. If we would but, as Christians resting in Christ, keep this first day of rest, giving our souls thorough ease, there would be no fear of the brain giving way, we should labor on, even to a good old age, and then die in peace, and our works would follow us. I cannot expect you to believe me if I should say, you can carry on your business all the days of the week without care, without diligence, without very earnest thought. We must be “diligent in business,” and you must put both your hands to the wheel, if you would make it go. But do leave the wheel alone to-day.

From a sermon entitled "Abram And The Ravenous Birds ," delivered November 24, 1861. Flickr photo by John Haslam; some rights reserved.

Resist the devil

When Satan attacks us as an angel of light, we need not so much resist by open antagonism as by flight. There are some temptations which are only to be overcome by running away from them, but when Satan roars we most raise the shout and the war-cry. To run then, would be cowardice, and must entail certain destruction. Suppose now that Satan roars with persecution,(and it is a poor roar that he can raise in that way now) or, suppose you are slandered, vilified, abused — will you give way? Then are you undone. Will you say, “No, never, by him that called me to this work, I will see this battle out, and in the name of him who has been my helper hitherto, I set up the banner; and cry — Jehovah-Nissi: the Lord of hosts is our banner, the God of Jacob is our refuge.” You have done well, you have resisted, and you will win the day.

Hath he assailed you with some temptation obnoxious to your spirit? Yield an inch, and you are undone, but become more watchful, and more vigilant over yourself in that particular sin, and resistance must certainly bring victory. Or has he injected blasphemy? Resist. Be more prayerful every time he is more active. He will soon give it up, if he finds that his attacks drive you to Christ.

From a sermon entitled "The Roaring Lion," delivered November 17, 1861. Flickr photo by Jeff Kubina; some rights reserved.

Man does not live by bread alone

This bread, you see, is the Word of God. Now, the Word is given to us first here in the Bible, as it is written; it is given to us, secondly, from the lips of God’s own chosen and appointed ambassadors. He that despises either of these two, will soon find himself growing lean in spirit. The book, the Word, is like the flour, but the sermon is the bread, for it is through the sermon that the Word is, as it were, prepared for human palates, and brought so that human souls may be able to receive it. The moment the Church of God shall despise the pulpit, God will despise her. It has been through the ministry that the Lord has always been pleased to revive and bless his Churches, and you will notice, that these revivals in which it was boasted that there were no ministers engaged, have come to nought ere long; for those that stand, are those in which God gets to himself glory and honor, by using instrumentality.

It is a wrong idea altogether, that God is glorified by putting instrumentality aside. That is not his glory. His glory is, that in our infirmity he still triumpheth, and that with his own right hand he is able to lay hold upon some jaw-bone of an ass, and yet slay therewith heaps upon heaps of Philistines. It is the weakness of the instrumentality used that has a tendency to glorify God, and hence he very seldom is pleased to work without some means or other. Most Christians who have grown rich in grace, have been great frequenters of the house of prayer.

From a sermon entitled "Bread For The Hungry," delivered November 10, 1861. Flickr photo by Francois Schnell; some rights reserved.

Trust Him with your soul

Do you feel the force of what has been said? O my hearers! Do you feel that it is a solemn thing to have been at ease so long? Do you tremble? Are you saying, “O that I might be saved! O that God would have mercy upon me!” He will do it. He will. The Gospel is free to you still as it always has been, and lo, we preach it to you. All he asks of you is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved. He has not asked an impossible thing, a hard thing, — that which takes weeks to do. It is done in an instant and when his Spirit is present, it is done at once and completely. “But what is to believe in Christ?” say you. It is to trust him — trust him with your soul — trust him with your soul just as it is.

From a sermon entitled "Scourge For Slumbering Souls," delivered November 3, 1861. Flickr photo by Wolfgang Staudt; some rights reserved.

The Shield of Faith

Like the Spartans, every Christian is born a warrior. It is his destiny to be assaulted; it is his duty to attack. Part of his life will be occupied with defensive warfare. He will have to defend earnestly the faith once delivered to the saints, he will have to resist the devil, he will have to stand against all his wiles; and having done all, still to stand. He will, however, be but a sorry Christian if he acteth only on the defensive. He must be one who goes against his foes, as well as stands still to receive their advance. He must be able to say with David, “I come against thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied.” He must wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. He must have weapons for his warfare — not carnal — but “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” He must not, I say, be content to live in the stronghold, though he be then well guarded, and munitions of stupendous strength his dwelling place may be; but he must go forth to attack the castles of the enemy, and to put them down, to drive the Canaanite out of the land.

From a sermon entitled "The Shield Of Faith," delivered October 27, 1861. Flickr photo by Audrey; some rights reserved.

We walk by faith and not by sight

The sight of Christ it seems, did but little good to those who had it, not even to his disciples, for they were sorry dolts, even though he was the Master. It was only when the Spirit came down at Pentecost, that they began to know Christ, and to understand what he had said to them, though he himself had said it. And truly ‘tis better to see Christ by faith than it is to see him by sight, for a sight of him by faith saves the soul; but we might see him with the eye, and yet crucify him, yet be found amongst the greatest rebels against his government and power.

From a sermon entitled "The Glory Of Christ — Beheld!," delivered. Flickr photo by Kristín Sig; some rights reserved.

God the Righteous Judge

It is impossible to reconcile Old Testament history with the effeminate notion of neological divinity¹, that God is only a universal Father, but not a governor and a judge. If these gentlemen will quietly read some of those awful² passages in the Old Testament, they cannot — unless they should deny the inspiration of the passage, or attempt to tone down in meaning — they cannot but confess that they see there far less a loving parent than a God dressed in arms, of whom we may say, “The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name. Thy right hand, O Lord, thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces thine enemies.” A God without justice is what this modern church is seeking after. These new doctrines would fashion a deity destitute of those sublime attributes, which keep the world in awe, and command for him the reverence of his creatures.

¹By which he means some a newly-devised system of theology.
²In the old-fashioned sense of the word which means awe-inspiring or terrifying.

From a sermon entitled "Not Now, But Hereafter" delivered September 22, 1861.

Flickr photo by Calum Davidson; some rights reserved.

Our growing fellowship with the Father

...O brethren, though I say we have fellowship with the Father, yet how little we have of it compared with what we hope to have! This fellowship is like the river in Ezekiel, at the first it is up to the ankles, and afterwards it is up to the knees, and then up to the loins, and then it becomes a river to swim in. There be, I fear, few of us who have waded where there is a river to swim in, but, blessed be God, though it be only up to the ankles, yet we have fellowship, and if we have but a little of it, that little is the seed of more, and the certain pledge of greater joys to come.

From a sermon entitled "Fellowship With God," delivered September 15, 1861. Flickr photo by Wolfgang Staudt; some rights reserved.

Natural and Spiritual Men

THE Apostle Paul knows of only two classes of men — natural and spiritual. Before his eye all other distinctions are extinguished. Barbarian or Scythian, bond or friar, male or female, circumcision or uncircumcision — all these varieties among men are mere accidents in his esteem. He does not stay to divide men, according to the symptoms of their nature. They may be devout men, such as make a profession of godliness, men of morality, men who have commenced sin, or men who have become adepts in it. He knows better than merely to judge of men by their symptoms; he takes either their diseased state or their healthy state, and so divides them. He lays the axe at the root of the trees, and doing so, he perceives only two classes of men — the natural and the spiritual.

Under the term “natural,” the apostle includes all those persons who are not partakers of the Spirit of God; it matters not how excellent, how estimable, how intelligent, how instructed they may be. If the Spirit of God hath not given to them a new and higher nature than they ever possessed by their creature birth, he puts them all down at once in the list of natural men. They are what they are by nature. They never professed to have received the Spirit of God. He puts them down, therefore, as natural men. On the other hand, all into whom the Spirit of God has come, breathing into them a new and diviner life, he puts down under the other head of spiritual men. They may be as yet but babes in grace; their faith may be weak; their love may be but in its early bud; as yet their spiritual senses may be little exercised, perhaps their faults may be in excess of their virtues, but inasmuch as the root of the matter is in them, and they have passed from death unto life, out of the region of nature into that which is beyond nature — the kingdom of grace — he puts them down also, all of them in one list, as spiritual men.

From a sermon entitled "Natural Or Spiritual?," delivered September 1, 1861. Flickr photo by Steve Jurvetson; some rights reserved.

Pray for your brother

You cannot harbor enmity in your soul against your brother after you have learned to pray for him. If he hath done you ill, when you have taken that ill to the mercy-seat, and prayed over it, you must forgive. Surely you could not be such a hypocrite as to invoke blessings on his head before God and then come fourth to curse him in your own soul. When these have been complaints brought by brother against brother, it is generally the best way to say, “Let us pray before we enter into the matter.” Wherever there is a case to be decided by the pastor, he ought always to any to the brethren who contend, “Let us pray first,” and it will often happen that through prayer the differences will soon be forgotten.

From a sermon entitled "Intercessory Prayer," delivered August 11, 1861. Flickr photo by German Mayer ; some rights reserved.

Joint heirs with Christ

Who shall accuse the Redeemer? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of him who rose again from the dead? Nor can any creature accuse his saints, nor can heaven, or earth, or hell disprove our rights or infringe upon our title so long as his title stands undisputed and indisputable. We shall see his face; the devils in hell cannot hinder it; we shall possess the promised rest, still the fiends that are beneath shall not rob us of the heirloom. And, believer, there is no fear that Christ shall be the possessor of nothing or heir of little things. He is the Son of God the infinitely rich, and God will not give to his Son a petty dowry or a trifling portion. “Ask of me,” saith he, and he gives him unlimited permission to ask, not as Herod who would give only the half of his kingdom, but as one who would give everything to his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom he make the worlds. And O my soul, thy portion cannot be slender nor thy dowry narrow, since it is the same inheritance which Christ has from his Father’s hands.

From a sermon entitled "The Joint Heirs And Their Divine Portion," delivered July 28, 1861. Flickr photo by Brandi Tressler; some rights reserved.

Perceiving the Presence of God

If you would feel God’s presence, you must have an affinity to his nature. Your soul must have the spirit of adoption, and it will soon find out its Father. Your spirit must have a desire after holiness, and it will soon discover the presence of Him who is holiness itself. Your mind must be heavenly, and you will soon detect that the God of Heaven is here. The more nearly we become like God, the more sure shall we be that God is where we are. To a man who has reached the highest stage of sanctification the presence of God becomes a more sure fact than the presence of anything else beside. In fact, he may even get to such a state that he will look upon the fields, streets, inhabitants and events of the world as a dream, a passing background, while the only real thing to him will be the unseen God which his new nature so clearly manifests to him, that his faith becomes the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things which sense cannot perceive. Likeness to God is first necessary for the clear perception of his presence.

From a sermon entitled "Jacob's Waking Exclamation." Flickr photo by Denise Avila; 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.

Holiness Unto The Lord

I would, my dear brethren, that you would make your common toils Holiness unto the Lord. Come to look upon your meals as though they were sacraments, your clothes as though they were priestly vestments; your common words as though you were preaching daily sermons; and your every-day thoughts as though you were thinking for the Sabbath of holy things. It is not to be always talking religion, but to be talking religiously that makes the Christian; it is not to be performing outward symbols, it is to be possessing the inward spirit. I do believe that there is more piety in going to visit the poor and needy and scattering your substance among them; more piety in teaching the poor ignorant ragged child, more piety in seeking to help some poor struggling tradesman, than there is in many a long prayer, and many a sanctimonious whine, ay and in many a long and eloquent discourse.

That common piety which like common sense is oftenest the uncommonest of all, is what we need to have, and if I could make one man among you become thus consecrated, I should think I had, under God, done as much as though I poured you out in scores upon the plain of Hindostan, or sent you to edify the Chinese, or to instruct the Ethiopian. We want you as missionaries here; we want you as missionaries in daily life, and we must have you too, or else the Church will not increase, nor will the name of Christ be magnified.

From a sermon entitled "A Peal Of Bells," delivered July 7, 1861. Flickr photo by Noël Zia Lee; some rights reserved.

Incorruptible seed

The child of God in his new nature never dies. He can never see death. Christ, who is in him, is the immortality and the life. “He that liveth and believeth in Christ shall never die.” And yet again, “Though he were dead yet shall he live.” When we are born again, we receive a nature which is indestructible by accident, which is not to be consumed by fire, drowned by riveter, weakened by old age, or smitten down by blast of pestilence; a nature invulnerable to poison; a nature which shall not be destroyed by the sword; a nature which can never die till the God that gave it should himself expire and Deity die out. Think of this, my brethren, and surely you will find reason to rejoice. But perhaps, you ask me, why it is the new nature can never die? I am sure the text teaches it never can. “But not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, even of the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.”

From a sermon entitled "The New Nature," delivered June 30, 1861. Flickr photo by Iain Cuthbertson; some rights reserved.