Grace Gems for April 2001

CHRIST IS OUR LIFE
(Charles Spurgeon)

"Christ, who is our life."   Col.3:4

Paul's marvelously rich expression indicates
that Christ is the source of our life.
"You has He quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sins." That same voice which
brought Lazarus out of the tomb raised us
to newness of life.

Christ is now the substance of our spiritual life.
It is by His life that we live; He is in us, the
hope  glory, the spring of our actions, the central
thought which moves every other thought.

Christ is the sustenance of our life.
What can the Christian feed upon but Jesus?
O wayworn pilgrims in this wilderness of sin,
you never get a morsel to satisfy the hunger
of your spirits, except you find it in Him!

Christ is the solace of our life.
All our true joys come from Him; and in times
of trouble, His presence is our consolation.
There is nothing worth living for but Him;
and His lovingkindness is better than life!

Christ is the object of our life.
As speeds the ship towards the port, so hastes
the believer towards the haven of his Savior's
bosom. As flies the arrow to its goal, so flies
the Christian towards perfecting of his fellowship
with Christ Jesus. As the soldier fights for his
captain, and is crowned in his captain's victory,
so the believer contends for Christ, and gets
his triumph out of the triumphs of his Master.
For him to live is Christ.

Christ is the exemplar of our life.
Where there is the same life within, there will,
there must be, to a great extent, the same
developments without; and if we live in near
fellowship with the Lord Jesus we shall grow
like Him. We shall set Him before us as our
Divine copy, and we shall seek to tread in His
footsteps, until He shall become the crown of
our life in glory.

Oh! how safe, how honored, how happy
is the Christian, since Christ is our life!
 

True spiritual life!
The following is adapted from
Bonar's "The Night of Weeping"

Some, by their continual contact with
the outward things of religion, hinder
their inward growth and damage
their spiritual life.

There are many Christians who are always
steadily at 'church work' and apparently with
fervor too. Yet too little communion with God
shows that they are not really growing spiritually.
They work so much more than they pray, that they
soon become like vessels without oil.

The true spiritual life is different from all this.

It is a thing of intensity and depth. It ever
carries about with it the air of calm and restful
dignity, of inward power and greatness. It is
fervent, but not feverish; energetic, but not
excited; speedy in its doings, but not hasty;
prudent, but not timid or selfish; resolute and
fearless, but not rash; unobtrusive and at times
it may be silent, yet making all around to feel
its influence; full of joy and peace, yet without
parade or noise; overflowing in tenderness and
love, yet at the same time, faithful and true.
This is true spiritual life!

(Are you so busy doing 'church work', that your
 personal relationship with Jesus is suffering?)
 

Self-reliance
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"Peter's Restoration" #2034. Luke 22:60-62

Peter's presumption and self-confidence
led to his sad, sad sin. He reckoned that
he could never stumble and for that very
reason he speedily fell. A haughty spirit
goes before a fall. Oh, that we might look
to the roots of bitter flowers and destroy
them! If 'presumption' is flourishing in the
soil of our hearts, we shall soon see the
evil fruit which will come of it.

Reliance upon our firmness of
character, depth of experience,
clearness of insight, or maturity
in grace will, in the end, land
us in disgraceful failure.
 

Christians are Christlike!
None deserve the name of Christians, who
are not Christlike in their prevailing character.
True Christians are clothed with the meek,
quiet, and loving temper of Christ. They are
attended with the lamblike, dovelike spirit
and nature of Jesus Christ. They naturally
beget and promote a spirit of love, humility,
quietness, forgiveness and mercy, as is
manifest in character of Jesus.  (Jonathan Edwards)
 

Live in the light of the next world
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"Overwhelming Obligations", #910

How did you serve Satan before you were
converted, not sparing body or soul to enjoy
the pleasures of sin.  Oh, with what zest,
with what fervor and force and vehemence
did many of you dance to the tune of the
devil's music!

I wish you would serve God half as well
as some of the devil's servants serve him.

What? Now you have a new Friend, a new
Lover, a new Husband: shall He ever look
you in the face and say, "You do not love
Me so well as you did love the world. You
were never weary of serving the world,
but you soon get weary of serving Me"?

O my poor heart, wake up! Wake up!

What are you doing, to have served sin at
such a rate, and then to serve Christ so little?

Dear friends, how do you think such service
as you have rendered will look when you
come to see it by the light of eternity?

Oh, nothing of life will be worth
having lived, when we come to die,
except that part of it which was
devoted and consecrated to Christ.

Live, then, with your deathbeds in immediate
prospect. Live in the light of the next world
so that your pulse will be quickened, and your
heart excited in the Master's service!

Clasp that cross!
Backsliding Christian, go at once to the cross!
There, and there only, can you get your spirit
quickened. No matter how hard, how insensible,
how dead you may have become, go again in
all your rags and poverty.

Clasp that cross!

Look into those languid eyes!

Bathe in that fountain filled with blood!

This will bring back your first love. This will
restore the simplicity of your faith, and the
tenderness of your heart.  (Spurgeon)
 

Can these be the same men?
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"Nathaniel, The Man Needed for the Day" John 1:47

There is an absolute necessity that a
Christian should possess thorough
sincerity and intense, downright reality.

The child of God may have spots on his
countenance but he must not paint his face.
It is the hypocrite that paints.

There may be a speck here and a speck there
upon the countenance of the true believer, but
he is sorry that it should be so and he tries to
wash off all such stains.

But he never uses the make-up box.

In this he is the reverse of the world's religious
professors. Oh, the multitude of hypocrites that
rouge themselves up to their eyes! They are
such beauties as Jezebel made herself!

You would suppose that they possessed the
beauty of holiness. But see them when the
paint is off; catch them at home; watch
them in their own families; trace them into
their secret places and there you will say,
 "Can these be the same men?"

 
'Reverends'
"In ourselves we are poor, sinful erring
 creatures, and daily do we have occasion
 to blush and hang our heads in shame.
 Therefore we respectfully request that
 none will address us as 'Reverend'
 No worm of the dust is due such a title."
        (Arthur Pink)
 

"It is a lost labor to seek to find
 Christianity among many churches."
    John Owen
 

Soldiers of the Cross!
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"All at it" #2044. Acts 8:4, 5, 35.

Scarcely anything has been more injurious
to the kingdom of Christ than the distinction
between clergy and laity. No such distinction
was ever laid down by the Spirit of God.
"You are a royal priesthood." "He has made
us unto our God kings and priests."

In the Church of God there is no special
  priesthood because all are priests.

We have made among ourselves a distinction
between ministers and others. But you are all
to minister! There are many ministries of one
form and another; and though God gives to
His Church apostles, teachers, pastors,
evangelists, and the like, yet not by way of
setting up a professional caste of men, who
are to do the work for God while others sit still.

All Christians are soldiers of the
 Cross and all on active duty!

Every converted man is to teach what he knows.

All those who have drunk of the Living Water
are to become fountains out of which shall
flow rivers of Living Water. All are to proclaim
the Word and no one is exempted by another
form of service.

It is thought nowadays that a man must not
try to proclaim the Gospel unless he has had
a good education. But there is nothing whatever
in the whole compass of Scripture to excuse any
mouth from speaking for Jesus when the heart
is really acquainted with His salvation.

We are all called to make Jesus known if we know Him.

We must come back to the pattern of the original church.

Every Christian must be a herald of the Cross.

If you do not tell the Gospel, you are leaving
your fellow men to perish. Yonder is the wreck
and you are not sending out a life boat! Yonder
are souls starving and you give them no bread!

If we felt that blessed amazement which we
ought to feel when we think of Free Grace and
dying love, silence would be impossible.
 

What strange beings are these?
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"David's Spoil" #2017. 1 Samuel 20:30

Unfallen angelic spirits will say in eternity,
"Do you see those beings bowing nearest to
the eternal Throne?   Do you see those
well-beloved creatures?  Who are they?"

Angels that have lived in other worlds will
come crowding up to the great metropolis
and will say one to another, "Who are
those favored ones that dwell nearest
to God?  Who are they?"

And one angel will say to another,
"They are beings whom the eternal
Son of God redeemed by blood."

And one shining one will say to his
fellow, "What do you mean?  Tell
me that strange story."

Then will his companion delight to say,
"They were saved because the Son of
God took their nature and died for them."

"How Wonderful! How Wonderful!"
  his friend will answer.

This will be news full of astonishment even
  to the best instructed celestial mind.

Spirits will look at us with wonder and say,
"What strange beings are these?  Others
are the work of God's hands, but these are
the fruit of the travail of His soul. On others
we see the marks of Divine skill and power;
but here we see the tokens of a Divine
sacrifice; a Divine blood-shedding!"
 

That magic name!
The following is from Bonar's book,
    "The Night of Weeping"

God has many names for His people.

He calls them His flock, which implies
tender watchfulness on His part, and
dependent helplessness on theirs.

He calls them a vine, denoting their
oneness, as well as the unceasing
nourishment that is ever circulating
through them from the parent stem.

He calls them a temple, signifying their
compactness of structure, symmetry of
design, beauty of form, and above all,
fitness for the inhabitation and worship
of Jehovah.

He calls them a body, to set forth, not
merely their lovely proportions, but their
marvelous unity and conscious vitality
of being, as well as the closeness of
the binding tie, and their various
serviceableness to each other.

He calls them a city, intimating their
happy community of privileges and rights
and well ordered government; the security,
peace, abundance which they enjoy, the
comforts of neighborhood with all its
cheerful greetings and mutual offices of love.

He calls them a kingdom, as expressive
of their high and honorable estate, of the
royalty, the glory, the dominion, of which
they have been made the heirs.

But it is that well known word, that magic
name, family, which alone can express all
that God sees of what is lovely and tender,
loving and lovable in the Church of Christ
into which He is pouring His love through
which He delights to see that love circulate
unhindered, and out of which he expects
that love to flow abroad.

The family of God- as such He dwells in the
midst of it, cares for it, and watches over it.

His dealings with it are those of a father;
fond yet strict; loving yet wise; sitting
among His children, having His eye on
each, and ordering in His gracious wisdom
all the concerns of His household.

His heart is there!   Yes, it is in His family
that God's heart may be said specially to be.

There it unfolds itself in a way such as it can
do amid no other order of His creatures. There
it shows itself in all its manifold fullness such
as it has no scope for elsewhere. It is in the
family alone that the one thing we call affection
or love is divided and spread out, like a sunbeam
into the rainbow's sevenfold hues, there to
display itself in all the rich tints of hidden beauty.

So it is in His family alone that the love of
God is fully seen, not merely in all its intensity,
but in all its varied riches. All kinds of love are
unfolded there.

 
Do you understand this?
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"The Messages of Our Lord's Love" #2060. Mark 16:7

Do you know what communion with Christ is?

Or are you altogether taken up with doctrines
about Him, or with ceremonies that concern
Him?  If so, yours is a poor life.

The joy of the Christian life is to know and to
speak with and to dwell with the Lord Jesus.

Do you understand this?

I charge you, do not be satisfied
until you come to personal and
intimate fellowship with your Lord.
 

The way to spiritual wealth
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"Peter After His Restoration" #2035. Luke 22:32

Communion with Christ is the happiest life.

If you gained all the world and did not lose
your soul but only lost the light of Christ's
countenance for a few days, you would have
made a poor bargain.

There is Heaven in every glance of His eye!
There is infinite joy in every word of His mouth
when He speaks comfortably to His servants.

Do not go away from Him.

Abide in Christ and let His Words abide in you.

Closer, closer, closer- this is
the way to spiritual wealth!

To follow afar off and live at a distance from
Christ, even if it does not make your soul
perish, yet it will wither up your joys and make
you feel an unhappy man, an unhappy woman.

 
The only permanent solution
"There is no hope for this world apart
 from Jesus Christ and the salvation
 which is in Him. Sin is what keeps us in
 the mess we are in.  Sin is what brings
 God's judgment and condemnation
 upon man.  The only permanent solution
 is Jesus Christ.  Only He can change people
 from the inside out.  And once they are
 changed in the very core of their being
 by the Gospel, they will have new desires,
 new goals, and new behaviors."  (Paul Ferrie)

 
Perpetual love!
(The following is from "The Gospel
 in Exodus" by Henry Law)

Believer, Jesus' love towards you is perpetual.

He loved you first when, in the councils of
 eternity, He received you into His heart.

He loved you truly when, in the fullness of time,
he took upon Himself your curse, and drained
your hell deep dues.

He loved you tenderly when He showed you,
by the Spirit, His hands and His feet, and
whispered to you that you were His.

He loves you faithfully while He ceases not
to intercede in your behalf, and to scatter
blessings on your person and your soul.

He will love you intensely in heaven when
you are manifested as His purchase and
crowned as His bride.

Drink hourly of this cup of his love.

Do not raise the objection, if He thus
loves me, why am I thus?  Why is my
path so rugged, and my heart like flint?

You will soon know that your bitterest
trials and your sorest pains are sure
tokens of His love.

The father corrects because he loves.
In anxious care the physician deeply
probes the wounds.

Thus Jesus makes earth hard, that you
  may long for heaven's holy rest.

He shows you your self vileness that
you may prize His cleansing blood.

He allows you to stumble that you
may cleave more closely to His side.

He makes the world a blank that you
 may seek all comfort in Himself.

He hides His face that you may look towards Him.

He is silent, that you may cry more loudly.

He saves from real hell, by casting into seeming hell.

But His love fails not. All His dealings
are love's everflowing, overflowing tide.
 

Mighty love!
(The following is from "The Gospel
 in Exodus" by Henry Law)

Reader, fix your eye on Bethlehem's manger.

A lowly Babe lies in the lowly cradle of a
lowly town, the offspring of a lowly mother.

Look again!  That child is the eternal "I AM!"

He, whom no infinitudes can hold, is contained
within infant's age, and infant's form. Can it be,
that the great "I AM THAT I AM" shrinks into our
flesh?

It is so!
The Lord promised it.
Prophets foretold it.
Types prefigured it.
An angel announces it.
Heaven rings with rapture at it.
Faith sees it.
The redeemed rejoice in it.

But why is this wonder of wonders?
Why is eternity's Lord a child of time?

He thus stoops, that He may save poor
 wretched sinners such as we are.

He must die, as man, that lost souls may
live. To rescue from the stain of sin, the
Eternal must take the sinner's place, and
bear sin's curse and pay sin's debt, and
suffer sin's penalty, and wash out sin's
filth, and atone for sin's malignity.

Jesus alone could do this.
Jesus alone has done it.

What self denial!
What self abasement!
What self emptying!

Mighty love moves Jesus to despise all shame,
  and to lie low in misery's lowest mire.

He humbles Himself to earth, that specks
of earth may rise to heaven's immortality.

Believer, do not you feel that the crowning
ecstasy is in this? Eternity alone will afford
you time to gaze with steady look on your
Savior's glories, to sing with unwearied hymn
your Savior's praise, to bless with perpetual
blessing your Savior's name, and to learn with
ever expanding knowledge your Savior's worth.

 
The great heartbreaker!
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"Peter's Restoration" #2034. Luke 22:60-62

Love is the great heartbreaker.

Immutable love is that Divine hammer
  which breaks the rock in pieces.

Though a man should have sinned
himself into great hardness of heart,
yet almighty love can soften him.

Who can resist the charms of the
measureless and unchanging love
of Christ? Sharper than a sword is
His look of love. More fierce than
coals of juniper are the flames of
His love.

 
Foolosophy!
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"My Own Personal Holdfast" #2069. Micah 7:7

The history of philosophy is the history
of fools! All the sets of philosophers that
have lived have been more successful in
contradicting those who came before them,
than in anything else.

Within a few years the evolutionists will
be cut in pieces by some new dreamers.

The reigning philosophers of the present
period have in them so much of the spirit
of insaneness that they will be a perpetual
subject of contempt.

And I venture to prophesy that before my
head shall lie in the grave, there will hardly
be a notable man left who will not have
washed his hands of the present theory.

That which is taught today for a certainty by
'our sages' will soon have been so disproved
as to be trod down as the mire in the streets.

The Lord's truth lives and reigns, but
man's inventions are but for an hour.

I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet.
But as I have lived to see marvelous changes
in the dogmas of philosophy, and I expect to
see still more. See how they have shifted.

According to modern thinkers, what is true on
Monday may be false on Tuesday. And what is
certain on Wednesday may be our duty to doubt
on a Thursday and so on, world without end.

Every change of the moon sees a change in the
teaching of the new philosophy.  A good stout
hypothesis in the old times served a man for a
hobbyhorse for twenty years.  But nowadays
their sorry jades hardly last twenty months.

The smallest promise of God is worth more than
all that ever has been taught, or ever shall be
taught, by skeptical philosophers!  Let God be
true but every man a liar. God is true and on
His Word we build our confidence.

    The commandments of the Lord are right,
        bringing joy to the heart.
    The commands of the Lord are clear,
        giving insight to life...
    The laws of the Lord are true;
        each one is altogether righteous.
    They are more desirable than gold,
        even the finest gold.
    They are sweeter than honey,
        even honey dripping from the comb.
 Psalm 19:8-10
 

All your secret abominations!
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon, "Plain Directions
to Those Who Would Be Saved from Sin" #2033 Psalm 4:4-5

"The ways of man are before the eyes of
 the Lord; and he ponders all his goings."
    Proverbs 5:21

God is everywhere present, at all times.

He has seen all your evil ways.

No night is so dark as to hide from His eyes.

No chamber so retired as to shut Him out.

He has even read your thoughts and imaginations.

He notes all and forgets nothing.

All things are ever present to Him.

The days of your youth and the years of your
 manhood lie open before Him like a book.

If you could but realize that God is there, how
 could you dare to sin before His very eyes?

Will you sin in God's presence?

Can you blaspheme Him to His face?

Will you disobey Him while His eyes are fixed upon you?

Remember that this God, who is everywhere,
  and sees everything, is your Judge.

He is pure and holy and cannot bear iniquity.

He is angry with the wicked every day and
will surely visit them for their transgressions.

Every sinful act shall have its recompense of reward.

God is almighty. He has but to will it and the
strongest of us would be crushed more easily
than a moth.

There is no escaping from the Lord. Neither
the heights of Carmel nor the depths of
the sea could afford shelter for a fugitive
from the Lord. Neither can any resist Him,
for none have any power apart from Him.
You have heard His thunder, and trembled
at the bolts of His lightning. Behold how
dreadful is God in his wrath!

How dare you sin against a God so great!

Trifle not, for the Judge is at the door!
 

Secret wickedness!
The following is from Edwards, "The Final Judgment"
Some of you live in secret wickedness.
Consider that for all these things, God
will bring you into judgment.  Secrecy
is your temptation. Promising yourselves
this, you practice many things, you
indulge many lusts, under the covert
of darkness, and in secret corners, which
you would be ashamed to do in the light
of the sun, and before the world.

All your secret abominations
are even now perfectly known
to God, and will also hereafter be
made known both to angels and men.

Before this Judge shall be brought the most
"hidden things of darkness, and even the
counsels of the heart.." 1 Cor. 4:5.

All your secret uncleanness,
all your secret fraud and injustice,
all your lascivious desires, wishes, and designs,
all your inward covetousness, which is idolatry,
all your malicious, envious, and revengeful
 thoughts and purposes, whether brought forth
 into practice or not, shall then be made manifest,
 and you shall be judged according to them.

"For there is nothing covered, that shall not
 be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be
 known. Therefore whatever you have spoken
 in darkness, shall be heard in the light: and
 that which you have spoken in the ear in
 closets, shall be proclaimed upon the
 house tops."  Luke 12:2, 3

Consider, that there is a God in heaven
who beholds you, and sees how you
conduct yourself.

Justice shall assuredly take place at last.

God on the day of judgement, will discover
the secrets of all hearts. The judgment of
that day will be like the fire, which burns
up whatever is not true gold.   Wood, hay,
stubble, and dross, shall be all consumed
by the scorching fire of that day.

The Judge will be like a refiner's fire, and
fuller's soap, which will cleanse away all
filthiness, however it may be colored over.

"Who may abide the day of his coming?
 and who shall stand when he appears?
 for he is like a refiner's fire, and like
 fuller's soap. For behold the day comes
 that shall burn as an oven, and all the
 proud, yes, and all that do wickedly,
 shall be stubble, and the day that comes
 shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts."
  Malachi 3:2; 4:1
 

The fierceness and wrath of Almighty God!
The following is from Jonathan Edwards' sermon
  "Sinners In Zion Tenderly Warned"

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night; in the which the heavens will
disappear with a roar, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the
works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Peter 3:10

The heat of that great fire which will burn the
world, will be such as to melt the rocks, and the
very ground, and turn them into a kind of liquid
fire, so that the whole world will probably be
converted into a great lake, or liquid globe of
fire, a vast ocean of fire, in which the wicked
shall be tossed to and fro, having no rest day
nor night, vast waves or billows of fire
continually rolling over their heads.

But all this will be only an image of that
dreadful fire of the wrath of God, which the
wicked shall at the same time suffer in their
souls.

We read in Rev. 19:15 of "the fierceness and
wrath of Almighty God." This is an extraordinary
expression, carrying a terrible idea of the future
misery of the wicked.

If it had been only said of the wrath of God
that would have expressed what is dreadful.

If the wrath of a king be as the roaring of a lion,
what is the wrath of God? But it is not only said
the wrath of God, but the fierceness and wrath
of God, or the rage of his wrath; and not only so,
but the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

O what is that! the fierceness and rage
and fury of Omnipotence! of a being of
infinite strength!  What an idea does
that give of the state of those worms
that suffer the fierceness and wrath
of such an Almighty Being!
 

The fire of God's anger
(the following quote is by Thomas Vincent)
The fire of God's anger before it breaks
forth into so vehement a flame may now
be quenched by the blood of Jesus Christ;
and the fire of hell may be prevented.
But hereafter it will be too late.
No sacrifice will be accepted then to
appease God's wrath, and if all the
waters of the sea could be poured upon
the flames of hell fire, they could not put
them out. This fire will be ever burning, and
the damned will be ever tormented therein.
Extremity and eternity are the two most
bitter ingredients of the damned's torments.
Who can set forth the eternity of the
wicked's punishment in hell fire?
This eternity is immeasurable.
It is incomprehensible.
How long will eternity last?
   Always.
When will eternity end?
   Never.
As long as heaven shall continue to be
heaven, and God shall continue to be
God, and the saints shall be happy in
the enjoyment of God; so long shall the
wicked be tormented in the fire of hell.
We may apprehend the everlastingness of
this fire of hell, but we cannot comprehend it.
 

Morality is a neat cover for for foul
venom, but it does not alter the fact
that the heart is vile, and the man
himself is under damnation.  Men
will be damned with good works as
well as without them, if they make
them their confidence.   (Spurgeon)
 

Shut your mouth!
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon, "Grace
Abounding Over Abounding Sin"  Rom. 5:20  #2012

There will be no seeking after divine
grace where there is no sense of sin.

We may preach until we are hoarse, but
you 'good' people who are not guilty of
doing anything wrong, will never care for
our message of mercy.

Oh, that you felt your sins!

Oh, that you knew your need of forgiveness!

There can be no giving of divine grace
where there is no guilt. There can be no
'mercy' where there is no sin.

There can be 'justice', but there cannot be
'mercy' unless there is an owning of criminality.

If you think you are not a sinner,
God cannot have mercy upon you.

If you have never sinned, God cannot
display pardoning grace towards you
for there is nothing to pardon.

You are not in a position for Him to display
free grace to you until your mouth is shut
and you sit down in dust and ashes, silently
owning that you deserve nothing at His
hands but infinite displeasure.

Confess that whatever He gives you that is
good and gracious must be given freely to
one who deserves nothing.

Only the 'self condemned' shall be forgiven
through the precious blood of Jesus and
the sovereign grace of God.

You are in such a condition that
only the free, rich, sovereign
grace of God can save you!

The sound of the silver bells of infinite love,
free pardon, and abounding grace should make
you hasten to the hospital of mercy that you
may receive healing for your sinfulness, strength
for your feebleness and joy for your sorrow.
 

Why do you not obey Him in all things?
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"Abram's call. Or, Half Way And All the Way"
#2011. Genesis 11:31, 12:5

Some true believers are depriving themselves
of the richest joy and the most heavenly
experience by their compromising conduct.

To obey the Lord partially is to disobey Him.

The essence of obedience lies in its exactness.

Half obedience is whole disobedience.

We must obey the Lord's command as it
stands in all it's fullness. To alter His word
is as great a treason as to make erasures
in a king's statute book. It is 'will worship'
and not God worship, if I do only what I like
of the Lord's work and leave a part undone
which does not please me quite so well.

Why do you not obey Him in all things?

You call Jesus your Lord and do some
of the things which He says but why
not the rest? Is it not clear that you
know your Master's will and do it not?

Oh, that we would be tender of heart and
not be as the horse or as the mule which
have no understanding! Whips and rods
would seldom be felt if we were more
promptly obedient.

It is our duty to follow the Lord's precept
and example with great care and solemn
determination, turning neither to the right
hand nor to the left.

Have you endeavored to fully obey Jesus?

We are to flee all sin without exception, and
follow after everything that is pure and holy.

Others wallow in what they call the pleasures
of sin. Abhor such things and protest against them.

Shun, also, everything that is doubtful.
For, "whatever is not of faith is sin."  If
you are not sure it is right, it is sin to you.

Avoid the appearance of evil.

Separate yourself from all that which
 Christ would have disapproved.

Be 'whole hearted' for Jesus.

Make it your object to abhor that which is
evil and to cleave to that which is good.

Be dead and buried to this present evil
world with its frivolities, philosophies and
grandeurs. Regard the world as crucified
to you and be yourself crucified to it.

 
Born again?
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon, "Plain Directions
to Those Who Would Be Saved from Sin" #2033 Psalm 4:4-5

If you have been truly born again you have a
new and holy nature, and you are no longer
moved towards sinful objects as you were before.

The things that you once loved you now hate,
 and therefore you will not run after them.

You can hardly understand it but so it is, that
your thoughts and tastes are radically changed.

You long for that very holiness which once
it was irksome to hear of; and you loathe those
vain pursuits which were once your delights.

The man who puts his trust in the Lord
sees the pleasures of sin in a new light.

For he sees the evil which follows them
by noting the agonies which they brought
upon our Lord when He bore our sins in
His own body on the tree.

Without faith a man says to himself,
"This sin is a very pleasant thing, why
should I not enjoy it? Surely I may eat
this fruit, which looks so charming and
is so much to be desired."

The flesh sees honey in the drink, but
faith at once perceives that there is
poison in the cup. Faith spies the snake
in the grass and gives warning of it.

Faith remembers death, judgment,
the great reward, the just punishment
and that dread word, eternity.

 
There is a clean path to hell,
   as well as a dirty one.
You will be lost if you trust to your good works,
  as surely as if you trusted in your sins.
There is a road to perdition along the 'highway of
 morality', as surely as down the 'slough of vice'.
(Spurgeon)
 

Off with their heads!
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon, #2049, Joshua 17:18
"Driving Out the Canaanites and Their Iron Chariots"

Any pretense of friendship with iniquity is mischievous.
If you are a friend of sin, you are not a friend of God.

All sorts of sins are our enemies and we are to hate
them with our whole soul. If you can say of any sin,
"I do not hate it," then you may gravely question
whether you were ever born again.

One of the marks of a child of God is that, although
he sins, he does not 'love' sin. He may 'fall' into sin
but he is like a sheep which, if it tumbles into the
mud, is quickly up again; for it hates the mire.
The sow wallows where the sheep is distressed.
Now we are not the swine that love the slough,
though we are as sheep that sometimes slip with
their feet.

What a misery sin is to us!
Every sin hates us and we hate every sin.
There is no beauty in sin.
There is no comfort in sin.
There is no strength in sin.
There is nothing whatever good in sin.
From the crown of its head to the sole of its
foot, sin is all bruises and putrefying sores.
Sin is evil, only evil and that continually.
It will do you all the hurt it can.

It will never be satisfied with the mischief that it has
worked in you. It will try to lead you farther and
farther into danger so as to bring you down to Hell.

Sin would utterly destroy you if it could and it
certainly could and would, if the grace of God
did not prevent it.

Proclaim, then, a ceaseless warfare against
 all sin. Cry, "War to the knife with sin!"

We Must Drive Sin Out!

Sin is a powerful enemy;  and if you are a child
  of God, you will have to fight against it.

Every sin has to be slaughtered.
Not a single sin is to be tolerated.
Off with their heads!
Drive the sword into their hearts!
They are all to die!
Not one of them may be spared!

The whole race is to be exterminated and so
buried that not a bone of them can be found.

Here is a labor worthy of all the valor of faith
and the power of love. They must all be driven
out, for every sin is our enemy.  Every sin,
every evil, of every shape, is our true enemy;
against which we are to wrestle to the bitter end.

You cannot say to any sin, "You may dwell in
my heart and be my friend." It cannot be your
friend; evil is our natural and necessary enemy
and we must treat it as such.

Your sins war with you; take care that you war
with them. Up with the blood-red banner! Draw
the sword and never sheath it again. So long as
sin remains  in our heart, or in our life, or in
the world, it is to be fought against to the death.

Sin is our Lord's most cruel enemy.
All sorts of sins He bore in His own body on the tree.
From our sins, all of which were laid upon Him, came
the lashings of His back, when the whip plowed deep
furrows. From our sins came the bloody sweat that
covered Him from head to foot. From our sins came
the crown of thorns, the nails, the spear, the vinegar
and gall and the dread death of agony.

Sin!  Oh, how our Lord loathes it!
"He who knew no sin was made sin for us..."
It was sin that caused Him such an agony.
Sin to Jesus was horror, torment, death.
Jesus abhors sin with all the force of His holy nature.

Saved by Jesus, will you not hate sin as He did?
Would any person here lay up in his drawer as a
treasure, the knife with which his father was murdered?

Our sins were the daggers that slew the Savior!
Can we bear to think of them? Oh, that our tears
might flow at the very thought of our horrible conduct
towards our Lord, whom we slew by our sins; and
may we never, never, never indulge any of all our
iniquities; for no one of them is innocent of the
murder of our best Beloved. They conspired to take
away His life. Let us execute them at once!

"Oh, how I hate those lusts of mine
 That crucified my God;
 Those sins that pierced and nailed His flesh
 Fast to the fatal wood!
 Yes, my Redeemer, they shall die;
 My heart has so decreed;
 Nor will I spare the guilty things
 That made my Savior bleed.
 While with a melting, broken heart,
 My murdered Lord I view,
 I'll raise revenge against my sins,
 And slay the murderers, too."

We cannot have Christ, and have one sin 'reigning'
in our hearts.  Sin may 'lurk' in our nature, as it does,
ready to plot against the King of kings. But it cannot
'reign' in our nature, for it has come under another
sovereignty; Christ is on the throne.

Our Lord Jesus will not share His dominion even
with an angel; much less with a sin. If you have
iniquity 'enthroned' in your heart you must be lost.

You may have Christ and leave your sin.
But you can not have Christ and hug your sin.

Christ shall help you to slay your sin.
But if you say, "No, but I will indulge this evil; is
it not a little one?" you will perish in your iniquity.

If there is one darling sin that you would spare,
Christ and your soul will never agree. There can
be no peace between you and Christ while there
is peace between you and sin.

"The dearest idol I have known,
 Whatever that idol be,
 Help me to tear it from its throne,
 And worship only Thee."

Sins of all sorts must go when divine
grace takes possession of the soul.

Bring out the 'golden' calf! This costly idol must
be ground to powder and strewn upon the water.
The 'golden' calf is as detestable before the Lord as
the most beggarly gods of 'wood'. One form of enmity
to God is as obnoxious to His Law as another.

Sin in satin is as great a rebel as sin in rags.
You may wash sin in perfume but it smells none the sweeter.

You cannot be free from sin if you are the 'slave'
of even one sin. As long as a man is held a captive
by a single vice; no matter how small it is; he is still
in bondage to iniquity and under the dominion of evil.

Down with them all!
They must all be conquered, every one.  Not
one single sin must be allowed to occupy the
love of our heart and the throne of our nature.

Certain sins are very hard to deal with.
They fight back and seem to have as many
lives as a cat. There is no killing them. When
you think that you have slain them, they are
up and at you again.

These sins are sometimes those which have
gained their power through long habit.
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the
leopard his spots?" No, he never shall, but
the grace of God can. The grace of God has
taken all the spots out of many leopards
and all the black out of crowds of Ethiopians.

But occasionally old, 'deep seated habits'
come up again from their graves by a hideous
resurrection. Terrible is the power of habit
which has long held sway. It is not easy
to uproot the oak of many a year's growth.
These habits make chariots of iron into
which your sins mount and they become
terrible enemies to our holy desires and
fervent resolves.

You must not say of any sin, "I cannot
help it." You have to help it. You must not
say, "Oh but it is natural to me."
I know that it is natural; that is the very
reason why you have to be doubly on your
guard against it.

Everything that is of nature; yes, and of
your fallen nature when it is at its best;
has to be put under the feet of Christ that
Divine Grace may reign over every form of evil.

Certain sins are supposed to be irresistible.
It is a sad calamity when a Christian says,
"I can keep straight in everything except that.
Do not touch me there. You must allow me
a great deal of latitude in that direction.
Please make large allowances for my peculiar
constitution." All such pleading is mischievous.

I beseech you, do not make any allowance
for yourself. I implore you, do not take out
a license to sin. For you to make an allowance
for yourself will be most injurious to your soul.

You have to overcome and destroy the sin
for which you claim toleration. Mark that!
You must not; you dare not; allow ANY sin
to 'master' you! And if it does overpower you,
do not therefore claim that you may indulge
it, but draw an inference of the opposite sort.
Because it has mastered you, concentrate
your entire strength upon its utter destruction.

Sin must come down; let not your eyes spare it.
The Canaanite must be driven out; the finest
and fairest of the race must fall by the sword.
 

True faith!
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"The Trial of Your Faith"  #2055. 1Peter 1:7

True faith is, in every case, the operation
of the Spirit of God. Its nature is purifying,
elevating, heavenly.

Wherever true faith is found, it is:
  the sure mark of eternal election,
  the sign of a blessed condition, and
  the forecast of a heavenly destiny.

Faith is
  the eye of the renewed soul,
  the hand of the regenerated mind,
  the mouth of the newborn spirit.

Faith is
  the evidence of spiritual life,
  the mainspring of holiness,
  the foundation of delight,
  the prophecy of glory, and
  the dawn of endless knowledge.

If you have true faith, you have infinitely
  more than he who has all the world.

Faith is
  the assurance of sonship;
  the pledge of inheritance;
  the grasp of boundless possession;
  the perception of the invisible.

Within your faith there lies glory, even
as the oak sleeps within the acorn.

Time would fail me to tell of
 the powers,
 the privileges,
 the possessions and
 the prospects of faith.

He that has faith is blessed, for
  he pleases God,
  he is justified before the throne of holiness,
  he has full access to the throne of grace and
  he has the preparation for reigning with Christ forever!