Give no quarter to sin!

The following excerpt is from The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 18, sermon number 1,058, by Charles Spurgeon entitled”No Quarter.” (HT: Pyromaniacs)

“Sin always hunts in packs. See one of these wolves, and you may be certain that a countless company will follow at its heels.”

 

My brethren, what has sin done for us? Can it point to any advantage or blessing with which it has enriched us?

Look down the roll of history and see if sin be not man’s worst enemy. Whose hot breath blasted Eden, withered all its bowers of bliss, and caused the earth to become barren, so that without labour even unto sweat she will not yield bread for our sustenance! Mark well yon innumerable graves which cover every plain with hillocks. Who slew all these? By what gate came death into the world? Was not sin the janitor to open the portal?

Hearken at this moment to the shouts of war which in every age of the world’s history have created a horrible din of groans of dying men, and shrieks of flying women. Who first dipped yon flag in blood, and made the air pestilent with carnage? And yonder despotic throne which has crushed down the multitude and made the lives of many bitter with hard bondage, who laid its dark foundations and cemented it with blood? Whence came war with its carnage, and tyranny with its sufferings? Whence, indeed, but from the sins and lusts of men?

All over the world if there be hemlock in the furrow, and thistles on the ridge, sin’s hand has sown them broadcast. Sin turned the apples of Sodom to ashes, and the grapes of Gomorrah to gall. The trail of this serpent, with its horrid slime, has obliterated the footsteps of joy. Before the march of sin I see the garden of the Lord, and behind it a desert and a charnel.

Stay ye awhile. Nay, start not, but come with me. Look down into the ghastly gloom of Tophet, that region abhorred, where dwell the finally impenitent, who died with unforgiven sins upon their heads. Can you bear to hear their groans and moans of anguish? We will not attempt to describe the sufferings of spirits driven from their God, eternally banished from all hope and peace; but we will ask you, O son of man, who digged yon pit, and cast men into it? Who provides the fuel for that terrible flame, and whence getteth the worm that dieth not its tooth which never blunts? Sin has done it all.

Sin, the mother of hell, the fire-fountain to which we may trace each burning stream. O Sin, it is not meet that any heir from heaven, redeemed from hell, should make friends with thee. Shall we fondle the adder, or press the deadly cobra to our bosom? If it had not been for the grace of God our sins would have shut us up in hell already, and even now they seek to drag us there; therefore, let us take these enemies of our souls and slay them—let not one escape.

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Purge me with hyssop, whither than snow!

Charles Spurgeon on the text that I am preaching from tomorrow morning:  Psalm 51:

Purge me with hyssop. Sprinkle the atoning blood upon me with the appointed means. Give me the reality which legal ceremonies symbolise. Nothing but blood can take away my blood stains, nothing but the strongest purification can avail to cleanse me. Let the sin offering purge my sin. Let him who was appointed to atone, execute his sacred office on me; for none can need it more than I. The passage may be read as the voice of faith as well as a prayer, and so it runs—”Thou wilt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” Foul as I am, there is such power in the divine propitiation, that my sin shall vanish quite away. Like the leper upon whom the priest has performed the cleansing rites, I shall again be admitted into the assembly of thy people and allowed to share in the privileges of the true Israel; while in thy sight also, through Jesus my Lord, I shall be accepted. Wash me. Let it not merely be in type that I am clean, but by a real spiritual purification, which shall remove the pollution of my nature. Let the sanctifying as well as the pardoning process be perfected in me. Save me from the evils which my sin has created and nourished in me. And I shall be whiter than snow. None but thyself can whiten me, but thou canst in grace outdo nature itself in its purest state. Snow soon gathers smoke and dust, it melts and disappears; thou canst give me an enduring purity. Though snow is white below as well as on the outer surface, thou canst work the like inward purity in me, and make me so clean that only an hyperbole can set forth my immaculate condition. Lord, do this; my faith believes thou wilt, and well she knows thou canst. Scarcely does Holy Scripture contain a verse more full of faith than this. Considering the nature of the sin, and the deep sense the psalmist had of it, it is a glorious faith to be able to see in the blood sufficient, nay, all sufficient merit entirely to purge it away. Considering also the deep natural inbred corruption which David saw and experienced within, it is a miracle of faith that he could rejoice in the hope of perfect purity in his inward parts. Yet, be it added, the faith is no more than the word warrants, than the blood of atonement encourages, than the promise of God deserves. O that some reader may take heart, even now while smarting under sin, to do the Lord the honour to rely thus confidently on the finished sacrifice of Calvary and the infinite mercy there revealed. [C.H. Spurgeon, ‘Treasury of David’]

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Spurgeon: the inspiration behind Footprints in the Sand?

Could be?

The opening paragraph of a Spurgeon sermon from 1880:

Were you ever in a new trouble, one which was so strange that you felt that a similar trial had never happened to you and, moreover, you dreamt that such a temptation had never assailed anybody else? I should not wonder if that was the thought of your troubled heart. And did you ever walk out upon that lonely desert island upon which you were wrecked and say, “I am alone—alone—ALONE—nobody was ever here before me”? And did you suddenly pull up short as you noticed, in the sand, the footprints of a man? I remember right well passing through that experience—and when I looked, lo, it was not merely the footprints of a man that I saw, but I thought I knew whose feet had left those imprints. They were the marks of One who had been crucified, for there was the print of the nails. So I thought to myself, “If He has been here, it is no longer a desert island. As His blessed feet once trod this wilderness-way, it blossoms now like the rose and it becomes to my troubled spirit as a very garden of the Lord!”

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “The Education of the Sons of God” (Metropolitan Tabernacle: June 10, 1880).

HT: Justin Taylor

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Meet “The Spurgeon of Africa”

Clint Archer introduces us to Conrad Mbewe of Zambia who, because of reasons given in the post, has been dubbed “the Spurgeon of Africa.”  I think you will enjoy both an introduction to him as well as this interview with him.

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All things Spurgeon (Kindle Edition)

The Old Guys have the scoop of several newer and many older books by Spurgeon available on Kindle platform. Click here.

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Today!

It’s a day of obligation and of opportunity!!!

Charles Spurgeon, writing on Psalm 95:7-8 (“TO-DAY! TO-DAY! TO-DAY!,” Sermon no. 1551) —

“To-day” is a time of obligation. Every man is under a present necessity as a subject of God to obey his Lord to-day, and having rebelled against his God, every sinner is under law to repent of sin to-day. “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,” is the cry of Scripture to every one who has sinned against the Most High. (Acts 3:19.) What if I should repent to-morrow, yet it will be a sin to remain impenitent to-day. What if I should believe in Christ next year, yet will it be a heinous offense to have been an unbeliever this year. I have no more right to continue to disobey than I ever had to disobey at all. When the law has been broken it is still binding, and every fresh offense against it is reckoned to our charge. We are bound to confess and forsake sin now, and delay increases our sin. I met with a striking sentence in the works of William Mason which is well worthy to be written among your memoranda: “Every day of delay leaves a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in.” What if this day shall be the last I live; shall it be spent in refusing to hear the word of my Maker? Shall my last breath be spent in rejecting my Savior? God forbid! I see that I am bound as his creature to obey him, and as his sinful creature to seek pardon of him; help me, therefore, blessed Spirit, to attend to these things this day without delay.

Remember, also, that to-day is a time of opportunity. There is this day set before us an open door of approach to God. This is a very favored day, for it is the Lord’s day, the day of rest, consecrated to works of grace. To-day our Lord Jesus rose and left the dead that he might declare the justification of his people. This is a day of good tidings, therefore, beloved, I pray you seize the golden moments. On what better day can you seek the Lord than on that day which he has hedged about and set apart that you might spend it in his fear? Is it not our Sabbath? No day can be more fit for ceasing from your own works that you may rest in the work of Christ. Is it not the first day of the week? This day creating work began, why should not the new creation begin in you at this good hour? To-day the fiat of the Lord went forth, and there was light. O for that fiat to be heard within your souls that you might have light! It is a day of grace to-day, a day of gospel preaching, a day of an open Bible, a day of promises, a day in which the Spirit of God comes to work with men, a day in which Jesus Christ is set forth evidently crucified among you, a day in which the mercy-seat is approachable, a day in which justice is God’s strange work, but in which mercy is his joyful occupation. These are days which kings and prophets waited for, and saw not-blessed days, when mercy keeps open house for all hungry souls, and when whosoever will may come, and him that cometh shall in no wise be cast out. You cannot have a better time for coming to Christ in than the season prescribed in the text-namely, “to-day.”

HT: Words of Grace

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Wanted: men of God for a new reformation!

We now stand in the twenty-first century, almost five hundred years removed from John Calvin’s time, but we find ourselves in an equally critical hour of redemptive history. As the organized church was spiritually bankrupt at the outset of Calvin’s day, so it is again in our time. Certainly, to judge by outward appearances, the evangelical church in this hour seems to be flourishing. Megachurches are springing up everywhere. Christian contemporary music and publishing houses seem to be booming. Men’s rallies are packing large coliseums. Christian political groups are heard all the way to the White House. Yet the evangelical church is largely a whitewashed tomb. Tragically, her outward facade masks her true internal condition.

What are we to do? We must do what Calvin and the Reformers did so long ago. There are no new remedies for old problems. We must come back to old paths. We must capture the centrality and pungency of biblical preaching once again. There must be a decisive return to preaching that is Word-driven, God-exalting, Christ-centered, and Spirit-empowered. We desperately need a new generation of expositors, men cut from the same bolt of cloth as Calvin. Pastors marked by compassion, humility, and kindness must once again “preach the Word.” In short, we need Calvins again to stand in pulpits and boldly proclaim the Word of God.

Charles H. Spurgeon shall have the final word here. This great man witnessed firsthand the decline of dynamic preaching and issued this plea:

We want again Luthers, Calvins, Bunyans, Whitefields, men fit to mark eras, whose names breathe terror in our foemen’s ears. We have dire need of such. Whence will they come to us? They are the gifts of Jesus Christ to the church, and will come in due time. He has power to give us back again a golden age of preachers, and when the good old truth is once more preached by men whose lips are touched as with a live coal from off the altar, this shall be the instrument in the hand of the Spirit for bringing about a great and thorough revival of religion in the land…

I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the gospel and the opening of men’s ears to hear 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.

May Spurgeon’s heartfelt prayer be answered once again in this day. We do want Calvins again. We must have Calvins again. And, by God’s grace, we shall see them raised up again in this hour. May the Head of the church give us again an army of biblical expositors, men of God sold out for a new reformation.”

Excerpt from Steven Lawson’s The Expository Genius of John Calvin.Available from ReformationTrust.com as seen at Ligonier Blog

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What is the future of national Israel?

One of the foundational tenets of dispensational theology is that God has a future for national, ethnic Israel.  But did you know that many throughout church history, including many in the Reformed tradition have shared a belief in the future salvation of the Jewish nation?

Nathan Busenitz supplies the evidence with quotes from Tertullian (2nd century) to Spurgeon (19th century).  Read “Church History and Israel’s Future.”

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Spurgeon’s evangelistic fervor

From Nathan Bingham who has blogged all week on Spurgeon’s evangelism using Steve Lawson’s lastest book The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon.

Evangelism was at the heart of all that Spurgeon did. He said, “Soul-winning is the chief business of the Christian minister; indeed, it should be the main pursuit of every true believer.” Spurgeon gloried in pursuing conversions in his ministry: “God has sent us to preach in order that through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the sons of men may be reconciled to Him. . . . The glory of God being our chief object, we aim at it by seeking . . . the salvation of sinners.” So focused was Spurgeon on this endeavor that he affirmed, “I would rather be the means of saving a soul from death than be the greatest orator on earth.” As Geoff Thomas writes, “Holding consistently to the tension of divine sovereignty and human responsibility meant that Spurgeon, wholeheartedly and without restriction of any kind, exhorted unconverted persons to repent and believe and to come to Christ as the Son of God and receive Him immediately as Lord and Savior.” Spurgeon was, first and foremost, an evangelist.

Read the entire entry here.

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Spurgeon: God will outdo your prayers!

What encouragement from The Daily Spurgeon:

…where prayer has been offered, our heavenly Father has gone far beyond what we have asked or thought. I said unto the Lord in the anguish of my soul that if he would forgive my sins I would be content to be the meanest servant in his house, and would gladly lie in prison all my life, and live on bread and water; but his mercy did not come to me in that scanty way, for he put me among his children and gave me an inheritance. “Make me as one of thy hired servants” is a prayer the Father does not hear; he puts his hand on his child’s mouth when he begins to talk so, and says, “Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his hands, and shoes on his feet.”

We have asked for a stone and he has given us bread; we have asked for bare bread and he has given us angels’ food. For brass he has given silver, and for silver gold. We looked for a drop and the rain has filled the pools; we sought a morsel and he has filled us with good things; and therefore we are warranted in expecting that in future he will still outdo our prayers.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “Paul’s Doxology,” delivered November 1, 1875. 

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