Isa 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me

Sunday, May 27, 2018

As The Life - So The Fruit

2Pe 1:8  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If we desire to glorify our LORD by fruitfulness, we must have certain things within us...


For nothing can come out of us which is not first of all within us. 

We must begin with faith, which is the groundwork of all the virtues...

And then diligently add to it virtue, knowledge, temperance, and patience. 

With these we must have godliness and brotherly love. 
All these put together will most assuredly cause us to produce, as our life fruit, the clusters of usefulness...

And we shall not be mere idle knowers but real doers of the Word. 

These holy things must not only be in us, but abound, or we shall be barren. 

Fruit is the overflow of life, and we must be full before we can flow over.

We have noticed men of considerable parts and opportunities who have never succeeded in doing real good in the conversion of souls...


And after close observation we have concluded that they lacked certain graces which are absolutely essential to fruit bearing. 

For real usefulness, graces are better than gifts. 

As the man is, so is his work.

If we would do better, we must be better. 

Let the text be a gentle hint to unfruitful professors and to myself also. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

How Are Your Ear Connections?

A telephone must be properly connected with where the person is to whom we wish to communicate, or it will be of no value to us.

If the connection is broken, or the receiver out of order, it will be useless for us to talk into the transmitter... the person at the other end will hear none of our words.

We may speak just the same as though he were hearing, but nothing will be accomplished.

There must be a proper connection...there must be a responsive receiver at the other end of the wire.

It is just so in spiritual things.

One of the most important things is to have our ears properly connected with our hearts.

We have often heard the expression, "It just went in at one ear and out at the other."

By this is meant that the one who heard, gave no heed.

How often this occurs in regard to the things of God!

When it comes to gossip and idle tales and foolish conversation and things of that sort...we ought to let such go "in at one ear and out at the other";

We should be very careful that they find no lodging-place in our hearts.

That is the only safe way for our souls.

But too often these things are given a place in the heart and mind - there is too good a connection...

And many times there is only too ready a response in the heart for such things.

That is why some people can never keep spiritual, and are always lagging behind others.

People who have such a good connection and responsiveness in their hearts on these lines...usually have very poor connection between their ears and their hearts when it comes to the teachings of the Word of God.

They can hear the Word preached on almost any subject and not seem to think it means them.

They go along in their lives just as they had been doing before.

They feel no particular responsibility to obey.

They can go on just as if they had never heard, and still profess to be Christians.

There were times when Israel had their connection broken.
 

God said to the prophet of old, "They hear your words but they will not do them."

So many times people say, "Wasn't that a good sermon today!"

Why, yes, how they enjoyed it!

But they go their way and give no further heed to what was said.

However, in the popular pulpits of today, the preachers too often hold this attitude, "This is my opinion of things...

You may take it or let it alone, just as you please;

You have a right to your own opinions about it.

And there are a great many people who act upon this idea.
 

They feel that they can take a thing, or let it alone, just as they please...even when the words preached are the judgments of God.

Many hold that attitude not only toward preaching, but toward the Bible also.

They read, or hear read, what it says about worldliness and foolish living;

They read about being patient and holy and blameless...

About not returning evil for evil, and about speaking evil of no man...

Yet they go right on doing the things forbidden, just as though the Book said nothing!

They do not take it to heart.

The trouble is, the connections between their ears and their hearts are broken as far as these things of God are concerned.

The Bible warns us to take heed how we hear.

If we do not treat the preaching of God's Word reverently, and listen with reverent hearts to his messages...it is because we do not reverence him.

It is because in our hearts, we are lifted up against him.
 

That attitude of "I shall take or leave alone, just as I please" is one of the very worst attitudes that can be held.

Not only is it dishonoring to God, but it is exceedingly dangerous.

Sometimes such an attitude of heart is partly, at least, the result of the way the preacher preaches.

If a man has a message from God, he has authority to preach that message as the word of God, and he should so preach it.

Every true gospel preacher should be imbued with the feeling, "I am preaching the truth of God."

It is your duty to hear it...

I expect you to hear it...

And hear it you must!

Let him hold this attitude in his heart and mind, and then let him enforce upon his congregation the truth that he preaches.

If the preacher feels his authority as God's spokesman as he ought to feel it...then the people will be impressed- they cannot help it.

It is true that they may rebel, grow stubborn, or disobey;
 

They may shut his words out from their hearts...

But nevertheless he is clear...

And they only increase their responsibility, of which they must give an account to God.

Paul believed that preaching and teaching should be with "all authority."

This does not imply mere human rule, but divine authority...God speaking through the man.

When the heart does not hear and feel, there is always a reason.

One reason is self-will.

People do not like to be told what to do.

They like to be masters of themselves.

God's government demands complete surrender of self-will, and must of necessity do so.

If we will be his servants, it is not for us to choose what our lives shall be, nor what we shall say, nor what we shall do.

It is his right to command...

It is our part to hear and to obey.

To hear, and then to heed just as we please...is setting up our authority above his.

The two ideas of service and self-will are opposed the one to the other.

Self-will always means rebellion against God's will.
 

Therefore if a person chooses what he will do, and leaves undone what he finds distasteful...then he, and not God, is the master.

This self-willed disposition is very noticeable among nominal professors of religion.

They profess to be God's servants...and yet they set their wills not to do certain things that they ought to do;

Or else to do certain things that they ought not to do.
They have their minds and hearts set in the matter.

When they hear the Word of God preached on matters predetermined by them, it falls on unhearing ears.

There is no response of the heart.

Another reason is love of ease or indolence.

People hear the voice of duty, but they do not respond to it because they do not wish to make the necessary effort.
 

They do not let their hearts be pressed by a sense of duty on that particular point, because to obey, they must arouse themselves from their indolent attitude.

One symptom showing that the heart does not hear, is unbelief.

One reason why the Jews did not believe Christ, was because their hearts were so hard...

And that is one reason why people do not hear the gospel in these days.

This is not confined to non-professing sinners;

It is a very common thing among church-members as well.

Reader, how is it with you?

Are you one of those who have the connection broken between the ears and the heart?

Or have you listening ears and a feeling heart?

When you hear the Word of God preached on certain subjects...can you slight it?

Or does it sink deep into your conscience and take hold there and produce fruit in your life?

Are you ready to live by every word of God?

Or do you want to take only that which suits your views?

If the latter is true in your case...then you are in a dangerous condition.

God has the word preached, not simply to entertain people but that they may obey it.

The soul who delights in God's will, does not have to be compelled to listen, nor does he have to be compelled to obey; he is ready both to hear and to obey.

If there is something wrong with the connection between your ears and your heart, you had better go directly to God and have the connection re-made.

Get your heart taught to feel as it ought to feel, and to respond as it ought to respond.

Be not a hearer only, but be a doer of God's Word!

~Charles Naylor 1920~

Friday, May 18, 2018

No Need To Stint


The book of Proverbs is also a book of promises. 

Promises ought to be proverbs among the people of God. 

This is a very remarkable one.

We are accustomed to think of our good things as in reversion, but here we are told that we shall have them in possession. 

Not all the malice and cunning of our enemies can work our destruction...

They shall fall into the pit which they have digged. 

Our inheritance is so entailed upon us that we shall not be kept out of it, nor so turned out of the way as to miss it. 

But what have we now? 

We have a quiet conscience through the precious blood of Jesus. 

We have the love of God set upon us beyond all change. 

We have power with God in prayer in all time of need. 

We have the providence of God to watch over us...

The angels of God to minister to us...

And, above all, the Spirit of God to dwell in us. 

In fact, all things are ours. "Whether things present or things to come: all are yours." 

Jesus is ours. 

Yea, the divine Trinity in unity is ours. Hallelujah. 

Let us not pine and whine and stint and slave, since we have good things in possession. 

Let us live on our God and rejoice in Him all the day. 

Help us, 0 Holy Ghost! 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Monday, May 14, 2018

Surgery For Healing


Hos 6:1  Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

It is the LORD's way to tear before He heals.

This is the honest love of His heart and the sure surgery of His hand.

He also bruises before He binds up, or else it would be uncertain work.

The law comes before the gospel, the sense of need before the supply of it.

Is the reader now under the convincing, crushing hand of the Spirit?

Has he received the spirit of bondage again to fear?

This is a salutary preliminary to real gospel healing and binding up.

Do not despair, dear heart, but come to the LORD with all thy jagged wounds, black bruises, and running sores.

He alone can heal, and He delights to do it.

It is our LORD's office to bind up the brokenhearted, and He is gloriously at home at it.

Let us not linger but at once return unto the LORD from whom we have gone astray.

Let us show Him our gaping wounds and beseech him to know His own work and complete it.

Will a surgeon make an incision and then leave his patient to bleed to death?

Will the LORD pull down our old house and then refuse to build us a better one?

Dost Thou ever wantonly increase the misery of poor anxious souls?

That be far from Thee, O LORD.

~Charles Spurgeon~ 

Monday, May 7, 2018

Let No Evil Remain

Deu 13:17  And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers;

Israel must conquer idolatrous cities and destroy all the spoil, regarding all that had been polluted by idolatry as an accursed thing to be burned with fire. 

Now, sin of all sorts must be treated by Christians in the same manner. 

We must not allow a single evil habit to remain. 

It is now war to the knife with sins of all sorts and sizes, whether of the body, the mind, or the spirit. 

We do not look upon this giving up of evil as deserving mercy, but we regard it as a fruit of the grace of God, which we would on no account miss.

When God causes us to have no mercy on our sins, then He has great mercy on us. 


When we are angry with evil, God is no more angry with us. 

When we multiply our efforts against iniquity, the LORD multiplies our blessings. 

The way of peace, of growth, of safety, of joy in Christ Jesus will be found by following out these words: "There shall nought of the cursed thing cleave to thine hand.

LORD, purify me this day. 

Compassion, prosperity, increase, and joy will surely be given to those who put away sin with solemn resolution. 

~Charles Spurgeon~