5 JANUARY (UNDATED SERMON)
Tokens for good
‘Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.’ Psalm 86:17
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Peter 1:16–2:3
The Apostle Peter, after he has described Christ upon the mount as manifesting himself to his servants in the transfiguration, declares, ‘We have also a more sure word of prophecy. What, more sure than the transfiguration? Yes, more sure even than the evidence of their eyes when they saw their Lord glorified upon the holy mount. If you have ever been upon the mount with Christ, and if you have seen all his brightness, yet still you are not to compare even the sight of your eyes, when they see the best and brightest that they can see, with the word of testimony which must be sure, a light that shineth in a dark place’.
All the rapt experiences which we have ever had are not to be trusted in comparison with the word of God. I say it advisedly, even the sweetest communion we have ever had with Christ may after all be suspected, and indeed it is upon such ripe fruit that Satan soon sets his hand that he may rob us of its savour if possible, for he is not slow to cast doubts upon the holiest joys of God’s elect.
There may come a time when we shall fear that we were carried away by excitement, or deluded by fanaticism, but he who speaks the word of Scripture cannot lie, and when his Spirit speaks that same truth into the soul we have therein a testimony which never can be doubted, but must be accepted over the head of everything. ‘Let God be true, but every man a liar’, ourselves and all, all liars as compared with the eternal verities of the revelation of God the Holy Spirit. The basis of faith is not our experience, but the testimony of God, and we must mind we do not make the feet of our image partly of God’s gold and partly of our clay. Our experience may be in error, but the infallible word of God cannot be, and it is upon that alone which we must stand.
FOR MEDITATION: The bottom line should always be, ‘what saith the scripture?’ (Romans 4:3; Galatians 4:30). All sources of instruction should be submitted to the test of scripture and rejected, if found wanting (Deuteronomy 13:1–5; Isaiah 8:19–20; Matthew 4:1–11; Colossians 2:6–8).
Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 5), ed. Terence Peter Crosby, (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2010), 10.
Tokens for good
‘Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.’ Psalm 86:17
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Peter 1:16–2:3
The Apostle Peter, after he has described Christ upon the mount as manifesting himself to his servants in the transfiguration, declares, ‘We have also a more sure word of prophecy. What, more sure than the transfiguration? Yes, more sure even than the evidence of their eyes when they saw their Lord glorified upon the holy mount. If you have ever been upon the mount with Christ, and if you have seen all his brightness, yet still you are not to compare even the sight of your eyes, when they see the best and brightest that they can see, with the word of testimony which must be sure, a light that shineth in a dark place’.
All the rapt experiences which we have ever had are not to be trusted in comparison with the word of God. I say it advisedly, even the sweetest communion we have ever had with Christ may after all be suspected, and indeed it is upon such ripe fruit that Satan soon sets his hand that he may rob us of its savour if possible, for he is not slow to cast doubts upon the holiest joys of God’s elect.
There may come a time when we shall fear that we were carried away by excitement, or deluded by fanaticism, but he who speaks the word of Scripture cannot lie, and when his Spirit speaks that same truth into the soul we have therein a testimony which never can be doubted, but must be accepted over the head of everything. ‘Let God be true, but every man a liar’, ourselves and all, all liars as compared with the eternal verities of the revelation of God the Holy Spirit. The basis of faith is not our experience, but the testimony of God, and we must mind we do not make the feet of our image partly of God’s gold and partly of our clay. Our experience may be in error, but the infallible word of God cannot be, and it is upon that alone which we must stand.
FOR MEDITATION: The bottom line should always be, ‘what saith the scripture?’ (Romans 4:3; Galatians 4:30). All sources of instruction should be submitted to the test of scripture and rejected, if found wanting (Deuteronomy 13:1–5; Isaiah 8:19–20; Matthew 4:1–11; Colossians 2:6–8).
Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 5), ed. Terence Peter Crosby, (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2010), 10.
5 JANUARY (UNDATED SERMON)
Tokens for good
‘Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.’ Psalm 86:17
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Peter 1:16–2:3
The Apostle Peter, after he has described Christ upon the mount as manifesting himself to his servants in the transfiguration, declares, ‘We have also a more sure word of prophecy. What, more sure than the transfiguration? Yes, more sure even than the evidence of their eyes when they saw their Lord glorified upon the holy mount. If you have ever been upon the mount with Christ, and if you have seen all his brightness, yet still you are not to compare even the sight of your eyes, when they see the best and brightest that they can see, with the word of testimony which must be sure, a light that shineth in a dark place’.
All the rapt experiences which we have ever had are not to be trusted in comparison with the word of God. I say it advisedly, even the sweetest communion we have ever had with Christ may after all be suspected, and indeed it is upon such ripe fruit that Satan soon sets his hand that he may rob us of its savour if possible, for he is not slow to cast doubts upon the holiest joys of God’s elect.
There may come a time when we shall fear that we were carried away by excitement, or deluded by fanaticism, but he who speaks the word of Scripture cannot lie, and when his Spirit speaks that same truth into the soul we have therein a testimony which never can be doubted, but must be accepted over the head of everything. ‘Let God be true, but every man a liar’, ourselves and all, all liars as compared with the eternal verities of the revelation of God the Holy Spirit. The basis of faith is not our experience, but the testimony of God, and we must mind we do not make the feet of our image partly of God’s gold and partly of our clay. Our experience may be in error, but the infallible word of God cannot be, and it is upon that alone which we must stand.
FOR MEDITATION: The bottom line should always be, ‘what saith the scripture?’ (Romans 4:3; Galatians 4:30). All sources of instruction should be submitted to the test of scripture and rejected, if found wanting (Deuteronomy 13:1–5; Isaiah 8:19–20; Matthew 4:1–11; Colossians 2:6–8).
Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 5), ed. Terence Peter Crosby, (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2010), 10.
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