6 JANUARY (UNDATED SERMON)
Commendation for the steadfast
‘Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name … Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation.’ Revelation 3:8, 10
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING (Spurgeon): John 17:6–19
Our faith stands not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. What is taught in Holy Scripture is sure truth to us, and every other statement must bow to it. Chillingworth said what ought to be true, though I am afraid that it is not—‘The Bible and the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants.’ I should like to see a few more of such Protestants.
Many say that we ought to keep ‘abreast of the times,’ whatever that may mean, and that there is a certain ‘spirit of the age,’ to which we should be subject. This to me is treason against sovereign truth. I know of only one spirit to whom I desire to be subject, and that is the Spirit of all the ages, who never changes. By his teaching we are not only nineteen centuries behind the present age, but we come in at the back of all the ages of human history. If we have but little strength, we mean to let the times and the spirits go where they like; we shall keep to the Holy Spirit and to his eternal teachings.
Supposing that we have not such big heads as some have, and cannot devise or multiply sophisms and inventions as they do, it will be no small thing to be commended at the last, in these terms—‘thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word’. Brother, cling to God’s word; cling to infallible and immutable revelation! Whatever novelty comes up, keep to the word of Jesus! Whatever discovery may be made by the wise men of the age, let Christ be wisdom unto you. Regard the new teachers no more than you would ‘the wise men of Gotham’, for those who oppose themselves to God’s word are fools. Let them cry ‘Lo here! or, lo there!’ but believe them not. Here is your anchorage. The Book is our ultimatum.
FOR MEDITATION: (Our Own Hymn Book no. 669 v. 3—Anne Steele, 1760)
‘Eternal life Thy words impart; on these my fainting spirit lives:
Here sweeter comforts cheer my heart, than all the round of nature gives.’
Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 5), ed. Terence Peter Crosby, (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2010), 11.
6 JANUARY (UNDATED SERMON)
Commendation for the steadfast
‘Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name … Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation.’ Revelation 3:8, 10
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING (Spurgeon): John 17:6–19
Our faith stands not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. What is taught in Holy Scripture is sure truth to us, and every other statement must bow to it. Chillingworth said what ought to be true, though I am afraid that it is not—‘The Bible and the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants.’ I should like to see a few more of such Protestants.
Many say that we ought to keep ‘abreast of the times,’ whatever that may mean, and that there is a certain ‘spirit of the age,’ to which we should be subject. This to me is treason against sovereign truth. I know of only one spirit to whom I desire to be subject, and that is the Spirit of all the ages, who never changes. By his teaching we are not only nineteen centuries behind the present age, but we come in at the back of all the ages of human history. If we have but little strength, we mean to let the times and the spirits go where they like; we shall keep to the Holy Spirit and to his eternal teachings.
Supposing that we have not such big heads as some have, and cannot devise or multiply sophisms and inventions as they do, it will be no small thing to be commended at the last, in these terms—‘thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word’. Brother, cling to God’s word; cling to infallible and immutable revelation! Whatever novelty comes up, keep to the word of Jesus! Whatever discovery may be made by the wise men of the age, let Christ be wisdom unto you. Regard the new teachers no more than you would ‘the wise men of Gotham’, for those who oppose themselves to God’s word are fools. Let them cry ‘Lo here! or, lo there!’ but believe them not. Here is your anchorage. The Book is our ultimatum.
FOR MEDITATION: (Our Own Hymn Book no. 669 v. 3—Anne Steele, 1760)
‘Eternal life Thy words impart; on these my fainting spirit lives:
Here sweeter comforts cheer my heart, than all the round of nature gives.’
Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 5), ed. Terence Peter Crosby, (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2010), 11.
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