Spurgeons Gems 6170

Spurgeons Gems 6170

Preface

For more than a century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s works have been consistently recognized, and their usefulness and impact have continued to the present day, even in the outdated English of the author’s own day.

Why then should expositions already so successful and of such stature and proven usefulness require adaptation, revision, rewrite or even editing? The answer is obvious. To increase its usefulness to today’s reader, the language in which it was originally written needs updating.

Though his writings have served other generations well, just as they came from the pen of the author in the nineteenth century, they still could be lost to present and future generations, simply because, to them, the language is neither readily nor fully understandable.

My goal, however, has not been to reduce the original writing to the vernacular of our day. It is designed primarily for you who desire to read and study comfortably and at ease in the language of our time. Obviously archaic terminology and passages obscured by expressions not totally familiar in our day have been revised. However, neither Spurgeon’s meaning nor intent have been tampered with. Some may take exception with any alteration of the manuscript, however I am more concerned that the modern reader be able to benefit from the work without being obstructed by unnecessary difficulties. No substantive or doctrinal alterations have been made. I feel quite certain that if Spurgeon were alive today, he would speak the language used today.

Tony Capoccia

All Scripture references are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1978 by the New York Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Spurgeon’s Gems #61 – #70 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Gem #61 – God’s Spirit and Man’s Spirit

God’s Holy Spirit and man’s sin cannot live together peacefully; they may both be in the same heart, but they cannot both reign there, nor can they both be quiet there; for “the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature;” they cannot rest, instead there will be a perpetual warring in the soul, so that the Christian will have to cry, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” But in due time: the Spirit will drive out all sin, and will present us blameless before the throne of his Majesty with exceeding great joy.

Gem #62 – Heresy

The boasted power of man’s reason has not changed in the last one hundred and fifty years! It has piled up one thing, and then on another day it has laughed at its own handiwork, demolished its own castle, and constructed another, and the next day a third. It has a thousand dresses. Once it came out dressed like a fool with its bells, heralded by Voltaire; then it came out a bragging bully, like Tom Paine; then it changed its course, and assumed another shape, until finally, we have it in the base, bestial secularism of the present day, which looks only at the earth, keeps its nose upon the ground, and like the beast, thinks this world is enough; or looks for another world by seeking this one.

Why, before one hair on his head shall turn gray, the last secularist shall have passed away; before many of us are fifty years of age, a new heresy shall come. They will have altered their name, assumed a fresh shape, put on a new form of evil, but still their nature will be the same; opposing Christ, and endeavoring to blaspheme His truths. On all their systems of religion, or non-religion–for that is a system too–it may be written “Transient; fading as the flower, fleeting as the meteor, frail and unreal as a vapor.” But of Christ’s religion, it shall be said, “His name shall endure forever.”

Gem #63 – Worldly Flavors

You know, when we have been taking some kind of medicine, and our mouth has been impregnated with a strong flavor, whatever we eat acquires that taste. You have got your mouth out of taste by taking in some of the world’s delicacies; you have some of the powder of the pastries of Sodom hanging on your lips, that spoils the glorious flavor of your meditation on Jesus. In fact, it prevents you from meditating on Christ at all. It is only a hearing of the meditation with your ear; not a receiving of it with your hearts.

Gem #64 – Warning of Judgment

Warn the boater before he enters the current, and then, if he is swept down the rapids, he destroys himself. Warn the man before he drinks the cup of poison, tell him it is deadly: and then, if he drinks it, his death lies at his own door. And so, let us warn you before you depart this life; let us preach to you while as yet your bones are full of marrow, and the sinews of your joints are still fastened.

Gem #65 – The Man Without the Spirit

Friend, you don’t have the Spirit. You are nothing better–whatever you are, or whatever you may be–than the fall of Adam left you. That is to say, you are a fallen creature, having only capacities to live here in sin, and to live forever in torment; but you don’t have the capacity to live in heaven at all, for you have no Spirit; and therefore you are unable to know or enjoy spiritual things. And mark this, a man may be in this state, and be a carnal man, and yet he may have all the virtues that could grace a Christian; but with all these, if he doesn’t have the Spirit, he has not advanced an inch further than where Adam’s fall left him–that is, condemned and under the curse.

Yes, and he may practice religion with all his might–he may share in the Lord’s Supper and be baptized, and may be the most devout person in church; but if he does not have the Spirit he has not moved a solitary inch from where he was, for he is still in “the bonds of sin,” a lost soul.

Further, he may pick up religious phrases until he talks very fast about religion; he may read biographies until he seems to be a deeply taught child of God; he may be able to write an article upon the deep experience of a believer; but if this experience is not his own, if he has not received it by the Spirit of the living God, he is still nothing more than a carnal man, and heaven is to him a place to which there is no entrance.

Further, he might go so far as to become a minister of the gospel, and a successful minister too, and God may bless the word that he preaches to the salvation of sinners, but unless he has received the Spirit, be he as eloquent as Apollos, and as earnest as Paul, he is nothing more than a mere man, without a capacity for spiritual things.

No, to top it all, he might even have the power of working miracles, as Judas had–he might even be received into the Church as a believer, as was Simon Magus, and after all that, though he had cast out devils, though he had healed the sick, though he had worked miracles, he might have the gates of heaven shut in his face, if he had not received the Spirit. For this is the most important thing, without which all others are in vain–the receiving of the Spirit of the living God.

Gem #66 – Alone with Christ

Some persons say they cannot bear to spend one hour in quiet solitude; they have nothing to do, nothing to think about. No Christian will ever talk like that, surely; for if I can but give him one word to think of–Christ–let him spell that over forever; let me give him the word Jesus, and only let him try to think it over, and he shall find that an hour is not enough, and that eternity is not half enough time to utter our glorious Savior’s praise.

Gem #67 – Showers of Blessings

When God sends rain upon the church, He “sends showers of blessings.” There are some ministers who think, that if there is a shower on their church, God will send a shower of work. Yes, but if He does, He will send a shower of comfort. Others think that God will send a shower of gospel truth. Yes, but if He sends that, He will send a shower of gospel holiness. For all God’s blessings go together. They are like the sweet sister graces that danced hand in hand. God sends showers of blessings. If He gives comforting grace, He will also give converting grace; if He makes the trumpet of judgment blow for the bankrupt sinner, He will also make it sound a shout of joy for the sinner that is pardoned and forgiven. He will send “showers of blessings”

Gem #68 – The Outpouring of the Spirit

The hour is coming, and it may even be now, when the Holy Spirit shall be poured out again in such a wonderful manner, that many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased–the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the surface of the great deep; when His kingdom shall come, and His will shall be done on earth even as it is in heaven. We are not going to be dragging on forever like Pharaoh, with the wheels off his chariot. My heart exults, and my eyes flash with the thought that very likely I shall live to see the out-pouring of the Spirit; when “the sons and the daughters of God again shall prophesy, and the young men shall see visions, and the old men shall dream dreams.” Perhaps there shall be no miraculous gifts for they will not be required; but yet there shall be such a miraculous amount of holiness, such an extraordinary fervor of prayer, such a real communion with God, and so much vital religion, and such a spread of the doctrines of the cross, that every one will see that truly the Spirit is poured out like water, and the rains are descending from above. For that let us pray; let us continually work for it, and seek it of God.

Gem #69 – Controlling Evil Thoughts

My thoughts will sometimes fly up to God with such a power that eagles’ wings cannot match it. It sometimes has such might that it can almost see the King in His beauty, and the land which is very far off. With regard to myself, my thoughts will sometimes; take me over the gates of iron, across that infinite unknown, to the very gates of pearl, and discovers the glorified Blessed One.

But, if it is powerful one way, it is another: for my thoughts have taken me down to the vilest gutters and sewers of the earth. It has given me imaginations so dreadful, that, while I could not avoid them, yet I was thoroughly horrified at them. These thoughts will come; and when I feel in the holiest condition, the most devoted to God, and the most earnest in prayer, it often happens that that is the very time when the plague breaks out the worst.

But I rejoice and think of one thing, that I can cry out when these thoughts come upon me. I know it is said in the Book of Leviticus, when someone committed an immoral act of evil against a virgin, if the maiden cried out for someone to help her, then her life was to be spared. So it is with the Christian. If he cries out when evil thoughts come, there is hope. Can you chain your thoughts? No; but the power of the Holy Spirit can. Yes, He shall do it! and He does it even on the earth.

Gem #70 – The Call of Salvation

Once I, like Mazeppa, tied to the wild horse of my lust, tied hand and foot, incapable of resistance, was galloping on with hell’s wolves behind me, howling for my body and my soul, as their just and lawful prey. There came a mighty hand which stopped that wild horse, cut my ropes, set me down, and gave me freedom. Is there power? Yes, there is power; and he who has felt it, must acknowledge it.

There was a time when I lived in the strong old castle of my sins, and rested on my works. There came a trumpeter to the door, and begged me to open it. I with anger chased him from the porch, and said he would never enter. There came a glorious person, with loving countenance; His hands were marked with scars, where nails were driven, and His feet had nail prints too; He lifted up His cross, using it as a hammer; at the first blow the gate of my prejudice shook; at the second it trembled more, at the third down it fell, and in He came; and He said, “Get up, and stand on your feet, for I have loved you with an everlasting love.”

Tony Capoccia BIBLE BULLETIN BOARD MODEM (318)-949-1456 BOX 130 300/1200/2400/9600/19200/38400 DS HST

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