Every Man To His Post

War will always rage between the two great sovereignties until one or other be crushed. Peace between good and evil is impossibility; the very pretence of it would, in fact, be the triumph of the powers of darkness. . .

Glory be to God, we know the end of the war. The great dragon shall be cast out and for ever destroyed, while Jesus and they who are with Him shall receive the crown. Let us sharpen our swords tonight, and pray to the Holy Spirit to nerve our arms for conflict. Every man to his post, ye warriors of the cross, and may the Lord tread Satan under your feet shortly!

-- Charles Spurgeon

HT: Defcon

Spurgeon on Postmodernism: Stand Fast for the Truth

This is an age in which truth must be maintained zealously, vehemently, continually. Playing fast and loose as many do, believing this to-day and that to-morrow, is the sure mark of children of wrath; but having received the truth, to hold fast the very form of it, as Paul bids Timothy to do, is one of the duties of heirs of heaven. Stand fast for truth, and may God give the victory to the faithful.

We must believe the gospel and maintain it, for it is committed to our trust.

-- Charles Spurgeon

HT: Pyromaniacs

Break the Neck of the Donkey? What's That All About?

The inestimable Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon expounds the Gospel where one might not expect to find it -- in the Old Testament law of sacrifice.

"THE FIRSTBORN OF A DONKEY YOU SHALL REDEEM WITH A LAMB, OR IF YOU WILL NOT REDEEM IT YOU SHALL BREAK ITS NECK." Exodus 34:20

Every firstborn creature must be the Lord's; but since the donkey was unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice. What then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means. God allows for no exceptions. The donkey is His due, but He will not accept it; He will not void the claim, but yet He cannot be pleased with the victim. As a result, no way of escape remained but redemption-the creature must be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die. My soul, here is a lesson for you.

That unclean animal is you. You are justly the property of the Lord who made you and preserves you, but you are so sinful that God will not, cannot, accept you; and it has come to this-the Lamb of God must stand in your place or you must die eternally. Let all the world know of your gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for you and so redeemed you from the fatal curse of the law.

Oh, the wonderful truth that indeed, Christ is in all the Scriptures! (Luke 24:27)

Unity in Truth: Spurgeon in Agreement with Luther

Martin Luther said, "It is better to be divided by truth than united by error."

Evidently Charles Spurgeon agreed:

"Where union and friendship are not cemented by truth, I say it again, we must have unity, we must pray for unity, we must love one another, we must never divide over incidentals but it is far, far, far better to be divided by truth than united in error."

Our Sovereign God

From the unsurpassed pen of Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon comes these wonderfully comforting and sobering words for God's own chosen ones:

"There is no attribute more comforting to His children, than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials--they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend, than the doctrine of their Master over all creation--the kingship of God over all the works of His own hands--the throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne.

On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football--as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine, of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere, except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne--then His creatures gnash their teeth!

We proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter. Then it is, that we are hissed and execrated; and then it is, that men turn a deaf ear to us--for God on His throne--is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne, whom we trust!"

(HT: Grace Gems)

"The Devil Hates Goose Quills"

In today's post, Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon beseeches us to work against those who seek to restore false religion among us. He also reminds us that the pen is more powerful than the sword.

Are we using our pens for the cause of truth?

Are we speaking out against those working to restore false religion among us?

"If the man who rebuilt Jericho was cursed, how much more does the man who works to restore false religion among us deserve the same. In our fathers' days the gigantic walls of false religion fell by the power of their faith, the perseverance of their efforts, and the blast of their gospel trumpets; and now there are some who would like to rebuild those false systems upon their old foundations. Lord, we pray, be pleased to thwart these unrighteous endeavors, and pull down every stone that they build. It should be a serious business with us to be thoroughly purged of every error that tends to foster the spirit of falsehood, and when we have made a clean sweep at home we should seek in every way to oppose its all too rapid spread abroad in the church and in the world.

This we may accomplish only in secret by fervent prayer and in public by faithful witness. We must warn with judicious boldness those who are inclined toward the errors of false religion; we must instruct the young in gospel truth and tell them of the dark doings of falsehood in earlier times. We must assist in spreading the light more thoroughly through the land, for false teachers, like owls, hate daylight. Are we doing all we can for Jesus and the Gospel? If not, our negligence plays into the hands of the heretics. What are we doing to spread the Bible, which is the antidote to falsehood? Are we sending out good, sound gospel writings?

Luther once said, "The devil hates goose quills," and, no doubt, he has good reason; the writer's pen blessed by the Holy Spirit has damaged his evil kingdom greatly. If the thousands who read this short word tonight will do all they can to hinder the rebuilding of this accursed Jericho, the Lord's glory shall spread quickly among the sons of men. Reader, what can you do? What will you do?"

(HT: Truth for Life)

Hug No Traitor To Thy Bosom

Listen to the words of Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Christian leaders, so-called, who gut the Gospel of its meaning, and then turn around and ask us to tolerate them in "charity:"

They believe in Christ, but it is a Christ without his crown, his atonement, his judgment-seat, or even his Godhead. They mock us with orthodox phrases, from which the essential truth is gone. They pretend that they believe in the atonement, and when we listen to their atonement we find that it does not effectually atone for anyone. It is a mere fiction, and not a fact. It saves nobody, but is a mere sham.

They have eviscerated the gospel, and then they hold up the empty carcass, and claim that they are Christians still. Christians who have murdered Christianity! Believers who doubt whether there is anything to be believed! Yet we are entreated in our charity to hug such traitors to our bosom. We shall do nothing of the kind. We would sooner believe in infidels outright than in those who pretend to be Christians and are infidels at heart.

C.H. Spurgeon, "Recruits for King Jesus," a sermon preached at the Met Tab on Sunday evening, 17 February 1884.

(HT: Pyromaniacs)

"Those Who Slay the Doctrines"

As a word fitly spoken, I commend to you the following from the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

"Men fancy that their minds are their own, and that they may do what they will with them, thinking and believing as their conceit suggests. But who gave them a release from the authority of God as to this part of their nature? True, they are not bound by the opinions of their fellow-men; but does this give them a dispensation from the supremacy of God? There are revealed truths: have we license to receive or reject them at our pleasure? If we set up our own conceptions as equal or superior to the teachings of the Holy Spirit, are we justified in so doing? One would fancy from the talk of the wiseacres of the [current] period that God did not know his own mind when he wrote the Scriptures, or that, like the old almanac, divine revelation is out of date, and superseded by 'modern thought.'

Doctrinal laxity has led to moral license: professors now wander in ways which their sober forefathers would have shuddered at. They will soon be given over to return to the old idolatries of Rome, since they are growing weary of the grand truths of Protestantism. Falsehoods of belief are fitly followed by superstitions in ritual: those who slay the doctrines are not ashamed to mangle the ordinances. We wonder what next, and next!

O Lord, I am willing to be thought a simpleton for believing as reformers, confessors, and martyrs believed, and as thy word teaches. Do not allow me to be blind to thy truth, lest I stumble in my daily life, and become scandalous as well as heretical."

C.H. Spurgeon, "Flowers from a Puritan's Garden," (Sprinkle Publications, 1997) pp. 276-77.

Spurgeon on Depressions of Spirit

"I am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to, but I always get back again by this-I know I trust Christ. I have no reliance but in him, and if he falls I shall fall with him, but if he does not, I shall not. Because he lives, I shall live also, and I spring to my legs again and fight with my depressions of spirit and my down castings, and get the victory through it; and so may you do, and so you must, for there is no other way of escaping from it. In your most depressed seasons you are to get joy and peace through believing."

(HT: Pyromaniacs)

Willing to Believe Anything -- Except The Bible

The incomparable Charles Spurgeon (he of the dead white preachers) hits the nail squarely on the head in discussing the unbelief of our postmodern friends, as it was given expression in Spurgeon's day:

The [post]moderns are able to believe anything except their Bibles. They credulously receive any statement, so long as it is not in the Scriptures; but if it is founded on Scripture, they are, of course, prepared to doubt and quibble and cavil straight away.

Hmmm. Sounds familiar. Same old unbelief, just different words.