Imitate Jesus In Secret

| April 16, 2014

I leave the point, imitate Jesus in secret. When no eye seeth you except the eye of God, when darkness covers you, when you are shut up from the observation of mortals, even then be ye like Jesus Christ. Remember his ardent piety, his secret devotion—how, after laboriously preaching the whole day, he stole away in the midnight shades to cry for help from his God. Recollect how his entire life was constantly sustained by fresh inspirations of the Holy Spirit, derived by prayer. Take care of your secret life: let it be such that you will not be ashamed to read at the last great day. Your inner life is written in the book of God, and it shall one day be opened before you. If the entire life of some of you were known, it would be no life at all: it would be a death. Yea, even of some true Christians we may say, it is scarce a life. It is a dragging on of an existence—one hasty prayer a day—one breathing, just enough to save our souls alive, but no more. O my brethren strive to be more like Jesus Christ.


Charles Spurgeon




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 1 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 161-2. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 21; Titled: Christ’s People – Imitators of Him; Delivered on Sabbath.
Click here for a free PDF of this sermon. | Listen to this sermon RePreached.

Books by Charles Spurgeon

Kindle Books

Spurgeon’s Works on Logos Bible Software

Biography of Charles Spurgeon

Live As Christians At Home

| April 14, 2014

But most of all take care to have religion in your houses. A religious house is the best proof of true piety. It is not my chapel, it is my house—it is not my minister, is is my home companion—who can best judge me; it is the servant, the child, the wife, the friend, that can discern most of my real character. A good man will improve his household. Rowland Hill once said he would not believe a man to be a true Christian, if his wife, his children, his servants, and even the dog and cat, were not the better for it. That is being religious. If your household is not the better for your Christianity—if men cannot say, “This is a better house than others,” then be not deceived—ye have nothing of the grace of God. Let not your servant, on leaving your employ, say, “Well, this is a queer sort of a religious family, there was no prayer in the morning; I began the day with my drudgery; there was no prayer at night; I was kept at home all the Sabbath day; once a fortnight, perhaps, I was allowed to go out in the afternoon, when there was nowhere to go to where I could hear a gospel sermon; my master and mistress went to a place where of course they heard the blessed gospel of God,—that was all for them; as for me, I might have the dregs and leavings of some over-worked curate in the afternoon.” Surely Christian men will not act in that way. No! Carry out your godliness in your family. Let every one say that you have practical religion. Let it be known and read in the house, as well as in the world. Take care of your character there; for what we are there, we really are. Our life abroad is often but a borrowed part, the actor’s part of a great scene, but at home the vizard is removed, and men are what they seem. Take care of your home duties.


Charles Spurgeon




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 1 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 161. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: Christ’s People – Imitators of Him; Delivered on Sabbath. Click here for a free PDF of this sermon.

Books by Charles Spurgeon

Kindle Books

Spurgeon’s Works on Logos Bible Software

Biography of Charles Spurgeon

Imitate Jesus In Public

| April 11, 2014

My brethren, let me say, be ye like Christ at all times. Imitate him in public. Most of us live in some sort of publicity; many of us are called to work before our fellow men every day. We are watched; our words are caught; our lives are examined—taken to pieces. The eagle-eyed, argus-eyed world observes everything we do; and sharp critics are upon us. Let us live the life of Christ in public. Let us take care that we exhibit our Master, and not ourselves—so that we can say,” It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.” Take heed that you carry this into the church too, you who are church members. Be like Christ in the church. How many there are of you like Diotrephes, seeking pre-eminence. How many are trying to have some dignity and power over their fellow Christians, instead of remembering that it is the fundamental rule of all our churches, that there all men are equal—alike brethren, alike to be received as such. Carry out the spirit of Christ, then, in your churches, wherever ye are; let your fellow members say of you, “He has been with Jesus.”


Charles Spurgeon




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 1 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 161. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: Christ’s People – Imitators of Him; Delivered on Sabbath. Click here for a free PDF of this sermon.

Books by Charles Spurgeon

Kindle Books

Spurgeon’s Works on Logos Bible Software

Biography of Charles Spurgeon

Sunday-Only Christianity

| April 9, 2014

There is an idea in the world that persons ought to be very religious on a Sunday, but that it does not matter what they are on a Monday. How many pious preachers are there on the Sabbath-day, who are very impious preachers during the rest of the week! How many are there who come up to the house of God with a solemn countenance who is in the songs and profess to pray, yet have neither part nor lot in the matter, but are “in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity!” This is true of some of you who are present here. When should a Christian, then, be like Jesus Christ? Is there a time when he may strip off his regimentals—when the warrior may unbuckle his armour, and become like other men? Oh! no; at all times, and in every place let the Christian be what he professes to be.


Charles Spurgeon




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 1 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 160-161. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: Christ’s People – Imitators of Him; Delivered on Sabbath. Click here for a free PDF of this sermon.

Books by Charles Spurgeon

Kindle Books

Spurgeon’s Works on Logos Bible Software

Biography of Charles Spurgeon

Be Like Christ In His Humility

| April 7, 2014

Oh, thou proud Christian, (for though it be paradox there must be some, I think; I would not be so uncharitable as to say that there are not some such persons) if thou art a Christian, I bid thee look at thy Master talking to the children, bending from the majesty of his divinity to speak to mankind on earth, tabernacling with the peasants of Galilee, and then—ay, depth of condescension unparalleled—washing his disciples’ feet, and wiping them with the towel after supper. This is your Master, whom ye profess to worship; this is your Lord, whom ye adore. And ye, some of you who count yourselves Christians, cannot speak to a person who is not dressed in the same kind of clothing as yourselves, who has not exactly as much money per year as you have. In England it is true that a sovereign will not speak to a shilling, and a shilling will not notice a sixpence, and a sixpence will sneer at a penny. But it should not be so with Christians. We ought to forget caste, degree, and rank, when we come into Christ’s church. Recollect, Christian, who your Master was—a man of the poor. He lived with them; he ate with them. And will ye walk with lofty heads and stiff necks, looking with insufferable contempt upon your meaner fellow-worms? What are ye? The meanest of all; because your trickeries and adornments make you proud. Pitiful, despicable souls ye are! How small ye look in God’s sight! Christ was humble; he stooped to do anything which might serve others. He had no pride; he was a humble man, a friend of publicans and sinners, living and walking with them. So, Christian, be thou like thy Master—one who can stoop; yea, be thou one who thinks it no stooping, but rather esteems others better than himself, counts it his honor to sit with the poorest of Christ’s people, and says, “If my name may be but written in the obscurest part of the book of life, it is enough for me, so unworthy am I of his notice!” Be like Christ in his humility.


Charles Spurgeon




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 1 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 160. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: Christ’s People – Imitators of Him; Delivered on Sabbath. Click here for a free PDF of this sermon.

Books by Charles Spurgeon

Kindle Books

Spurgeon’s Works on Logos Bible Software

Biography of Charles Spurgeon

Crab Tree Christians

| April 4, 2014

How many have we in our churches of crab tree Christians, who have mixed such a vast amount of vinegar, and such a tremendous quantity of gall in their constitutions, that they can scarcely speak one good word to you; they imagine it impossible to defend religion except by passionate ebullitions; they cannot speak for their dishonored Master without being angry with their opponent; God if anything is away, whether it be in the house, the church, or anywhere else, they conceive it to be their duty to set their faces like a flint, and to defy everybody. They are like isolated icebergs; no one cares to go near them. They float about on the sea of forgetfulness, until at last they are melted and gone; and though, good souls, we shall be happy enough to meet them in heaven, we are heartily glad to get rid of them from the earth. They were always so unamiable in disposition, that we would rather live an eternity with them in heaven, than five minutes on earth. Be ye not thus, my brethren. Imitate Christ in your loving spirits; speak kindly, act kindly, and do kindly, that men may say of you, “He has been with Jesus.”


Charles Spurgeon




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 1 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 159-160. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: Christ’s People – Imitators of Him; Delivered on Sabbath. Click here for a free PDF of this sermon.

Listen to the audio of this sermon.

Books by Charles Spurgeon

Kindle Books

Spurgeon’s Works on Logos Bible Software

Biography of Charles Spurgeon

Love With The Love Of Jesus

| April 2, 2014

Let us ever imitate the loving Jesus. The child comes to him: he takes it on his knee, saying, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.” A widow has just lost her only son: he weeps at the bier, and with a word restores life to the dead man. He sees a paralytic, a leper, or a man long confined to his bed; he speaks, they rise, and are healed. He lived for others, not for himself. His constant labors were without any motive, except the good of those who lived in the world. And to crown all, ye know the mighty sacrifice he made, when he condescended to lay down his life for man—when on the tree, quivering with agony, and hanging in the utmost extremity of suffering, he submitted to die for our sakes, that we might be saved. Behold in Christ, love consolidated! he was one mighty pillar of benevolence. As God is love, so Christ is love. Oh, ye Christians, be ye loving also. Let your love and your beneficence beam out on all men. Say not, “Be ye warmed, and be ye filled,” but “give a portion to seven, and also to eight.” If ye cannot imitate Howard, and unlock the prison doors—if ye cannot visit the sad house of misery, yet each in your proper sphere speak kind words, do kind actions; live out Christ again in the kindness of your life. If there is one virtue which most commends Christians, it is that of kindness; it is to love the people of God, to love the church, to love the world, to love all.


Charles Spurgeon




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 1 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 159. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: Christ’s People – Imitators of Him; Delivered on Sabbath. Click here for a free PDF of this sermon.

Listen to the audio of this sermon.

Books by Charles Spurgeon

Kindle Books

SPURGEON’S WORKS ON LOGOS BIBLE SOFTWARE

Biography of Charles Spurgeon

Be Bold For Your Master

| March 28, 2014

If ye are the servants of God, be like Jesus Christ, bold for your Master; never blush to own your religion; your profession will never disgrace you; take care you never disgrace that. Your love to Christ will never dishonor you; it may bring some temporary slight from your friends, or slanders from your enemies: but live on, and you shall live down their calumnies; live on and ye shall stand amongst the glorified, honored even by those who hissed you, when he shall come to be glorified by his angels, and admired by them that love him. Be like Jesus, very valiant for your God; so that when they shall see your boldness, they may say, “He has been with Jesus.”




Charles Spurgeon




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 1 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 159. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: Christ’s People – Imitators of Him; Delivered on Sabbath. Click here for a free PDF of this sermon.

Listen to the audio of this sermon.

Books by Charles Spurgeon

Kindle Books

SPURGEON’S WORKS ON LOGOS BIBLE SOFTWARE

Biography of Charles Spurgeon

Ever Striving Towards the Goal

| March 26, 2014

I do not, when I say that a believer should be a striking likeness of Jesus, suppose that any one Christian will perfectly exhibit all the features of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; yet my brethren, the fact that perfection is beyond our reach, should not diminish the ardour of our desire after it. The artist, when he paints, knows right well that he shall not be able to excel Apelles; but that does not discourage him; he uses his brush with all the greater pains, that he may at least in some humble measure resemble the great master. So the sculptor; though persuaded that he will not rival Praxiteles, will hew out the marble still, and seek to be as near the model as possible. Just so the Christian man; though he feels he never can mount to the height of complete excellence, and perceives that he never can on earth become the exact image of Christ, still holds it up before him, and measures his own deficiencies by the distance between himself and Jesus. This will he do, forgetting all he has attained, he will press forward, crying, Excelsior! going upwards still, desiring to be conformed more and more to the image of Christ Jesus.




Charles Spurgeon




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 1 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 158. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: Christ’s People – Imitators of Him; Delivered on Sabbath Morning, April 29, 1855. Click here for a free PDF of this sermon.

Listen to the audio of this sermon.

Books by Charles Spurgeon

Kindle Books

Spurgeon’s Works on Logos Bible Software

Biography of Charles Spurgeon

Constraining Grace

| March 24, 2014

It will be necessary to premise, that when we here affirm that men should be such and such a thing, we refer to the people of God. We do not wish to speak to them in any legal way. We are not under the law, but under grace. Christian men hold themselves bound to keep all God’s precepts: but the reason why they do so is, not because the law is binding upon them, but because the gospel constrains them: they believe, that having been redeemed by blood divine; having been purchased by Jesus Christ, they are more bound to keep his commands than they would have been if they were under the law; they hold themselves to be ten thousand-fold more debtors to God, than they could have been under the Mosaic dispensation. Not of force; not of compulsion; not through fear of the whip; not through legal bondage; but through pure, disinterested love and gratitude to God, they lay themselves out for his service, seeking to be Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile. This much I have declared lest any man should think that I am preaching works as the way to salvation; I will yield to none in this. That I will ever maintain—that by grace we are saved, and not by ourselves; but equally must I testify, that where the grace of God is, it will produce fitting deeds. To these I am ever bound to exhort you, while ye are ever expected to have good works for necessary purposes.


Charles Spurgeon




The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 1 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1855), 158. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 20; Titled: Christ’s People – Imitators of Him; Delivered on Sabbath Click here for a free PDF of this sermon.

Listen to the audio of this sermon.

Books by Charles Spurgeon

Kindle Books

Biography of Charles Spurgeon