God Has Called You By The Truth

We must maintain the cause of truth against all comers. “Never get into religious controversies,” one says; that is to say, being interpreted, be a Christian soldier, but let your sword rust in its scabbard, and sneak into heaven like a coward. Such advice I cannot endorse. If God has called you by the truth, maintain the truth, which has been the means of your salvation.

We are not to be pugnacious, always contending for every crotchet of our own; but wherein we have learned the truth of the Holy Spirit, we are not tamely to see that standard torn down which our fathers upheld at peril of their blood. This is an age in which truth must be maintained zealously, vehemently, continually. Playing fast and loose as many do, believing this today and that tomorrow, 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. It seems to me, however, that most of us may best fulfil our responsibility to the gospel by adorning it in our lives. Men give jewels to those whom they love; and so, if we love the gospel, let our virtues be the jewels which shall display our love. A servant girl may adorn the gospel. She goes to a place of worship, and perhaps her irreligious mistress may object to her going. I remember Mr. Jay telling a story of such a case, where the master and mistress had forbidden the girl to attend a Dissenting place of worship. She pleaded very hard, and at last determined to leave the house. The master said to his wife, “Well, you see our servant is a very excellent servant; we never had such an industrious girl as she is everything in the house is kept so orderly, and she is so obedient, and so on. Now, she does not interfere with our consciences, it is a pity we should interfere with hers. Wherever she goes, it certainly does her no harm—why not let her go?” In the next conversation the wife said, “I really think, husband, that our servant receives so much good where she goes, that we had better go and hear for ourselves”; and they were soon members of the very same church which they had thought so lightly of at the first. Now, each of us can in our employment do that. We are not all called to preach in these boxes called pulpits, but we may preach more conveniently and much more powerfully behind the counter or in the drawing room, or in the parlour, or in the field, or wherever else providence may have placed us. Let us endeavour to make men notice what kind of gospel we believe.

God Has Called You By The Truth Gospel

C. H. Spurgeon sermon excerpt “The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God.”