I was having a conversation with a beloved friend which brought to mind some of the most inspiring quotes I ever recall hearing. They were quotes which appeared at the end of Part 5 of John MacArthur's "Does the Truth Matter Anymore?" series that he did for Cross TV several years ago. I suppose they would and should inspire all believers; but they seem to me to speak to a man's heart in a very powerful way and felt they were well worth posting:
“We must never hide our colors. There are times when we must dash to the front and court the encounter, when we see that our Captain’s honor demands it. Let us never be either ashamed or afraid. Our Lord Jesus deserves that we should yield ourselves as willing sacrifices in defense of his faith. Ease, reputation, life itself, must go for the name and faith of Jesus.
If in the heat of the battle our good name or our life must be risked to win the victory, then let us say: “in this battle some of us must fall; why should not I’. I will take part and lot with my Master; and bear reproach for His sake. Only brave soldiers are worthy of our great Lord. Those who sneak into the rear, that they may be comfortable, are not worthy of the Kingdom…”
“Brethren, we must be willing to bear ridicule for Christ’s sake, even that peculiarly envenomed ridicule which “the cultured: are so apt to pour upon us. We must be willing to be thought great fools for Jesus sake…For my part, I am willing to be ten thousand fools in one for my dear Lord and Master; and count it to be the highest honor, that can be put upon me, to be stripped of every honor and loaded with every censure for the sake of the grand old truth which is written on my very heart. Before I could quit my faith…I should have to be ground to powder, and every separate atom transformed.”
“Everybody admires Luther! Yes, Yes; but you do not want anyone else to do the same as Luther today. When you go to the zoo you all admire the bear; but how would you like a bear at home, or a bear wondering loose about the streets? You tell me that it would be unbearable, and no doubt you are right.
So, we admire a man who was firm in the faith…as long as it was four hundred years ago. The past ages are a sort of bear-pit or iron cage for him; but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one. Yet imagine if in those ages past, Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, and their peers has said, ‘The world is out of order, but if we try to set it right we shall only cause a great disturbance, and we will only get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night caps, and sleep through the hard times. Perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better.’ Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have gone down into the internal deeps of doctrinal error, and (by our day) would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on.
Make note of what we owe them, and let us pay to our sons the debt we owe our fathers.”
“It is today, as it was in the times of the reformation: decision is needed. Here is a day for the man, where is the man for the day? We who have had the Gospel passed to us by martyr’s hands dare not trifle with it (nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it. The faith I hold bears upon it marks of the blood of my ancestors. Shall I deny their faith for which they left their native land to sojourn here? Should we cast away the treasure which was handed to us through the bars of prisons, or came to us charred with the flames of those burned at the stake in Smithfield?
Personally, when my bones have been tortured with rheumatism, I have remembered Job Spurgeon (relative of Charles) doubtless of my own stock, who in Chelmsford jail was allowed a chair; because he could not lie down by reason of rheumatic pain.
That Quaker’s broad brim overshadows my brow. Perhaps I inherited his rheumatism; but that I do not regret, if I have his stubborn faith, which will not let me yield a syllable of the Truth of God. When I think of how others have suffered for the faith, a little scorn or unkindness seems a mere trifle, not worthy of mention. Having so many ancestors who were lovers of the faith before us, ought to be a great plea with us to ourselves to abide by the Lord God of our fathers, and the faith in which they lived.
As for me, I must hold the old Gospel. I can do no other. God helping me, I will endure the consequences of what men think in obstinacy. Look you, sirs, there are ages to come. If the Lord does not speedily appear; there will come another generation, and another, and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to His truth today. We have come to a turning point in the road.
If we turn to the right, perhaps our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generation yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word. I charge you, not only by your ancestry, but by your posterity (on behalf of your children and your children’s children) that you seek to win the commendation of your Master; that though you dwell where Satan’s seat is, you yet hold fast His name, and do not deny His faith. God grant us faithfulness for the sake of the souls around us!”
“…yet, surely, there must be some who will fling aside the cowardly love of peace, and speak out for our Lord, and for His Truth. A craven spirit is upon many and their tongues are paralyzed. Oh, for an outburst of true faith and holy zeal!”
“How is the world to be saved if the church is false to her Lord? How are we to lift the masses if our fulcrum is removed? If our Gospel is uncertain, what remains but increasing misery and despair?”
“Stand fast, my beloved, in the name of God! I, your brother in Christ, entreat you to abide in the Truth. Handle yourselves like men! Be strong! And may the Lord sustain you…for Jesus sake. Amen”
“Dear Friends, this name, this faith, these are our message. Our only business here below is to cry, ‘Behold the Lamb.’. Are any of you sent of God with any other message? It cannot be. The one message which God has given to His people to proclaim is salvation through the Lamb. Salvation by the blood of Jesus…To tell of Jesus is our occupation. We have nothing to say which is not comprised in the revelation made to us by God in Jesus Christ. He who is our comfort is our theme.”
C.H. Spurgeon
“We must never hide our colors. There are times when we must dash to the front and court the encounter, when we see that our Captain’s honor demands it. Let us never be either ashamed or afraid. Our Lord Jesus deserves that we should yield ourselves as willing sacrifices in defense of his faith. Ease, reputation, life itself, must go for the name and faith of Jesus.
If in the heat of the battle our good name or our life must be risked to win the victory, then let us say: “in this battle some of us must fall; why should not I’. I will take part and lot with my Master; and bear reproach for His sake. Only brave soldiers are worthy of our great Lord. Those who sneak into the rear, that they may be comfortable, are not worthy of the Kingdom…”
“Brethren, we must be willing to bear ridicule for Christ’s sake, even that peculiarly envenomed ridicule which “the cultured: are so apt to pour upon us. We must be willing to be thought great fools for Jesus sake…For my part, I am willing to be ten thousand fools in one for my dear Lord and Master; and count it to be the highest honor, that can be put upon me, to be stripped of every honor and loaded with every censure for the sake of the grand old truth which is written on my very heart. Before I could quit my faith…I should have to be ground to powder, and every separate atom transformed.”
“Everybody admires Luther! Yes, Yes; but you do not want anyone else to do the same as Luther today. When you go to the zoo you all admire the bear; but how would you like a bear at home, or a bear wondering loose about the streets? You tell me that it would be unbearable, and no doubt you are right.
So, we admire a man who was firm in the faith…as long as it was four hundred years ago. The past ages are a sort of bear-pit or iron cage for him; but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one. Yet imagine if in those ages past, Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, and their peers has said, ‘The world is out of order, but if we try to set it right we shall only cause a great disturbance, and we will only get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night caps, and sleep through the hard times. Perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better.’ Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have gone down into the internal deeps of doctrinal error, and (by our day) would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on.
Make note of what we owe them, and let us pay to our sons the debt we owe our fathers.”
“It is today, as it was in the times of the reformation: decision is needed. Here is a day for the man, where is the man for the day? We who have had the Gospel passed to us by martyr’s hands dare not trifle with it (nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it. The faith I hold bears upon it marks of the blood of my ancestors. Shall I deny their faith for which they left their native land to sojourn here? Should we cast away the treasure which was handed to us through the bars of prisons, or came to us charred with the flames of those burned at the stake in Smithfield?
Personally, when my bones have been tortured with rheumatism, I have remembered Job Spurgeon (relative of Charles) doubtless of my own stock, who in Chelmsford jail was allowed a chair; because he could not lie down by reason of rheumatic pain.
That Quaker’s broad brim overshadows my brow. Perhaps I inherited his rheumatism; but that I do not regret, if I have his stubborn faith, which will not let me yield a syllable of the Truth of God. When I think of how others have suffered for the faith, a little scorn or unkindness seems a mere trifle, not worthy of mention. Having so many ancestors who were lovers of the faith before us, ought to be a great plea with us to ourselves to abide by the Lord God of our fathers, and the faith in which they lived.
As for me, I must hold the old Gospel. I can do no other. God helping me, I will endure the consequences of what men think in obstinacy. Look you, sirs, there are ages to come. If the Lord does not speedily appear; there will come another generation, and another, and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to His truth today. We have come to a turning point in the road.
If we turn to the right, perhaps our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generation yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word. I charge you, not only by your ancestry, but by your posterity (on behalf of your children and your children’s children) that you seek to win the commendation of your Master; that though you dwell where Satan’s seat is, you yet hold fast His name, and do not deny His faith. God grant us faithfulness for the sake of the souls around us!”
“…yet, surely, there must be some who will fling aside the cowardly love of peace, and speak out for our Lord, and for His Truth. A craven spirit is upon many and their tongues are paralyzed. Oh, for an outburst of true faith and holy zeal!”
“How is the world to be saved if the church is false to her Lord? How are we to lift the masses if our fulcrum is removed? If our Gospel is uncertain, what remains but increasing misery and despair?”
“Stand fast, my beloved, in the name of God! I, your brother in Christ, entreat you to abide in the Truth. Handle yourselves like men! Be strong! And may the Lord sustain you…for Jesus sake. Amen”
“Dear Friends, this name, this faith, these are our message. Our only business here below is to cry, ‘Behold the Lamb.’. Are any of you sent of God with any other message? It cannot be. The one message which God has given to His people to proclaim is salvation through the Lamb. Salvation by the blood of Jesus…To tell of Jesus is our occupation. We have nothing to say which is not comprised in the revelation made to us by God in Jesus Christ. He who is our comfort is our theme.”
C.H. Spurgeon
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