Attitudes of a Believer according to Jésus (and Spurgeon)

It's been a long time since I last blogged. If you're reading this, I must tell you this very important thing: there are great blogs out there, why are you reading mine? You now understand my lack of blogging.


With that being said, I've just read some vital gospel-verses and HAD to share them with you.


This is what I read (from the mouth of Jesus):

"But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the [Pharisee]. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18.13-14)

I don't know if lights are going on in your mind. But tonight, as I read this, something clicked. "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" If you are a believer, do you talk to God that way? Frankly, I rarely do. But Jesus' comments are devastating for those of us who do not say: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"
Why is that? Because, Jesus goes on to say: "this man went down to his house justified (right with God), but not the Pharisee." Do you see how crucial it is that we have this kind of attitude? We must realize that God would be just to punish us with eternal hell for our sins. That is what we deserve. Only when we realize this and cry out to God in anguish: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" can we be washed clean, justified by our merciful Judge.


I pray that Jesus' words alone would convince you. But since I just recently read a sermon by Charles.H. Spurgeon, I thought I would quote him.

"As we read in history of one who was met with a pardon just when the rope was round his neck, just so does God deal with poor souls; when they feel the rope about their necks, acknowledge that God's sentence is just, and confess that if they perish they cannot complain, it is then that sovereign mercy steps in and cries, "I have blotted out like a cloud thine iniquities, and like a thick cloud; thy sins which are many are all forgiven thee."

Books, Where and When I Read Them

As I was going through the routines common to all men, I had a laugh. I really have books everywhere. It's almost obsessive compulsive. I'm not sure what is the limit, but you can tell me.


Francis Schaeffer's Christian Manifesto in the bathroom. Alcorn's Purity Principle in my school bag. The Deliberate Church, The Power of Mentoring, Mornings and Evenings (Dever/Alexander, Martin Sanders and Charles Spurgeon) at my bedside.
A New Testament in my coat pocket, a cheap Bible (1€50) always at hand and various books by John Piper can be found everywhere (did I mention how much I loved God is the Gospel?). From my bedroom, to the top of the stairs, the door and everywhere in between (almost), you can find books. Then there are the newspapers and magazines.


Most evenings, as I crawl into bed, I'm too tired to even read the growing pile of books. On top of all that, there are many books that BLF asks me to evaluate (and I gladly do). I recently read Vintage Jesus AND Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. Both were good.

Some More Spurgeon Treasures!

Most Spurgeon fans would kill to get the books I just received as a gift. My grandfather is clearing out his attic and found Spurgeon's Autobiography in 4 volumes. I have a hard time believing that they could be as old as the title page says. They are all late 1890's!

You've got to feel sorry for the person who gave the books to my grandfather as a gift. They've collected dust and I may be the first to read them. For such old books, they're in great condition! That is why I'm still dubious on their age. 

I like biographies and I like the originals, more so when they're about men like Charles Spurgeon! I just don't know when I'll get around to reading the books. Until I do, you can all be jealous of me…

Supposing Him to be the Gardener #8: Suffering, difficulties and bereavement final

Continued from my reading. Final post on suffering in Spurgeon's sermon. This is also the final quote from his sermon. I hope you've found these small digestible quotes an encouragement to your life and ministry.

"I sat with my friend and secretary in that garden some fifteen days ago, and we were then in perfect health, rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord. We returned home, and within five days I was smitten with disabling pain; and worse, far worse than that, he was called upon to lose his wife. We said to one another as we sat there reading the word of God and meditating, "How happy we are! Dare we think of being so happy? Must it not speedily end?" I little thought I should have to say for him, "Alas, my brother, thou art brought very low, for the delight of thine eyes is taken from thee." But here is our comfort: the Lord hath done it. The best rose in the garden is gone. Who has taken it? The gardener came this way and gathered it. He planted it and watched over it, and now he has taken it. Is not this most natural? Does anybody weep because of that? No; everybody knows that it is right, and according to the order of nature that he should come and gather the best in the garden. If you are sore troubled by the loss of your beloved, yet dry your grief by supposing him to be the gardener." Kiss the hand that has wrought you such grief? Brethren beloved, remember the next time the Lord comes to your part of the garden, and he may do so within the next week, he will only gather his own flowers, and would you prevent his doing so even if you could?"

Page 23-24, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Previous Spurgeon entries:
Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#3)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener #7: Suffering, difficulties and bereavement continued

Continued from my reading. Second of three posts on suffering.

"I am persuaded that the Lord hath done nothing amiss to any one of his people; that no child of his can rightly complain that he has been whipped with too much severity; and that no one branch of the vine can truthfully declare that it has been pruned with too sharp an edge. No; what the Lord has done is the best that could have been done, the very thing that you and I, if we could have possessed infinite wisdom and love, would have wished to have done; therefore let us stop each thought of murmuring, and say, "The Lord hath done it," and be glad."

Page 23, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Previous Spurgeon entries:
Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#3)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener #6: Suffering, difficulties and bereavement

Continued from my reading. I hesitated before posting this. I know many that are suffering this very instant and I am in no way dismissing them. But still supposing Jesus to be the gardener, can we complain of our sufferings?

"The Lord has been pruning you sharply, cutting off your best boughs, and you seem to be like a thing despised that is constantly tormented with the knife. Yes, but "supposing him to be the gardener," suppose that your loving Lord has wrought it all, that from his own hand all your grief has come, every cut, and every gash, and every slip: does not this alter the case? Hath not the Lord done it? Well, then, if it be so, put your finger to your lip and be quiet, until you are able from your heart to say, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord.""

Page 23, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Previous Spurgeon entries:
Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#3)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener #5: Regarding succession of leadership

Continued from my reading. Still supposing Jesus to be the gardener, must we worry when key people of our ministries leave? It's a rather long quote, but its worth the read for those who take the time. Remember, read out loud. It's beautiful.

"And then, again, there is that succession in the garden which we can not keep up. Plants will die down, and others must be put into their places or the garden will grow bare, but we know not where to find these fresh flowers. We say, "When yonder good man dies who will succeed him?" That is a question I have heard many a time, till I am rather weary of it. Who is to follow such a man? Let us wait till he is gone and needs following. Why sell the man's coat when he can wear it himself? We are apt to think when this race of good brethren shalt die of it that none will arise worthy to unloose the latchets of their shoes. Well, friend, I could suppose a great many things, but this morning my text is, "Supposing him to be the gardener," and on that supposition I expect that the Lord has other plants in reserve which you have not yet, seen, and these wilt exactly fit into our places when they become empty, and the Lord will keep up the true apostolical succession till the day or his second advent. In every time of darkness and dismay, when the heart sinks and the spirits decline, and we think it is all over with the church of God, let us fall back on this, "Supposing him to be the gardener," and expect to see greater and better things than these. We are at the end of our wits, but he is not at the beginning of his yet: we are nonplussed, but he never will be; therefore let us wait and be tranquil, "supposing him to be the gardener."

Page 21, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Previous Spurgeon entries:
Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#3)

Remarkable Spurgeon: Supposing Him to be the Gardener #4

Continued from my reading. A quote from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon. This one speaks of working without seeing fruit.

"While this relieves us of anxiety it makes labor for Christ very sweet, because if the garden does not seem to repay us for our trouble we say to ourselves, "It is not, my garden after all. 'Supposing him to be the gardener,' I am quite willing to work on a barren piece of rock, or tie up an old withered bough, or dig a worthless sod; for, if it only pleases Jesus, the work is for that one sole reason profitable to the last degree. It is not mine to question the wisdom of my task, but to set about it in the name of my Master and Lord. 'Supposing him to be the gardener,' lifts the ponderous responsibility of it from me, and my work becomes pleasant and delightful."

Page 20, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Previous Spurgeon entries:
Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#3)

Remarkable Spurgeon Sermons to be continued

Spurgeon quotes have ceased all of a sudden (last week). This will be remedied as soon as this weekend is over. I've finished reading the first sermon, "Supposing Him to be the gardener" and found it good. Have several more passages I want you to read. The best thing of course is just to read the whole sermon. You can find it on the previous Spurgeon posts of my blog.

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#3)

Continued from my reading. A quote from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon.

"Supposing him to be the gardener," there is another duty, and that is, let each one of us yield himself up entirely to him. A plant does not know how it ought to be treated; it knows not when it should be watered or when it should be kept dry: a fruit-tree is no judge of when it needs to be pruned, or digged, or dunged. The wit and wisdom of the garden lieth not in the flowers and shrubs, but in the gardener. Now, then, if you and I are here to-day with any self-will and carnal judgment about us, let us seek to lay it all aside that we may be absolutely at our Lord's disposal. […] 
Depend upon it, happiness lives next door to the spirit of complete acquiescence in the will of God, and it will be easy to exercise that perfect acquiescence when we suppose the Lord Jesus to be the gardener. If the Lord hath done it; what has a saint to say? Oh thou afflicted one, the Lord hath done it: wouldest thou have it otherwise? Nay, art thou not thankful that it is even so, because so is the will of him in whose hand thy life is, and whose are all thy ways? The duty of submission is very plain, "supposing him to be the gardener."

Page 18, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

"Supposing him to be the gardener."

John 20:15

“Let your imaginations run along with mine while I say that "supposing him to be the gardener" should be A SPUR TO MANY DUTIES.
One of the duties of a Christian is joy. That is a blessed religion which among its precepts commands men to be happy. When joy becomes a duty, who would wish to neglect it?”

Page 17, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

50 Remarkable Spurgeon Sermons (#1)

I've found this first sermon to be most helpful (and beautiful). So here are a few excerpts from it. Remember to read it out-loud, it is the best way to understand the richness of the text.

"Supposing him to be the gardener."
John 20:15

“The wonder is that ever you and I should have been placed among the plants of the Lord. Why are we allowed to grow in the garden of his grace? Why me Lord? Why me? How is it that we have been kept there and borne with in our barrenness, when he might long ago have said, "Cut it down: why cumbereth it the ground?"[…]
I know not how it is that we have been spared, except upon this ground—"supposing him to be the gardener"; for Jesus is all gentleness and grace, so slow with his knife, so tardy with his axe, so hopeful if we do but show a bud or two, or, perchance, yield a little sour berry—so hopeful, I say, that these may be hopeful prognostics of something better by-and-by. Infinite patience! Immeasurable longsuffering! where are ye to be found save in the breast of the Well-beloved? Surely the hoe has spared many of us simply and only because he who is meek and lowly in heart is the gardener.”
Page 16, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Great Spurgeon Quotes Later Today!

Having read the first Remarkable Spurgeon sermon, I just can't keep it for myself. I'll be posting the best quotes without commenting on them. If you think I should comment, I can... 

Remember to read them out loud. Spurgeon MUST be read out loud to get the beauty (and often the meaning!).

First quote: later today. As I've said before, have a great weekend and please be praying for me. Thanks!

50 Remarkable Sermons by Charles H. Spurgeon

While attending a gathering in Switzerland, I visited their second hand book section. I found it rather interesting, although it contained no French books worth reading. Instead, I found old books from authors that have gone to be with Jesus, many years ago.

In the end, I only bought one book (because I'd come by train), but I think it is a rare find, a treasure. A collection of 50 Remarkable Sermons by Charles Spurgeon, printed in 1908. I bought a hundred year-old book of Spurgeon for just over a dollar! I love second-hand books!

As I glanced through the book, I found a wonderful sermon. I'd been longing to read it again, ever since a friend onboard the Doulos read it out loud to me in his Irish accent. The title of the sermon is: High Doctrine and Broad Doctrine (sermon #1762 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle). It is a gem of Bible exposition. To hear the scriptures preached with such force and beauty was a memorable occasion. You'd have to read it for yourself, but until you find the book, you can read the Bible and be amazed for yourself.

"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
John 6:37 (KJV as quoted in High Doctrine and Broad Doctrine)

A good weekend to all. Enjoy the extra free time to read your Bibles and be with God!