Spurgeon: April AM
* 04/23/AM
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us."
--Romans 8:37
We go to Christ for forgiveness, and then too often look to
the law for power to fight our sins. Paul thus rebukes us, "O
foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not
obey the truth? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the
Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? are
ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made
perfect by the flesh?" Take your sins to Christ's cross, for the
old man can only be crucified there: we are crucified with
Him . The only weapon to fight sin with is the spear which
pierced the side of Jesus. To give an illustration--you want to
overcome an angry temper, how do you go to work? It is very
possible you have never tried the right way of going to Jesus
with it. How did I get salvation? I came to Jesus just as I was,
and I trusted Him to save me. I must kill my angry temper in the
same way? It is the only way in which I can ever kill it. I must
go to the cross with it, and say to Jesus, "Lord, I trust Thee
to deliver me from it." This is the only way to give it a
death-blow. Are you covetous? Do you feel the world entangle
you? You may struggle against this evil so long as you please,
but if it be your besetting sin, you will never be delivered
from it in any way but by the blood of Jesus. Take it to Christ.
Tell Him, "Lord, I have trusted Thee, and Thy name is Jesus, for
Thou dost save Thy people from their sins; Lord, this is one of
my sins; save me from it!" Ordinances are nothing without Christ
as a means of mortification. Your prayers, and your repentances,
and your tears--the whole of them put together--are worth
nothing apart from Him. "None but Jesus can do helpless sinners
good;" or helpless saints either. You must be conquerors through
Him who hath loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must
grow among His olives in Gethsemane.