From Spurgeon's "Faith's Check Book"

148-As the Life -- So the Fruit

"For if these thing be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:8)

If we desire to glorify our Lord by fruitfulness, we must have certain things within us; for nothing can come out of us which is not first of all within us. We must begin with faith, which is the groundwork of all the virtues; and then diligently add to it virtue, knowledge, temperance, and patience. With these we must have godliness and brotherly love. All these put together will most assuredly cause us to produce, as our life fruit, the clusters of usefulness, and we shall not be mere idle knowers but real doers of the Word. These holy things must not only be in us, but abound, or we shall be barren. Fruit is the overflow of life, and we must be full before we can flow over.

We have noticed men of considerable parts and opportunities who have never succeeded in doing real good in the conversion of souls; and after close observation we have concluded that they lacked certain graces which are absolutely essential to fruit bearing. For real usefulness, graces are better than gifts. As the man is, so is his work. If we would do better, we must be better. Let the text be a gentle hint to unfruitful professors and to myself also.

Updated May 5, 2002
Go To Lincoln's Devotions

Go To Bagster's Devotions
 Home
Page
 Youth
Web
 Seniors
Web
 Various
Sermons
 Patriotic
Stories
 Notes on
Salvation
 Online
Books
 [Lite]
[James and Georgia Dearmore Picture]
Optimized For Netscape Navigator 4.+
and Best Viewed at 800x600
Jim & Georgia Dearmore
33 yrs in Africa, now web
publishing, Mission Conferences.



FastCounter by LinkExchange

CONTACT US:
GOSPELWEB: E-Mail Webmaster
RODGERS BAPTIST:
office@rodgersbaptist.net
© 2002: Jim & Georgia Dearmore