Without Christ - Nothing

“Without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5.

Down on your knees, bow your mouths in the dust, and say, “Lord, it is true! Without you we can do nothing, nothing whatever that is good and acceptable in the sight of God! We have not ability of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our ability is of God.” Now, do not speak thus, as if you paid a compliment which orthodoxy requires you to make—but from the deeps of your soul, smitten with an absolute self-despair, acknowledge the truth unto God. “To will is present with me, but how to perform that which I would, I find not. Lord, I am a good-for-nothing do-nothing! I am a fruitless, barren, dry, rotten branch without You, and this I feel in my inmost soul. Be not far from me, but quicken me by Your presence.” Next, let us pray. If without Christ we can do nothing. Let us cry to Him that we may never be without Him! Let us, with strong crying and tears, entreat His abiding presence. He comes to those who seek Him—let us never cease seeking! In conscious fellowship with Him, let us plead that the fellowship should always be unbroken. Let us pray that we may be so knit and joined to Jesus that we may be one spirit with Him, never to be separated from Him again. Master and Lord, let the life floods of Your grace never cease to flow into us, for we know that we must be thus supplied or we can produce nothing! Brothers and sisters let us have much more prayer than has been usual among us. Prayer is appointed to convey the blessings God ordains to give—let us constantly use the appointed means, and may the result be always increasing from day to day...

 Once more—joyfully believe in Him. Though without Him you can do nothing, yet with Him all things are possible! Omnipotence is in that man who has Christ in him! Weakness, itself, you may be, but you shall learn to glory in that weakness because the power of Christ rests upon you if your union and communion with Christ are continually kept up! Oh for a grand confidence in Christ! We have not believed in Him, yet, up to the measure of the hem of His garment, for even that faith made the sick woman whole! Oh to believe up to the measure of His infinite Deity! Oh for the splendor of the faith which measures itself by the Christ in whom it trusts! May God bring us there! Then shall we bring forth much fruit to the glory of His name.

Without Christ - Nothing, Sermon 1625, Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Photo credit: By Maarten Visser from Capelle aan den IJssel, Nederland (Flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons