Attributes of God

A Strong West Wind and Thunderbolts

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

Yet have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion. – Psalm 2:6

By every possible contrivance, in these modern days, they have tried to drive Christ out of His own church. A Christless, bloodless gospel defiles many a pulpit, and Christ is thus angered; but He is in heaven still. At the right hand of God He sits; and let this be our continual prayer to Him, “Look down from heaven, O Lord! Cast an eye upon Thy failing, faltering, fickle church. Look down from heaven.”

“Ye that make mention of the Lord-ye that are the Lord’s remembrances-keep not silence, and give Him no rest; take no rest, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” “That little cloud”, said one of old, when Julian the apostate threatened to extirpate Christianity, “That little church will soon be gone.” All that I see to-day of darkness, is but a wave of smoke. Behold, the Lord God Himself shall chase it away with a strong west wind. He doth but blow with His wind, and the clouds disappear; and what stands before us to-day shall be as nothing… The old Romans picture Jove as hurling thunderbolts. Sometimes God makes His servants thunderbolts, and when He hurls them, they will go crashing through everything until they reach their mark. Wherefore; be not for a moment discouraged; but trust you in God, and be glad without a shadow of fear. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2258.cfm

Where is He?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him? – Isaiah 63:11

“Where is He?” He is somewhere. Then, He lives. Beloved, the Lord God omnipotent still liveth and reigneth. Many usurpers have tried to turn Him from His throne; but He still sits upon it, and reigns amongst His ancients gloriously. He was, and is, and is to come, the Almighty; “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”

He is; but where is He? The question implies that some were beginning to seek Him. Where is He? Those were brave days when He was here on the moors, or on the hills of Scotland, or at the stakes of Smithfield, or the prisons of Lambeth Palace. Those were glorious days when Christ was here, and His people knew it, and rejoiced in Him. Then the virgin daughter of Zion shook her head at the harlot of Rome, and laughed her to scorn; for she lay in the bosom of her King, and rejoiced in His love. O beloved, do we begin to long after Him again? I hope that we do. I trust the cry of many loyal hearts is, “Come back, King Jesus! When Thou art away, all things languish. Down the streets of Mansoul ride again, O Prince Emmanuel! Then shall the city ring with holy song, and every house shall be bedecked with everything that is beautiful and fair. Only come back!” If the King may but have His own again, I shall be content to sing old Simeon’s song, “Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word!” The church longs for the King’s coming. Where is He? Where is He? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2258.cfm

God Makes Himself a Glorious Name

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

…so didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name. – Isaiah 63:14

The life of a true believer is a glorious life. For himself he claims no honour, but by his holy life he brings great glory to God. There is more glory to God in every poor man and woman saved by grace, and in the one unknown obscure person, washed in the Redeemer’s blood, than in all the songs of cherubim and seraphim, who know nothing of free grace and dying love. So you see, beloved, the motive of God in all that He did; and I dwell upon it, though briefly, yet with much emphasis, because this is a motive that can never alter. What if the church of to-day be reduced to a very low condition, and the truth seems to be ebbing out from her shores, while a long stretch of the dreary mud of modern invention lies reeking in the nostrils of God; yet He that wrought such wonders, to make Himself a name, still has the same object in view. He will be glorious. He will have men know that He is God, and beside Him there is none else. Thus saith the Lord God, “All flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” “The earth shall be full of knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” O brethren, He is a jealous God still; and when the precious blood of Christ is insulted, God hears it, and forgets it not. When the inspiration of the blessed Book is denied, the Holy Ghost hears it and is grieved, and He will yet bestir Himself to defend His truth. When we hear the truth that we love, the dearest and most sacred revelations from our God, treated with a triviality that is nothing less than profane, if we are indignant, so is He, and shall not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily, though He bear long with His adversaries. God’s motive is His own glory. He will stand to that, and He will vindicate it yet; and we need to have no doubt, nor even the shadow of a fear, about the ultimate result of a collision between God and the adversaries of His truth. Shall not the moth, that dashes at the candle, die in that flame? How shall the creatures of a day stand out against our God, who is a consuming fire? Here, then, is the hope of the people of God, the constant persistent, invariable motive of God to make Himself glorious in the eyes of men. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2258.cfm

God’s High Motive

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name?…the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name. – Isaiah 63:12, 14

God works His great wonders of grace with the high motive of making known to His creatures His own glory, manifesting what He is and who He is, that they may worship Him. He tells us in the text that He “led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name.” So He has done, for to this day the highest note of praise to God that we know of, is the one that tells of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, and when this world is burnt up, the song will go up to God in heaven will be the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb. Still, if we want a figure and a foretaste of the ultimate victories of God over all His people’s enemies, we have to go back to the Red Sea, and look at Miriam’s twinkling feet, and hear her fingers making the timbrel sound as she cries, “Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.” He did it to make Himself an ever-enduring name, and He has succeeded in that object.

Isaiah adds that the Lord led His people, and brought them into their rest, to make Himself “a glorious name.” God is glorious in the history of Israel. God is glorious in the history of His church. God is glorious in the history of every believer. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2258.cfm

Non Nobis, Donine

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

“Then he remembered the days of old Moses, and his people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him? That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name.”-Isaiah 63:11-14

I see, through the text, God’s great motive in working these wonders for His people. It was God who did it all. He brought them up out of the sea. He put His Holy Spirit within them. He led them with His glorious arm. He led them through the deep. He caused them to rest. He did it all. When the history of the church is written, there will be nothing on the page but God. I know that her sin is recorded; but He hath blotted that out; and at the end, there will remain nothing but what God has done. When your life and mine shall ring out as a psalm amid the harps of glory, it will be only, “Unto Him that loved us and laved us, be glory and dominion for ever and ever.” “Non nobis, Donine.” “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory.” So will sing all of us who are the Lord’s redeemed, when we have come up out of the great tribulation, and have washed our robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

But then, why had God done all this? Did He do it because of His people’s merits, or numbers, or capacities? He tells them, many a time, “Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.” God finds in Himself the motive for blessing men who have no merits. If God looked for any motive in us, He would find none. He would see in us many reasons why He should condemn us; but only in Himself could He discover the motive for His matchless mercy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2258.cfm

Rest Despite Every Difficulty

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name. – Isaiah 63:14

There have been times with the church as at Pentecost, and the Reformation, when, though she had wandered, God returned to her, and made bare His arm, and raised up shepherds, and put His Spirit upon them, and then led His people straight ahead through every difficulty, and gave them rest. You are most of you acquainted with the history of the period before Luther’s day. It did not seem likely then that the gospel would be preached everywhere throughout Northern Europe; but it was so, and God singularly preserved the first Reformers’ lives when they were very precious. Zwingle died in battle; but he should not have been fighting, and he might have died a natural death. But Calvin, and Luther, and the rest of them, for the most part, remained until their work was done, and they quietly passed away; and the churches, despite long persecution, had comparative rest.

Some of you could tell how God led you through the deep as through a prairie. You went a way that you never knew, a new way, an untrodden path, as though it were the bottom of a sea but newly dry; but the Lord led you as a groom leads a horse, so that you did not stumble, and before long you came up out of the depths unharmed. With Moses and the children of Israel, you sang the praises of Him who had triumphed gloriously; and then you began to learn another song, not so martial, but very sweet: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2258.cfm

The Glorious Arm of the Lord

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

“That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name, Who led them through the deep,
As a horse in the wilderness, that they might not stumble?” – Isaiah 63:12

“The right hand of Moses,” by itself, was no more than your right hand or mine; but when God’s glorious arm worked by the right hand of Moses, the sea divided, and made a way for the hosts of Israel to pass over. As the Psalmist sings, “He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.” The right hand of Moses could not have wrought that miracle; but the glorious arm of the Lord did…Then, there came to God’s people a very marvellous deliverance: “That led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble.” Understand by the word “wilderness” here, an expansive grassy plain; a place of wild grass and herbs, for so it means. And as a horse is led where it is flat and level, and he does not stumble, so were the hosts of Israel led through the Red Sea. The bottom of the sea may be stony or gravelly, or it may be full of mire and mud. Probably, there will be huge rocks standing up in the middle of the stream. There may be a sudden fall from one stratum of rock to the other; and to come up from the sea on the further bank would be hard work for struggling people carrying burdens, as these Israelites did; for they went out of Egypt harnessed and laden, bearing their kneading-troughs in their clothes upon their shoulders. But God made that rough sea bottom to be as easy travelling for them as when a horse is led across a flowery meadow. Beloved, God has done so with His church in all time. Her seas of difficulty have had no difficulty about them. He has come in all the glory of His power, and smoothed the way for the ransomed to pass over. Has it not been so with you, my brethren? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2258.cfm