Attributes of God

In Hope, Believe Against Hope

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 3 Comments

“Master, I have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to Thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.”…”…bring  him unto Me.” Mark 9:17-19

This man had for a long time considered his son’s case to be hopeless. Well he might. In addition to the fact that the child was subject to attacks of epilepsy and to extreme fits of fury, he was deaf and dumb, so that no intelligent expression of feeling could come from him: if at any time he felt stronger and better, he could not give his father a word of hope, he could not utter his gratitude for the sympathetic care that watched over him, neither could he hear any word of consolation which his father addressed to him.

Peradventure, there is one here, this morning, who has grown hopeless of salvation; he has felt as if his case was one out of the catalogue of mercy; he has written bitter things against himself, and supposed that God has sealed those bitter things and made them true; but you see the father in the presence of Christ believed over the head of his despair, “in hope believing against hope,” and I pray that you may do the same. In the presence of Christ the man’s confidence came back to him. Hast thou, my hearer, a hope that can do the same?…With Him nothing can be impossible. I see His pierced hands and feet, and feel that if He stooped to suffer in the sinner’s stead, the merit of His sacrifice must be beyond conception great. In Jesus the hopeless one hath hope, he who had despaired else now bids his heart be of good cheer. Oh, that is true faith which will not suffer itself to be any longer the slave of doubt and despondency now that it sees Jesus the Lord drawing near. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Faith Which Triumphs Over Difficulties

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

“Master, I have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit.”…And He asked his father, “How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, “Of a child.” – Mark 9:17,21

This man’s faith was real, because it was faith which triumphed over difficulties, difficulties which typify our own, and hence it was clearly the work of the Spirit of God, for no other will endure the trial. I shall ask thee, dear hearer, whether faith has triumphed over difficulties in thy case. For observe, his child was grievously tormented, and the malady was of long standing. When the Savior said to him, “How long hath this happened unto him?” he said, “Of a child.” Must it not have seemed, now that his son had grown older, a very unlikely thing that he should be recovered…Yet in the teeth of that the man believed that Christ could cast that long-established demon out of his son. Dear friend, thy case of sin is similar. The sins of thy youth rise up before thee now: are they not in thy bones? The sins of thine early manhood, and the sins of thy riper years, and, mayhap, the sins of thy decaying years; all these come up before thee…Crimes so long continued, evil habits so deeply rooted, can all these be overcome? O soul, if thou hast true faith, thou wilt say, “Yes, I believe that since Christ is God He can deliver me from all evil, and forgive me all sin. Even if I had lived as long as Methuselah, and had continued all that while in the vilest of transgression, yet Jesus is so mighty to save that He could deliver me in a moment.” His word is, “All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” Looking to those dear wounds, those founts of love and blood, I do believe, and will believe, that all my years of sin are gone as in a moment, and like thick clouds before a mighty wind are blown away never to return. Oh, this is faith, poor soul. I pray God enable thee to exercise it.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

If Thou Canst Believe

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

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. – Mark 9:23, 24

It is a great mistake to fancy that to endorse sound doctrine is the same thing as possessing saving faith, for while saving faith accepts the truth of God, it mainly concerns itself with the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and its essence lies in reliance upon Jesus Himself. I am not saved because I believe the Scriptures, or because I believe the doctrines of grace, but I am saved if I believe Christ; or, in other words, trust in Him. Jesus is my creed. He is the truth. In the highest sense the Lord Jesus is the Word of God. To know Him is life eternal. By His knowledge He justifies many. I do not know that the father in the narrative before us had heard many sermons. I am not sure that he had very clear notions about everything that concerned the Savior’s kingdom: it was not essential that he should have in order to obtain a cure for his son. It was a very desirable thing that he should be an instructed disciple, but in the emergency before us the main thing was that he should believe Christ to be both able and willing to cast the devil out of his son. Up to that point he did believe; and, though his faith may have been deficient as well in breadth as in depth, yet it enabled him to realize that the Messiah who stood before him was the Lord, and it led him to place all his reliance upon Him. He did not believe in the disciples; he had once trusted them and failed. He did not believe in himself; he knew his own impotence to drive out the evil spirit from his child. He believed no longer in any medicines or men, for doubtless he had spent much on physicians; but he believed the Man of the shining countenance who had just come down from the mountain. When he heard Him say, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth,” he at once said, “Lord, I believe.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Think on Thee

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Father 3 Comments

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.”-Mark 9:24.

When a man first lays hold upon Jesus he is very apt to be in distress, if his joy be not always at its full height (or) he is untrained in spiritual conflict, and easily dismayed (or) the tremor of his former conviction is upon him, and he is prone to relapse into it. The light which he has received fills him with intense delight, but it is not very clear and abiding; he sees men as trees walking, and is ready to conjure up a thousand fears. The weakness of newborn faith, therefore, calls for the compassion of all who love the souls of men.

This man did well in looking for the help against his unbelief to the right quarter. He did not say, “Lord, I believe; and now I will try to overcome my unbelief.” No; but “Lord help,” as if he felt that the Lord alone could do it. No physician can cure unbelief but Christ. He is the physic for it, and He is the physician too. If thou hast any unbelief, take thou the blood of Christ to cure it with. Think of Him, God in the glory of His person, tabernacling among men, working out a perfect righteousness, dying a felon’s death upon the cross in the sinner’s stead; think of Him as rising from the dead, no more to die: think of Him as ascending into heaven amidst the shouts of angels: think of Him as standing at the right hand of God with the keys of death and hell at His girdle: think of Him as always pleading the merit of His blood before the Father’s throne; and, as thou considerest concerning Him, in the power of the Spirit, thine unbelief will die, for thou wilt say, “Lord, the thought of Thee has helped mine unbelief; while I have been studying Thee, and feeding my soul on Thee, and making Thee to be as bread and wine to my soul, my unbelief has gone. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

 

 

The Sweetness of Jesus

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation 3 Comments

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. -Psalm 42:1

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. -Hebrews 10:38

Can anybody suggest a reason why the lover of Christ should turn from Him? Polycarp was asked that he should curse Christ, and he replied, “Wherefore should I curse Him?” The assembly in the amphitheatre could give no answer to that; all hell could never give a reply to that. What hath He done, what hath He done that we should leave Him? What can He have done, and what is there that the world can offer that would ever repay us for leaving Him? Could we so false, so traitorous, prove as to turn away from Christ, what should we gain? A little pleasure gone in a moment, like thorns that crackle beneath the pot. What should we lose, my brethren? We should lose the joy of life; we should lose our support in tribulation; we should lose our hope in death; we should lose heaven, to inherit nothing but the blackness of darkness for ever. I cannot conceive a bribe heavy enough to weigh against Him; I cannot imagine an honour bright enough to compare with Him. I cannot conceive a disgrace that can be black enough to compare with the disgrace of deserting Him. The silver mine of Demas is a poor reward for selling His Master. All the wealth of India, could it be poured into one’s lap, were but a mockery of a soul that damned itself by casting away its confidence in Christ. To whom should we go, Master; to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. To leave Christ would be the meanest thing of which any could be capable. I suppose the devil himself, with all that he has ever done, has never been able to compass a wickedness that would equal this wickedness, if it were possible of a truly gracious soul deliberately deserting Jesus for the world, for such a soul knows the hollowness of this world’s joys; such a soul knows something of the sweetness of Jesus; such a spirit has been with Him, and has learned of Him, has had the enlightenments of His grace, has learned the faithfulness of His promise and the love of His heart. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

Think of All He Has Done for Us!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation 2 Comments

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. -Psalm 22:6

His cross is despised; let us be despised with it, for He bore shame for us. His truth is counted a lie; let us be willing to be regarded as liars, for He had reproach cast on Him. Sometimes to defend His cause has required the loss of all things; be it ours. if needs be, to lose all things for Him who gave up all-and what an all that was!-the bliss of heaven, and a life itself for us, that He might redeem our souls. The deserts of Jesus are such that it would need an angel’s tongue to tell them out, even though it were but in brief catalogue. Look at Him in what He is Himself as His Father’s darling. Look at His character; was there ever such another? Survey the beauties of His person-were there ever such charms commingled before? Think of His life, and of His death, and of what He is doing still before the throne, and surely you will feel that it is but right and just that, with Jesus, you should enter into the ship and, with Him, sail the ocean over, be it rough or be it smooth.

If we could put our feet down exactly where His feet went down, even though we had to walk up to Calvary itself, it would be our duty so to do, for His path was perfect rectitude, and in Him was no sin. We challenge heaven, with its omniscience, to detect a flaw in Him. We challenge hell, with its malice, to discover in Him an aught that is amiss. Lovers of the right and of the true, ask grace that you may be as He was. You cannot be more adamant for virtue than He. You cannot serve your God better. You cannot do better than keep close to every step that He has taken, and, whether in life or in death, to follow Him. It is right, then, because He deserves it; it is right, again because in itself it is according to the eternal rules of equity.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

 

Jesus Deserves Our Faithful Service

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life 5 Comments

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. – Ephesians 6:2

Jesus deserves from all who have really tasted of His grace such faithful service, such unswerving following in all cases and under all circumstances. Who else has ever done for us what Jesus has? Our mother brought us forth, but He has given to us a second birth. Our mother dandled us upon her knee, but He has borne us all the days of old, and even to hoar hairs will He carry His people. We have had many kindnesses from friends, but never such love as Jesus showed when, we being His enemies, He yet redeemed us with His most precious blood. Think of these three words, and try to measure what they mean-Gethsemane-Gabbatha-Golgotha. Let those three words awaken your adoring memories. Gethsemane-with its garden and bloody sweat for you. Gabbatha-with its scourging, its mocking, its shame and spitting for you. Golgotha-with its cross and the five flowing wounds, and all the bitterness of the divine wrath, and the torment of death itself, for you. Men have been known to give away their lives cheerfully for some great military leader whose genius has commanded their admiration, but they were fools to throw their lives away, after all, for these men had done but little or nothing for them to make them their servants and slaves. But this Man, my brethren, if we had a thousand lives, and were to give them all, yet would deserve more of us, for He hath redeemed us from going down into the pit, saved us from flames that never shall be quenched, and from a pit that is darkness itself. By the eternal woe from which the blood of Christ hath uplifted us, let us, who believe that we have been redeemed from hell, consecrate ourselves for ever to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. .~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm