Attributes of God

Always Our Dwelling-Place

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

Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. -Psalm 90″1

God is the believer’s habitation. Sometimes, you know, people get turned out of their houses, or their houses tumble down about their ears. It is never so with ours: God is our dwelling-place throughout all generations. Let us look back in times past, and we shall find that God has been our habitation. Oh, the old house at home! who does not love it, the place of our childhood, the old roof-tree, the old cottage! There is no village in all the world half so good as that particular village where we were born! True, the gates, and stiles, and posts have been altered; but still there is an attachment to those old houses, the old tree in the park, and the old ivy-mantled tower. It is not very picturesque, perhaps, but we love to go to see it. We like to see the haunts of our boyhood. There is something pleasant in those old stairs where the clock used to stand; and in the room where grandmother was wont to bend her knee, and where we had family prayer. There is no place like that house after all! Well, beloved, God has been the habitation of the Christian in years that are gone by. Christian, your house is indeed a venerable house, and you have long dwelt there. You dwelt there in the person of Christ long before you were brought into this sinful world; and it is to be your dwelling-place throughout all generations. You are never to ask for another house; you will always be contented with that one you have; you will never wish to change your habitation. And if you wished it, you could not; for He is your dwelling-place in all generations. God give you to know what it is to take this house in its long lease, and ever to have God for your dwelling-place! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

The Center of My Soul

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises 3 Comments

Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. -Psalm 90:1

It is natural that men should love their homes; it is spiritual that they should love them better still. In our homes we find those to whom we must and ever shall be most attached. There our best friends and kindred dwell…We wish to feel, and every Christian man will feel with regard to his own family, that they are the warp and woof of his own nature, that he has become a part and portion of them; and there he centers his affection…Christian man, is God your habitation in that sense? Have you given your whole soul to God? Do you feel you can bring your whole heart to Him, and say, “O, God! I love from my soul; with the most impassioned earnestness I love Thee.

“The dearest idol I have known-
Whate’er that idol be-
Help me to tear it from its throne,
And worship only Thee!”

O God! though I sometimes wander, yet I love Thee in my wanderings, and my heart is fixed on Thee. What though the creature doth beguile me, I detest that creature; it is to me as the apple of Sodom. Thou art the master of my soul, the emperor of my heart; no vice-regent, but King of kings. My spirit is fixed on Thee as the center of my soul.

“Thou art the sea of love
Where all my pleasures roll,
The circle where my passions move;
The center of my soul.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

At Home With God

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

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. -Psalm 46:1

In this pulpit I must somewhat check my words; I deal with men of the world who watch my speech, and are ever on the catch, men who wish to have this or that to retail, I must be on my guard. So you men of business, when you are on the exchange, or in your shops, have to guard yourselves. What does the man do at home? He can lay bare his breast, and do and say as he pleases; it is his own house, his dwelling-place; and is he not master there? Shall he not do as he will with his own? Assuredly; for he feels himself at home. Ah! my beloved, do you ever find yourself in God to be at home? Have you been with Christ, and told your secrets in His ear, and found that you could do so without reserve? We do not generally tell secrets to other people, for if we do, and make them promise that they will never tell them, they will never tell them except to the first person they meet…You must not trust men of the world; but do you know what it is to tell all your secrets to God in prayer, to whisper all your thoughts to Him? You are not ashamed to confess your sins to Him with all their aggravations; you make no apologies to God, but you put in every aggravation, you describe all the depths of your baseness. Then, as for your little wants, you would be ashamed to tell them to another; before God you can tell them all. You can tell Him your grief that you would not whisper to your dearest friend. With God you can be always at home, you need be under no restraint. The Christian at once gives God the key of his heart, and lets Him turn every thing over. He says, “There is the key of every cabinet; it is my desire that Thou wouldst open them all. If there are jewels, they are Thine; and if there be things that should not be there, drive them out. Search me, and try my heart.” The more God lives in the Christian, the better the Christian loves Him; the oftener God comes to see him, the better he loves his God. And God loves His people all the more when they are familiar with Him. Can you say in this sense, “Lord, Thou hast been my dwelling place?”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

Rest in A Land of Journeying

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 4 Comments

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. -Hebrews 4:9

How weary must Israel have been in the wilderness! How tired must have been the soles of their feet with their constant journeyings! They were not in a place of repose, luxury, and rest, but in a land of journeying, and weariness, and trouble. I think I see them traveling, wiping frequently the burning sweat from their brows, and saying, “O that we had a habitation where we might rest! O that we could enter a land of vines and pomegranates, a city where we might enjoy immunity from alarm! God has promised it to us, but we have not found it. There remaineth a rest for the people of God; O that we might find it.” Christian! God is your habitation in this sense. He is your rest; and you will never find rest except in Him. I defy a man who has no God to have a soul at rest. He who has not Jesus for his Saviour, will always be a restless spirit…

There is a holy calm and sweet repose which the Christian only knows, something like the slumbering stars up there in beds of azure; or like the seraphic rest which we may suppose beatified spirits have when they before the throne continually bow; there is a rest so deep and calm, so still and quiet, so profound, that we find no words to describe it. You have tried it, and can rejoice in it.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

Our Unchanging God

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises 7 Comments

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. -Hebrews 13:8

The Christian knows no change with regard to God. He may be rich to-day, and poor to-morrow; he may be sickly to-day and well to-morrow; he may be in happiness to-day, to-morrow he may be distressed; but there is no change with regard to his relationship to God. If He loved me yesterday He loves me to-day. I am neither better nor worse in God than I ever was. Let prospects be blighted, let hopes be blasted, let joy be withered, let mildews destroy every thing, I have lost nothing of what I have in God. He is my strong habitation whereunto I can continually resort. The Christian never becomes poorer, and never grows richer with regard to God. “Here,” he can say, “is a thing that never can pass away or change.” On the brow of the Eternal there is never a furrow; His hair is unwhitened by age; His arm is unpalsied by weakness; His heart does not change in its affections; His will does not vary in its purpose; He is the immutable Jehovah, standing fast and forever. Thou art our habitation! As the house changes not, but stands in the same place, so have I found Thee from my youth up. When first I was cast upon Thee from my mother’s breast, I found Thee my God of Providence. When first I knew Thee by that spiritual knowledge which Thou alone canst give, I found Thee a sure habitation; and I find Thee such now. Yea, when I shall be old and gray-headed, I know Thou wilt not forsake me; Thou wilt be the same dwelling-place in all generations.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

A Most Secure Abode

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises 4 Comments

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. -2 Timothy 1:12

O Christian, hast thou ever known what it is to stand in the midst of battles, with arrows flying thick around thee more than thy shield can catch; and yet thou hast been as secure as if thou wert folding thine arms and resting within the walls of some strong bastion, where arrow could not reach thee, and where even the sound of trumpet could not disturb thine ears? Hast thou known what it is to dwell securely in God, to enter into the Most High, and laugh to scorn the anger, the frowns, the sneers, the contempt, the slander and calumny of men; to ascent into the sacred place of the pavilion of the Most High, and to abide under the shadow of the Almighty, and to feel thyself secure?…It is possible to stand exposed to the utmost degree of danger, and yet to feel such a holy serenity that we can laugh at fear; too great, too mighty, too powerful through God to stoop for one moment to the cowardice of trembling, “we know whom we have believed, and we are persuaded that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him.” When houseless men wander, when poor distressed spirits, beaten by the storm, find no refuge, we enter into God, and shutting behind us the door of faith, we say, “Howl, ye winds; blow, ye tempests; roar, ye wild beasts; come on, ye robbers!”

“He that hath made his refuge God,
Shall find a most secure abode,
Shall walk all day beneath His shade,
And there at night shall rest his head.”

Lord, in this sense, Thou hast been our habitation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

In the Enemy’s Land

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises 3 Comments

“Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.” -Psalm 90:1

(T)he Israelites were very much exposed to all kinds of noxious creatures, owing to their residing in tents, and their habits of wandering. At one time the fiery serpent was their foe. By night the wild beasts prowled around them. Unless that fiery pillar had been a wall of fire around them and glory in the midst, they might all have fallen a prey to the wild monsters that roamed the deserts. Worse foes they found in human kind. The Amalekites rushed down from the mountains; wild wandering hordes constantly attacked them. They never felt themselves secure, for they were travelers through an enemy’s country. They were hasting across a land where they were not wanted, to another land that was providing means to oppose them when they should arrive.

Such is the Christian. He is journeying through an enemy’s land; every day he is exposed to danger. His tent may be broken down by death; the slanderer is behind him, the open foeman is before him; the wild beast that prowls by night, and the pestilence that wasteth by day, continually seek his destruction; he finds no rest where he is; he feels himself exposed. But, says Moses, “Though we live in a tent exposed to wild beasts and fierce men, yet Thou art our habitation. In Thee we find no exposure. Within Thee we find ourselves secure, and in Thy glorious person we dwell as in an impregnable tower of defense, safe from every fear and alarm, knowing that we are secure.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm