Attributes of God

Our Habitation

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

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

(Israel) must have been in a state of great uneasiness. At nightfall, or when the pillar (of fire) stayed its motion, the tents were pitched, and they laid themselves down to rest. Perhaps to-morrow, ere the morning sun had risen, the trumpet sounded, they stirred themselves from their beds and found the ark was in motion, and the fiery pillar was leading the way through the narrow defiles of the mountain up the hillside, or along the arid waste of the wilderness..They must have no attachment to the place, they must have nothing of what we call comfort, ease, and peace; but be always journeying, always traveling…They had little ease; but behold the contrast which Moses, the man of God, discerns with gratitude, “Thou art not our tent, but Thou art our dwelling-place. Though we are uneasy here, though we are tossed from side to side by troubles, though we travel through a wilderness, and find it a rough pathway, though when we sit down here we know not what comfort means…’Lord, Thou art to us comfort, Thou art a house and habitation.'”

Have you ever known what it is to have God for your dwelling-place in the sense of comfort?…Do you know what it is to lie on God, to give up all care, to drive anxiety away, and there-not in a recklessness of spirit, but in a holy carelessness-to be careful for nothing, “but in every thing by supplication to make known your wants unto God?” If so you have gained the first idea; “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place throughout all generations.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Sinner, Come Now to Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, prayer, promises, salvation 4 Comments

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28

Some of you are speeding your way to hell blindfolded…I do not deceive you, you are going to perdition as fast as time can carry you. Some of you are deceiving yourselves with the thought that you are righteous, and you are not so. Many of you have had solemn warnings, and have never been moved by them…Hundreds of you are without God, and without Christ, …and may I not plead with you?…Why, poor hearts, do you know your sad condition? Do you know that “God is angry with the wicked every day;” that “the way of transgressors is hard;” that “he that believeth not is condemned already?” Has it never been told you that “he that believeth not shall be damned? “and can you stand damnation? My hearers could you make your bed in hell? Could you lie down in the pit? Do you think it would be an easy portion for your souls to be rocked on waves of flames for ever, and to be tossed about with demons in the place where hope cannot come? You may smile now, but you will not smile soon. God sends me as an ambassador now; but if ye listen not to me, He will not send an ambassador next time, but an executioner. There will be no wooing words of mercy soon: the only exhortation thou wilt hear will be the dull cold voice of death, that shall say, “Come with me.” Then thou wilt not be in the place where we sing God’s praises, and where righteous prayers are daily offered. The only music thou wilt hear will be the sighs of the damned, the shrieks of fiends, and the yellings of the tormented. O may God in His mercy snatch you as brands from the fire, to be trophies of His grace throughout eternity. The way to be saved is to “renounce thy works and ways with grief,” and fly to Jesus…If thou will confess that thou art a sinner, that is all God requires of thee, and even that He gives thee. Jesus Christ says “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Do you hear His wooing words? Will ye turn from His sweet looks of mercy? Has His cross no influence? have His wounds no power to bring you to His feet?

…If thou wilt with thine heart believe, and with thy mouth confess the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved, for “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

Backslider, God Loves Thee Still!

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

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. – Luke 15:24

Poor backslider, thou wast once a Christian. Dost thou hope thou wast? “No,” sayest thou, “I believe I deceived myself and others; I was no child of God.” Well, if thou didst, let me tell thee, that if thou wilt acknowledge that, God will forgive thee. Suppose you did deceive the church, thou art not the first that did it. There are some members of this church, I fear, who have done so, and we have not found them out. I tell you your case is not hopeless. That is not the unpardonable sin. Some who have tried to deceive the very elect have yet been delivered; and my Master says He is able to save to the uttermost (and ye have not gone beyond the uttermost) all who come unto Him. Come thou, then, to His feet, cast thyself on His mercy; and though thou didst once enter His (church) as a spy, He will not hang thee up for it, but will be glad to get thee anyhow as a trophy of mercy. But if thou was a child of God, and canst say honestly, “I know I did love Him, and He loved me,” I tell thee He loves thee still. If thou hast gone ever so far astray, thou art as much His child as ever. Though thou hast run away from thy Father, come back, come back, He is thy Father still. Think not He has unsheathed the sword to slay thee. Say not, “He has cast me out of the family.” He has not. His bowels yearn over thee now. My Father loves thee; come then to His feet, and He will not even remind thee of what thou hast done. The prodigal was going to tell his Father all his sins, and to ask him to make him one of his hired servants, but the father stopped his mouth. He let him say that he was not worthy to be called his son, but he would not let him say, “make me as an hired servant.” Come back and thy Father will receive thee gladly; He will put His arms around thee and kiss thee with the kisses of His love, and He will say, “I have found this My son that was lost; I have recovered this sheep that had gone astray.” My Father loved thee without works, He justified thee irrespective of them; thou hast no less merit now than thou hadst then. Come and trust and believe in Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

The Forgotten Backslider

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

My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back…James 5:19

(H)e who is the means of the conversion of a sinner does, under God, “save a soul from death, and bide a multitude of sins,” but particular attention ought to be paid to backsliders; for in bringing backsliders into the church there is as much honor to God as in bringing in sinners. “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him.” Alas! the poor backslider is often the most forgotten. A member of the church has disgraced his profession, the church excommunicated him, and he was accounted “a heathen man and a publican.” …Now-a-days it is the fashion, if a man falls, to have nothing to do with him. Men say, “he is a bad fellow, we will not go after him.” Beloved, suppose he is the worst, is not that the reason why you should go most after him? Suppose he never was a child of God-suppose he never knew the truth, is not that the greater reason why you should go after him? I do not understand your mawkish modesty, your excessive pride, that won’t let you go after the chief of sinners. The worse the case, the more is the reason why we should go. But suppose the man is a child of God, and you have cast him off-remember, he is your brother; he is one with Christ as much as you are; he is justified, he has the same righteousness that you have; and if, when he has sinned, you despise him, in that you despise him you despise his Master. Take heed! thou thyself mayest be tempted, and mayest one day fall. Like David, thou mayest walk on the top of thine house rather too high, and thou mayest see something which shall bring thee to sin. Then what wilt thou say, if then the brethren pass thee by with a sneer, and take no notice of thee? Oh! if we have one backslider connected with our church, let us take special care of him. Don’t deal hardly with him. Recollect you would have been a backslider too if it were not for the grace of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

 

 

The Choicest Happiness

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

Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”- James 5:20

The choicest happiness which mortal breast can know is the happiness of benevolence; of doing good to our fellow-creatures. To save a body from death is that which gives us almost heaven on earth. Some men can boast that they have sent so many souls to perdition; that they have hurled many of their fellows out of the world. We meet, now and then, a soldier who can glory that, in battle, he struck down so many foemen; that his swift and cruel sword reached the heart of so many of his enemies; but I count not that glory… To me it would be the very portal of hell, if I could think I had been a destroyer of my fellow-creatures. But what bliss is it to be the instrument of saving bodies from death!

…But ah! brethren, the body which was saved from death to-day may die to-morrow. Not so the soul that is saved from death: it is saved everlastingly. It is saved beyond the fear of destruction. And if there be joy in the breast of a benevolent man when he saves a body from death, how much more blessed must he be when he is made the means in the hand of God of saving “a soul from death, and hiding a multitude of sins.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

God Will Be Glorified

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

Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God…Revelation 19:1

For what is the end of the gospel ministry? Some will say it is to convert sinners. That is a collateral end. Others will say it is to convert the saints. That is true. But the proper answer to give is that it is to glorify God, and, God is glorified even in the damnation of sinners. If I testify to them the truth of God and they reject His gospel; if I faithfully preach His truth, and they scorn it, my ministry is not therefore void. It has not returned to God void, for even in the punishment of those rebels He will be glorified, even in their destruction He will get Himself honor; and if He cannot get praise from their songs, He will at last get honor from their condemnation and overthrow, when He shall cast them into the fire for ever. The true motive for which we should always labor, is the glory of God in the conversion of souls; and building up of God’s people; but let us never lose sight of the great end. Let God be glorified; and He will be if we preach His truth faithfully and honestly. So, therefore, while we should seek for souls, if God denies them unto us, let us not say, “I will not have other mercies that He has given;” but let us comfort ourselves with the thought that, though they be not saved, though Israel be not gathered in, God will glorify and honor us at last… Glory and honor, praise and power, be unto God, that He thus honors His people. But when He exalts us most, we will still conclude with, “Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy name be all the glory for ever and ever.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

God’s Use of Men

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, salvation 3 Comments

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God…that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
 – 1 Peter 4:10,11

One would think, perhaps, at first sight, that it would reflect more glory to God, if He effected all conversions Himself, without the use of men; but that is a great mistake. It is as honorable to God to convert by means of Christians and others, as it would be if He should effect it alone. Suppose a workman has power and skill with his hands alone to fashion a certain article, but you put into his hands the worst of tools you can find; you know he can do it well with his hands, but these tools are so badly made, that they will be the greatest impediment you could lay in his way. Well now, I say, if a man with these bad instruments, or these poor tools-things without edges-that are broken, that are weak and frail, is able to make some beauteous fabric, he has more credit from the use of those tools, than he would have had if he had done it simply with his hands because the tools, so far from being an advantage, were a disadvantage to him; so far from being a help are, of my supposition, even a detriment to him in his work. So with regard to human instrumentality. So far from being any assistance to God, we are all hindrances to Him. What is a minister? He is made by God a means of salvation, but it is a wonderful thing that any one so faulty, so imperfect so little skilled, should yet be blessed of God to bringing forth children for the Lord Jesus.  God in His mercy does more than make Christians without means; He takes bad means to make good men with, and so He even reflects credit on Himself because His instruments are all of them such poor things. They are all such earthen vessels, that they do but set of the glory of the gold which they hold, like the foil that setteth forth the jewel, or like the dark spot in the painting that makes the light more brilliant; and yet the dark spot and the foil are not in themselves costly or valuable. So God uses instruments to set forth His own glory; and to exalt Himself.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm