Attributes of God

His Love Changes Not

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

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? -Romans 8:35

O blessed reflection! let it comfort us: His love does not change; it cannot be made to alter; the furnace cannot scorch us, not a single hair of our head can perish; we are as safe in the fire as we are out of it; He loves us as much in the depths of tribulation as He does in the heights of our joy and exultation. Oh! thou who art beloved of friends, “when thy father and mother forsake thee the Lord will take thee up.” Thou who canst say, “He that ate bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me,” “though all men forsake thee,” saith Jehovah, “yet will not I.” O Zion, say not thou art forgotten of God; hear Him when He speaks-“Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget yet will I never forget thee.” “I have graven thee upon My hands; thy walls are continually before Me.”

Were we not slandered, were we not the butt of’ ridicule, we would not think ourselves the children of God. We glory that we stand prominent in the day of battle; we thank our enemies for all their shafts, for each one bears upon it proofs of our Father’s love. We thank our foemen for every stab, for it only cuts our armour and rattles on our mail, never reaching the heart. We thank them for every slander they have forged, and for every lie they have manufactured, for we know in Whom we have believed, and know that these things cannot separate us from His love; yea, we take this as a mark of our being called, that we, as the sons of God, can suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0035.cfm

God Does Not Cast Off His Children

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

I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. -Isaiah 48:10

“I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” I chose and created thee a vessel of mercy appointed unto eternal life: and when thou in common with the whole race, hadst fallen, though I might have crushed thee with them, and sent thee down to hell, I chose thee in thy fallen condition, and I provided for thy redemption: in the fulness of time I sent My Son, who fulfilled My law and made it honourable. I chose thee at thy birth, when a helpless infant thou didst sleep upon thy mother’s breast. I chose thee when thou didst grow up in childhood with all thy follies and thy sins. Determined to save thee, I watched o’er thy path when, Satan’s blind slave, thou didst sport with death. I chose thee when, in manhood, thou didst sin against Me with a high hand; when thy unbridled lusts dashed thee on madly towards hell. I chose thee, then, when thou wast a blasphemer and a swearer, and very far from Me. I chose thee, then, even when thou wast dead in trespasses and sins: I loved thee, and still thy name was kept in My book. The hour appointed came; I redeemed thee from thy sin; I made thee love; I spake to thee, and made thee leave thy sins and become My child; and I chose thee then over again. Since that hour how often hast thou forgotten Me! but I have never forgotten thee. Thou hast wandered from Me; thou hast rebelled against Me; yea, thy words have been exceeding hot against Me, and thou hast robbed Me of Mine honour; but I chose thee even then; and now that I put thee in the furnace thinkest thou that My love is changed? Am I a summer friend fleeing from thee in the winter? Am I one who loves thee in prosperity and doth cast thee off in adversity? Nay; hearken to these my words. thou furnace-tried one, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” Think not, then, when you are in trouble that God has cast you off. Think He has cast you off if you never have any trials and troubles, but when in the furnace, say, “Did He not tell me this beforehand?” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0035.cfm

 

Afflictions Are No Proof of Sonship

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

I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. -Isaiah 48:10

(W)hen there seemed in the chapter but little need of the mention of the doctrine of God’s choosing His people, on a sudden the Holy Spirit moves the prophet’s lips and bids him utter this sentiment, “I have chosen thee;” I have chosen thee by My eternal, sovereign, distinguishing grace; I have chosen thee in covenant purposes; I have chosen thee according to My electing love; “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”

…No tribulation ever proves us to be children of God, except it be sanctified by grace, but affliction is the common lot of all men-man is born to it, even as the sparks fly upward; and you must not infer, because you happen to be troubled, because you are poor, or sick, or tried in your minds, that therefore you are a child of God. If you do imagine so, you are building on a false foundation; you have taken a wrong thought, and you are not right in the matter at all…

There are trials in the pathway of the ungodly, there are troubles they have to suffer which are quite as acute as those of the children of God. Oh! trust not in your troubles; fix your thoughts on Jesus; make Him the only object of your trust, and let the only test be this, “Am I one with Christ? Am I leaning upon Him?” If so, whether I am tried or not, I am a child of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0035.cfm

 

‘Tis Mine to Obey, ‘Tis His to Provide

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

But seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. -Matthew 6:33

When a man is anxious he cannot pray; when he is troubled about the world he cannot serve his Master, he is serving himself. If you could “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” beloved, “all things would then be added to you.” What a noble Christian you would be; how much more honorable you would be to Christ’s religion; and how much better you could serve Him.

“‘Tis mine to obey, ’tis His to provide”

You have been meddling with Christ’s business, you have been leaving your own; you have been trying the “providing” part and leaving the “obeying?” to somebody else. Now, you take the obeying part, and let Christ manage the providing. Come then, brethren, doubting and fearful ones, come and see your Father’s storehouse, and ask whether He will let you starve while He has stored away such plenty in His garner! Come and look at His heart of mercy, see if that will ever fail! Come and look at His inscrutable wisdom and see if that will ever go amiss: Above all, look up there to Jesus Christ your intercessor, and ask yourself, “while He pleads, can my Father forget me?” And if He remembers even sparrows, will He forget one of the least of His poor children? “Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He will sustain thee,” “He will never suffer the righteous to be moved.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0033.cfm

The Ordinance of God in All Things

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life 4 Comments

I am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil; I the Lord do all these things. -Isaiah 45:7

(W)e all cry out about our mercies, and want to choose our allotments. “Oh!” says one, “I have health, but I think I could do without that if I had wealth.” Another says, “I have wealth, but I could give all my gold to have good constitution.” One says, “Here am I stowed away in this dirty London; I would give anything if I could go and live in the country.” Another, who resides in the country, says, “There is no convenience here, you have to go so many miles for the doctor, and one thing and the other, I wish I dwelt in London.” So that we are none of us satisfied with our mercies. But the true Christian says, or ought to say, “Thou shalt choose my inheritance for me;” high or low, rich or poor, town or country, wealth or poverty, ability or ignorance, “Thou shalt choose my inheritance for me.”

Whatever your circumstances are this morning-are you sick, are you in poverty or are you much troubled, the evil as well as the good is the work of God; and shall a man receive good at the hands of the Lord, and shall he not in equal patience receive evil? Will you not take everything from God which He is pleased to give, seeing that He Himself asserts “I create light I create darkness; I make good and I make evil.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0033.cfm

Our Saviour Chooses for Us

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

He shall choose our inheritance for us.- Psalm 47:4

The Christian is always pleased and delighted when he can see Christ in the Scriptures. If he can but detect the footstep of his Lord, and discover that the sacred writers are making some reference to Him, however indistinct or dark he will rejoice there at: for all the Scriptures are nothing except as we find Christ in them. St. Austin says, “The Scriptures are the swaddling bands of the man-child-Christ Jesus, and were all intended to be hallowed garments in which to wrap Him “So they are; and it is our pleasant duty to lift the veil, or remove the garment of Jesus and so behold Him in His person, in His nature, or His offices.

Now, this text is concerning Jesus Christ-He it is who is to “choose our inheritance for us,” He in whom dwelleth all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge is the great Being who is selected as the head of predestination-to choose our lot and our portion, and fix our destiny. Verily, beloved brethren, you and I can rejoice in this great fact, that our Saviour chooses for us. For were we all to be assembled together in some great plain, as Israel was of old, to elect for ourselves a king, we should not propose a second candidate. There would be one who stands like Saul, the son of Kish, head and shoulders taller than all the rest, whom we should at once select to be our king and ruler of Providence for us. We would not ask for some prudent sage or deeply taught philosopher; we would not choose the most experienced senior; but, without a single moment’s hesitation, directly we saw Jesus Christ, in the majesty of His person, we should say, in the words of the Psalmist, He who redeemed us, He who ransomed us, He who loved us-“He shall choose our inheritance for us.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0033.cfm

Listen Up, Oh, Faithless Sinner!

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

But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. -Hebrews 11:6

(Y)our first need is the possession of the simple germs of faith. Oh! my hearers, I marvel what some of you do without the comforts which faith can alone afford. Some of you are very poor people: how do you manage to endure your toils and troubles without faith? Where is your comfort? I do not wonder at your going to get drunk, or rioting in the ale-house, if you have no other comfort in this world…And you rich men, what will you do without faith? You know that you must leave all your property behind you; surely this will make the idea of death dreadful to you. I cannot understand even your happiness, if you have any. I know this-that

“I would not change my blest estate
For all the earth calls good or great;
And while my faith can keep her hold,
I envy not the sinner’s gold.”

But I want to ask you what would you do in the next world without faith? Remember, you are standing now upon the edge of the vast gulf of an unknown future… there you will be, perpetually descending through that pit that has no bottom-struggling to rise, but you cannot…Once more, oh! unbeliever, what will you do without faith? For faith gives eyes to the soul; faith gives us to see things that are not seen: it is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen… Sinner! thou canst not enter into heaven without faith, but what hast thou made up thy mind to do?

God, give faith to those that have none…! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0032.cfm