Character of Jesus

Lord, Give Me What I Want

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

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him? Matthew 7:11

“Lord, give me what I want.” If I come to a stranger, I have no right to expect he will give it me. He may out of his charity; but if I come to a father, I have a claim, a sacred claim. “My Father, I shall have no need to use arguments to move Thy bosom; I shall not have to speak to Thee as the beggar who crieth in the street: for because Thou art my Father Thou knowest my wants, and Thou art willing to relieve me. It is Thy business to relieve me; I can come confidently to Thee, knowing Thou wilt give me all I want.” If we ask our Father for anything when we are little children, we are under an obligation certainly; but it is an obligation we never feel. If you were hungry and your father fed you, would you feel an obligation like you would if you went into the house of a stranger? You go into a stranger’s house trembling, and you tell him you are hungry. Will he feed you? He says yes, he will give you somewhat; but if you go to your father’s table, almost without asking, you sit down as a matter of course, and feast to your full, and you rise and go, and feel you are indebted to him; but there is not a grievous sense of obligation. Now, we are all deeply under obligation to God, but it is a child’s obligation-an obligation which impels us to gratitude, but which does not constrain us to feel that we have been demeaned by it. Oh! if He were not my Father, how could I expect that He would relieve my wants? But since He is my Father, He will, He must hear my prayers, and answer the voice of my crying, and supply all my needs out of the riches of His fullness in Christ Jesus the Lord.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0213.cfm

My Father!

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

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. – Romans 8:14

And what is “the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father?” I cannot tell you; but if you have felt it you will know it. It is a sweet compound of faith that knows God to be my Father, love that loves Him as my Father, joy that rejoices in Him as my Father, fear that trembles to disobey Him because He is my Father and a confident affection and trustfulness that relies upon Him, and casts itself wholly upon Him, because it knows by the infallible witness of the Holy Spirit, that Jehovah, the God of earth and heaven, is the Father of my heart. Oh! have you ever felt the spirit of adoption? There is nought like it beneath the sky. Save heaven itself there is nought more blissful than to enjoy that spirit of adoption. Oh! when the wind of trouble is blowing and waves of adversity are rising, and the ship is reeling to the rock how sweet then to say “My Father,” and to believe that His strong hand is on the helm!-when the bones are aching, and when the loins are filled with pain, and when the cup is brimming with wormwood and gall, to say “My Father,” and seeing that Father’s hand holding the cup to the lip, to drink it steadily to the very dregs because we can say, “My Father, not my will, but Thine be done.”  “My Father!” Oh! there is music there; there is eloquence there; there is the very essence of heaven’s own bliss in that word, ” My Father,” when applied to God, and when said by us with an unfaltering tongue, through the inspiration of the Spirit of the living God.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0213.cfm

The Brotherhood in Christ

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

…Our Father… – Matthew 6:9

It does not say my Father, but our Father. It seems there are a great many in the family. “Our Father.” When you pray that prayer, remember you have a good many brothers and sisters that do not know their Father yet, and you must include them all; for all God’s elect ones, though they be uncalled as yet, are still His children, though they know it not.

When thou prayest to God put in the poor; for is he not the Father of many of the poor, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, though they be poor in this world. Come my sister, if thou bowest thy knee amid the rustling of silk and satin, yet remember the cotton and the print. My brother, is there wealth in thy hand, yet I pray thee, remember thy brethren of the horny hand and the dusty brow; remember those who could not wear what thou wearest, nor eat what thou eatest, but are as Lazarus compared with thee, while thou art as Dives. Pray for them; put them all in the same prayer and say, “Our Father.”

And pray for those that are divided from us by the sea-those that are in heathen lands, scattered like precious salt in the midst of this world’s putrefaction. Pray for all that name the name of Jesus, and let thy prayer be a great and comprehensive one. “Our Father, which art in heaven.” And after thou hast prayed that rise up and act it. Say not “Our Father,” and then look upon thy brethren with a sneer or a frown. I beseech thee, live like a brother, and act like a brother Help the needy; cheer the sick; comfort the faint-hearted; go about doing good, minister unto the suffering people of God, wherever thou findest them, and let the world take knowledge of thee, that thou art when on thy feet what thou art upon thy knees-that thou art a brother unto all the brotherhood of Christ, a brother born for adversity, like thy Master Himself. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0213.cfm

The Christian’s Joyous Privileges

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And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ… – Romans 8:17

Time would fail me, if I were to attempt to read the long roll of the Christian’s joyous privileges. I am God’s child: if so, He will clothe me; my shoes shall be iron and brass; He will array me with the robe of my Saviour’s righteousness, for He has said, “Bring forth the best robe and put it on him,” and He has also said that He will put a crown of pure gold upon my head and inasmuch as I am a king’s son, I shall have a royal crown. Am I His child? Then He will feed me; my bread shall be given me, and my water shall be sure; He that feeds the ravens will never let His children starve. If the good Husbandman feeds the barn-door fowl, and the sheep and the bullocks, certainly His children shall not starve. Does my Father deck the lily, and shall I go naked? Does He feed the fowls of the heaven that sow not, neither do they reap, and shall I feel necessity? God forbid! My Father knoweth what things I have need of before I ask Him, and He will give me all I want. If I be His child, then I have a portion in His heart here, and I shall have a portion in His house above. for “if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,” “If we suffer with Him, we shall be also glorified together.” And oh! brethren, what a prospect this opens up! The fact of our being heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, proves that all things are ours-the gift of God, the purchase of a Saviour’s blood. Are there crowns? They are mine if I be an heir. Are there thrones? Are there dominions? Are there harps, palm branches, white robes? Are there glories that eye hath not seen? and is there music that ear hath not heard? All these are mine, if I be a child of God. “And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Talk of princes, and kings, and potentates- their inheritance is but a pitiful foot of land, across which the bird’s wing can soon direct its flight; but the broad acres of the Christian cannot be measured by eternity. He is rich, without a limit to his wealth. he is blessed, without a boundary to his bliss. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0213.cfm

All in the Family of God

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Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him? – James 2:5

The fatherhood of God is common to all His children. Ah! Little-faith, you have often looked up to Mr. Great-heart, and you have said, “Oh that I had the courage of Great-heart, that I could wield his sword and cut old giant Grim in pieces! Oh that I could fight the dragons, and that I could overcome the lions! But I am stumbling at every straw, and a shadow makes me afraid.” List thee, Little-faith. Great-heart is God’s child, and you are God’s child too; and Great-heart is not a whit more God’s child than you are. David was the son of God, but not more the son of God than thou. Peter and Paul, the highly-favored apostles, were of the family of the Most High; and so are you. You have children yourselves; one is a son grown up, and out in business, perhaps, and you have another, a little thing still in arms. Which is most your child the little one or the big one? “Both alike,” you say. “This little one is my child near my heart and the big one is my child too.” And so the little Christian is as much a child of God as the great one.

“This cov’nant stands secure,
Though earth’s old pillars bow;
The strong, the feeble, and the weak,
Are one in Jesus now;”

One may have more grace than another, but God does not love one more than another. One may be an older child than another, but he is not more a child; one may do more mighty works, and may bring more glory to his Father, but he whose name is the least in the kingdom of heaven is as much the child of God as he who stands among the king’s mighty men. Let this cheer and comfort us, when we draw near to God and say, “Our Father which art in heaven.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0213.cfm

Our Duty to Love and Obey Our Heavenly Father

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, Sovereignty of God, The Father 1 Comment

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ… – Romans 8:17

Oh! heir of heaven, if thou art God’s child, wilt thou not love thy Father? What son is there that loveth not his father?  And we, the chosen favourites of heaven, adopted and regenerated, shall not we love Him? Shall we not say, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison with Thee? My Father, I will give Thee my heart; Thou shalt be the guide of my youth; Thou dost love me, and the little heart that I have shall be all Thine own for ever.”

Furthermore, if we say “Our Father which art in heaven,” we must recollect that our being sons involves the duty of obedience to God. When I say “My Father,” it is not for me to rise up and go in rebellion against His wishes; if He be Father, let me note His commands, and let me reverentially obey; if He hath said “Do this,” let me do it, not because I dread Him, but because I love Him; and if He forbids me to do anything, let me avoid it. There are some persons in the world who have not the spirit of adoption, and they can never be brought to do a thing unless they see some advantage to themselves in it; but with the child of God, there is no motive at all; he can boldly say, “I have never done a right thing since I have followed Christ because I hoped to get to heaven by it, nor have I ever avoided a wrong thing because I was afraid of being damned.” For the child of God knows his good works do not make him acceptable to God, for he was acceptable to God by Jesus Christ long before he had any good works; and the fear of hell does not affect him, for he knows that he is delivered from that, and shall never come into condemnation, having passed from death unto life.

“Now for the love I bear His name,
What was my gain I count my loss;
I pour contempt on all my shame,
And nail my glory to His cross”-

to His cross who loved, and lived, and died for me who loved Him not, but who desires now to love Him with all my heart, and soul, and strength. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0213.cfm

Oh, How God Loves Me!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

…Our Father… – Matthew 6:9

If God be my Father, He loves me. And oh, how He loves me! When God is a Husband He is the best of husbands. Widows, somehow or other, are always well cared for. When God is a Friend, He is the best of friends, and sticketh closer than a brother; and when He is a Father He is the best of fathers. O fathers! perhaps ye do not know how much ye love your children. When they are sick ye find it out, for ye stand by their couches and ye pity them, as their little frames are writhing in pain. Well, “like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.” Ye know how ye love your children too, when they grieve you by their sin; anger arises, and you are ready to chasten them, but no sooner is the tear in their eye, than your hand is heavy, and you feel that you had rather smite yourself than smite them; and every time you smite them you seem to cry, “Oh that I should have thus to afflict my child for his sin! Oh that I could suffer in his stead!” And God, even our Father, “doth not afflict willingly.” Is not that a sweet thing? He is, as it were, compelled to it; even the Eternal arm is not willing to do it; it is only His great love and deep wisdom that brings down the blow. …But, parents, although ye love your children much, and ye know it, ye do not know, and ye cannot tell how deep is the unfathomable abyss of the love of God to you. Go out at midnight and consider the heavens, the work of God’s fingers, the moon and the stars which He hath ordained; and I am sure you will say, “What is man, that Thou shouldst be mindful of him?” But, more than all, you will wonder, not at your loving Him, but that while He has all these treasures, He should set His heart upon so insignificant a creature as man. And the sonship that God has given us is not a mere name; there is all our Father’s great heart given to us in the moment when He claims us as His sons.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0213.cfm