Character of Jesus

We Dwell in the Realm of Faith

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises 6 Comments

For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights… -Genesis 7:4

Noah believed what seemed highly improbable, if not absolutely impossible. There was no sea where Noah laid the keel of his ark: I do not even know that there was a river there. He was to prepare a sea-going vessel, and construct it on dry land. How could water be brought there to float it? O mad old man! how canst thou play the fool on so huge a scale as to build a three-decked vessel of vast dimensions where no waters can ever come? Yet he was bidden of the Lord to do it, and he was persuaded that the Lord’s command involved no blunder. The floods would fill the valley, rise up the hills, and prevail above the tops of the mountains.

At times you and I are assailed as to our faith in the Bible, by people who say, “How do you make that out? It is in the Scriptures, certainly, but how do you reconcile it with science?” Let your reply be-We no longer live in the region of argument as to the Word of the Lord; but we dwell in the realm of faith. We are not squabblers, itching to prove our superiority in reasoning, but we are children of light, worshipping our God by bowing our whole minds to the obedience of faith. We would be humble, and learn to believe what we cannot altogether comprehend, and to expect what we should never have looked for, had not the Lord declared it. It is our ambition to be great believers, rather than great thinkers; to be child-like in faith, rather than subtle in intellect. We are sure that God is true! Like Noah, we stagger not at the Word of God, because of evident improbability and apparent impossibility. What the Lord has spoken He is able to make good; and none of His words shall fall to the ground. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm

Have You Daily Faith?

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises 1 Comment

…the just shall live by faith… -Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38

To be just in the sight of God is never possible apart from faith; for “the just shall live by faith.” It is a great thing to have faith in the presence of a terrible trial; but the first essential is to have faith for ordinary every-day consumption. Hast thou faith in God as to thy daily bread? Hast thou faith as to thy children and thy house? Hast thou faith about thy trade and business? Hast thou faith in the God of providence?-faith in the God who answers prayer? Is it habitual with thee to roll thy burden upon the Lord? If it be not so with thee, what wilt thou do when the floods break forth? Faith will not come to thee all of a sudden, in the dark night, if thou hast shut it out through all the bright days. Faith must be a constant tenant, not an occasional guest. I have heard of Latter-day Saints, and I do not think much of them: I far more admire Every-day Saints. Thou needest faith this Sabbath-day: have it, and come to the communion-table with it. But thou needest faith on Monday, when the shutters are taken down to begin another six days’ trading. Thou wilt need faith the next day; for who can tell thee what will happen? To the end of the week thou wilt need to look to the hills whence cometh thine help. Thou needest faith anywhere and everywhere. A man of God alone in his chamber still needs faith, or solitude may be a nest for temptation. When the servant of Christ is at his ease, and has no work pressing upon him, he has need of faith to keep him, lest, like David, he fall into temptation, and commit folly. Rest days or work days, we alike need faith…We wish everywhere to please God, and we cannot do it anywhere unless we have unfeigned faith in Him. The Lord teach us to have faith seven days in the week! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm

Noah’s Faith and His Fear

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

 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; -Hebrews 11:7

The text begins, “By faith Noah.” We shall have to speak about his fear-being “moved by fear”; we shall also remember his obedience, for he “prepared an ark to the saving of his house.” But you must take distinct note that at the back of everything was his faith in God. His faith begat his fear: his faith and his fear produced his obedience. Nothing in Noah is held up before us as an example, but that which grew out of his faith. To begin with, we must look well to our faith. May I pass the question round these galleries, and put it to you also in this vast area? Have you faith? Let each one hear the question in the singular number. “Hast thou faith? Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Art thou resting in the promise of a faithful God?” If not, thou art nothing as to spiritual things. Without faith thou art out of the kingdom of grace, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter if thou hast no faith. But if thou hast even a trembling faith, thou hast the root of the matter within thee. Even if other gracious things be not in thee as yet, they will be ere long produced by faith. Faith is the acorn, from which the oak of holiness will grow. Faith is that handful of corn, the fruit whereof shall shake like Lebanon. Without faith it is impossible to please God, but with faith we become “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6). ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm

They Walked with God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises 1 Comment

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.- Hebrews 11:7

The Apostle could not avoid mentioning Noah; for in him faith shone forth eminently. He has placed him in due order of time after Abel and Enoch; but he had also another reason for the arrangement. These three ancient believers are declared in Holy Writ to have pleased God. Of Abel, it is said that God testified of his gifts. Enoch, before his translation, had this testimony, that he pleased God: and Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Again, it was meet that Noah should follow close upon Enoch, as one of two who are described as having “walked with God.” “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him”; and we read in the sixth chapter of Genesis, verse eight, that Noah also “walked with God.” These two spent their lives in such constant communion with the Most High that they could be fully described as walking with God. Oh, that we may, through almighty grace, be so pleasing unto the Lord that we may abide in fellowship with Him! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm

 

 

Do God’s Work Just the Same

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

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. -Psalm 51:12

Our Lord, though He was forsaken of God, still pursued His Father’s work -the work He came to do. “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” But, mark you, He does not leave the cross; He does not unloose the nails as He might have done with a will; He did not leap down amidst the assembled mockers, and scorn them in return, and chase them far away. but He kept on bleeding, suffering, even until He could say, “It is finished,” and He did not give up the ghost till it was finished. Now, beloved, I find it, and I daresay you do, a very easy and pleasant thing to go on serving God when I have got a full sense of His love, and Christ shining in my face, when every text brings joy to my heart, and when I see souls converted, and know that God is going with the Word to bless it. That is very easy, but to keep on serving God when you get nothing for it -when there is no success, and when your own heart is in deep darkness of spirit-I know the temptation. Perhaps you are under it. Because you have not the joy you once had, you say, “I must give up preaching; I must give up that Sunday School. If I have not the light of God’s countenance, how can I do it? I must give it up.” Beloved, you must do no such thing…  What would you say to your child if you had to chasten him for doing wrong, if he were to go away and say, “I shall not attend to the errand that father has sent me upon, and I shall do no more in the house that father has commanded me to do, because father has beaten me this morning”? Ah! what a disobedient child! If the scourging had its fit effect upon him, he would say, “I will wrong thee no more, father, lest thou smite me again.” So let it be with us.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3507.cfm

Cry to God as a Child

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

“…why hast Thou forsaken Me?” – Matthew 27:46

“But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all Your works.” – Psalm 75:28

Depend upon it, the best way to get away from trouble, or to get great help under it, is to run close in to God. In one of Quarles’s poems he has the picture of a man striking another with a great nail. Now the further off the other is, the heavier it strikes him. So the man whom God is smiting runs close in, and he cannot be hurt at all. O my God, my God, when away from Thee affliction stuns me, but I will come in close with Thee, and then even my affliction I will take to be a cause of glory, and glory in tribulations also, so that Thy blast shall not sorely wound my spirit.

Our Lord, when He does cry, cries with the inquiring voice of a child… Oh! learn it well. Do practice it when you are in trouble. If you are in such a condition at this time, practice it now, and in the pew say, “Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me. Search me and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3507.cfm

Because Thou Didst It

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

“Let the day perish wherein I was born…” – Job 3:3

“…why hast Thou forsaken Me?” – Matthew 27:46

Listen to Job, and we must not condemn Job, for we should not have been half so good as he, I daresay; but he does let his spirit utter itself sometimes in bitterness. He curses the day of his birth and so on; but the Lord Jesus does not do that. There is not a syllable about “cursed be the day in which I was born in Bethlehem, and in which I came amongst such a rebellious race as this”-no, not a word, not a word. And even the best of men when in sorrow have at least wished that things were not just so. David, when he had lost Absalom, wished that he had died, instead of Absalom. But Christ does not appear to want things altered. He does not say, “Lord, this is a mistake. Would God I had died by the hands of Herod when he sought my life, or had perished when they tried to throw Me down the hill of Capernaum.” No; nothing of the kind. There is grief, but there is no complaining; there is sorrow, but there is no rebellion. Now this is the point, beloved, I want to bring to you. If you should suffer extremely, and it should ever come to that terrible pinch that even God’s love and the enjoyment of it appears to be gone, put your finger to your lip and keep it there. “I was dumb with silence; I opened not My mouth, because Thou didst it.” Believe that He is a good God still. Know that assuredly He is working for thy good, even now, and let not a syllable escape thee by way of murmuring, or if it does, repent of it and recall it. Thou hast a right to speak to God, but not to murmur against Him, and if thou wouldst be like thy Lord, thou wouldst say just this, “Why hast Thou forsaken me?” But thou wilt say no more, and there wilt thou leave Him, and if’ there come no answer to thy question thou wilt be content to be without an answer.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3507.cfm