Character of Jesus

Faith is God’s Due

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

(Abraham) staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God…Now it was not written for his sake alone, that (righteousness) was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead _Romans 4:20, 23-24

I ought to be afraid of presumption, but it cannot be presumptuous to believe God’s word. I ought to be afraid of saying, “Peace, peace, where there is no peace;” but if peace comes to me through the word of Christ, I need never be suspicious of it, let it be as profound as it may. I may doubt myself; I may go further, I may despair of self, but I must not doubt the Lord. If He has said, “Trust in Me, believe in Me, and thou shalt be saved;” if I believe in Him, it is no presumption to know that I am saved. If He has declared that he that believeth in Him is justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses; if I have believed in Him, I am justified from all my sins. There is far more presumption in doubting the Lord than there ever can be in trusting Him. Faith is no more than God’s due, it ought never to be looked at as too daring. If I believe in Jesus I have no right to say, “I hope I am saved,” for that implies a doubt of God’s declaration that the believer is saved. I have no right to say, “I sometimes think I am safe.” I am so undoubtedly if I believe in Jesus. It is no matter of opinion, but a matter of certainty. There is nothing in this world about which a man may be so sure as about his own salvation, because other things come to us by the evidence of our own fallible senses, or by the testimony of men who may be mistaken; but the fact that the believer is saved is sealed to us by the testimony of God Himself, who cannot lie. When the Scripture says plainly, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” I, having believed, and having been baptized, ought not to question the divine declaration, but should be as sure that, if I have believed, I am saved, as I am sure that I exist. This assurance is attainable, and should be the common condition of the believer. Yet has it often happened, I say, that an anxiety, which was commendable in its outset, has ended in a censurable unbelief.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Unbelief Due to Fears

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 2 Comments

Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ -Philippians 1:6

I have known not a few whose unbelief has arisen through a sacred anxiety to be right-a most proper anxiety if not pushed beyond its sphere. The idea has been suggested to them: “Suppose I should be after all presumptuous, and should deceive myself, by thinking I am saved, whereas I am not? What if I should film the wound, when it ought to be lanced, before there can be effectual healing.” How I wish that all hypocrites would be troubled with this sort of fear. It would be a great mercy for many boastful professors if they had grace enough to doubt.

Some others have been made to shiver with unbelief on account of fears for the future. “I am afraid I shall not hold on,” says one. “Why, to be a Christian you must persevere to the end. With such a heart as mine, how can I hope to be steadfast: and in such a position as mine, surrounded by so many ungodly associates, how can I hope to persevere? I see so-and-so made a profession, and he is gone back; and I know such an one who said he was a Christian, and he is a worse man than he used to be. Suppose the last end of me should be worse than the first; suppose I should put my hand to the plough and should look back and prove unworthy of the kingdom.” Poor heart, it forgets that word, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;” and remembers not that other word, “I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” Rightly filled with a holy anxiety to hold on to the end, it gives way to improper unbelief, for it ought to rest confident that Jesus changeth not; and, where He has begun the good work, He will carry it on and perfect it unto the day of Christ.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Tried with Unbelief

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

We have transgressed and have rebelled: Thou hast not pardoned. -Lamentations 3:42

..help Thou mine unbelief -Mark 9:24

There are many true believers who at the first are tried with unbelief, because they have now, more than ever they had before, a sense of their past sins. Many a man receives a far deeper sense of sin after he is forgiven than he ever had before. The light of the law is but moonlight compared with the light of the gospel, which is the light of the sun. Love makes sin to become exceeding sinful.

“My Sins, my Sins, my Savior!
How sad on Thee they fall;
Seen through Thy gentle patience,
I tenfold feel them all.

I know they are forgiven,
But still their pain to me
Is all the grief and anguish
They laid, my Lord, on Thee.”

The light of the promise gleaming in the soul reveals the infinite abyss of horror which lies in indwelling sin. In the light of God’s countenance we discover the filthiness, the abomination, the detestable ingratitude of our past conduct. We loathe ourselves in our own sight. While we bless God that sin is pardoned, we are staggered to think it should have been such sin as it is, and the natural feeling resulting from our discovery is a fear that we cannot be pardoned. We ask ourselves: can it be that such sins are forgiven? Thus, under a sense of sin, though there is the belief that we are pardoned, there may also arise the unbelief against which we need the Lord to help us. “Lord, help Thou mine unbelief!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Power Enough in Christ’s Atoning Blood

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

Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. -Hebrews 7:25

Have you never found it to be wonderfully easy to believe for other people? I know when I was seeking the Savior, I had no doubt about His receiving any other penitent. I felt certain that if the vilest sinner out of hell had come to Him, He was able to save him: and though I had no faith in Him on my own account, yet had I met with another distressed soul in a similar condition to myself, I believe I should have encouraged him to put his trust in Jesus, though I was afraid to do so myself. To believe for others is an easy matter, but when it comes to your own case, to believe that sins like yours can be blotted out, that you, who have so badly played the prodigal, may be received by your loving Father, that your spiritual diseases can be cured, and that the devil can be cast out of you,  here is the labor, here is the difficulty. But, beloved, we must believe this or else we have not saving faith. O my Savior, shall I trifle in faith by believing or pretending to believe that Thou canst heal a case parallel to mine, and yet cannot heal mine? Shall I draw a line and limit Thee, thou Holy One of Israel, and say, “Thou canst save up to me, but not so far as I have gone?” Shall I dream that Thy precious blood has some power, but not power enough to blot out my sins? Shall I dare, in the arrogance of my despair, to set a boundary to the merits of Thy plea, and to the virtue of Thine atoning sacrifice? God forbid. Jesus is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him,-He is able to save me. He that cometh unto Him He will in no wise cast out; I come to Him, and He will not, cannot cast me out. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Saving Faith Accepts the Truth of God

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

Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. -Mark 9:24

I am not saved because I believe the Scriptures, or because I believe the doctrines of grace, but I am saved if I believe Christ; or, in other words, trust in Him. Jesus is my creed. He is the truth. In the highest sense the Lord Jesus is the Word of God. To know Him is life eternal. By His knowledge He justifies many. I do not know that the father in the narrative before us had heard many sermons. I am not sure that he had very clear notions about everything that concerned the Savior’s kingdom: it was not essential that he should have in order to obtain a cure for his son. It was a very desirable thing that he should be an instructed disciple, but in the emergency before us the main thing was that he should believe Christ to be both able and willing to cast the devil out of his son. Up to that point he did believe; and, though his faith may have been deficient as well in breadth as in depth, yet it enabled him to realize that the Messiah who stood before him was the Lord, and it led him to place all his reliance upon Him… When he heard Him say, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth,” he at once said, “Lord, I believe.”

Beloved hearer, I hope that thou hast come to put thy trust in Jesus in the same way, believing Him to be able and willing to save thee. This is the faith that will effectually save thee. if all thy trust is stayed in Him, if thou bringest all thy help from Him, if His wounds are thine only shelter, His blood thine only plea, Himself thine only confidence, then art thou a saved man, thy transgressions are forgiven thee for His name’s sake, thou art accepted in the Beloved. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Trembling Faith

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

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.”-Mark 9:24.

When a man first lays hold upon Jesus he is very apt to be in distress if his joy be not always at its full height; he is untrained in spiritual conflict, and easily dismayed; the tremor of his former conviction is upon him, and he is prone to relapse into it. The light which he has received fills him with intense delight, but it is not very clear and abiding; he sees men as trees walking, and is ready to conjure up a thousand fears. The weakness of newborn faith, therefore, calls for the compassion of all who love the souls of men. In addition to their own weakness they are liable to special dangers, for at such times Satan is frequently very active. No king will willingly lose his subjects, and the Prince of Darkness labors to bring back those who have just escaped over the confines of his dominion. If souls are never tried afterwards, they are pretty sure to be assailed on their outset from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Bunyan very wisely placed the Slough of Despond at the very commencement of the spiritual journey. The cowardly fiend of hell assails the weak, because he would put an end to them before they get strong enough to do mischief to his kingdom. Like Pharaoh, he would destroy the little ones. He seeks, if possible, to beat out of them every comfortable hope, so that their trembling faith may utterly perish.

Learn from this that a measure of doubt is consistent with saving faith; that weak faith is true faith, and a trembling faith will save the soul. If thou believest, even though thou be compelled to say, “Help Thou mine unbelief,” yet that faith makes thee whole, and thou art justified before God.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

 

Our Good Father’s Love

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

And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. -Galatians 4:6

When I was racked some months ago with pain, to an extreme degree, so that I could no longer bear it without crying out, I asked all to go from the room, and leave me alone; and then I had nothing I could say to God but this, “Thou art my Father and I am Thy child; and Thou, as a Father, art tender and full of mercy. I could not bear to see my child suffer as Thou makest me suffer, and if I saw him tormented as I am now, I would do what I ‘could to help him, and put my arms under him to sustain him. Wilt Thou hide Thy face from me, my Father? Wilt Thou still lay on a heavy hand, and not give me a smile from Thy countenance?” I held the Lord to that. I talked to Him as Luther would have done, and pleaded His Fatherhood in right down earnest. “Like as a father pitieth his children, even so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.” If He be a Father, let Him show Himself a Father-so I pleaded, and I ventured to say, when I was quiet, and they came back who watched me: “I shall never have such pain again from this moment, for God has heard my prayer.” I bless God that ease came and the racking pain never returned. Faith mastered the pain by laying hold upon God in His own revealed character, that character in which in our darkest hour we are best able to appreciate Him. I think that is why that prayer, “Our Father which art in heaven,” is given to us, because, when we are lowest, we can still say, “Our Father,” and when it is very dark, and we are very weak, our childlike appeal can go up, “Father, help me! Father rescue me!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1021.cfm