Character of Jesus

Still, His children!

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

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:26

Now, why is it that mothers take so much pains in teaching their children to walk? I suppose the reason is, because they are their own offspring. And the reason why the Lord has been so patient with us, and will be so still, is because we are His children, still His children, still, His children! Ah there is wondrous power in that-still His children! I was sitting at table once, and I heard a mother expatiating upon her son. She said a very great deal about him; and some one sitting near me said, “I wish that good woman would be quiet.” I said, “What’s the matter? May she not speak of her son?” “Why,” he said, “he’s been transported. He was as bad a fellow as ever fired, and yet she always sees something wonderful in him.” So I ventured, some little time after, when I had gained her acquaintance, to say something about this son; and I remember her remark: “If there is nobody else to speak up for him his mother always will.” Just so; she loved him so that if she could not be altogether blind to his faults, yet she would also see all that was hopeful in him, Our blessed God does not bring into the foreground what we are, so much as what He means to make us. “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more for ever.” He puts our blackness away; and He sees us as we shall be when we shall bear the image of the heavenly, and shall be like our Lord. For Christ’s sake, beholding our shield and looking upon the face of His anointed, He loves us and goes on to instruct us still… We are His own children. Oh! I have found it such a blessed thing, in my own experience, to plead before God that I am His child. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

 

Trusting in God’s Ways

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

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. -Proverbs 3:5

The simple walk of faith, trusting and leaning alone upon the Invisible, how difficult it is to bring ourselves to it! We would have some favourite child to lean upon, or husband, or wife, or friend. Our abilities, or something or other that we can see and handle, shall be the golden calf which we set up and say, “These be thy gods, O Israel!” Here is a great difficulty, then, to wean us from crutches, which are promoters of spiritual lameness.

I have never met with a child that had any fear about the nurse’s power to hold it up. She puts her arms about it, and it trusts itself with her, leaning wholly upon her. But we appear to be afraid of leaning hard upon God: we cannot leave ourselves with Him: we don’t throw ourselves right back on the divine bosom. Yet is there no true rest to ourselves till we do. As long as we are trying to support ourselves in some measure or degree, we have not yet come to the rest of faith…There are souls that would fain trust themselves to the goodness of God, but they cannot be content without an earthly prop. They cannot quite cast themselves upon God and trust in the stream of His abundant faithfulness. …Oh, for grace to be willing to believe in God! Oh, for power to cut the moorings, and have done with the signs, and the evidences, and the marks, and come to look upon Christ and His finished work; upon the covenant, and upon the faithful God, who breaketh not His promise and cannot turn away from His decree. May He who teacheth us to profit make us to walk in His ways. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Enlightened Little by Little

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

“I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” -John 16:12

Now, had certain reputedly wise men been there they would have said, “Lord, let us hear it all; make full proof of it all; bring it all out: we can hear it-only try us.” But our Lord knew what was in man, and, therefore, He only little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept, brought out the truth, and He does so experimentally with His children still. We do not know our own depraved hearts so well at first as we do afterwards. The disease and the remedy have both of them to be more fully revealed to us by-and-by. Did we know at the first all we shall know hereafter, we should be so overwhelmed with the abundance of the revelation that we should not be able to endure it; the Lord, therefore, lets in the light by degrees…If you have been long in the dark, and come into the light at once, your eyes smart, and you cannot bear it, you need to come to it by degrees, and thus is it with the Lord’s children. By little and by little He introduces them into the glory of His kingdom, preparing them for its fullness as children are prepared for their manhood. Have you not seen how the nurse will tempt the child to take a little longer walk, by holding out a pleasant thing to allure it? And how often has our blessed Lord tempted us to some bolder deed of service, to something that required more faith than we had before, by giving us choice signs of His presence, and ravishing our hearts with His love. Some of us know what it is to have seen such sweet results from our little faith, that we could not but desire to try what stronger faith would do. God so rewarded the weak faith we had, that we felt we must rely upon Him, and venture still further. Kindly hath the Lord conducted us onward in this respect.~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

 

God’s Testimony and Abiding Spirit

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

And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. – 1 John 2:27

A truly spiritual faith does not expect any manifestation to the senses. God treats us to-day as men, compared with the way in which he nursed the Israelites. We have no pillar of glory shining over a visible tabernacle; no shekinah above a material mercy-seat. We have now no holy places whatsoever; and no symbolic worship:-

“Where’er we seek Him He is found,
And every place is hallowed ground.”

Our service of the spiritual God is spiritual; we walk by faith and not by sight; we worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. The tribes of Israel, as being in their religious childhood, had manifestations of different kinds. They saw not God, for who shall behold the invisible? but the bright light shone between the wings of the cherubim, the glory of the Lord at times burst forth from the tabernacle, and on an ever memorable occasion they heard a voice speaking out of the thick darkness from the top of Sinai, when the Lord came from Paran with ten thousand of His holy ones. We have not heard the voice, neither have we seen the glory, nor need we wish for either since we have a sure word of testimony, and the abiding of the Holy Ghost…~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

The Heights of His Blessedness

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

I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. -Hosea 11:4

Israel had been like oxen, with a heavy yoke upon them, and God had come and taken the yoke away; and there they stood, as we see horses stand when they are made to rest when the bearing-rein is loosened, and they stand at ease. And this God has as surely done for us as for His ancient people. He has fulfilled that word unto us, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” We enjoy the peace of God, which passeth all understanding: it keeps our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus. Nor is this all for the gracious Redeemer takes care to fill His people’s mouths with good things; hence, He does not forget the feeding, and it is added, “I laid meat unto them.” The Lord refreshed His weary people with “food convenient for them.” As the oxen, after the yoke was removed, were fed, so God, when He had removed our yoke of guilty bondage, fed us with the finest of the wheat, as He made us understand the gospel of His Son. The doctrines and promises of His word are substantial meat for hungry souls. “My soul shall be satisfied with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips.” Certain under-shepherds are afraid of laying too much doctrinal food before the Lord’s people, but it is a great mistake. Truth never surfeits, though it always satisfies. The Good Shepherd does not stint His sheep, but He gives them so much, that they lie down amid the exceeding plenty of the green pastures. They cannot eat it all, and they lie down in the midst of a superabundance, which infinite mercy has provided. See, then, how God’s boundless love piles mountain upon mountain, as the old classics used to say, Pelion upon Ossa, that we, up from the depths of our distress, may climb to the heights of His blessedness, and enjoy the fullness of the glory which God has treasured up for us in the person of Christ Jesus our Lord. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Our Teacher and Healer

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

“I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love” -Hosea 11:3

Calvin says this text means, “I have led him on foot. As a child who cannot yet walk with a firm foot is, by degrees, accustomed to do so, and the nurse, or the father, or the mother, who leads him, has a regard for his infancy; so, also, have I led Israel, as much as his feet could bear.” And, as if this mercy and condescension of God, in thus comparing Himself to a woman with her babe, were not sufficient, in addition to this He becomes a physician too, and grants healing; He says, “I healed them.” They had not only weakness that needed to be supported, and ignorance that needed to be tutored; but they had, in addition, sickness and infirmity that needed medicine. “I healed them.” He who had carried them as Shaddai-the Lord All-sufficient, became to them Jehovah Rophi -the Lord that healeth them. Who shall tell how much we all owe to heavenly pharmacy? Our diseases are deep-seated and most dangerous; how happy are we in having an omnipotent Physician, whose word alone is more than a match for all our maladies. Surely we have a sickness for every day in the year, but the Beloved Physician has a remedy for every complaint. Glory be unto Him who forgiveth all our iniquities, and healeth all our diseases. Then, as if all this were not enough, we find him drawing them on in the paths of obedience and holiness-not with ropes and chains, that would compel against their will, overhauling them roughly- but with forces suited for minds and hearts. “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.” Thus does the gracious Spirit of God work in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure. “The love of Christ constraineth us:” “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God:” “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Calling, Salvation, and Deliverance

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

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt…I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. -Hosea 11:1, 4

“I called my son out of Egypt.” The Lord doth not leave His chosen people for ever in the bondage of sin; when the day of their jubilee dawns, they go forth without price or reward, with a high hand and an outstretched arm…They are His, and He will call them by His effectual grace, and separate them to Himself. Their calling is something more than the common and universal gospel invitation: it is a persuasive, convincing, conquering call. They only know it whom the Lord has set apart for Himself: “Whom He did predestinate them He also called.”…It was not only an entreating call, but an enabling call. “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me,” says the Saviour; and He speaks to purpose, because He helps them to come-nay, He brings them Himself, carrying them, like lost sheep, “upon His shoulders rejoicing.” There is no violence done to the will, but it is set free, and then, being acted upon by a graciously enlightened understanding, it yields to the call, and follows Jesus. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Israel would never have come out of Pharaoh’s country, if the Lord had not fetched them; but none can say that He drove them out -nay, rather, “as for His people, He led them forth like sheep.” Every step of their exodus from bondage under the divine call was the result of divine leading and influence. Even thus spiritually a peculiar but delightful stress is put upon the chosen of God, and, therefore, they come out of the Egypt of sin. The grace to eat the paschal lamb, to strike the blood upon the lintel, and to gird up the loins, and leave the land of leeks, and garlic, and onions, is given only to the heirs of the promised possession.- C.H. Spurgeon

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