Character of Jesus

He Increaseth Strength

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

Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. -Deuteronomy 33:25

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. -Isaiah 40:29

God, who gives these extraordinary shoes, such as no other has ever fashioned, and such as men are not accustomed to wear, has in this provided you against the utmost of endurance, the extremity of suffering. “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass”-does not this symbol signify the best, the strongest, the most lasting, and the most fitting provision for a pilgrimage of trial? Thy shoes shall last as long as thou shalt last. Thou shalt find them as good as new when thou art about to lie down on thy last bed, to be gathered to thy fathers. “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass.”

I may be addressing some here that are very low in spirit: they fear that they shall not hold on their way, they are ready to halt, yea, ready to lie down in despair. I trust the way will hold you on when you can hardly hold on your way. May you hear the ring of your iron sandals, and be ashamed of cowardice. They should be iron men to whom God has given iron shoes. I would encourage you to go forward in the way, for you are, by God’s grace, made fit for traveling. You are not bare-footed, nor badly shod. You ought to go forward bravely, after your heavenly Father has put such shoes as these upon your feet. You are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and you may trip lightly on your way; and again I say, though that way should be a very long one, you need not think that your provision for the way will fail you. Even to hoar hairs the Lord will be with you. He has made, and He will bear; even He will carry you. Your last days shall be better than your first days. Yea, you shall go from strength to strength through His abounding and faithful love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2062.cfm

Trampling Down Thy Foe

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

Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.- Deuteronomy 33:25

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. -Romans 16:20

Shoes of iron remind us of military array-they are meant to fight with. Brethren, we are soldiers as well as pilgrims. These shoes are meant for trampling upon enemies. All sorts of deadly things lie in our way, and it is by the help of these shoes that the promise is made good. “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot.” Are we not often too much like the young man Jether, who was bidden by his father to slay Zebah and Zalmunna, but he was afraid. We tremble to put our foot upon the neck of the enemy; we fancy that if we should attempt it, we should be guilty of presumption. Let us have done with this false humility, for thus we dishonour the Lord’s promise: “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass.” Better far to say, “Through Thee will we push down our enemies: through Thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.” Thus we may say without fear, for assuredly “The Lord shall bruise Satan under our feet shortly.”

“O my soul, thou has trodden down strength,” said the holy woman of old, when the adversaries of Israel had been routed. Thus can our exultant spirits also take up the chant. I also can say, “O my soul, thou has trodden down strength.” Yes, believer, with thy foot thou has crushed thy foe, even as thy Lord, who came on purpose that He might break with His foot, even with His bruised heel, the head of our serpent adversary. Be not afraid, therefore, in the day of conflict, to push onward against the foe. Do not be afraid to seize the victory which Christ has already secured for thee. “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass” thou shalt trample down thy foe, and march unharmed to victory. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2062.cfm

Fit Shoes for Our Journey

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

Thy shoes shall be iron and brass -Deuteronomy 33:25

We want to have shoes of iron and brass, first, to travel with. We are pilgrims. We journey along a road which has not been smoothed by a steam-roller, but remains rough and rugged as the path to an Alpine summit. We push on through a wilderness where there is no way. Sometimes we traverse a dreary road, comparable to a burning sand. At other times sharp trials afflict us as if they cut our feet with flints. Our journey is a maze, a labyrinth: the Lord leads us up and down in the wilderness, and sometimes we seem further from Canaan than ever. Seldom does our march take us through gardens: often it leads us through deserts. We are always traveling, never long in one stay. Sometimes the fiery cloudy pillar rests for a little, but it is only for a little. “Forward!” is our watchword. We have no abiding city here. We pitch our tent by the wells and palms of Elim, but we strike it in the morning, when the silver bugle sounds, “Up, and away!” and so we march to Marah, or to the place of the fiery serpents. Ever onward; ever forward; ever moving! This is our lot. Be it so. Our equipment betokens it: we have appropriate shoes for this perpetual journey. We are not shod with the skins of beasts, but with metals which will endure all wear and tear. Is it not written, “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass”? However long the way, these shoes will last to the end… This special route of yours, which is beset with so many difficulties-your God has prepared you for it. You are shod as none but the Lord’s chosen are shod. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2062.cfm

And This is Eternal Life…

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

And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. -John 17:3

What shall I say to those who do not know the Lord, and do not care for Him? O friend, the day will come in which Jesus Christ will say to you, “I never knew you: depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity.” Do not let Him say that; but to-night commence an acquaintance with Him. May His Holy Spirit help you so to do!

I am sure the Lord Jesus Christ could not say to me, “I never knew you.” It is impossible, because I could reply to Him, “Never knew me, Lord? Why, I have been to Thee with so many burdens, I have run to Thee with so many troubles, that I am sure Thou knowest me as one knows a beggar whom he has relieved many times a day…Thou rememberest me, for in my despair I cried to Thee, and Thou didst relieve me of my burden. Thou knowest me, for in my sorrow my broken heart found no comfort but in Thee. Thou hast known me all these years in which I have had to cry to Thee for something to preach about, and for help while preaching. Thou knowest how I have had to come to Thee and confess my failures, and mourn my shortcomings, and lament my sins, and trust in Thy blood for cleansing.” My Lord cannot say that He does not know me, for He has known my soul in adversity. Blessed be His name, I know Him, and lean all my weight upon Him. They that know Him shall be with Him, and He will receive them unto Himself for ever, and this shall be their glory…With Him shall they dwell, world without end. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm

The Book of Remembrance

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

Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name. – Malachi 3:16

Dear friends, I thank God that you and I know what it is to enjoy the presence of God in a great many different ways. When two or three of the people of God meet together, and talk to one another about the things of God, the Lord is never away. You remember that blessed text, “They that feared the Lord spake often one to another.” They had holy talks about heavenly things. It was such sweet conversation, that the Lord Himself turned eaves-dropper, and hearkened and heard. What He heard pleased Him so well that He there and then made a note of it; yea, and wrote it down, and ordered that “a book of remembrance” should be preserved “for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.” Was not this sure evidence of His most gracious presence? John Bunyan knew that God was there when he went about tinkering, and came to Bedford, and there were three godly women sitting in the sun, at work; and as they worked they talked so sweetly that the tinker stood and listened, and was drawn to better things. By such means he became a believer and a preacher, and the writer of the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” which has so refreshed us all. The Lord was there, and therefore he dreamed a heavenly dream in the Bedford jail. Wherever His people meet, the Lord is graciously near. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm

Our Delightful Homes

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

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. -Ephesians 6:4

We will think of our own dear homes. What a delightful family we belong to if it can be said of our house, “the Lord is there”! Has it a thatched roof and a stone floor? What matters? The father of the family lives near to God, and his wife rejoices to be his fellow-helper in prayer, while the children grow up to honest toil and honorable service. Assuredly that cottage home is dear to God, and becomes a place where angels come and go. Because God is there, every window looks towards the Celestial City. It is a comfort that we need not go across the road to morning prayer, or step out every evening to worship, for we are priests ourselves, and have a family altar at home, whereon the incense burns both morning and night. We talk not of matins and vespers, but we glory that “the Lord is there” when we bow the knee as a household. What is more delightful than to gather round the family hearth, to hear the Scriptures read, and listen to the senior, as he talks to the younger ones of what God has done for him, and what the Lord is waiting to give to all who trust Him? Free from all formality, family prayer makes a house a temple, a family a church, and every day a holy day. Truly, I may say of families of this kind, wherever they dwell, that it is none other but the house of God, and it is the very gate of heaven”; for “the Lord is there.” Friend, is God in your house? If it has no family prayer, it has no roof to it. There is no true joy in domestic life unless the Lord be there. All else is fiction; God alone is true delight. I charge you, if your homes are not such that God could come to them, set your houses in order, and say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Will you dare to dwell where God could not lodge with you? May all men say of your home, “The Lord is there”!~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm

Love One Another Fervently

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Holy Spirit 7 Comments

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart – 1Peter 1:22

(W)henever it can be said of an assembly, “the Lord is there,” unity will be created and fostered. Show me a church that quarrels, a church that is split up into cliques, a church that is divided with personal ambitions, contrary doctrines and opposing schemes, and I am sure that the Lord is not there. Where there are envyings, jealousies, suspicions, backbitings, and dislikes, I know that the Holy Dove, who hates confusion, has taken His flight. God is love, and He will only dwell where love reigns. He is the God of peace, and will not endure strife. The children of God should be knit together. It would indeed be a shameful sight should children of His family fall out, and chide, and fight. Saints who dwell with God love each other “with a pure heart, fervently.” Some professors act as if they hated each other: I may not say, “with a pure heart,” but I will say, “fervently.” Where God is present the church is edified in love, and grows up, like a building fitly framed together, to be a holy temple in the Lord. Oh, for more of this unity!…What happy times we have in preaching the word of the Lord, when God’s own presence is realized! His paths drop fatness. What joyous seasons we have frequently enjoyed at the communion table!..When we have gathered in the Lord’s presence we have sung-

“No beams of cedar or of fir
Can with thy courts on earth compare;
And here we wait, until Thy love
Raise us to nobler seats above.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm