Character of Jesus

God Does Not Cast Off His Children

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

I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. -Isaiah 48:10

“I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” I chose and created thee a vessel of mercy appointed unto eternal life: and when thou in common with the whole race, hadst fallen, though I might have crushed thee with them, and sent thee down to hell, I chose thee in thy fallen condition, and I provided for thy redemption: in the fulness of time I sent My Son, who fulfilled My law and made it honourable. I chose thee at thy birth, when a helpless infant thou didst sleep upon thy mother’s breast. I chose thee when thou didst grow up in childhood with all thy follies and thy sins. Determined to save thee, I watched o’er thy path when, Satan’s blind slave, thou didst sport with death. I chose thee when, in manhood, thou didst sin against Me with a high hand; when thy unbridled lusts dashed thee on madly towards hell. I chose thee, then, when thou wast a blasphemer and a swearer, and very far from Me. I chose thee, then, even when thou wast dead in trespasses and sins: I loved thee, and still thy name was kept in My book. The hour appointed came; I redeemed thee from thy sin; I made thee love; I spake to thee, and made thee leave thy sins and become My child; and I chose thee then over again. Since that hour how often hast thou forgotten Me! but I have never forgotten thee. Thou hast wandered from Me; thou hast rebelled against Me; yea, thy words have been exceeding hot against Me, and thou hast robbed Me of Mine honour; but I chose thee even then; and now that I put thee in the furnace thinkest thou that My love is changed? Am I a summer friend fleeing from thee in the winter? Am I one who loves thee in prosperity and doth cast thee off in adversity? Nay; hearken to these my words. thou furnace-tried one, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” Think not, then, when you are in trouble that God has cast you off. Think He has cast you off if you never have any trials and troubles, but when in the furnace, say, “Did He not tell me this beforehand?” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0035.cfm

 

Afflictions Are No Proof of Sonship

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

I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. -Isaiah 48:10

(W)hen there seemed in the chapter but little need of the mention of the doctrine of God’s choosing His people, on a sudden the Holy Spirit moves the prophet’s lips and bids him utter this sentiment, “I have chosen thee;” I have chosen thee by My eternal, sovereign, distinguishing grace; I have chosen thee in covenant purposes; I have chosen thee according to My electing love; “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”

…No tribulation ever proves us to be children of God, except it be sanctified by grace, but affliction is the common lot of all men-man is born to it, even as the sparks fly upward; and you must not infer, because you happen to be troubled, because you are poor, or sick, or tried in your minds, that therefore you are a child of God. If you do imagine so, you are building on a false foundation; you have taken a wrong thought, and you are not right in the matter at all…

There are trials in the pathway of the ungodly, there are troubles they have to suffer which are quite as acute as those of the children of God. Oh! trust not in your troubles; fix your thoughts on Jesus; make Him the only object of your trust, and let the only test be this, “Am I one with Christ? Am I leaning upon Him?” If so, whether I am tried or not, I am a child of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0035.cfm

 

‘Tis Mine to Obey, ‘Tis His to Provide

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

But seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. -Matthew 6:33

When a man is anxious he cannot pray; when he is troubled about the world he cannot serve his Master, he is serving himself. If you could “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” beloved, “all things would then be added to you.” What a noble Christian you would be; how much more honorable you would be to Christ’s religion; and how much better you could serve Him.

“‘Tis mine to obey, ’tis His to provide”

You have been meddling with Christ’s business, you have been leaving your own; you have been trying the “providing” part and leaving the “obeying?” to somebody else. Now, you take the obeying part, and let Christ manage the providing. Come then, brethren, doubting and fearful ones, come and see your Father’s storehouse, and ask whether He will let you starve while He has stored away such plenty in His garner! Come and look at His heart of mercy, see if that will ever fail! Come and look at His inscrutable wisdom and see if that will ever go amiss: Above all, look up there to Jesus Christ your intercessor, and ask yourself, “while He pleads, can my Father forget me?” And if He remembers even sparrows, will He forget one of the least of His poor children? “Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He will sustain thee,” “He will never suffer the righteous to be moved.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0033.cfm

Our Saviour Chooses for Us

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

He shall choose our inheritance for us.- Psalm 47:4

The Christian is always pleased and delighted when he can see Christ in the Scriptures. If he can but detect the footstep of his Lord, and discover that the sacred writers are making some reference to Him, however indistinct or dark he will rejoice there at: for all the Scriptures are nothing except as we find Christ in them. St. Austin says, “The Scriptures are the swaddling bands of the man-child-Christ Jesus, and were all intended to be hallowed garments in which to wrap Him “So they are; and it is our pleasant duty to lift the veil, or remove the garment of Jesus and so behold Him in His person, in His nature, or His offices.

Now, this text is concerning Jesus Christ-He it is who is to “choose our inheritance for us,” He in whom dwelleth all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge is the great Being who is selected as the head of predestination-to choose our lot and our portion, and fix our destiny. Verily, beloved brethren, you and I can rejoice in this great fact, that our Saviour chooses for us. For were we all to be assembled together in some great plain, as Israel was of old, to elect for ourselves a king, we should not propose a second candidate. There would be one who stands like Saul, the son of Kish, head and shoulders taller than all the rest, whom we should at once select to be our king and ruler of Providence for us. We would not ask for some prudent sage or deeply taught philosopher; we would not choose the most experienced senior; but, without a single moment’s hesitation, directly we saw Jesus Christ, in the majesty of His person, we should say, in the words of the Psalmist, He who redeemed us, He who ransomed us, He who loved us-“He shall choose our inheritance for us.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0033.cfm

Listen Up, Oh, Faithless Sinner!

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

But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. -Hebrews 11:6

(Y)our first need is the possession of the simple germs of faith. Oh! my hearers, I marvel what some of you do without the comforts which faith can alone afford. Some of you are very poor people: how do you manage to endure your toils and troubles without faith? Where is your comfort? I do not wonder at your going to get drunk, or rioting in the ale-house, if you have no other comfort in this world…And you rich men, what will you do without faith? You know that you must leave all your property behind you; surely this will make the idea of death dreadful to you. I cannot understand even your happiness, if you have any. I know this-that

“I would not change my blest estate
For all the earth calls good or great;
And while my faith can keep her hold,
I envy not the sinner’s gold.”

But I want to ask you what would you do in the next world without faith? Remember, you are standing now upon the edge of the vast gulf of an unknown future… there you will be, perpetually descending through that pit that has no bottom-struggling to rise, but you cannot…Once more, oh! unbeliever, what will you do without faith? For faith gives eyes to the soul; faith gives us to see things that are not seen: it is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen… Sinner! thou canst not enter into heaven without faith, but what hast thou made up thy mind to do?

God, give faith to those that have none…! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0032.cfm

 

Our Faith is God’s Work

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

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith -Hebrews 12:2

It is God’s work to feed faith, as well as to give it life at first; and if any of you desire to have a growing faith, go and take your burden this morning to God’s throne, crying “Lord, increase our faith!” If you feel that your troubles have been increased, go to the Lord, and say, “increase our faith!” If your money is accumulating, go to the Lord, and say, “Increase our faith;” for you will want more faith as you get more prosperity. If your property is diminishing, go to Him, and say, “increase our faith,” so that what you lose in one scale you may gain in the other. Are you sickly and full of pain this morning? Go to your Master, and say, “increase my faith,’ so that you may not be impatient, but be able to bear it well.” Are you tired and weary? Go and supplicate, “Increase our faith!” Have you little faith? Take it to God, and He will turn it into great faith. There is no hot-house for growing tender plants in, like a house that is within the curtains-the tabernacle of God, where the Shekinah dwelleth.

Let each one ask himself, Do I not want more faith? My brethren and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, rest assured, you will never get too much of this precious grace. If you pay all the way to heaven, you will never have a penny to spare when you get to heaven’s gate, if you live on faith all your journey through, you will not have a pot of manna left. Pray, then, for an increase of faith. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0032.cfm

Intense Faith

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

Jesus said unto her, Said I not unto you, that, if you would believe, you should see the glory of God?  -John 11:40

The young Christian, at first, is not constant in his faith- a little wind comes, and he shakes, when he gets to be an old Christian it will take old Boreas, with fifty of his winds, to move him. Do you not feel, my dear friends, that you want faith to be increased in its intensity? Would you not sing with Watts:

“Oh! that I had a stronger faith,
To look within the veil;
To credit what my Saviour saith,
Whose word can never fail?”

Your poor little faith cannot see many yards before it, for there are clouds of darkness all around; but strong faith can climb the hill that is called “Clear,” and from the top thereof can see the celestial city, and the land that is very far off. Oh! may God increase your faith to such a degree, that you may often have visions of heaven”-that you may sweetly sing, as Moses might have done at the top of Pisgah,-

“Oh! the transporting rapturous scene
That rises to my sight.
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rivers of delight.”

That you may climb up there, bathe your eyes in splendor, plunge your soul in rivers of bliss, and be thoroughly transported and carried away by visions of that state of beatitude which shortly shall be yours, let me exhort you to cry to the Lord, “Increase my faith” in its power of realizing heaven and in every other way. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0032.cfm