Christian Life

May the Holy Spirit Teach Us

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Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies… – Psalm 106:7

Beyond all question, (the Israelites) ought to have recognized Jehovah’s love to them. By so much as the plagues were terrible to Egypt, they were gracious to His people. Though the Israelites were a race of down-trodden slaves the Lord loved them. He moved heaven and earth to liberate them: He not only made the very dust of Egypt alive for them, but He sent swift angels out of heaven to avenge the wrongs of His chosen. The orbs of heaven and the creatures of earth—all were brought to bear upon God’s great purpose of grace towards Israel. Truly said the Lord, “I gave Egypt for thy ransom: Ethiopia and Seba for thee.” It was love, wondrous love to Israel, which made the Lord to show His signs in Egypt, His wonders in the land of Ham. Why did they not become lovingly obedient in return for such favors? Why were they hard of heart, and stiff of neck, and unwilling to be led of the Lord their God? Alas! they understood not what the Lord was doing for them.

To you, beloved, it may be that the same fault can be laid. God has done great wonders for believers; but it may be, we have not yet learned His power so as to trust His might; nor His sovereignty, so as to submit to His will; nor His love, so as to rejoice in His faithfulness. Alas! we have but little understanding; nay, worse, we have none at all except as the Lord, the Holy Spirit, teaches us to profit, and instructs us, as children are instructed. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

Believe and Hope in God

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

Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt… – Psalm 106:7

We find Israel broken down by utter hopelessness. Moses spoke to them again, but we read, “They hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.” They had been so brutally crushed by the Egyptians, that they had lost all heart. Slavery had killed all the manhood of their race: they were abject, timorous, and crouching bondsmen. The last ounce that breaks the camel’s back was laid on them by Pharaoh, and they could no more listen to words of hope. Moses said he had come to deliver them; he told them they should be brought out with a high hand and an outstretched arm; but they could not think it possible; they shook their heads and turned a deaf ear to what they regarded as vain words. Hope had fled. They understood not that God could, by any possible means, deliver them from the gigantic power which held them down. Alas! this also has been the case with us; and perhaps is the case with some here at this moment. You are so sad and so depressed that you cannot believe in salvation. Your presumptuous hopes lie dead in heaps round about you, and you cannot believe that you will ever be saved. “Oh!” say you, “there may be mercy for anybody else, but there is no mercy for me. God can forgive the chief of sinners, but He will never forgive me.” …You dare not hope that He has ordained you unto eternal life, that He will put His Spirit within you, and that He will give you power to become children of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Your very sorrow for sin has made you incapable of understanding God’s wonders of grace. This is a painful state of mind.

Was there a single weak point in what God had done for them? They had no ground whatever for their disbelief. O brothers, let us never distrust our God until He gives us ground for so doing; and that will never be. C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

God’s Needful Dealings with Us

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

Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies… – Psalm 106:7

The wonders that God wrought in Egypt were exceedingly great and instructive. The ten plagues were memorable master-strokes of God’s judgment upon the proud, and notable displays of His favor to the oppressed. How Egypt staggered beneath the blows of Jehovah! Those tremendous judgments came one after another with righteous deliberation, and yet with terrible rapidity. Pharaoh and his proud nobles were wounded and humbled: the leviathan of Egypt was broken in pieces as one that is slain. Surely, they for whom all these plagues were wrought ought to have considered them, and ought to have spied out the plain lessons which they taught; but they failed to do so, for they were dull of understanding. Albeit, God had come out of His secret places, and had made bare His arm for them, yet “our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt.”

How wretchedly have we complained when God, in His gracious dealings with us, has caused us an inward grief! He began to show us our sin—a very necessary thing; but we kicked against it and said, “Is this the grace of God? Oh, that we were rid of these convictions!”…How else should we feel our need of redemption and be willing to come forth free by the blood of the Lamb?…Our fathers understood not His wonders in Egypt, and oftentimes this is our case; we judge by the feelings of the present, and forget the eternal future. We cannot understand our burdens and our soul-humblings; we stand bewildered and amazed. Though the point is plain enough to faith, unbelief does not hear the rod, nor Him that has appointed it; but we are taken up with our present smart. Our selfish desire for immediate comfort prevents our understanding the great plans of divine grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

Be Ye Followers of God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies; but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea – Psalm 106:6,7

Great things, whether good or evil, begin with littles. The river that rolls its mighty volume to the sea was once a tiny brook; nay, it started as a spring-head, where the child stooped down to drink, and, with a single draught, seemed as if he would exhaust the supply. The rivulet ripples itself into a river. Sin is a stream of this sort. It starts with a thought; it increases to a resolve, a word, an act; it gathers force, and becomes habit, and daring rebellion. Want of understanding lies at the fountain-head of sin: “Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt.” Out of this lack of understanding comes the greater offense of ungrateful forgetfulness. Failure of memory follows upon a want of understanding: “They remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies.” This readily leads on to the sad consummation of rebellion. Provocation follows upon forgetfulness. Inward faults display themselves in outward offenses: “They provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea.”

To confess our personal sin will tend to keep us humble; and in view of the Lord’s mercy, which has spared and pardoned us, a sense of our guilt will make us grateful. The less we think of ourselves the more we shall think of Him whose “mercy endureth for ever”; and if we see where our fathers’ sins began, and how they grew, and what they came to, we may hope that the Spirit of God will help us to turn from the beginnings of evil, and forsake the fountain-heads of our iniquities. This will tend to repentance and holiness. May we be so wrought upon by the Spirit of God that we shall not be as our earthly fathers, but become like our heavenly Father, who says to us, “Be ye followers of God, as dear children.” We are not to take our fathers after the flesh for our example wherein they have gone astray; but our Father who is in heaven we are to imitate by the power of His grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

Be Humbled and Warned

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies; but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea…Save us, O Lord our God. – Psalm 106:6,7,47

OUR FATHERS! From them we derive our nature. We inherit our fathers’ propensities; for that which is born of the flesh is flesh. As is the nature, such is the conduct. Hence the Psalmist writes in verse 6: “We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.” If we must mention our fathers’ faults, it is not to screen ourselves; for we have to confess that our life’s story is no brighter than theirs. It is not because the fathers have eaten sour grapes that the children’s teeth are set on edge; for we ourselves have greedily devoured those evil clusters: “We have sinned with our fathers.” “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” When we read of the sins of others, we ought to be humbled and warned; for “all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” We have no space wherein to set up a monument to our own glory. As we cannot boast in our pedigree, for we are the children of sinners; so we cannot exalt ourselves because of our personal excellence, for there is none that doeth good, no not one. We come before God and confess our iniquities as a race and as individuals; and we cry unto Him, in the words of the forty-seventh verse, “Save us, O Lord our God.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

Serving Him Heartily

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

And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the LORD. – Isaiah 66:21

Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing. – Psalm 100:2

If the Lord has taken of us to be His priests and Levites, let us serve Him with great thankfulness and joy. If any people should be glad, I am sure it is those people that feel the aboundings of His mercy in forgiveness, having heard those glad tidings, as it were, from the lips of Jesus Himself. “Thy sins which are many are all forgiven thee: go in peace.” They have something always to stimulate their gratitude and regale them with sunshine. “I am very poor,” saith one, “but, never mind, poor as I am, I am not a drunkard or a swearer now; I feel weak and sickly in body, it may be (but) never mind that; I have not the burden of sin upon my soul.” Or “I am unknown, quite unknown. I have nobody to come and see me. Never mind that; I am known to God. I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. My great wounds have been healed in Jesus’ precious blood.” Why, you have always cause to be glad, my dear brother and sister, if you have had your sins forgiven: you have a fountain opened in your soul of love to Christ and joy in God, quite as surely as there is a fountain open for the cleansing of your sin in the side of Jesus. Those that had some good principles instilled into them by early training or some sort of preparation to receive the gospel, may not feel their deep indebtedness to the wonderful working of the Spirit; but those of us who were steeped in sin, and hardened in heart, when we are saved must magnify the power of God, and moved by that feeling we must serve Him heartily with our whole spirit, soul, and body. A man that feels what grace has done for him cannot help throwing his whole soul into it. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0992.cfm

Serve the Lord Humbly and Heartily

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

And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the LORD. – Isaiah 66:21

And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. – Revelation 5:10

I address myself to those of you especially, my dear brethren and sisters, whom the grace of God has taken to make priests and Levites unto God. You are near to Him: you serve Him. What effect should this have upon you? First, remember what state you were in before God’s grace took you in hand. Then consider what you are called to be; you are made priests and Levites.. oh, what humility this vocation of God should produce! However high we may be raised, we must remember whence the honor cometh. For this promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west—it is God’s gift. Thou, a blasphemer and injurious; thou, a careless, godless, Christless man, now raised to be a servant of God, to wait in His courts, and honor His name, be thankful that thou art lifted so high, but wonder, and fear and tremble, for all the goodness that God has made to pass before thee. What am I, and what is my father’s house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto; to pray and my prayer to be heard, yet not worthy to lift mine eyes to the place where Thine honor dwelleth; to have Thy holy Spirit dwelling in me, and yet not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof! Be humble brother: it will help you to watch. Watching is done best in a lowly manner. And since He hath taken us for priests and for Levites, let us do every office heartily as unto the Lord. If others in this world can serve God coldly, yet, my brethren and sisters, you and I cannot afford to do so. We were such sinners, that if we have been forgiven, we must love Him. Those that had little sin to be cleansed may not have much love to lavish on their Redeemer. Not so with me or thee. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0992.cfm