Christian Life

God-sent Trials

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

Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD helped me. The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death. – Psalm 118:13, 18

It is well to have grace enough to see that tribulation comes from God: He fills the bitter cup as well as the sweet goblet. Troubles do not spring out of the dust, neither doth affliction grow up from the ground, like hemlock from the furrows of the field; but the Lord Himself kindles the fiery furnace, and sits as a refiner at the door. Let us not dwell too much upon the part played by the devil, as though he were a power co-ordinate with God. He is a fallen creature, and his very existence depends upon the will and permission of the Most High. His power is borrowed, and can only be used as the infinite omnipotence of God permits. His wickedness is his own, but his existence is not self-derived. Blame the devil, and blame all of his servants as much as you will; but still believe in the mysterious but consoling truth that, in the truest sense, the Lord sends trials upon His saints. “Explain that statement,” say you. Oh, no; I am not called upon to explain it, but to believe it. A great many things, when they are said to be explained by modern thinkers, are merely explained away, and I have not yet begun to learn that wretched art. Remember how Peter told the Jews that he, whom God by His determinate counsel and foreknowledge decreed to die, even His son Jesus Christ, nevertheless taken by them with wicked hands, when they had crucified and slain Him. The death of Christ was pre-determined in the counsel of God, and yet it was none the less an atrocious crime on the part of ungodly men. The omnipotence and providence of God are to be believed; but man’s responsibility is not therefore to be questioned. Our afflictions may come distinctly from man, as the result of persecution or malice; and yet they may come with even greater certainty from the Lord, and may be the needful outcome of His special love to us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm

Bravely Confident

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

The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD. – Psalm 118:6, 17

Many Reformers had been done to death: Huss, and others who preceded him, had been burnt at the stake; Luther was cheered by the firm conviction that he was perfectly safe until his work was done. In this full assurance he went bravely to meet his enemies at the Diet of Worms, and indeed, went courageously whenever duty called him. He felt that God had raised him up to declare the glorious doctrine of justification by faith, and all the other truths of what he believed to be the gospel of God; and therefore no faggots could burn him, and no sword could kill him till that work was done. Thus he bravely wrote out his belief, and set it where many eyes would see it, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” It was no idle boast; but a calm and true conclusion from his faith in God and fellowship with him. May you and I, when we are tried, be able, through faith in God, to meet trouble with the like brave thoughts and speeches! We cannot show our courage unless we have difficulties and troubles. A man cannot become a veteran soldier if he never goes to battle. No man can get his sea legs if he lives always on land. Rejoice, therefore, in your tribulations, because they give you opportunities of exhibiting a believing confidence, and thereby glorifying the name of the Most High. But take heed that you have faith, true faith in God; and do not become a puppet of impressions, much less a slave of the judgments of others. To have David’s faith, you must be as David. No man may take up a confidence of his own making: it must be a real work of the Spirit, and growth of grace within, grasping with living tendrils the promise of the living God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm

Muzzle that dog of unbelief!

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

“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” – Psalm 118:17

How very differently we view things at different times and in differing states of mind! Faith takes a bright and cheerful view of matters, and speaks very confidently, “I shall not die, but live.” When we are slack as to our trust in God, and give way to misgivings and doubts and fears, we sing in the minor key, and say, “I shall die. I shall never live through this trouble. I shall one day fall by the hand of the enemy; and that day is hastening on. Hope is failing me. Bad times are at the door. I shall not live through this crisis.” Thus our tongues show the condition of our inner man. We talk according to our frames and feelings, and would make others think that things are as we see them with our jaundiced eyes. Is it not a pity that we give a tongue to our unbelief? Would it not be better to be dumb when we are doubtful? Muzzle that dog of unbelief! Dog did I call him? He is a wolf; or should I call him hound of hell? His voice is as that of Apollyon: it is full of blasphemy against God. Unbelieving utterances will do no good to yourself, and will do harm to those who listen to your babblings. It would be wise to say, “If I should speak thus, I should offend against the generation of Thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.” Let us be dumb with silence when we cannot speak to the Glory of God. But, oh, it is a blessed thing, when faith is in our spirit reigning and powerful, to let it have ample opportunity to proclaim the honours of His name! To give his heart a tongue, is wise in man when his heart itself is wise. The more talk we get from the mouth of faith, the better: her lips drop sweet-smelling myrrh. A silent faith, if there be such a thing, robs others of benedictions; and at the same time it does worse, for it robs God of His glory. When we have a joyous faith in full operation, let us be communicative, and let us openly and boldly say, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm

Live for Eternity, Live for Christ’s Glory and Live to Win Souls

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

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. – Philippians 1:21

It is a dreadful thing to see men, who profess to be Christians, unwilling to die. Should it be so that, when we feel ourselves ill, and likely to die, we should have a host of matters to arrange and many regrets to express? Dear brethren, begin your regrets earlier, while there is time to retrieve the past. Regret now, and ask for grace now to do all that is in you for Him who loved you, and bought you with His blood. As for you who have no redeeming blood upon you, I do not marvel that you live to yourselves. O you who despise Christ, I do not wonder if you despise yourselves so much as to be the slaves of pleasure! But you, who are the elect of God, who are bought by the blood of Jesus, who are called by His Spirit, who profess to be His people—you have nobler things to live for. I pray you, make us not to be ashamed of you by living as if you were mere worldlings, who have their portion in this life. Live for eternity. Live for Christ’s glory. Live to win souls. Behave as occupiers under a Royal Owner should behave. With such a Landlord, the best in the whole universe, be also the best of tenants, and evermore be mindful of the time of your removal to another land…

“Gird up your mind to contemplation, trembling inhabitant of the earth; Tenant of a hovel for a day, you are heir of the universe forever! For, neither congealing of the grave, nor gulphing waters of the firmament, nor expansive airs of heaven, nor dissipative fires of Gehenna, nor rust of rest, nor wear, nor waste, nor loss, nor chance, nor change, shall avail to quench or overwhelm the spark of soul within thee!”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

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Leaving This Hovel for the Mansion

Sherry Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. – 2 Corinthians 5:1

Set your house in order, my dear brother, even though you are leaving it, because you are going to a better one if you are a believer in Christ. The old clay shed will be taken down and you shall dwell in marble halls. You shall leave the hovel for the mansion. The traveler’s tent shall be rolled up and put away in the tomb to be exchanged for “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Oh, let it not be said that you were so bad a tenant in the first house that you could not be trusted with a second, but may grace cause you so to set this house in order that you may quit it without reluctance, and enter into the next with alacrity, leaving your first house behind you without shame, in sure and certain hope of a blessed resurrection! May you cheerfully leave the first house and joyfully surrender the key to the great Landlord, because you know that, go where He will in all its rooms, He will see the remembrances of His own grace, the marks of His own workmanship, the beauties and adornments of His own Holy Spirit. Then, conveyed by ministering spirits to a better country, you shall become possessors of a heritage undefiled, which fades not away…Let us remember that “now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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Leaving Behind Holy Memories

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

Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live. – 2 Kings 20:1

Whitefield used to tell a story of a young man who could not live in the house where his old father had dwelt, because he said, “Every chair in it smelt of piety.” He was a wicked, godless, rebellious, Christless man, and he could not stay where his father’s holiness would force itself upon his memory and rebuke him. Oh, I would like to make every chair in my house like that, so that when my boy comes into possession of it, he will think, “Why, there my father sat to study God’s Word, and there he used to kneel in prayer, and now I have his house, I must imitate his ways.” A dear man of God, who has now gone to heaven, took me into his study one day and said to me, “You see that spot?” “Yes.” “Well, that is the place where my dear wife used to kneel to pray and that is where, one morning, when I came to look for her, as she did not come down to breakfast, I found her dead.” “Oh!” said he, “that is holy ground.” And so it was, for she was a very gracious woman. Oh, that we may so live that everything we leave behind us may be like Abel’s blood that cried from the ground! May our habits and manners be such that, after our death, everything associated with us may be perfumed with holy memories! God make it so! God make it so!

Beloved friend in Christ, do try that everything may be in order for your dying, and everything now prepared for your departure, if it should happen tonight. Do it for the church’s sake. So live that when the church misses you, there shall be left behind you your gracious memory and your holy example to inspire those who will mourn your departure. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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House Cleaning

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

“Thus says the LORD: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’ ” – 2 Kings 20:1

Our body, our property, our family, this present life, and all its surroundings are in the text described as our house. As believers in Jesus Christ, if there is anything deficient in us, if there be anything excessive in us, if there be aught that is contrary to the Lord’s mind and will, may the Holy Spirit come and correct it all, so that our house may be set in order!.. Some of your houses need sweeping. The dust and filth of sin are lying all over the floors. You want the precious blood to be sprinkled, or else if the Lord begins to sweep with the bosom of the law, it will happen, as Bunyan tells us, that the dust will be enough to choke your prayers or blind the eyes of your faith. May the Gospel come and sprinkle the water of grace and then may Christ come in and sweep your house. But you need more than sweeping—your house wants washing. Every floor needs cleansing and there is no one but the Lord Jesus Christ who can do this. Nothing can make you clean but His blood. In many of your houses the windows are very filthy and the light of the glorious Gospel cannot enter, so as to bring with it an intelligent conception of the things of God. Oh, that this may be set right! The very drainage in some men’s houses is neglected. Many a foul thing stagnates, ferments, and pollutes their souls. Ah! what is there that is in order in the unregenerate man? To every one in that state, the text calls loudly, “Set thine house in order.” But sirs, unless Christ comes to help you, it is a hopeless task. Unless Christ and His Holy Spirit come to the rescue, your houses will remain out of order still, everything filthy and everything disarranged, and when the great King shall come and find it so, woe unto you, woe unto you, in the day of His appearing! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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