Christian Life

Is God Truly Your Father?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, The Father, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

“Our Father which art in heaven.”- Matthew 6:9

I think there is room for very great doubt, whether our Saviour intended the prayer, of which our text forms a part, to be used in the manner in which it is commonly employed among professing Christians. It is the custom of many persons to repeat it as their morning prayer, and they think that when they have repeated these sacred words they have done enough. I believe that this prayer was never intended for universal use. Jesus Christ taught it not to all men, but to His disciples, and it is a prayer adapted only to those who are the possessors of grace, and are truly converted. In the lips of an ungodly man it is entirely out of place. Doth not one say, “Ye are of your father the devil, for his works ye do?” Why, then, should ye mock God by saying, “Our Father which art in heaven.” For how can He be your Father? Have ye two Fathers? And if He be a Father, where is His honor? Where is His love? You neither honor nor love Him, and yet you presumptuously and blasphemously approach Him, and say, “Our Father,” when your heart is attached still to sin, and your life is opposed to His law, and you therefore prove yourself to be an heir of wrath, and not a child of grace! Oh! I beseech you, leave off sacrilegiously employing these sacred words; and until you can in sincerity and truth say, “Our Father which art in heaven,” and in your lives seek to honor His holy name, do not offer to Him the language of the hypocrite, which is an abomination to Him.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0213.cfm

However Weak and Feeble You May Be…

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

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. – 2 Corinthians 2:10

Dear friends, do you not think that we also treat the Spirit of God as though He were straitened when we imagine that our weakness hinders His working by us. “Oh,” says one, “I have no doubt that God can bless a great many by you!” Well, dear fiend, if you knew what I am often obliged to feel of myself, you would never talk so. I am the weakest of you all, in my own apprehension. Another says, “I know that I am inferior in ability, in knowledge, in opportunity.” Just so, dear friend; and therefore you suppose that the Spirit of God cannot use you. Do you not see, that, though you think such a confession is an evidence of humility, you are straitening the Spirit of God? However weak and feeble you may be, He can use you. If you think that He cannot, you deprive Him of power in your apprehension. It is not yourself, you see, that you are lowering, you are really lowering the power of God. He can use a person who is very insignificant, very obscure, very unlearned, very feeble. Nay, He delights to do this; and He makes even those that are strong feel weak before He uses them, so that they say, “When I am weak, then am I strong.” He will use empty vessels, and if you do not want emptying because you are empty already, then there is one little thing that needs not to be done, and God can begin with you at once. There is nothing in you-nothing. Now, if God will use you, He will manifestly have all the glory. Believe that He can use you, and get to work, and do something. Tell out His gospel. Tell it over and over again. Tell it where you have told it, or where you have never told it, and believe that God can use you; AND HE WILL! Else, if you say, “He cannot use me,” I shall put the question to you again, “Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

The Spirit of God Can Save

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

Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us… – Ephesians 3:20

Oh, for a mighty belief in that God who “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us”; and that power is the Holy Ghost, who cannot be straitened!

Why, then, should we not come up to the house of God with the prayer, “O Lord, work mighty marvels”? Is He not the God that doeth great wonders? Should we not expect Him to do large things? I know some will say, “Well, if I were to see a great many converted, I should be afraid that they would, many of them, go back.” But my experience tells me that there is no reason to believe that when many are converted there are more mistaken persons in the number, in proportion, than when few are converted. In fact, I think that I have noticed that the more that are received into the church the better is the quality. And the reason is this-that, when few are coming, there is a strong temptation to accept them with less discretion; but, when there are a great many, we can afford to be somewhat more rigid; so that the more the merrier, and the more the sounder. I think that it is often the case. Let us believe that the Spirit of God can save a parish, can save a city, can shake London from end to end. Oh, that God would enlarge the capacity of our faith! “According to your faith be it unto you.” But we have not more than sixpenny-worth of faith; and when we get as much as that represents, we think that we are getting rich; and yet there are mines of untold wealth of the grace of God to be had. Oh, that we had the faith wherewith to take possession of them! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

Look Upward!

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

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. – Matthew 19:26

I address some man, so far ungodly that he has no hope of salvation, yet still is anxious to be saved. Perhaps he says, “How can I ever become a Christian? How can I have a new heart and a right spirit?” Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Cannot He give you the tenderness you desire? Cannot He give you the desire that seems to be lacking? Cannot He give you faith in Christ, at this very moment? Cannot He breathe into you now that breath of spiritual life that shall make you a living soul, looking up to the cross, and finding life in the Crucified? I pray you, dear friend, if you are under a horrible sense of sin, if you think yourself the worst wretch that ever poisoned the air, if you feel unfit to live as well as unfit to die; yet believe that the Holy Ghost can renew you, and can turn the sinner into a saint, and make you to glorify God even now, this instant. If not, you limit the power of the Holy Ghost; and I come to you with this question, “Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?” The case is desperate, if it were not for the divine hand; it is beyond all hope, if there were no God. There is no balm in Gilead; there is no physician there; if there had been, the health of the daughter of God’s people would long ago have been recovered. Where, then, is the balm? Look upward for it. Where is the physician? Look upward for Him. There is the Christ of God, “mighty to save,” and there is the living Father Himself, and there is the almighty Spirit. Oh, that you would no longer be filled with suspicions as to the power of God! for with God all things are possible. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Is the Lord’s arm waxed short? Trust thou that He can do all things, and do all things for thee whether thou art a saint or a sinner.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

The Inspiring Influence of God’s Word

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

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. – Hebrews 4:12

If we act towards (God) as if His holy Word would not now convert and sanctify, comfort and conquer, as it used to do, we are in this horrible position of practical unbelief. His holy Book, in days gone by, did great wonders. It was like Goliath’s sword, of which David said, “There is none like that; give it me.” It was double-edged, and even he that played with it, might wound himself to spiritual death. Many have wrested the Word to their own destruction. “But surely the Word has not the same power now?” Try it. Give the Bible still to the wicked, to the careless, and the thoughtless; read it to them; induce them to read it; and see if it does not still convert. When you are in great trouble, turn to the Book, and pray the Holy Ghost to bless it, and see if it does not comfort you. In your darkest hour you shall find light in it; when you are ready to give up in despair, you shall to be strengthened, and return to your labor with hope, if you do but search it, and believe its message. It is full of consolation. Never think that the Spirit cannot bless the Word to you, as He used to do. He is not straitened. When you hear and do not profit, it is your hearing that is wrong, not His power that has failed. When you read the Bible, and have not that enjoyment you once had, be you sure that it is your own fault. The meat is as rich; you have lost your appetite. The Spirit of God is not straitened. There is as much inspiration in this Book as when it was first penned. It is still inspired; and he that reads it aright, still feels its inspiring influence, as God comes into his heart through His own Word. The Spirit of God in the Book, and through the Book, is not straitened. Let us keep to it. Let us preach it more and more. Let us take care that our sermons are made out of the Bible, not out of our own heads; then, speaking God’s Word, we shall see that the Spirit of God is not straitened.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

In the Power of God

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

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:10

If a man has made a message of his own, or if he has borrowed it from another, he may or may not speak it; but if God has given it to him to speak, speak it he must, and nothing can silence him. Throughout long ages men have felt moved of God to speak, and they have had to speak in peril of their lives, but they have spoken all the same. When the light of the Reformation first came to England, those who received the gospel were mostly very feeble folk. They felt the force of the movement, and thought that it must have come from God; but they were not sure of their standing ground, and the major part of them recanted when they were brought in presence of the fire, or even laid in prison. Some of the best of them, during the early days of Henry the Eighth, having but a slight hold of the truth, drew back; and the enemy thought that they would all be of this kind; and so he hunted and persecuted them. But, after a very little time, the very men who had been cowards when first they learned the truth, were pricked in their conscience, and they came forward, saying that they found it to be more unbearable to live after having recanted than they could find it to die; and in the power of God they stood up boldly to declare Christ… The persecutors began to be surprised at this; but the reason was that the men grew surer of the truth, and, as they grew surer of it, they grew bolder to confess it, and confess it they must when once they felt the power of it in their souls. God will not leave Himself without a witness, be you sure of this; and if there should come a time of trembling, when even the brave hearts seem staggered, and begin to fail, there will again come a time of confidence, when men will step out, and say, “I was a coward once; but now, in the name of the Most High, I will avow His cause, and stand up for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” The Spirit of the Lord is not straitened by the commands of men. He will make His servants speak.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm

The Spirit of God is Not Silenced

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

Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame. O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these His doings? do not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly? – Micah 2:6,7

The Spirit of the Lord is not straightened by the commands of men; for we find that the people said to their prophets, “Prophesy ye not.” When men spoke in the name of God, these people had grown so besotted, through their evil doings, that they bade them hold their tongues. They did not want to hear any more about God; they had given Him up; and they wished to have no more to do whit Him. What was said by the prophets was unpleasant. It provoked unhappy memories; it made them think of things that they would rather forget; so they said to the prophets, “Prophesy ye not.” “Here comes in the question of the text. These men speak under the impulse of the Spirit of God. What think you? Is the Spirit of the Lord to be straitened, shut up, put down, silenced, by the commands of men? They thought so; they thought that they had only to say to these men of God, “Be quiet. If you speak again, we will put you in prison, or we will banish you, or we will cut off your heads.” By those means they thought to stifle the voice of the Spirit of God, and make Him dumb in their midst. The question comes, “Have you done it? Can you do it? Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?”

Beloved friends, this can never be. The Spirit of God is not straitened; for any man in whom He dwells must speak. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2218.cfm