Christian Life

A Stronger Foundation than Merit

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

 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel. -Genesis 3:15

These words were not directly spoken to Adam and Eve, but they were directed distinctly to the serpent himself, and that  was of punishment to him for what he had done. It was a day of cruel triumph to him such joy as his dark mind is capable of had filled him, for he had indulged his malice, and gratified his spite. He had in the worst sense destroyed a part of God’s works, he had introduce sin into the new world, he had stamped the human race with his own image, and gained new forces to promote rebellion and to multiply transgression, and therefore he felt that sort of gladness which a fiend can know who bears a hell within him. But now God comes in, takes up the quarrel personally, and causes him to be disgraced on the very battle-field upon which he had gained a temporary success. He tells the dragon that He will undertake to deal with him; this quarrel shall not be between the serpent and man, but between God and the serpent. God saith, in solemn words, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her Seed,” and He promised that there shall rise in fulness of time a champion, who, though He suffer, shall smite in a vital part the power of evil, and bruise the serpent’s head. This was the more, it seems to me, a comfortable message of mercy to Adam and Eve, because they would feel sure that the tempter would be punished, and as that punishment would involve blessing for them, the vengeance due to the serpent would be the guarantee of mercy to themselves. Perhaps, however, by thus obliquely giving the promise, the Lord meant to say, “Not for your sakes do I this, O fallen man and woman, nor for the sake of your descendants; but for My own name and honour’s sake, that it be not profaned and blasphemed amongst the fallen spirits. I undertake to repair the mischief which has been caused by the tempter, that My name and My glory may not be diminished among the immortal spirits who look down upon the scene.” …The divine sovereignty and glory afford us a stronger foundation of hope than merit, even if merit can be supposed to exist. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1326.cfm

The First Gospel Sermon

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

-And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head,and you shall bruise His heel. Genesis 3:16

This is the first gospel sermon that was ever delivered upon the surface of this earth. It was memorable discourse indeed, with Jehovah Himself for the preacher, and the whole human race and the prince of darkness for the audience. Is it not remarkable that this great gospel promise should have been delivered so soon after the transgression? As yet no sentence had been pronounced upon either of the two human offenders, but the promise was given under the form of a sentence pronounced upon the serpent Not yet had the woman been condemned to painful travail, or the man to exhausting labour, or even the soil to the curse of thorn and thistle. Truly “mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” Before the Lord had said “dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return,” He was pleased to say that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. Let us rejoice, then, in the swift mercy of God, which in the early watches of the night of sin came with comfortable words unto us.

“Now is the hour of darkness past,
Christ has assumed His reigning power;
Behold the great accuser cast
Down from his seat to reign no more.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1326.cfm

 

 

Converted to God by His Still Small Voice

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

And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. – 1 Kings 19:12

Many have been converted to God by the still small voice whom no wind, though it rose to a hurricane, no earthquake, though it rent the world to its centre, and no fire, though it licked up the forests, could ever move. A gentle word has done it. Sometimes that still small voice has come to us by apparently very, very inadequate means. It is astonishing what little things God will use when He pleases to do so. He wanted to soften the heart of that rough prophet Jonah, and He sent a worm and a gourd, and they did it. He would bring Peter to repentance, and He bade a cock to crow… Means may seem to be absolutely ridiculous, yet God maketh use of the things that are not, as though they were. I remember to have heard the story of a man, a blasphemer, profane, an atheist, who was converted singularly by a sinful action of his. He had written on a piece of paper, “God is nowhere,” and bade his child read it, for he would make his child an atheist too. And the child spelt it, “God is n-o-w h-e-r-e-God is now here.” It was a truth, instead of a lie, and the arrow pierced the man’s own heart. I remember one who had lived a life of gross iniquity who stepped into Exeter Hall and found Christ there. It was not my sermon, however, that God blessed: it was only this. I read the hymn, “Jesus, lover of my soul.” Just those words touched his heart. “Jesus, lover of my soul,” he said to himself. “Did Jesus love my soul? Then how is it that I could have lived as I have done?”; and that word broke him down. God works great results by little things. A little hymn learnt at the Sunday School is sung at home by a little prattler, and the heart of the father is softened by it. One little sentence uttered by a friendly visitor reaches a mother’s conscience and impresses her heart. Ay, and God can use the quiet of the evening, or the stillness of the night, or a flash of lightning, or a peal of thunder, or a dewdrop, or a little flower-He can use anything He wills to bring His banished home. Often doth the Spirit speak thus with a still small voice. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3498.cfm

Fresh Strength from on High

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

So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat… -1 Kings 19:19 

Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth… -Isaiah 41:15

Elijah was to go back to anoint his successor. If Elijah flees, and if Elijah at length is taken up to heaven, yet Elisha shall succeed him. Perhaps there may be a brother here who is in the state I have described who does not know what God has in store for him. You are to call into the Christian ministry a brother that shall do greater than you have, you shall light a greater candle than your own. Oh! what joy Elijah must have had when he felt there would be someone to take up his work! You have not, my dear brother, yet called out for your master the man the Lord means to call. What a happy man he must have been who was the means of the conversion of Whitefield or Jonathan Edwards, or some great missionary of the cross. You may be that, in that little village-in that back slum. Go thou back then. What doest thou here, Elijah? What doest thou here? The Master’s voice speaks to thee. Go to thy closet, and get fresh strength from on high, and then go back to thy difficulties-go back to thy self-denials, go back to all thy service with a good heart and true. “Fear not thou worm Jacob; I will help thee, saith the Lord.” Arise, thou worm, and thresh the mountain, for “I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth.” I have delivered the message. It is to somebody, I know not to whom… ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3498.cfm

For The Lord Has Blessed Thee

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

And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left… ~ 1 Kings 19:13-14 

Elijah was a man of like passions with ourselves. We all know that when we have passed through any great excitement of high joy there almost always comes following, a corresponding reaction and depression.

But thus saith the Lord unto thee, “It may be thou hast not laboured in vain as thou hast supposed.” Elijah knew nothing of the seven thousand men that God had in reserve. You don’t know what converts God has given you. There are scattered up and down the world, perhaps, some precious ones who owe their salvation instrumentally to you, and could they all stand before you, you would blush with shame at the thought of leaving a harvest-field that has really been so prolific, though not in your sight. Go back again to thy work, for the Lord has blessed thee. Play not the fool by deserting the post where He will give thee honour yet. Oh! thou true servant of God, the Lord will not suffer thee to be rejected. If they have rejected thee, they have rejected thy God also. If thou hast been faithful to His truth, leave thou that matter to Him-go thou back to thy work.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3498.cfm

The Chief End of Man

Sherry Christian Life, repentance, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life 4 Comments

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. -Ecclesiastes 12:13

“Is it not our duty to God that we should seek Him?” With some persons this reflection may be important. You remember the Countess of Huntingdon, one of the most remarkably gracious women that every lived–a mother in Israel. Her conversion was to a great degree caused by this: she was a blithe and worldly lady of noble rank, excellent and amiable, and all that, but she had no thought of the things of God. She was at a ball, and the amusements of the evening were engrossing all attention, and suddenly the answer to the first question of the assembly’s catechism, which she appears to have learnt when she was a child, came forcibly into her mind, “The chief end of man is to glorify God, and enjoy Him for ever.” She thought to herself, “Why, here am I, a butterfly among a lot of butterflies. All our chief end is to enjoy ourselves, to spend the evening merrily and make ourselves agreeable, and so on.” She went away smitten in her soul with that thought, “The end that God made me for I am not answering.” Now there are some minds that have sufficient in them to think of such a thing as that, and I shall leave that to fall into some honest and good ground. Perhaps some young man will say, “Well, after all, I am not serving my Creator as I should.”

Oh! I wish that some…might feel something of nobility within them that would make them feel, “It is mean to act so unjustly to God, as to prefer the trivial things of time to the weighty matters of eternity.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/history/spurgeon/web/ss-0036.html

Come Empty-Handed and He Will Be Found of Thee

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

…for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee… -1 Chronicles 28:9

It has been supposed that we should want a good deal of help in seeking after salvation. Certain persons who step in to be absolutely necessary priests between us and God. A great delusion, but there be thousands who believe it and who fancy that God won’t hear them if they pray, except they have some respect for these human mediators. Away with the whole, away with any pretence for anyone to stand between the soul and God, save Jesus Christ. “If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee.” Though thou bring no other man with thee, but come empty-handed as thou art to God here, without paraphernalia, or altar, or sacrifice of the Mass, He will be found of thee. Take the text in its simplicity and sublimity. It is just this: that if any heart really seeks God in His way, it shall find Him; if any man really wants mercy from God and seeks it as God tells him to seek it, he shall have it. Any man of woman born, be he who he may, if he comes to God in the way laid down, and sincerely asks for salvation, that salvation he shall surely have. The matter is simple enough; our pride alone obscures it. The way to heaven is so plain that “a wayfaring man, though a fool, may not err therein.”

Is anything impossible for the Saviour? Oh! conceive it not so. The idea that any guilt is too great for Christ to pardon scarcely deserves to be replied to. It is so absurd when you are dealing with the infinite mercy of a Saviour who is God Himself.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3490.cfm