Christian Life

“I am her battlement. She is to have none other”

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

But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, Him shall ye fear, and Him shall ye worship, and to Him shall ye do sacrifice. – 2Kings 17:36

God’s church is very fond of building walls which her God has not sanctioned. She is not content to trust in the arm of God, but she will add thereto some extraneous help which God utterly abhors. “Beautiful for situation-the joy of the whole earth-is Mount Zion, upon the sides of the north, the city of the great king. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, even so is God round about His people, from henceforth, for evermore.” But His people are not content with God being round about them, they seek some other protection. The church has very often gone to king Jareboam for help, or to the world for aid; and then God has said to her enemies, “Go ye up against her, but make not a full end: take away her battlements, for they are not the Lord’s. She shall not have them. I am her battlement. She is to have none other.”

God will not have his church relying on man and putting trust in princes. “Cursed shall be such-a-one,” He says, “he shall be like a heath in the desert, he shall not see when good cometh; his leaf shall wither and he shall bring forth no fruit unto perfection.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0038.cfm

 

Set Your Affections on Things Above

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

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. – Colossians 3:2

There is a father-he has a son. That son is as dear to him as his own flesh and blood. Let him take heed lest that child become too much his darling, lest he sets him in the place of the Most High God, and makes an idol of him for as sure as ever he does, God, by affliction, will say to the enemy, “Go up against him: take away his battlements, for they are not the Lord’s.” There is a husband. He coats upon his wife, as he should do. The Scripture telleth us, that a man cannot love his wife too much: “Husbands love your wives, as Christ also loves the Church”-and that is infinitely. Yet this man has proceeded to a foolish fondness and idolatry. God says, “Go ye up against him make not a full end; take away his battlements, for they are not the Lord’s.” We fix our love and affection on some dear friend of ours, and there is our hope and trust. God says, “What though ye take counsel together, ye have not taken counsel of Me, and therefore, I will take away your trust. What though ye have walked in piety, ye have not walked with Me as ye should. Go ye up against her, O death! go ye against her, O affliction! Take away that battlement, it is not the Lord’s. Ye shall live on Me-ye shall not feed, like Ephraim, on the wind. Ye shall lean on My arm; ye shall not trust in the staff of these broken reeds. Ye shall set your affections on things above, and not on things on earth. For I will blast the Joy of earth. I will send a blight upon your fair harvest. I will make the clouds obscure your sun, and you shall cry unto Me, ‘O God, Thou art my trust, my sun, my hope, my all.'” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0038.cfm

God’s Use of Wicked Men

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

Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord’s. – Jeremiah 5:10

Jerusalem had sinned against God; she had rebelled against the most High, had set up for herself false gods, and bowed before them; and when God threatened her with chastisement, she built around herself strong battlements and bastions. She said “I am safe and secure. What though Jehovah hath gone away, I will trust in the gods of nations. Though the Temple is cast down, yet we will rely upon these bulwarks and strong fortifications that we have erected.” “Ah!” says God, “Jerusalem, I will punish thee. Thou art My chosen one, therefore will I chastise thee. I will gather together mighty men, and will speak unto them; I will bid them come unto thee, and they shall visit thee for these things. My soul shall be avenged on such a nation as this.” And He calls together the Chaldeans and Babylonians, and says to those fierce men who speak in uncouth language, “Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements, for they are not the Lord’s.” Thus God used wicked men to be His scourge to chastise a still more wicked nation, who were yet the objects of His affection and love…God often bids troubles and enemies go up against Christians to take away their battlements that are not the Lord’s …May His (shield) be o’er our head and be our constant guard! May we never depart from the simplicity of the faith! ~ C.H.Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0038.cfm

Perfume the Axe that Wounds You

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

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you -Matthew 5:44

Pray always, most for those who treat you worst. Make them the constant subjects of your prayer. In your actions prove the sincerity of your prayers by extra kindness towards those who are unkind to you… A Christian woman had often prayed for a very ungodly and unkind husband, but her prayers were not heard. However she did this, she treated him more kindly than she had ever done before. If there was any little thing that she could think of that would please his palate, if she had to deny herself, that would be on the table. She kept the house scrupulously comfortable, and did all she could. And one day someone said to her, “How is it that you, with such a husband can act so towards him?” “Well,” she said, “I hope I shall win his soul yet, but if not”-and then the tears came in her eyes-“all the happiness he will have will be in this life, and so I will let him have all I can possibly give him, since he has no happiness in the life to come.” Do that with the ungodly. Lay yourself out to oblige and serve them. Let it be known of you that the best way to get a good turn out of you is to do you a bad turn. “Oh!” says one, “it is too hard. Tread on a worm, and it will turn.” And is a worm to be an example to a Christian? Christ Jesus, art Thou not better for an exemplar than a poor worm that creeps into the earth? What did our Saviour do but pray for His murderers? The blood they shed redeemed them that shed it. We have heard the old story of the sandal-wood tree that perfumes the axe that cuts it. Do you so, O Christian! Perfume with your love the axe that wounds you…Be patient, be courteous, be kind-in a word, Christ-like; and how know you that these very persons who hate you most to-day will not love you well to-morrow, and come together with you to the communion table, and together rejoice in our blessed Saviour? ~ C.H.Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3512.cfm

Let Them Sneer!

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prayer, promises Leave a comment

Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. -Hebrews 13:13

How ought those who are mocked behave towards those that mock at them? Well, the first thing is, never yield an inch. You young men in the great firms of London, you working men that work in the factories-you are sneered at. Let them sneer. If they can sneer you out of your religion, you have not got any worth having. Remember you can be laughed into hell, but you can never be laughed out of it. A man may, by ridicule, give up what religion he thought he had, but if he cast away his soul, his companions who caused his loss cannot help him in the day of his travail, and anguish, and bitterness, before the throne of the Most High. Why be ashamed? “They called me a saint.” I remember once a person calling me a saint in the street. All I thought was, “I wish he could prove it.” Once a man, passing me in the street, said, “There is John Bunyan.” I think I felt six inches taller at the least. I was delighted to be called by such a name as that. “Oh! but they will point at you.” Cannot you bear to be pointed at? “But they will chaff you.” Chaff-let them chaff you. Can that hurt a man that is a man? If you are a molluscous creature that has no backbone, you may be afraid of jokes, and jeers, and jests; but if God has made you upright, stand upright and be a man. Moreover, there is one thing you should always do when you are ashamed-pray. The next verse in the Psalm is, “Oh! that God would turn the captivity of Zion.” The best refuge for a believer in times of persecution is his secret resort to God. Let him go on his knees and say, “My Lord, I have been counted worthy to be spoken ill of for Thy name’s sake. Help me to bear it. Now is my time of trial. Strengthen me to bear this reproach. Grant that it may be no heavy burden to me, but may I rather rejoice in it for Thy name’s sake.” God will help you, beloved. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3512.cfm

The Unbelieving Dunce

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

Truly, Thou art a God who hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. -Isaiah 45:15

I have heard of a man who went into a smith’s smithy one day, and he began complaining of the wet weather. “Why,” said he, “smith, you talk about Providence! There is too much wet by half. If there were any Providence, it would manage things a great deal better. There is the wheat nearly all spoilt, and the barley is going. I tell you,” says he, “there is no Providence; things don’t go right.” The smith took no notice of his observations, but after a while walked across the smithy, and took down an odd-looking tool which he used in his craft, and said to him, “Do you know what that is used for?” “No,” said he, I don’t.” “Look at it; look at it, and find out.” He did look, and then he said he did not know. The smith put up that tool, and took down another, an ugly-looking tool, and says he, “Do you know what I use that for?” “No,” says the man, “I cannot conceive what you do with that.” “You can’t? Look at it, and see; perhaps you will find out.” He looked at the thing, and then he said, “No, I really do not know what is the use you put that to.” The smith put it up, and then walked leisurely back and said, “You are a great dunce. You do not know the use of my tools, and I am only a smith; and you set up to judge of the use of God’s tools, and say what is right and what is wrong. You don’t even know about a smithy, and yet, you pretend to know about the whole world.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3512.cfm

The Fool

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good. -Psalm 14:1

Let me give you the reasons why the unbeliever usually is an unbeliever. It is principally because he knows not God; and none of us like to trust a person we don’t know. He knows nothing of the Most High, has never communed with Him, nor even seen Him in His works; and, therefore, he cannot trust Him. The unbeliever will also say that he cannot trust God because he cannot see Him, as if everything that is real must, therefore, be the object of sight as if there were not forces in nature about which no doubts can be entertained that are far beyond the ken of sight. They will also say that they cannot trust God because they cannot understand Him. If we could understand God, He would not be God, for it is a part of the nature of God that He should be infinitely greater than any created mind… It is a most unreasonable reason not to believe in God because I cannot understand Him. The reason at the bottom is this-the ungodly man does not trust God, because he is God’s enemy. He knows there is a quarrel between the two. He has broken the law, he has become an enemy to his Maker; and how shall a man trust his enemy? Besides, he knows that God won’t do what he would like God to do. He would like God to give him good health to go on in sin; he would like Him to make him happy in his lusts; he would like Him to let him live a sinner and die a saint; he would like Him to shape the world so that man might take his sinful pleasure and live as he liked, and yet, after all, receive the wages of a righteous life; and as God won’t do that-won’t bring Himself down to the sinner’s taste-therefore, the sinner says, “I cannot trust God,” and then he turns round and laughs at the man who can, just to quiet his own conscience and keep the little sense there is within him from rebelling against him. ~ C.H.Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3512.cfm