Christian Life

Our Loving Father’s Care

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Father 3 Comments

Into Thine hand I commit my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth. – Psalm 31:5

In life we use the words which our Lord so patiently used in death: we hand over our spirits to the hand of God. If our lives were not appointed of heaven, we should wish they were. If there were no overruling Providence, we would crave for one. We would merge our own wills in the will of the great God, and cry, “Not as we will, but as Thou wilt.” It would be a hideous thought to us if any one point of our life-story were left to chance, or to the frivolities of our own fancy; but with joyful hope we fall back upon the eternal foresight and the infallible wisdom of God, and cry, “Thou shalt choose our inheritance for us.” We would beg Him to take our times into His hand, even if they were not there.

Moreover, beloved brethren, our times are in the Lord’s hands, because we are one with Christ Jesus. “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” Everything that concerns Christ touches the great Father’s heart. He thinks more of Jesus than of all the world. Hence it follows that when we become one with Jesus, we become conspicuous objects of the Father’s care. He takes us in hand for the sake of His dear Son. He that loves the Head loves all the members of the mystical body. We cannot conceive of the dear Redeemer as ever being out of the Father’s mind; neither can any of us who are in Christ be away from the Father’s active, loving care: our tines are ever in His hand. All His eternal purposes work towards the glorifying of the Son, and quite as surely they work together for the good of those who are in His Son. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2205.cfm

 

My Times Are in Thy hands

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises 2 Comments
O Israel, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield. – Psalm 115:9
My times are in Thy hand – Psalm 31:15

To be entirely at the disposal of God is life and liberty for us. The great truth is this-all that concerns the believer is in the hands of the Almighty God. “My times”, these change and shift; but they change only in accordance with unchanging love, and they shift only according to the purpose of One with whom is no variableness nor shadow of a turning. “My times”, that is to say, my ups and my downs, my health and my sickness, my poverty and my wealth-all those are in the hand of the Lord, who arranges and appoints, according to His holy will, the length of my days, and the darkness of my nights. Storms and calms vary the seasons at the divine appointment. Whether times are reviving or depressing remains with Him who is Lord both of time and of eternity; and we are glad it is so…Whatever is to come out of our life, is in our heavenly Father’s hand. He guards the vine of life, and He also protects the clusters which shall be produced thereby. If life be as a field, the field is under the hand of the great Husbandman, and the harvest of that field is with Him also. The ultimate results of His work of grace upon us, and of His education of us in this life, are in the highest hand. We are not in our own hands, nor in the hands of earthly teachers; but we are under the skillful operation of hands which make nothing in vain. The close of life is not decided by the sharp knife of the fates; but by the hand of love. We shall not die before our time, neither shall we be forgotten and left upon the stage too long…We are absolutely at His disposal, and all our circumstances are arranged by Him in all their details. We are comforted to have it so. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2205.cfm

The Best Resource for Griefs

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises 2 Comments

“My times are in Thy hand.” – Psalm 31:15.

David was sad: his life was spent with grief, and his years with sighing. His sorrow had wasted his strength, and even his bones were consumed within him. Cruel enemies pursued him with malicious craft, even seeking his life. At such a time he used the best resource for grief; for he says in verse 14, “But I trusted in Thee, O Lord.” He had no other refuge but that which he found through faith in the Lord his God. If enemies slandered him, he did not render railing for railing; if they devised to take away his life, he did not meet violence with violence; but he calmly trusted in the Lord. They ran hither and thither, using all kinds of nets and traps to make the man of God their victim; but he met all their inventions with the one simple defense of trust in God. Many are the fiery darts of the wicked one; but our shield is one. The shield of faith not only quenches fiery darts, but it breaks arrows of steel. Though the javelins of the foe were dipped in the venom of hell, yet our one shield of faith would hold us harmless, casting them off from us. Thus David had the grand resource of faith in the hour of danger. Note well that he uttered a glorious claim, the greatest claim that man has ever made: “I said, Thou art my God.” He that can say, “This kingdom is mine,” makes a royal claim; he that can say, “This mountain of silver is mine,” makes a wealthy claim; but he that can say to the Lord, “Thou art my God,” hath said more than all monarchs and millionaires can reach. If this God is your God by His gift of Himself to you, what can you have more? If Jehovah has been made your own by an act of appropriating faith, what more can be conceived of? You have not the world, but you have the Maker of the world; and that is far more. There is no measuring the greatness of his treasure who hath God to be his all in all.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2205.cfm

Brought From Darkness Into Light

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

…by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles… and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. – Matthew 4:15-16

Men who know not the truth, since they must have some faith, seek out many inventions; for, if they are not taught of God, they soon become taught of Satan, and apt scholars are they in his school. Galilee was noted for the heresies which abounded there. But what a mercy it is that God can save heretics. Those who have received false doctrine, and added darkness to darkness in so doing, can yet be brought into the glorious light of truth. Though they may have denied the Deity of Christ, though they may have doubted the inspiration of Scripture, though they may have fallen into many traps and pitfalls of false doctrine, yet the Divine Shepherd, when He seeks His lost sheep, can find them out and bring them home again.

In consequence of being in the darkness of ignorance and error, these people were wrapt in the gloom of discomfort and sorrow. Darkness is an expressive type of sorrow. The mind that knows not God, knows not the heart’s best rest. There is no solace for our griefs like the gospel of Jesus Christ, and those who are ignorant of it are tossed about upon a stormy sea, without an anchorage. Glory be to God; when sorrow has brought on a midnight, grace can transform it into noon. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1010.cfm

Look for the Out-of-the-Way Sinners

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

Then cometh He to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar…Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. – John 4:5, 10

Brothers and sisters, beloved, there are many of you who are constantly looking out for souls, and trying to bring them to Christ…if you have any choice as to those to whom you go, seek out the oppressed. You are to go, so far as you can, “into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature;” but if you may specially look for some more than others, seek out the sick, the sad, the weary, the poor, the broken-down ones, and especially such as have been put out of the synagogue. When our missionaries have gone among the Brahmins in India, they have had a few converts; but the most blessing has been given among the poor people who have no high caste of which they are proud. When the gospel was taken to them, they gladly received it. The gospel worker will be wise if, instead of shunning those whom even nominally religious people put away, he looks after them first. They are likely soil for the good seed of the kingdom to grow in and bring forth fruit. Our Lord Jesus Christ, at Sychar, did not go to some goodly matron, who was an ornament to her sex; but you know where He found the woman who became His disciple and missionary, and you know what kind of woman she was; and, to this day, He delights to go about, as Whitefield used to say, “sweeping up the devil’s castaways.” Those whom nobody else wants, and nobody else will have, our blessed Lord and Master delights to receive. Do you, therefore, look after those out-of-the-way sinners. I like that expression, those out-of-the-way sinners; because our Lord Jesus Christ is the High Priest “who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way.” Out-of-the-way sinners are the sort He came to save; therefore, look out for them, you who would follow the example of the great Soul-Winner.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2667.cfm

The Bank Notes of God’s Promises

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 7 Comments

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. – 2 Corinthians 1:20

Have you ever noticed, dear friends, how much we live upon the promises of our fellow-men?…The commonest form of a promise is a bank note; and it is worth while to observe how much a bank note is made after the model of God’s promises. How does the wording of this bank note run? It is headed, “Bank of England;” and it begins, “I promise.” You take this note readily enough instead of five golden sovereigns, because you read on it, “I promise to pay the bearer;” and God’s promise is payable to “the bearer.” Whoever has the promise in his possession, whoever has faith enough to lay hold of God’s promise, may read it in this way: “I promise to pay the bearer.” I remember when I first snatched at one of God’s precious promises; I could hardly hope that I had any right to it, for I felt myself so utterly unworthy, but I snatched it up, and ran with it to the Bank of Faith, and as soon as I presented it, I received its full value. God always honours His own promises; here is one: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” Go to Him with that gracious message, and it shall be fulfilled to you whoever you are. The note says, “I promise to pay the bearer.”…What does it now say on the bank note “I promise to pay the bearer on demand.” That is how all God’s promises run: “on demand.” It is worthy of note that, in the olden time, when the Lord had made many promises to His people, He added, “I will yet for this be enquired of by thee, house of Israel, to do it for them; “as though the fulfillment of the promise was delayed until it was asked for. No doubt many of God’s great and precious promises are not realized by you and me because they are not presented to the Lord as we should take a note to the bank to get it cashed. We do not enquire of God as much as we ought. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2667.cfm

Faith Expressed Before Men

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

And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshipped Him. – John 9:38

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. – Romans 10:10

True faith always expresses itself to the Lord. This man, when he had believed in Jesus, said, “Lord, I believe.” True faith ought also to express itself to men, as Paul puts it, in writing to the Romans, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation;” or, as the Master Himself puts it, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Therefore, the confession before men ought not to be neglected in any case; yet I fear, and hope, that there are some pilgrims who steal into heaven, scarcely known by men to be Christians, at least, not avowed as such by open profession. I do not recommend that dodging behind the hedges and getting to heaven along back roads; that is a bad plan, but, still, I trust some have managed it, though with much trouble and loss to themselves; but, in every case, every one who has believed has made the confession of that faith to the Master Himself. He has said to Jesus, as this man did, “Lord, I believe,” even though he has added, with another man, “Help Thou mine unbelief.” He has said to Jesus, with Thomas, “My Lord and my God.” There has been a personal acknowledgment, as we sometimes sing it:

“My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary,
Savior divine.”

How sweetly doth faith, sometimes, come up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved, and owning to Him that she is His, and He is hers! She cannot help making this confession; she would be untrue to herself and to her Lord if she did not do so. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2667.cfm