Christian Life

Rest in A Land of Journeying

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 4 Comments

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. -Hebrews 4:9

How weary must Israel have been in the wilderness! How tired must have been the soles of their feet with their constant journeyings! They were not in a place of repose, luxury, and rest, but in a land of journeying, and weariness, and trouble. I think I see them traveling, wiping frequently the burning sweat from their brows, and saying, “O that we had a habitation where we might rest! O that we could enter a land of vines and pomegranates, a city where we might enjoy immunity from alarm! God has promised it to us, but we have not found it. There remaineth a rest for the people of God; O that we might find it.” Christian! God is your habitation in this sense. He is your rest; and you will never find rest except in Him. I defy a man who has no God to have a soul at rest. He who has not Jesus for his Saviour, will always be a restless spirit…

There is a holy calm and sweet repose which the Christian only knows, something like the slumbering stars up there in beds of azure; or like the seraphic rest which we may suppose beatified spirits have when they before the throne continually bow; there is a rest so deep and calm, so still and quiet, so profound, that we find no words to describe it. You have tried it, and can rejoice in it.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

Our Unchanging God

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises 7 Comments

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. -Hebrews 13:8

The Christian knows no change with regard to God. He may be rich to-day, and poor to-morrow; he may be sickly to-day and well to-morrow; he may be in happiness to-day, to-morrow he may be distressed; but there is no change with regard to his relationship to God. If He loved me yesterday He loves me to-day. I am neither better nor worse in God than I ever was. Let prospects be blighted, let hopes be blasted, let joy be withered, let mildews destroy every thing, I have lost nothing of what I have in God. He is my strong habitation whereunto I can continually resort. The Christian never becomes poorer, and never grows richer with regard to God. “Here,” he can say, “is a thing that never can pass away or change.” On the brow of the Eternal there is never a furrow; His hair is unwhitened by age; His arm is unpalsied by weakness; His heart does not change in its affections; His will does not vary in its purpose; He is the immutable Jehovah, standing fast and forever. Thou art our habitation! As the house changes not, but stands in the same place, so have I found Thee from my youth up. When first I was cast upon Thee from my mother’s breast, I found Thee my God of Providence. When first I knew Thee by that spiritual knowledge which Thou alone canst give, I found Thee a sure habitation; and I find Thee such now. Yea, when I shall be old and gray-headed, I know Thou wilt not forsake me; Thou wilt be the same dwelling-place in all generations.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

A Most Secure Abode

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises 4 Comments

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. -2 Timothy 1:12

O Christian, hast thou ever known what it is to stand in the midst of battles, with arrows flying thick around thee more than thy shield can catch; and yet thou hast been as secure as if thou wert folding thine arms and resting within the walls of some strong bastion, where arrow could not reach thee, and where even the sound of trumpet could not disturb thine ears? Hast thou known what it is to dwell securely in God, to enter into the Most High, and laugh to scorn the anger, the frowns, the sneers, the contempt, the slander and calumny of men; to ascent into the sacred place of the pavilion of the Most High, and to abide under the shadow of the Almighty, and to feel thyself secure?…It is possible to stand exposed to the utmost degree of danger, and yet to feel such a holy serenity that we can laugh at fear; too great, too mighty, too powerful through God to stoop for one moment to the cowardice of trembling, “we know whom we have believed, and we are persuaded that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him.” When houseless men wander, when poor distressed spirits, beaten by the storm, find no refuge, we enter into God, and shutting behind us the door of faith, we say, “Howl, ye winds; blow, ye tempests; roar, ye wild beasts; come on, ye robbers!”

“He that hath made his refuge God,
Shall find a most secure abode,
Shall walk all day beneath His shade,
And there at night shall rest his head.”

Lord, in this sense, Thou hast been our habitation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

In the Enemy’s Land

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises 3 Comments

“Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.” -Psalm 90:1

(T)he Israelites were very much exposed to all kinds of noxious creatures, owing to their residing in tents, and their habits of wandering. At one time the fiery serpent was their foe. By night the wild beasts prowled around them. Unless that fiery pillar had been a wall of fire around them and glory in the midst, they might all have fallen a prey to the wild monsters that roamed the deserts. Worse foes they found in human kind. The Amalekites rushed down from the mountains; wild wandering hordes constantly attacked them. They never felt themselves secure, for they were travelers through an enemy’s country. They were hasting across a land where they were not wanted, to another land that was providing means to oppose them when they should arrive.

Such is the Christian. He is journeying through an enemy’s land; every day he is exposed to danger. His tent may be broken down by death; the slanderer is behind him, the open foeman is before him; the wild beast that prowls by night, and the pestilence that wasteth by day, continually seek his destruction; he finds no rest where he is; he feels himself exposed. But, says Moses, “Though we live in a tent exposed to wild beasts and fierce men, yet Thou art our habitation. In Thee we find no exposure. Within Thee we find ourselves secure, and in Thy glorious person we dwell as in an impregnable tower of defense, safe from every fear and alarm, knowing that we are secure.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

Our Habitation

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises 4 Comments

“Lord Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.”-Psalm 90:1

(Israel) must have been in a state of great uneasiness. At nightfall, or when the pillar (of fire) stayed its motion, the tents were pitched, and they laid themselves down to rest. Perhaps to-morrow, ere the morning sun had risen, the trumpet sounded, they stirred themselves from their beds and found the ark was in motion, and the fiery pillar was leading the way through the narrow defiles of the mountain up the hillside, or along the arid waste of the wilderness..They must have no attachment to the place, they must have nothing of what we call comfort, ease, and peace; but be always journeying, always traveling…They had little ease; but behold the contrast which Moses, the man of God, discerns with gratitude, “Thou art not our tent, but Thou art our dwelling-place. Though we are uneasy here, though we are tossed from side to side by troubles, though we travel through a wilderness, and find it a rough pathway, though when we sit down here we know not what comfort means…’Lord, Thou art to us comfort, Thou art a house and habitation.'”

Have you ever known what it is to have God for your dwelling-place in the sense of comfort?…Do you know what it is to lie on God, to give up all care, to drive anxiety away, and there-not in a recklessness of spirit, but in a holy carelessness-to be careful for nothing, “but in every thing by supplication to make known your wants unto God?” If so you have gained the first idea; “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place throughout all generations.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

Backslider, God Loves Thee Still!

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

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. – Luke 15:24

Poor backslider, thou wast once a Christian. Dost thou hope thou wast? “No,” sayest thou, “I believe I deceived myself and others; I was no child of God.” Well, if thou didst, let me tell thee, that if thou wilt acknowledge that, God will forgive thee. Suppose you did deceive the church, thou art not the first that did it. There are some members of this church, I fear, who have done so, and we have not found them out. I tell you your case is not hopeless. That is not the unpardonable sin. Some who have tried to deceive the very elect have yet been delivered; and my Master says He is able to save to the uttermost (and ye have not gone beyond the uttermost) all who come unto Him. Come thou, then, to His feet, cast thyself on His mercy; and though thou didst once enter His (church) as a spy, He will not hang thee up for it, but will be glad to get thee anyhow as a trophy of mercy. But if thou was a child of God, and canst say honestly, “I know I did love Him, and He loved me,” I tell thee He loves thee still. If thou hast gone ever so far astray, thou art as much His child as ever. Though thou hast run away from thy Father, come back, come back, He is thy Father still. Think not He has unsheathed the sword to slay thee. Say not, “He has cast me out of the family.” He has not. His bowels yearn over thee now. My Father loves thee; come then to His feet, and He will not even remind thee of what thou hast done. The prodigal was going to tell his Father all his sins, and to ask him to make him one of his hired servants, but the father stopped his mouth. He let him say that he was not worthy to be called his son, but he would not let him say, “make me as an hired servant.” Come back and thy Father will receive thee gladly; He will put His arms around thee and kiss thee with the kisses of His love, and He will say, “I have found this My son that was lost; I have recovered this sheep that had gone astray.” My Father loved thee without works, He justified thee irrespective of them; thou hast no less merit now than thou hadst then. Come and trust and believe in Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

The Forgotten Backslider

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

My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back…James 5:19

(H)e who is the means of the conversion of a sinner does, under God, “save a soul from death, and bide a multitude of sins,” but particular attention ought to be paid to backsliders; for in bringing backsliders into the church there is as much honor to God as in bringing in sinners. “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him.” Alas! the poor backslider is often the most forgotten. A member of the church has disgraced his profession, the church excommunicated him, and he was accounted “a heathen man and a publican.” …Now-a-days it is the fashion, if a man falls, to have nothing to do with him. Men say, “he is a bad fellow, we will not go after him.” Beloved, suppose he is the worst, is not that the reason why you should go most after him? Suppose he never was a child of God-suppose he never knew the truth, is not that the greater reason why you should go after him? I do not understand your mawkish modesty, your excessive pride, that won’t let you go after the chief of sinners. The worse the case, the more is the reason why we should go. But suppose the man is a child of God, and you have cast him off-remember, he is your brother; he is one with Christ as much as you are; he is justified, he has the same righteousness that you have; and if, when he has sinned, you despise him, in that you despise him you despise his Master. Take heed! thou thyself mayest be tempted, and mayest one day fall. Like David, thou mayest walk on the top of thine house rather too high, and thou mayest see something which shall bring thee to sin. Then what wilt thou say, if then the brethren pass thee by with a sneer, and take no notice of thee? Oh! if we have one backslider connected with our church, let us take special care of him. Don’t deal hardly with him. Recollect you would have been a backslider too if it were not for the grace of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm