Christian Life

The Confidence We Need

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prayer, promises 3 Comments

Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD. ~ Psalm 31:24

The text says, “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart;” wherein it is implied that, sometimes, the heart of them that hope in the Lord grows weak. As you well know, heart disease is a very dangerous disease; even if a very little is wrong with the heart, it is a serious matter, for every other part of the body will be affected. Some of God’s own people are occasionally, and many of them very often, subject to a weakness of the heart. They lose their courage, their joy departs from them, and they become timorous and fearful.

Sometimes we have seen those who hope in the Lord very weak in heart under great suffering. Pain follows pain; it seems as if every cut of the knife went deeper than the last, and that the knife was sharper every time… At such times, the spirits sink, and the heart’s action grows feebler and feebler…I do not think that we are at all lacking in confidence in ourselves,—at any rate, some of us are not; but it is confidence in God which is wanted, and that is quite another thing. This confidence makes the feeble strong, and the timid brave; may we all have a large share of it! God deliver us from faintness of heart, lest we injure the kingdom of our Lord by withholding our service! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/2455.htm

“I hope”

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

O love the Lord, all ye His saints: for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. -Psalm 31:23-24

I like to hear a child of God speak of the full assurance of faith, for full assurance is the proper tone of an educated faith. He that believeth ought to be assured of the thing which he believeth; else, why doth he believe it? And it is good when the milk of faith has stood quiet so long that you can see the cream of full assurance floating upon the surface of it. Yet I do know that, if you have not full assurance, and if the most you say is, “I hope,” you are included in the blessed company to whom the psalmist speaks: “all ye that hope in the Lord.” O Little-faith, and Miss Much-afraid, and Mr. Feeble-mind, and Mr. Fearing,—all of you who belong to that very numerous family, all of you who are like Pharaoh’s lean kine,—God loves you! These feeble ones are carried in the Savior’s bosom, or gently led by His loving hand. Do not exclude yourself, I pray you, from any sweetness which lies in the text, “all ye that hope in the Lord.” Indeed, my text seems to me to have an arm like that of the Good Shepherd. “He shall gather the lambs with His arm,” as if He would put His arm around them to draw them close up to His heart.

This, then, is the approved company: “all ye that hope in the Lord.” Not, “you that hope in yourselves;” not, “you that hope in your priests;” not, “you that have any confidences anywhere else;” but you who hope in God alone. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/2455.htm

Our Expectation is from God

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

Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. -Psalm 130:7

You have not a hope apart from the ever-blessed Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. To the Father, you look with the expectation of a child who is an heir. To the Son of God you look, waiting for that wedding feast which shall be kept with Him to whom you are affianced by a betrothal that never can be contravened. To the Holy Ghost you look, for He is with you even now as the earnest of your inheritance, and you expect your inheritance to be of the same nature as the earnest which you already enjoy, and that you will be filled with His light, and love, and purity, and blessedness. For this you are looking, “My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him.” Can you say that? We are men of great expectations; but our expectations are not in men that die, or men that live, our expectations are in Him who never dies, and never fails, and never disappoints those who put their trust in Him. Say, dear hearer,—I cannot come round, and put the question to all of you individually,—but say, Dost thou belong to this approved company of men that hope in the Lord? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/2455.htm

Our Future Hope

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

For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. – Hebrews 13:14

No man hopes for evil things whose hope is in the Lord. We are not led, by hoping in the Lord, to hope even for temporal things beyond a certain limit. We hope not for riches; we hope not for a long continuance here, for we have heard a voice saying unto us, “This is not your rest, for it is polluted.” Our hope could not, even if it would, content itself with the things which are seen and temporal; we are hoping for a city whose Builder and Maker is God! We are hoping for joys which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have they entered into the heart of man. We are hoping for things so good that they can only come from God Himself; our hope about them, therefore, is entirely in Him. Are you a man with this good hope? Are you a man with a hope that you would not exchange for ten thousand worlds? Perhaps, out of your box, like Pandora’s, everything that seemed solid has gone; but at the bottom there lies a hope, which does not fly away. This is the bird which sitteth and singeth both day and night within your soul, even though you are shut up from going into the common haunts of men. You have a hope, a good hope, a hope of good things to come, in the hereafter, in the islands of the blessed, where you shall be forever at home with your God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/2455.htm

We Are a Hoping People

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

Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.—Psalm 31:24.

We must not regard all parts of the Bible as alike addressed to every individual. It has many messages to all the sons of Adam, but there are certain portions of it which are enclosed, and belong only to that seed according to promise which is distinguished by faith, whereby it is known to be in covenant with God. Holy Scripture discriminates; it makes some general promises, but its choicer words are given to persons of a special character. Judge for yourselves how far you come under the description of the text, “all ye that hope in the Lord.”

You perceive…that they are men of hope. They have not yet all they expect to have; they have not yet entered into possession of their full inheritance; they have a hope which is looking out for something better on before; they have a living hope which peers into the future beyond even the dark river of death, a hope with eyes so bright that it seeth things invisible to others, and gazes upon glories which the unaided human eye has never beheld. Have you this good hope? Do all your measures lie about you, or behind you? If so, the text speaks not to thee; this arrow flies beyond thee. If thou art indeed a child of God, thy hope lieth where, as yet, thine eye does not see, nor thy hand grasp. God’s people are a hoping people, and therefore hoping for the fulfillment of the promises God has made to them. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/2455.htm

 

Are You Amongst the Beloved?

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

I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine… – Song of Solomon 6:3

I must enquire whether you read your Bibles… I want to know whether you search the Scriptures to find what is truth. And, if you are not a reader of the Bible, if you take doctrines second-hand, if you go to chapel, and say, “I do not like that,” what matters you not liking it, provided it is in the Bible? Is it Biblical truth, or is it not? If it is God’s truth, let us have it exalted. It may not suit you; but let me remind you, that the truth that is in Jesus never was palatable to carnal men, and I believe never will be.

(W)here there is true doctrine, there ought always to be a vital experience. Have you ever had an experience of your wretchedness, of your depravity, your inability, your death in sin? Have you ever felt life in Christ, an experience of the light of God’s countenance, of wrestling with corruption? Have you had a grace-given Holy Ghost-implanted experience of a communion with Christ?

“Faith without works is dead, being alone.” He that walketh in sin is a child of the devil; and he that walketh in righteousness is a child of light. Do not think, because you believe the right doctrines, therefore you are right. There are many that believe right, act wrong, and they perish. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.”

Now let me beseech thee by the frailty of your own lives-by the shortness of time-by the dreadful realities of eternity-by the sins you have committed-by the pardon that you need-by the blood and wounds of Jesus-by His second coming to judge the world in righteousness-by the glories of heaven-by the awful horrors of hell-by time-by eternity-by all that is good-by all that is sacred-let me beg of you, as you love your own souls, to search and see whether ye are amongst the beloved…~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0012.cfm

The Sleep of a Happy Dismission

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

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. -Revelation 14:13

I have stood by the graves of many servants of the Lord. I have buried some of the excellent of the earth; and when I bid farewell to my brother down below there slumbering in his coffin, I usually commence my speech with those words, “So He giveth His beloved sleep.” Dear servants of Jesus! There I see them! What can I say of them, but that “so He giveth His beloved sleep?” Oh! happy sleep! This world is a state of tossing to and fro; but in that grave they rest. No sorrows there; no sighs, no groans, to mingle with the songs that warble from immortal tongues. Well may I address the dead thus:-“My brother, oftentimes hast thou fought the battles of this world; thou hast had thy cares, thy trials, and thy troubles; but now thou art gone-not to worlds unknown, but to yonder land of light and glory. Sleep on, brother! Thy soul sleepeth not, for thou art in heaven; but thy body sleepeth. Death hath laid thee in thy last couch; it may be cold, but it is sanctified; it may be damp, but it is safe; and on the resurrection morning, when the archangel shall set his trumpet to his mouth, thou shalt rise. ‘Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord: yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.’ Sleep on in thy grave, my brother, for thou shalt rise to glory.”

Beloved Christian brother, wherefore dost thou fear to die? Come let me take thy hand:

To you and me by grace ’tis given,
To know the Saviour’s precious name;
And shortly we shall meet in heaven,
Our end, our hope, our way the same.

~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0012.cfm