promises

We Are Loved of the Lord

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

“Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” – Jeremiah 31:3

As you sit down and consider for yourself, “God has loved me, for He has given me salvation in Jesus Christ, and the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed, but the covenant of His grace cannot depart from me;” will not your cup run over, and your soul dance before the ark of God? Of course, it will not be so till you have found the word for yourself, and have eaten it, but then it shall be marrow and fatness to you. Thousands of God’s people live in doubts and fears, because they have not eaten of God’s word as they should; they do not know the fullness of the blessings of the gospel of peace. How many are in bondage through the fear that though they have been for years believers they are not yet saved, whereas if they read the Scriptures, and received their meaning, they would know that the moment the sinner believes in Christ he is saved and in that very instant he has passed from death into life and shall never come into condemnation. If they read the Scriptures, would they endure such doubts about being left to perish after having believed? The thing is impossible. The people of His choice Jehovah cannot cast away. No members of Christ’s body shall be suffered to perish, or else the body of Christ would be mangled, and He Himself would be the head of a dismembered frame. To have a clear understanding of the gospel, to know the covenant which, like a mighty rock, underlies all gospel blessings, to know Christ and our union with Him, to know His righteousness, His perfection and our perfection in Him, to know the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, these things must inevitably make us strong in the joy of the Lord. Half our doubts and fears would vanish if we had more acquaintance with the Lord’s statutes. Other knowledge brings sorrow, but this wisdom is the joy and rejoicing of the heart. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0980.cfm

The Joy and Rejoicing of Our Heart

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

…Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart… – Jeremiah 15:16

He who has spiritually found God’s word, and consequently feeds upon it, is the happy man. But in order to get joy from God’s word we must receive it universally. Jeremiah first speaks of God’s “words,” then he changes the number and speaks of God’s “word.” We are not only to receive parts of the gospel, but the whole of it, and then it will afford us great joy. That man’s heart is right with God who can honestly say that all the testimonies of God are dear to him. “But” saith one, “that is impossible: parts of the Bible are full of terrible denunciations; can they afford us joy?” In this way, brethren: if God appoints that sin should be punished, we are not to rebel against His righteous ordinance, nor to close our minds to the consideration of divine justice; God’s judgments are right, and what is right we must rejoice in. Moreover, by the threatenings of His word many are led to forsake their sin, and thus the warning itself is a means of grace. To tender-hearted Jeremiah I have no doubt it was a trial to say, “Your city will be destroyed, and your women and your children will be slain.” But when he considered that some might be led to repentance, he would with tearful vehemence deal out the thunder of the Lord. But, brethren, God’s word is not all threatening. How much of it consists of exceeding great and precious promises? Grace drops from it like honey from the comb. How would even Jeremiah brush away the falling tear, while that face usually so clouded would beam as the sun when he spoke of the Messiah? Surely, if there be anything in the whole range of truth which can make our hearts leap for joy, it is the part of it which touches upon the lovely Person and finished work of our adorable Redeemer, to whom be honor and glory for ever. Receive the whole of God’s word. Do not cut a single text out of Scripture or desire to pervert its meaning. Hold the truth in its entirety and harmony, and then as a matter of certainty it will become to you the joy and rejoicing of your spirit. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0980.cfm

Rooted and Built Up

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

Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. – Colossians 2:7

In olden times, the fury of persecutors has failed to make the servants of Christ deny the faith. The saints were taken to the stake, but the fires which devoured their bodies only burned their testimonies into the hearts of other witnesses. They were faithful even unto death. This glorious firmness in the faith is greatly needed now to resist the insidiousness of error. Besides, dear friends, it may, in the providence of God, happen that some of you will be taken away from the ministry which now feeds you, and what will you do if the word of God be not in your inmost souls? I have observed many who did run well when under a gospel ministry, who, when they have been removed into a barren region, have lagged and loitered in the race. Some whose principles were never very deep have given them up when placed in society which despised them. I pray you get such a hold of the gospel, that you need not be dependent upon the preacher or upon earnest companions. Let not your faith stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. No truth will be of any use to you unless it is branded into you; yea and made to penetrate the marrow of your being. If you could give up truth you have never received it. He only has the truth of God who so holds it that he could never part with it…May you all be rooted and built up in Christ Jesus and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0980.cfm

Truth is Firmly Established in the Saints

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

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Thy name, O LORD God of hosts. – Jeremiah 15:16

Many professing Christians think very lightly of scriptural knowledge, and especially of an experimental acquaintance with divine truth. Few nowadays have studied the doctrines of grace so as to be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them. Too often converts are made by excitement, and, as a consequence, when the excitement is gone, they grow cold; some of them go back to the world, and prove that they were never taught of God, and others linger on in a half-starved condition, because soul-sustaining truth is hidden from them. The man who knows the truth, and feels that the truth has made him free, is the man who will continue a free man at all hazards. There are enemies of the faith about nowadays; error is put in very tempting forms. Those who try to subvert the gospel are exceedingly dextrous, and know how to make every falsehood fascinating. These will rend and devour, but who will be their victims? Not the instructed saints, not those who can say “Thy words were found, and I did eat them,” but the mixed multitude in nominal union with the church, who scarce know what they believe, or knowing it merely in the letter have no inward vital acquaintance therewith. We read in the word of God of certain deceivers who would, if it were possible, deceive the very elect, from which we gather that the elect cannot be deceived, and that for this reason-that the truth is not held in the hand of the elect man as a staff which can be wrenched from him, but he has eaten it: it has entered into his vital substance. You cannot tear away from a man what has become assimilated to himself. You might draw the silken thread out of a piece of tapestry, and in so doing injure the material, but you cannot remove the truth which is interwoven into the fabric of our new-born nature by the Holy Spirit. A Christian is dyed ingrain with the truth-he wears no flying nor fading colors; he can as soon cease to be as cease to believe what he has learned by the Spirit’s teaching. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0980.cfm

Christians Well Instructed

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

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart… – Jeremiah 15:16

We have heard that God’s word is life; be it ours to possess that life abundantly. The truth makes men strong, free, pure, god-like. Let us then eat it, that it may purify, strengthen, liberate and elevate us. Whatever God’s word by His Spirit can do for man, it should be our desire to experience it for ourselves. Blessed is that man who is so humbled as to become like a little child in the submission of his mind, his judgment, and all his faculties to the operation of the word of divine truth; he has eaten it and shall live by it…When we find God’s truth, we delight to meditate, contemplate, and consider. We let it dwell in our hearts richly till at last its sustaining, upbuilding, nourishing influence is felt, and we grow thereby. It is not a hasty swallowing of the word, which is blessed to us, but a deliberate eating of it. Our inward life acts upon the truth, and the truth acts upon our life. We become one with the truth, and the truth one with us. I would to God we were all more given to feeding and lying down in the green pastures of God’s word; the sheep fattens as it chews the cud at peace, and so do we. Establishment in the gospel is the result of meditation, and nothing is more desirable at this present crisis than that all believers should more constantly study and weigh the word of God. Neglect in this matter has weakened, is weakening, and will weaken the church. We want at this time not merely persons who have been aroused by solemn exhortation and led to give their hearts to Christ under the influence of deep emotion, but Christians well instructed in the things which are verily believed among us, rooted and grounded in gospel doctrines. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0980.cfm

Eating God’s Words

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

Thy words were found, and I did eat them… – Jeremiah 15:16

Thy words were found, and I did eat them.” It is not “I did hear them,” for that he might have done, and yet have perished. Herod heard John gladly, and yet became his murderer. He does not say, “I did learn them by heart”- hundreds have committed chapters to memory and were rather wearied than benefited thereby. The Scribes fought over the jots and titles of the law but were blind leaders of the blind notwithstanding. It is not “Thy words were found, and I did repeat them,” for that he might have done as a parrot repeats language it is taught: nor is it even, “Thy words were found, and I remembered them;” for though it’s an excellent thing to store truth in the memory, yet the blessed effect of the divine words comes rather to those who ponder them in their hearts. “Thy words were found, and I did eat them.” What is meant by eating God’s words? The phrase signifies more than any other word could express. It implies an eager study-“I did eat them.” He who loves the Savior desires to grow in knowledge of Him; he cannot read or hear too much or too often concerning his great Redeemer. He turns to the holy page with ever new delight; he seeks the blessing of the man who meditates in God’s law both day and night. The stamp of divine authority upon any teaching is enough for the believer. Proud self-will demands to have doctrines proved by reasoning, but faith lets the declaration of Jehovah stand in the place of argument. We are committed to revelation, our minds are made up; we confess that we have eaten God’s word and intend still to feed upon it-upon the whole of it, and upon nothing else. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0980.cfm

Eternal Life is Found in God’s Word

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

Thy words were found…and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart… – Jeremiah 15:16

To find God’s words, means that we have been made to understand them. A man may be well versed in Scripture, both in the English and in the original tongue; he may be accustomed to read the best of commentaries, and be acquainted with Eastern manners, and yet he may be quite ignorant as to the word of God. For the understanding of this Book, as to its depth of meaning, does not lie within the range of natural learning and human research; reason alone is blinded by the excess of light, and wanders in darkness at noon day; for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Before my conversion I was accustomed to read the Scriptures, to admire their grandeur, to feel the charm of their history, and wonder at the majesty of their language; but I altogether missed the Lord’s intent therein; but when the Spirit came with His divine life and quickened all the page to my newly enlightened soul, the inner meaning shone forth with quickening glory. The Bible is to many carnal minds almost as dull a book for reading as an untranslated Latin work would be to an ignorant ploughman, because they cannot get at the internal sense, which is to the words as juice to the grape, or the kernel to the nut… Recollect, my brethren, the time when you first found God’s word. Recall the period of your conversion; let the remembrance kindle in you anew the flame of gratitude. Magnify the divine grace which revealed the heavenly word to you. What a removal of darkness and bursting in of glory you then felt!…you found eternal life in God’s word. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0980.cfm