promises

Faith’s Joy

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

God hath spoken in His holiness; I will rejoice… – Psalm 108:7

Are any of you heavy of heart just now? If so, I hope you will catch the spirit of David when he uttered these words. You ought to be glad that “God hath spoken in His holiness,” and you must be glad if you feel and know that He has spoken to you. “God hath spoken: I will rejoice.”

Observe that this joy, which faith has, is a joy in the very fact that God hath spoken. Though nothing may yet have been done for us, God hath spoken, and therefore our heart rejoices. Every divine promise, if it be rightly viewed by faith, will make the heart leap for joy. Suppose you do not need that particular promise just now, rejoice all the same, for you will need it by-and-by. If the promise is not made specially to you, yet it is made to somebody; therefore, rejoice that “God hath spoken” so as to meet the needs of somebody else’s case. What if the blessing be too high for you to reach at present? Nevertheless, rejoice that there are mercies stored up for future and more advanced stages of your spiritual growth. And suppose the mercy is one that you long ago enjoyed; still be glad that you did enjoy it in years past, and so rejoice that “God hath spoken.” Oh, what hymns of praise there are in this blessed Book, if this be the theme of our song, “God hath spoken”! Then, the very first pages of Genesis ought to make us rejoice, and we will rejoice because we know how He made the worlds. Pass along through every page and feast your eyes upon every line of every page, and say all the while, “‘God hath spoken in His holiness; I will rejoice.’ This shall be the subject of my joy all the day long; and, in the night watches, will I rejoice in His Word.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2864.cfm

How Can It Be Done?

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

God hath spoken in His holiness; I will rejoice… – Psalm 108:7

It sometimes happens that our greatest difficulty in believing a promise of God lies in His holiness. There is, for instance, a promise of pardon to the soul that believeth in Jesus. We think of stern justice, with her majestic yet severe look. In our heart of hearts, we reverence her, and we ask, “How can God be just, and yet the Justifier of the ungodly…Can this holy God really mean to receive such sinners as we are whose very clothes, as Job says, do abhor us? Can He purpose to bring us to His own right hand in glory that we may be among the courtiers in His heavenly kingdom?” Yes, He does mean to do even that; yet the thought of His purity makes us wonder how it can be done.

(God) knew all that David was, and all that David would be; yet He saw it to be consistent with His infinite perfections to make, even with such a man, “an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure;” and, beloved brethren, when the Lord entered into covenant with Christ concerning those whom He gave to Him to be His portion forever, and when, in that covenant, He wrote down blessings exceedingly great and precious, and made promises so vast that we cannot at present form any estimate of their full value, He knew quite well what He was doing, and He did it, knowing all about your doubts and fears concerning your sinfulness and His own holiness. And now, without in the least marring His perfect purity, and inflexible justice, “God hath spoken in His holiness” to poor lost sinners and said that He will save all of them who trust in Jesus Christ, His Son; and He has also “spoken in His holiness” to His poor imperfect children, and said that He will bless them, and that He will not turn away from them to do them good. This is the covenant that He hath made with His people: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them. And ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.” All this, which “God hath spoken in His holiness,” He will do without obscuring that wondrous attribute, or marring the glory of His adorable perfections. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2864.cfm

A Firm Foundation for Faith

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

“God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent.” – Numbers 23:19

What He hath spoken in public, He does not reverse in private. His own declaration is, “I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain.” Whatever there may be in the sealed scroll that records God’s purposes in predestination, there cannot be anything there to contradict what is written on the open scroll of divine revelation. As to the doctrine of election, which often terrifies seeking souls, it never should do so, since there can be nothing, in the secret counsels of God, contrary to the plain promises of God recorded in His Word. He has not said “Yea” in one place, and “Nay” in another; and if He saith “Yea” to-day, He will not say “Nay” to-morrow. He himself said, long ago, “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Once let any message go forth out of His mouth and it shall stand fast forever.

Oh, then, what a firm foundation for faith this is! First, “God hath spoken;” and that is as good as if He had already done as He hath said; and, secondly, God hath spoken,” and that which He hath said can never be reversed. If there is a promise in the Bible made to a penitent sinner, and thou art a penitent sinner, that promise must be kept to thee. If there is a blessing promised to a believing soul, and thou art a believing soul, that blessing is sure to thee. If God hath promised to sustain thee when thou dost cast thy burden upon Him, and to bring thee through the furnace, with thy hair unsinged, He will do it, for He never yet has been false to His promise, and He never will be. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of His Word shall ever fail. It stands, as an immutable decree, that Jehovah’s will shall be done; and this is Jehovah’s will: that, of all that He hath promised to the sons and daughters of men, not one syllable shall ever fail. Oh, how blessedly faith ought to rest on such a foundation as this! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2864.cfm

He Speaks It and He Does It

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, Sovereignty of God 2 Comments

God hath spoken in His holiness… – Psalm 108:7

Why is it that you are able to confide in God’s Word? Surely, it is because you know that, for God to speak, is for Him to do as He hath said. By His Word, He made the heavens and the earth; and it is by His Word that the heavens and the earth continue as they are to this day…Very often, man talks about something that he says he will do, but when he has talked about it, there is an end of the matter so far as he is concerned. Man hath spoken; oh, yes! but you can never be sure that with the talking tongue will go the working hand. He who is quick to promise is not always so prompt to perform. We have many proverbs which remind us that men set light by one another’s promises, and well they may; but we must never set light by the promises of God. “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” So, beloved brother, if there is a promise of God to help you in a time of trouble, or to preserve you in the hour of temptation, or to deliver you out of trial, or to give you grace according to your day, that promise is as good as if it had been already performed, since God’s Word shall certainly be followed by the fulfillment of it in due season. I beseech you, then, as you read the promise, to say to yourself, “It is done as God hath said.” If any man of means, with whom you do business, gives you his cheque for the amount he owes you, do you not say that he has paid you? Yet he has not handed to you even a penny in cash; no notes or gold and silver coins have passed between you; but you rightly say that he has paid you because his signature on the cheque is as good as money; and is not God’s Word as good as man’s? Ay, that it is, and far better! Then, so regard it; oh, for faith to do so at this very moment! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2864.cfm

This is Our Joy, that God Hath Spoken

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

God hath spoken in His holiness… – Psalm 108:7

“God hath spoken in His holiness;” and we ought to be thankful that we have not to serve a God who is dumb. He spake in the garden of Eden when our first parents sinned against Him. To the serpent He said, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” It was a message of hope to the world when God spake that great promise concerning His Son. Since then, “at sundry times and in divers manners,” God hath spoken unto men by His servants, and “by His Son,” of which we have the record in this blessed Book; and, since it is a message of mercy and love to us, we ought at once to rejoice that “God hath spoken.” Sinner, you are pleading with God for mercy; and He might well refuse to answer you even a word; but “God hath spoken” already, and the answer to your petition is already recorded in His Word. If, when Adam sinned, He had turned away from our rebellious race, and said, “Henceforward, I will hold no communication with you until that day when, with fire and sword, I punish you for your many transgressions;” we should have had no cause for complaining against Him; certainly, we could not have impeached His justice, or found fault with His severity. But “God hath spoken;” He hath broken the silence which would have been death to us; and, blessed be His name, He hath divinely spoken to us by Him who is THE WORD OF GOD -by God’s great logos -the only voice by which He could fully speak out His whole soul so that men might be able to comprehend Him; and it is upon what God hath spoken unto us, by His Son, that we have to place our faith; so that, had He not spoken, we should not have had any foundation for our faith; but this is our joy, that “God hath spoken.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2864.cfm

Prayers Already Answered

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Father 1 Comment

…save with Thy right hand and answer me. – Psalm 108:6

There is an old promise, concerning God’s people, which says, “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” This text is one of the instances in which the Lord has dealt with His saints upon the lines of that promise. David prays, “Save with Thy right hand, and answer me;” and while he is waiting for God to answer him, he remembers that God has already spoken. In effect, he says to himself, “I am waiting for an answer, but God has given it to me.” Very often, the response to a believer’s petition has been practically received before he presents his request, and he only needs that God should open his eyes for him to see that, before he called, God had answered his supplication. Indeed, brethren and sisters in Christ, in one sense, all your prayers, that is, your prayers that ought to be answered, are already answered; for, whatsoever there may be that you may rightly ask of God, you really have it, since, in giving us Christ, He has already given us all things. An important part of the duty of faith is to believe that you have what you ask in prayer, and then you shall have it. This is blessed philosophy; may we all learn it! Oftentimes, when we are crying to God, and waiting for an answer to our petition, if we did but look around us, and if we had more acute powers of observation-if our spiritual faculties were keener and quicker, we should perceive that we already have the very thing for which we are asking. Some of you have, perhaps, been saying, “Oh, that we were indeed the Lord’s people, who have their prayers answered even before they offer them!” Well, then, turn to the Book, and you will find that the Lord has there told you that you are His if, indeed, you are believing in His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God has given you, by that most sure word of testimony, the clearest possible evidence of your personal interest in Christ already. If you are asking for some further kind assuring word, to soothe your fears to rest, turn to the Bible, for there is in it the very word you need. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2864.cfm

Gladly Yoked with Christ

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

Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. – Matthew 11:29, 30

I do not know whether I am right, but it struck me, when considering this text from various points, that probably our Saviour meant to convey an idea of deeper fellowship than we have yet considered. Did not He mean this- that He carried a yoke on His shoulder, which He calls, “My yoke?” When bullocks are yoked, there are generally two. I have watched them in Northern Italy, and noticed that when two are yoked together, and they are perfectly agreed, the yoke is always easy to both of them. If one were determined to lie down and the other to stand up, the yoke would be very uncomfortable; but when they are both of one mind you will see them look at each other with those large, lustrous, brown eyes of theirs so lovingly, and with a look they read each other’s minds, so that when one wants to lie down, down they go, or when one wishes to go forward, forward they both go, keeping step. In this way the yoke is easy. Now I think the Saviour says to us, “I am bearing one end of the yoke on My shoulder; come, My disciple, place your neck under the other side of it, and then learn of Me. Keep step with Me, be as I am, do as I do. I am meek and lowly in heart; your heart must be like Mine, and then we will work together in blessed fellowship, and you will find that working with Me is a happy thing; for My yoke is easy to Me and will be to you. Come, then, true yoke-fellow, come and be yoked with Me, take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.” If that be the meaning of the text, and perhaps it is, it invites us to a fellowship most near and honorable. If it be not the meaning of the text, it is at any rate a position to be sought after, to be laborers together with Christ, bearing the same yoke. Such be our lot. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0969.cfm