promises

The Promise of Increase

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

For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. – Hebrews 6:13, 14

The blessing of the church is the increase of the church. The two go together: “Blessing, I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thee.” How much are Christians to be multiplied in the world? At the present moment we do not seem to be increasing as fast as the population. I am afraid that the number of converted persons relatively to the population is scarcely as great as it was thirty years ago; we long to be multiplied at a very different rate from this-and we shall be if we have faith in our God. Hear ye the covenant word: “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” These are lines from the covenant, which is sure to all the seed and can never be broken. We have been called and blessed, and it is of necessity that we increase also. We are bound to increase; we are destined to overrun the nations; the Hittites, the Hivites, the Amorites, of Popery, Mahometanism, and Idolatry are in the land, but their false systems are utterly to perish. Jesus at the head of His people shall drive them out-I mean not the men, but their evil beliefs. They may take notice to quit, for He is coming before whom all men must bow. O that ere He Himself shall appear His spiritual presence in the midst of His church might suffice for victory, that all mankind might call Him blessed. We are bound to increase, till the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for us, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. Upon the church in her vigour shall yet descend the blessings of the tribes of Joseph. “His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth.” The success of truth is the battle of the Lord, and the increase of His church is according to His own promise, therefore in quietness we may possess our souls. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1596.cfm

Children of Abraham

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

Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all… – Romans 4:16

There is a relation between us and Abraham even as Paul assures us in the epistle to the Galatians, “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Something, surely, is expected of the children of such a man as Abraham. O, for shame, thou unbelieving one! Is Abraham thy father? Art thou one of the faithful seed? Great mountains are often succeeded by low valleys. Perhaps that is the case with you; but it should not be so. The natural seed were cut off because they had no faith, let not those who are grafted in, think to do without it. It is by faith that you are a son at all. You disprove your pedigree if you tolerate unbelief. Oh! let nobody find fault with Abraham through you, and surely they may do so if they find you staggering. That staggering is a shocking business: staggering at God’s promises is terrible. Abraham staggered not at the promise through unbelief. May we never dishonour the right noble grace of faith, but so believe that all men may know Abraham’s God to be our God. O for abounding spiritual life, for the God of Abraham is not the God of the dead but of the living; and we can only live unto God by faith.

Brethren, because we are the seed of Abraham, the apostle declares that the blessing of Abraham has come upon us also. I pray that all the friends and labourers may grasp the blessing of Abraham. What is it? It is a covenant favour that belongs to all who are the servants of God by faith. Here is the substance of it: “Surely blessing, I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thee.” That is the grand old covenant promise and it belongs to the church. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1596.cfm

The Uniform of the Prince Immanuel

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

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith… – Hebrews 12:2

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. – Mark 9:24

Have we so much of faith that God can largely bless us? The comfort is that, if we have it not, the author of faith can give it to us, and if we have it in scant measure He can increase our faith. Is not this a solid reason why you and I should take heart? You who do not believe that missions will succeed; you who readily become discouraged and discourage others; I beg you go home and seek more faith. We cannot go down to the battle with such soldiers as you; you do but encumber the host. The men that lapped are the only ones that Gideon will take to war. Send the fearful ones to the rear and let them take care of the baggage, so that when the battle is won they may have a share of the spoil, according to David’s law. For actual service and warfare we must have men of faith. Cromwell found that when his men came dressed in all sorts of suits and colours they were apt to injure one another in the melee, and so he put them all in uniform. The uniform of the Prince Immanuel is faith: no man may call himself a soldier of the cross who hath it not. This is the victory which overcometh the world, even your faith.

Let us hear the scripture, as it says, “Hearken! “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, “Hearken!” for you may hear the Sabbath bells ringing in the everlasting peace, and angel songs welcoming the reign of grace over all nations. Let the ears of deaf unbelief be unstopped, for the whole earth echoes with the praises of the Lord. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1596.cfm

God Blesses Our Faith

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 5 Comments

But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. – Hebrews 11:6

Faith always uses the strength that God gives her. Faith has already spent all her own strength, and she so yearns to achieve her purposes that she uses all the power that God will lend her. Faith eats her manna and leaves not a morsel for worms to breed in. Faith, too, can wait the Lord’s time and place. When faith is weak men are in a dreadful hurry, but strong faith does not judge the Lord to be slack concerning His promise. As God achieves His purpose with infinite leisure, He loves a faith that is patient and looks not for its reward this day or the next. “He that believeth shall not make haste”: that is to say, he shall not be ashamed or confounded by present trials so as to rush upon unbelieving actions. Faith leaves times and seasons with God to whom they belong.

God loveth faith and blesseth it too, because it giveth Him all the glory. The true believer will not allow a trace of self-glory to linger on his hands. “Where is boasting then?” was a question once asked in the house of faith, and the searchers examined every nook and corner in every chamber to find it, but they found it not. Then they said to faith, “Where is boasting?” She answered, “I shut him out.” “It is excluded,” shut out, and the door fastened in its face. You do not believe God if you boast of what you are doing: least of all do you believe if you pride yourself in your faith, for faith is not mistrustful of her God but of herself. Faith looks to God to keep her alive as well as to fulfil the promise that He has made to her. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1596.cfm

Faith Needs Not Question Why

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

But without faith it is impossible to please Him… – Hebrews 11:6

Christian men and Christian women, mark well this fact-that the characteristic of the person whom God will bless is that he believes and acts upon his belief. Without faith it is impossible to please God; but the man of faith is God’s man. And why is this? I answer, because faith is the only faculty of our spirit which can grasp God’s ideal. The greatest man, without faith, cannot tread in the divine footsteps. The ideas of God are as high above us as the heavens are above the earth: and therefore it is not by any fancied vastness of our feeble minds that we can ever rise into fellowship with God. Faith in the sight of God’s thought whispers to herself-“I cannot understand this great thing, nor need I wish to do so. What is my understanding? Perhaps I trust to it too much already. I am called to do what God bids me, without knowing why, and I am glad it is so, for now I can worship Him by bowing before His sovereign will.” There is a capacity about faith for grasping divine promises and purposes, a width, a breadth, a height, a depth, which can hold the infinite truth as no other power can do. Love alone can rival it, for it embraces the infinite God Himself. With the far-reaching plans and promises of God faith alone is fit to deal; carnal reason is altogether out of the lists.

Faith, too, has a great power of reception, and therein lies much of her adaptation to the divine purpose. Self-confidence, courage, resolution, cool reasoning, whatever else they are good at, are bad at humbly receiving. Those vessels which are full already are of no use as receivers; but faith presents her emptiness to God, and opens her mouth that God may fill it. Mercy needs not a jewel, but a casket into which to put her gems, and faith is exactly what she wants. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1596.cfm

Real Faith

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

Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you… – Isaiah 51:2

The text says, “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you,” and it must mean, “consider him and see what he was, that you may learn from him.” You perceive at once that his grand characteristic was his faith. In this faith many other most brilliant qualities are comprehended, but his faith lay at the bottom of all. Here is his epitaph: “Abraham believed God.” That was a mainspring of all his acts, the glory of his life, “Abraham believed God.” The men that God will work by, whatever else they have not, must have faith in God. Though it is to be desired that the believer should have every mental and moral qualification, yet it is astounding how, if there be real faith, a multitude of imperfections are swallowed up, and the man is still a power.

The like faith also dwelt in the breast of Sarah; and, as we are told in the text to look to Sarah as well as Abraham, let us not fail to do so. The faith of Sarah was not little when she left home with her husband; forsaking her kith and kin from love to God, and to him whom she called “lord.” She acted as if she had said to the great patriarch, “Where thou goest I will go; where thou dwellest I will dwell, for thy God is my God.” Great was her faith that she never raised a question about the propriety of her husband’s course of life: and though she laughed when she was told that she should bear a son, yet remember that in the eleventh of Hebrews it is written, “Through faith also Sarah herself received strength.” She was the mother of Isaac, not in the power of the flesh, but through the energy of faith, therefore look at her as the text bids you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1596.cfm

The Lord’s Strength in Our Weakness

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

…My grace is sufficient for thee… – 2 Corinthians 12:9

Joy! joy! in the house of Abraham and Sarah. What a feast there was that Isaac was born, filling the house with laughter. But he must die! “Get thee up,” said God, “and take thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” The grand old man will do it. He will get up early in the morning, and the father and the son will journey together silently; for the aged heart is too full to talk. He believes God, and is sure that even if he should actually slay his son at God’s command the promise would somehow be kept. Abraham could not tell how, but it was no business of his to tell how; he was fully persuaded that what God had promised He was able to perform. God had said to him “In Isaac shall thy seed be called,” and he believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead, or in some other way achieve the promise. Thus he grasped the resurrection. He laid hold on a truth which was deeper than he knew of: by his faith he realised resurrection for Isaac though as yet the Lord Jesus had not shown the way by His own rising from the dead. What a stripping Abraham had endured! Who can describe what would have been the wretchedness of that aged parent if it had not been for his faith!..Likest to God among mortal men art thou Abraham, and therefore well mightest thou be His friend! In thy trial brought to such a stripping we may yet envy thee as we hear the Lord saying, “Now know I that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me.” Now, if in all these trials Abraham was yet blessed, and God’s purposes were accomplished in him, can we not believe that the same God can work by us also, despite our downcastings and humiliations? When we are utterly broken and crushed may not the Lord’s strength be made perfect in our weakness? Let us not question the promise because of our personal deadness and inability, but believe God without wavering, for He hath said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1596.cfm