promises

He Has Pledged Himself to Us

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

Is not the LORD your God with you? – 1 Chronicles 22:18

…for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. – Hebrews 13:5

Remember how Divine Wisdom said, “My delights were with the sons of men.” It is a wonderful thing to be able to say, but God takes a great deal more pleasure in us than we do in Him; yet there seems in us nothing that can give Him pleasure, while in Him there is everything that can afford us delight. The Lord so loves His people that He is never long away from them. You know that dear relationship into which our Lord has entered with His Church; she is His bride, He loves her as He loves His own soul. In some respects, He loves her better than He loves Himself, for He gave Himself for her; and do you think that He is happy away from His bride, His spouse? It is not so; He saith to her, “Let Me see thy countenance, let Me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely;” and whenever she calls for Him, saying, “Let my Beloved come into His garden,” His quick answer is, “I am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse.” He so loves us that, when we shut the door against Him, He stands and knocks, and cries to us, “Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled; for My head is filled with dew, and My locks with the drops of the night.” Do not think that He has gone from you when He loves you so as your Father, and as the Husband of your soul. Moreover, He will be with His Church in her work, because her work is His work; and wherever there is a heart on the earth, sanctified by the Holy Ghost, in sympathy and harmony with the heart of Christ, depend upon it He is assuredly there, for that sympathy and that harmony are created by His very presence. Well, then, as He has pledged Himself, and He is Himself pleased to be with His people, we believe the assertion which is implied in the enquiry, “Is not the Lord your God with you?” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2471.cfm

Is Not the Lord Your God With You?

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

Is not the LORD your God with you? – 1 Chronicles 22:18

For this God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death. – Psalm 48:14

Brethren and sisters in Christ, the Lord our God is with us…Do you ask how I know that? Well, I know it because He has pledged Himself to be with His people. “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Is not the Lord your God with you, then? Assuredly He is, if He keeps His promise; and you do not doubt His fidelity, do you? Can He forget His promise, or, remembering it, will He treat it as if it were more verbiage, words without meaning? There are men who can do that, we know; but does God act so? Can you suppose it possible? No, not for an instant; then, as He hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” He will keep His word. We say, “Never is a long day,” and so it is, for it covers all time; and the Lord hath said, “I will never leave thee,”-in poverty, in sickness, in slander and reproach, in depression of spirit, in the hour of death, in the day of judgment,-“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” He has pledged Himself to this, and God forbid that we should, for even a moment, doubt that He will keep His word! To believers in their church capacity, there is a pledge given by the blessed Lord Jesus Himself which refers especially to His work: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” “Lo, I am with you,” says Christ, as much as to say, “Not only do I promise to be with you, but I am with you, I am already fulfilling My promise to you. For the past, for the present, and for the future, ‘Lo, I am with you alway.'” Let not any Church of God hesitate to answer this question, “Is not the Lord your God with you?” If He be your God, He is with you as individuals, and He is especially with you as a Christian community going forth to preach His gospel to every creature. That ought to be enough, surely? He has pledged Himself to be with us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2471.cfm

With the Lord’s Presence We Can Do It

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

Is not the LORD your God with you? – 1 Chronicles 22:18

We are engaged in the building of a temple, in a spiritual sense. God has sent His servants into the world, to gather together for His beautiful house, stones hewn out of the quarry of nature, to be shaped, polished, and prepared for building into the temple of His grace. The Church is the living temple of God, “exceeding magnifical.” It is a wondrous idea that men’s hearts and souls can be blended together, and built up into a spiritual temple wherein God will dwell. This temple is to be builded of stones taken from the quarry of nature, and, God being with us, you and I are to go forth, and to hew out and shape and prepare the stones for the building of this house of the Lord which shall endure for over.

In order to do this, we certainly need the presence and the help of God; for what can we do without Him? In the work of conversion, what can be done without the Spirit of God? I would like anybody who thinks he can convert another person without divine help, to try and do it, and see what a wretched failure he will make of it, or what a dire hypocrisy he will produce by his apparent success. We must have God with us for this work; we cannot create a spark of grace, how then can we create a new heart and a right spirit? Conversion is an absolute creation, regeneration is a miracle of divine grace, the work of the Spirit of God; and this is altogether beyond our power. We need the Spirit of God to aid us in the building of a temple for God; but, brethren, with the Lord’s presence we can do it. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2471.cfm

His Work Will Continue On

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

Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD. – 1 Chronicles 22:19

God was with David in the gathering together of the great stores of treasure for the building of the temple; but then God was also with Solomon. Oh, what a mercy it is that God did not give all His grace to other people before we came into the world! The God of grace did not empty the whole horn of grace upon the head of Whitefield or Wesley; He did not pour out all the blessings of His Spirit upon Romaine and John Newton, so as to leave nothing for us. No; and to the end of time He will be the same God as He was yesterday, and as He is to-day. There is no break in the Lord’s blessing; He has not ceased to be gracious, His arm is not shortened that He cannot save, nor is His ear heavy that He cannot hear. God buries His workmen, but His work goes on; and He, the Great Worker, wearies not of it, nor shall He ever fail or be discouraged. All His everlasting purposes shall be accomplished, and Christ shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. Wherefore, let us be of good heart, if we have been apt to look upon the future with fear. The Lord Jesus still lives, and He will take care that His Church shall live and work on until He Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.

“The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” We sing with Cowper,-

“Jesus, where’er Thy people meet,
There they behold Thy mercy-seat:
Where’er they seek Thee, Thou art found,
And every place is hallow’d ground.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2471.cfm

Do What God Permits You to Do

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

“Is not the Lord your God with You?”-1 Chronicles 22:18

Here is David most anxious about the building of the temple at Jerusalem; he is not permitted to erect it himself, and therefore he sets to work with diligent care to gather together the gold and the silver, the brass and the iron, the timber and the stone, that would be required. He also instructed the workmen who would be needed, so that, when he was gone, and his son Solomon had ascended the throne, the temple might be built. Did David live in vain? Can it be truly said that he failed in the grandest project of his life? Assuredly not; he did all that he was permitted to do, and by making those elaborate preparations, he was really the means of the building of the temple.

Let every man and every woman among us judge of our life, not merely from that little narrow piece of it which we ourselves live, for that is but a span; but let us judge it by its connection with other lives that may come after our own. If we cannot do all we wish, let us do all we can, in the hope that someone who shall succeed us may complete the project that is so dear to our heart. That is a blessed prayer which Moses wrote in the 90th Psalm, “Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children.” We shall be quite satisfied to do the work, and scarcely see the glory, if we may but know that, in another generation, the work that we shall have done shall produce glory to God which shall be seen among the sons of men. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/1ch/22/18/s_360018

Faith is Your Weapon

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged. – Romans 3:4

We have among us those who are not exposed to persecution, but have to stand against assaults of unbelief. That which believers in past ages have accepted as truth, is not believed in many places nowadays; and so it comes to pass that one brings to us a bit of sceptical science which he has picked up from Huxley or Tyndall; another comes with a criticism that he has found in some of the modern divines, who are the devil’s instruments for spreading infidelity; and a third appears with a vile blasphemy from one of the coarser assailants of religion, and each one demands an immediate answer to his quibble, or his difficulty. Do they really expect that we are to answer, on the spur of the moment, every objection that they are pleased to raise? I confess that I do not believe that one human brain is capable of answering every objection that another human brain could raise against the most obvious truth in the world. Do not try to answer cavillers; but if you do, mind that faith is your weapon. If you take the wooden sword of your own reasoning, you may easily be beaten. Believe for yourself, because God has said it; and speak as the Lord guides you. Fix it in your mind, “This is God’s Book. This is His infallible revelation, and I believe it against every argument that can possibly be urged against it. Let God be true, but every man a liar.” This will be sure defensive ground; but if you get off that rock, you will soon find yourself sinking or staggering. For an offensive weapon, take “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”; and if this does not serve your turn, nothing will. Have a thorough, and entire, and childlike faith in the revelation of the Most High, and you will be made strong in those mental conflicts for which in yourself you are so weak. The Lord give you to believe to the utmost degree, for His name’s sake! Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2209.cfm

Your Secret Martyrdom

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

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. – 2 Corinthians 12:10

There are many ways in which the devil’s whip can reach the back of the child of God. Persecution is still abundant, and many a man’s foes are of his own household. I will rehearse no stories of Christian women with jeering husbands, nor of godly youths who endure scoffing, and far worse; but many a house is still a place of martyrdom. Gracious sufferers, may the Lord keep you from anger and unkindness! By faith alone can you bear persecution, and turn it to account for the good of others. Do not attempt to escape by yielding what is right and true; but ask the Lord to help you to stand fast for Him. If it be true that the Lord has His martyrs still, let it be seen that they are as brave as ever. Not now do they gather in the great amphitheater, where sits the emperor in state, with all the proud citizens of Rome in the nearer gallery, tier on tier, and the multitude up yonder, gazing with their cruel eyes into the vast arena below. Not now do I see them lift up the great iron door, and let loose the monsters that come forth roaring, hungry for their prey. Not now do I see, standing in the middle, a man and his wife and children, all unarmed. Not now do I hear the shouts of the mob, as they exult that Christians are given to the lions. This is all over. Christ, in His suffering members, has conquered Caesar and pagan Rome; for out of weakness believers were made strong. A softer spirit has come over the human mind; but there is as much enmity against God as ever; and now it finds a less public arena, and a meaner mode of torture. Today, the tried one suffers alone, and misses the encouragement of Christian eyes. At times he has to feel that it were better for him to fight with beasts at Ephesus than to bear the taunts, and threats, and slanders of ungodly kinsfolk. My sister, my brother, have faith in God in your hidden sorrow! Cry to Him in the secret of your soul, and you will bear your load; yes, you will bear it calmly, and you will win those who hate you. Of your secret martyrdom angels will be spectators, and Christ will suffer in you-wherefore, fear not. Out of weakness you shall be made strong by faith. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2209.cfm