promises

Have Confidence in God

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

“He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” – Matthew 27:43

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. – Psalm 118:8

If you trust in men, the best of men, you are likely to be lowered by your trust. We are apt to cringe before these who patronize us. If your prosperity depends upon a person’s smile, you are tempted to pay homage even when it is undeserved. The old saying mentions a certain person as “knowing on which side his bread is buttered.” Thousands are practically degraded by their trusting in men. But when our reliance is upon the living God, we are raised by it, and elevated both morally and spiritually. You may bow in deepest reverence before God, and yet there will be no fawning. You may lie in the dust before the Majesty of heaven, and yet not be dishonoured by your humility; in fact, it is our greatness to be nothing in the presence of the Most High.

This confidence in God makes men strong. I should advise the enemy not to oppose the man who trusts in God…When a believer stands out against evil, he may be sure that the Lord of hosts will not be far away. The enemy shall hear the dash of His horse-hoof and the blast of His trumpet and shall flee before Him. Wherefore be of good courage, and compel the world to say of you, “He trusted in the Lord that He would deliver him.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

A Most Reasonable Thing

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

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding… – Proverbs 3:5

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. – Psalm 118:8

Let a man trust in God; not in fiction but in fact, and he will find that he has solid rock under his feet. Let him trust about his own daily needs and trials, and rest assured that the Lord will actually appear for him, and he will not be disappointed. Such a trust in God is a very reasonable thing; its absence is most unreasonable. If there be a God, He knows all about my case. If He made my ear He can hear me; if He made my eye He can see me; and therefore, He perceives my condition. If He be my Father, as He says He is, He will certainly care for me and will help me in my hour of need if He can. We are sure that He can, for He is omnipotent. Is there anything unreasonable, then, in trusting in God that He will deliver us? I venture to say that if all the forces in the universe were put together, and all the kindly intents of all who are our friends were put together, and we were then to rely upon those united forces and intents, we should not have a thousandth part so much justification for our confidence as when we depend upon God, whose intents and forces are infinitely greater than those of all the world beside. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man; it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.” If you view things in the white light of pure reason, it is infinitely more reasonable to trust in the living God than in all His creatures put together.

Certainly, dear friends, it is extremely comfortable to trust in God. I find it so and therefore speak. To roll your burden upon the Lord, since He will sustain you, is a blessed way of being quit of care. We know Him to be faithful, and as powerful as He is faithful; and our dependence upon Him is the solid foundation of a profound peace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

 This Practical Faith

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

He trusted on the LORD that He would deliver (Him): let Him deliver (Him), seeing He delighted in (Him). – Psalm 22:8

David, in the twenty-second Psalm, represents the enemies as saying of our Lord-“He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him.” This practical faith is sure to be known wherever it is in operation, because it is exceedingly rare. Multitudes of people have a kind of faith in God, but it does not come to the practical point of trusting that God will deliver them. I see upon the newspaper placards, “Startling New! People in the Planets!” Not a very practical discovery. For many a day there has been a tendency to refer God’s promises and our faith to the planets, or somewhere beyond this present every-day life. We say to ourselves, “Oh yes, God delivers His people.” We mean that He did so in the days of Moses, and possibly He may be doing so now in some obscure island of the sea. Ah me! The glory of faith lies it its being fit for every-day wear. Can it be said of you, “He trusted in God, that He would deliver him”? Have you faith of the kind which will make you lean upon the Lord in poverty, in sickness, in bereavement, in persecution, in slander, in contempt? Have you a trust in God to bear you up in holy living at all costs, and in active service even beyond your strength? Can you trust in God definitely about this and that? Can you trust about food, and raiment, and home? Can you trust God even about your shoes, that they shall be iron and brass, and about the hairs of your head that they are all numbered? What we need is less theory and more actual trust it God.

Come, beloved, have you such a faith in the living God? Do you trust in God through Christ Jesus that He will save you? Yes, you poor, unworthy one, the Lord will deliver you if you trust Him. Yes, poor woman, or unknown man, the Lord can help you in your present trouble, and in every other, and He will do so if you trust Him to that end. May the Holy Spirit lead you to first trust the Lord Jesus for the pardon of sin, and then to trust in God for all things. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

Let Us Trust in God and Own It

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

He trusted in God… – Matthew 27:43

But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. – Psalm 22:9

It is evident that the Lord Jesus trusted in God openly since even yonder gibing crowd proclaimed it. Some good people try to exercise faith on the sly: they practise it in snug corners, and in lonely hours, but they are afraid to say much before others, for fear their faith should not see the promise fulfilled. They dare not say, with David, “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof and be glad.” This secrecy robs God of His honour. Brethren, we do not glorify our God as He ought to be glorified. Let us trust in Him and own it. Wherefore should we be ashamed? Let us throw down the gauge of battle to earth and hell. God, the true and faithful, deserves to be trusted without limit. Trust your all with Him and be not ashamed of having done so. Our Saviour was not ashamed of trusting in His God. On the cross He cried, “Thou didst make (Me) hope when I was upon (My) mother’s breast.” Jesus lived by faith. We are sure that He did, for in the Epistle to the Hebrews He is quoted as saying, “I will put My trust in Him.” If so glorious a personage as the only begotten Son of God lived here by faith in God, how are you and I to live except by trust in God? If we live unto God, this is the absolute necessity of our spiritual life “the just shall live by faith.” Shall we be ashamed of that which brings life to us? The cruel ones who saw Jesus die did not say, “He now and then trusted in God”; nor “He trusted in the Lord years ago”; but they admitted that faith in God was the constant tenor of His life: they could not deny it. Even though, with malicious cruelty, they turned it into a taunt, yet they did not cast a question upon the fact that “He trusted in God” Oh, I want you so to live that those who dislike you most may, nevertheless, know that you do trust in God…If nobody else trusts in God, let us do so; and thus, may we uplift a testimony to the honour of His faithfulness. When we die, may this be our epitaph-“He trusted in God.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

He Trusted in God

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

“He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” – Matthew 27:43

My beloved brethren, you who know the Lord by faith and live by trusting in Him, let me invite you to observe the acknowledgement which these mockers made of our Lord’s faith: “He trusted in God.” Yet the Saviour did not wear any peculiar garb or token by which He let men know that He trusted in God. He was not a recluse, neither did He join some little knot of separatists, who boasted their peculiar trust in Jehovah. Although our Saviour was separate from sinners, yet He was eminently a man among men, and He went in and out among the multitude as one of themselves. His one peculiarity was that “He trusted in God.” He was so perfectly a man that, although He was undoubtedly a Jew, there were no Jewish peculiarities about Him. Any nation might claim Him; but no nation could monopolize Him. The characteristics of our humanity are so palpably about Him that He belongs to all mankind. I admire the Welch sister who was of the opinion that the Lord Jesus must be Welch. When they asked her how she proved it, she said that He always spoke to her heart in Welch. Doubtless it was so, and I can, with equal warmth, declare that He always speaks to me in English. Brethren from Germany, France, Sweden, Italy-you all claim that He speaks to you in your own tongue. This was the one thing which distinguished Him among men-“He trusted in God,” and He lived such a life as naturally grows out of faith in the Eternal Lord. This peculiarity had been visible even to that ungodly multitude who least of all cared to perceive a spiritual point of character. Was ever any other upon a cross thus saluted by the mob who watched his execution? Had these scorners ever mocked anyone before for such a matter as this? I trow not. Yet faith had been so manifest in our Lord’s daily life that the crowd cried out aloud, “He trusted in God.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

Christ is the Mirror of the Church

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

All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” – Psalm 22:7,8

He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him: for He said, I am the Son of God. – Matthew 27:43

While thus we see our Lord in His sorrow and His shame as our substitute, we must not forget that He also is there as our representative. That which appears in many a psalm to relate to David is found in the Gospels to refer to Jesus, our Lord. Often the student of the Psalm will say to himself, “Of whom speaketh the prophet this?” He will have to disentangle the threads sometimes, and mark off that which belongs to David and that which relates to the Son of God; and frequently he will not be able to disentangle the threads at all, because they are one, and may relate both to David, and to David’s Lord. This is meant to show us that the life of Christ is an epitome of the life of His people. He not only suffers for us as our substitute, but He suffers before us as our pattern. In Him we see what we have in our measure to endure. “As He is, so are we also in this world.” We also must be crucified to the world, and we may look for somewhat of those tests of faith and taunts of derision which go with such a crucifixion. “Marvel not if the world hate you.” You, too, must suffer without the gate. Not for the world’s redemption, but for the accomplishment of divine purposes in you, and through you to the sons of men, you must be made to know the cross and its shame. Christ is the mirror of the Church. What the head endured every member of the body will also have to endure in its measure. Let us read the text in this light, and come to it saying to ourselves, “Here we see what Jesus suffered in our stead, and we learn hereby to love Him with all our souls. Here, too, we see, as in a prophecy, how great things we are to suffer for His sake at the hands of men.” May the Holy Spirit help us in our meditation, so that at the close of it we may the more carefully arm ourselves with the same mind which enabled Him to endure such contradiction of sinners against Himself. – C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

The Treatment of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross

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

“He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” – Matthew 27:43 (see also: Psalm 22:7,8)

It is very painful to the heart to picture our blessed Master in His death-agonies, surrounded by a ribald multitude, who watched Him and mocked Him, made sport of His prayer and insulted His faith. Nothing was sacred to them: they invaded the Holy of Holies of His confidence in God and taunted Him concerning that faith in Jehovah which they were compelled to admit. See, dear friends, what an evil thing is sin, since the Sin-bearer suffers so bitterly to make atonement for it! See, also, the shame of sin, since even the Prince of Glory, when bearing the consequences of it, is covered with contempt! Behold, also, how He loved us! For our sake He “endured the cross, despising the shame.” He loved us so much that even scorn of the most cruel sort He deigned to bear, that He might take away our shame and enable us to look up unto God.

Beloved, the treatment of our Lord Jesus Christ by men is the clearest proof of total depravity which can possibly be required or discovered. Those must be stony hearts indeed which can laugh at a dying Saviour, and mock even at His faith in God! Compassion would seem to have deserted humanity, while malice sat supreme on the throne. Painful as the picture is, it will do you good to paint it. You will need neither canvas, nor brush, nor palette, nor colours. Let your thoughts draw the outline, and your love fill in the detail; I shall not complain if imagination heightens the colouring. The Son of God, whom angels adore with veiled faces, is pointed at with scornful fingers by men who thrust out the tongue and mockingly exclaim, “He trusted on the LORD that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him.” May the Holy Spirit help us in our meditation, so that we may more ardently love our Lord, who suffered for us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now