promises

Joyful Security

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

“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” – Psalm 118:17

What does the man know about the sea who has only walked on the beach? Get with an old sailor, who has been a dozen times around the world, and often wrecked, and he will interest you. So the much-tried Christian has great wonders to declare, and these are chiefly the works of the Lord; for “they that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep.” Tried Christians see how God sustains in trouble, and how He delivers out of it, and they declare His works openly: they cannot help doing so.

“I will praise Thee: for Thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.” – Psalm 118:21

If you read the chapter further down, you will find that they not only give forth a declaration, but they offer adoration. They are so charmed with what God has done for them, that they laud and magnify the name of the Lord… This done, they make a further dedication of themselves to their delivering God. As the psalmist puts it,

“God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light.” – Psalm 118:27

It was very dark! It was very, very dark! We could not see our hand, much less the hand of God! We were frozen with fear. We thought we were as dead men, laid out for burial; when suddenly the Lord’s face shown in upon us, and all darkness was gone, and we leaped into joyful security, crying “God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light.” God hath showed us light, and we will live to Him for ever and for ever. Oh, you, tried believers, who have, nevertheless, not been given over unto death, who can say, “I shall not die, but live,” present yourselves anew unto your delivering Lord as living sacrifices through Jesus Christ your Lord! Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm

Reliance Upon God’s Power for Success

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

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. – Psalm 118:17

We are comforted by reliance upon God’s power for success in our life-work. The critics said, when the lad (young Spurgeon) commenced his preaching, that it was a nine days’ wonder, and would soon come to an end. When the people joined the church in great numbers, they were “a parcel of boys and girls.” Many of those “boys and girls” are here faithful to God unto this hour. Then there came upon us a heavy, heavy stroke-a sore chastening, which those of us who were present would never forget if we live for a century; (the church fire) and we seemed to be made the reproach of all men, through an accident which we could not have foreseen or prevented. But still the testimony for God in this place, by the same voice, has not ceased, nor lost its power… In the darkest hour of my ministry I might have declared, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” If you have been set on fire by a divine truth, the world cannot put an extinguisher upon you. That candle which God has lighted, the devils in hell cannot blow out. If you are commissioned of God to do a work, give your whole heart to it, trust in the Lord, and you will not fail. I bear my joyful witness to the power of God to work mightily by the most insignificant of instruments.

“The feeblest saint shall win the day,
Though death and hell obstruct the way.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm

He hath not given me over!

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

…but He hath not given me over unto death. – Psalm 118:18

It is a great blessing to a child of God to feel a full assurance that he has eternal life in Christ Jesus. “The Lord hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death.” Notice the words, “Given me over.” It is the most awful thing out of hell to be given over by God.

Unbroken prosperity and undisturbed health may be the signs of being “given over unto death”; and they are in such cases where sin is committed without pangs of conscience, or apprehensions of judgment. Such freedom from fear may be maintained even in death: “There are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.” All goes quietly with them; “Like sheep they are laid in the grave.” But “in hell they lift up their eyes, being in torments.” To be given over unto death is often followed by callousness, presumption, and bravado; but it is a dreadful doom, the direst sentence from the throne of judgment as to this life. But you, dear child of God, have this comfort, He has not given you over, He is thinking upon you. By scourging you, He is proving that He has not given you over. Men do not prune the vine they mean to uproot; nor thresh out the weeds which they mean to burn. He who is chastened is not given over unto destruction… What joy lies in this, “He hath not given me over!” As long as the father chastens his boy, he has hope of him; if he ceased to do so altogether, we might fear that he thought him too bad to be reclaimed. Be glad, then, dear child of God, that since the Lord chastens you sore, He has not erased your name from His heart and His hands, nor yielded you up to your enemy’s power. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm

Security from Punishment

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

The LORD hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death. Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD. – Psalm 118:18, 19

Faith comforts the tried child of God by assuring him of the forgiveness of his sin, and his security from punishment... “The Lord hath chastened me sore,” and in that He has acted a fatherly part; “but He hath not given me over unto death” which would have been my lot if He had dealt with me as a judge. My heart trembles at His sword, and cries, “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord: for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.” The sentence of justice has been fulfilled upon our Lord, and our comfort is that now there is nothing punitive in all our troubles. “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities;” nor will He do so, for He has already laid our sins upon Christ, and Christ has vindicated the law by bearing its penalty, so that nothing more in the way of penalty is demanded by the moral government of God. That which we receive from the rod of the Lord bears the blessed aspect of chastening from a father’s hand; and this is a gladsome fact, which makes even the sharpest smart to be profitable. “Surely the bitterness of death is past,” when, in the case of the believer, even death has ceased to be the penalty of sin, and is changed into a sweet falling asleep upon the bosom of the Well-Beloved, to wake up in His likeness. Every other affliction is changed in the same fashion. Our wasps have become bees: their sting is not the prominent thought, but the honey which they lay up in store. “All things work together for good to them that love God,” and chastisement is chief among those “all things.” What a well of comforting thought is here! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm

The Believer’s Comfort

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father 2 Comments

The believer’s comfort under his afflictions is this-

“I shall not die, but live.” – Psalm 118:18

Forecasts of good from the Lord may come to those who are sore sick; and when they do, they help them to recover. We are of good courage when an inward confidence enables us to say, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

When a believer is in trouble he derives great comfort from his reliance upon the compassion of God. The Lord scourges His sons, but He does not slay them. The believer says, “My Father may make me smart with the blow of a cruel one; but He will do me no real harm, nor allow anyone else to injure me. He will not lay upon me more than is right, nor above what I am able to bear. He will stay His hand when He sees that I have no strength left. Moreover, I know that even when He brings me very low, still underneath me are the everlasting arms. If the Lord kills, it is to make alive: if He wound, it is that He may heal. I am sure of that.” O believer, never let anything drive you away from this confidence, for it has sure truth for its foundation! The Lord is good, and His mercy endureth forever. It is not killing, but curing, that God means when He takes the sharp lancet in His hand. The nauseous medicine, which makes the heart sick, works the cure of a worse sickness. “His compassions fail not.” He may often put His hand into the bitter box, but He has sweet cordials ready to take the taste away. For a small moment has He forsaken us, but with great mercies will He return to us. You have an effectual comfort if your faith can keep its hold upon the blessed fact of the Lord’s fatherly compassion. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm

Faith Sings While on the Weary Road

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

…but He hath not given me over unto death. – Psalm 118:18

Our Father’s anger at our sin will never blaze into wrath against us, though in mercy He will smite our sins. Remember, then, this gracious boundary. “The Lord hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death.” We have never yet experienced a trouble which might not have been worse. One affliction kills another: the wind never blows east and west at the same time. When the Lord smites you abound, so do consolations abound through Christ Jesus. The whole band of troubles never comes forth at once. Everything painful is graded and proportioned to the man and his strength, and the object for which it is sent. With the trial the Lord makes the way of escape that we may be able to bear it. Faith can see an end and limit where nature’s dim eye sees endless confusion. Where carnal sense-

“Sees every day new straits attend,
And wonders where the scene will end,”

faith looks over the intervening space, and comforts herself with that which is yet to come. Faith sings pleasant songs when she foots it over weary roads.

“The road may be rough, but it cannot be long,
So let’s smooth it with hope, and cheer it with song.”

The Lord keep your faith alive, my brethren and sisters, and then whatever trials surge around you, you will sit on the Rock of ages, above the waves, and joyfully sing praises unto your divine Deliverer! Oh, how sweet to say, as I now do, “The Lord hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death”! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm

But…

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

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD. The LORD hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death. – Psalm 118:17, 18

If we say, “I could bear anything but this,” we prove our universal impatience. If we had the choice of our crosses, the one we should choose would turn out to be more inconvenient than that which God appoints for us; and yet we will have it that our present cross is unsuitable and specially galling. I would say to any who are of that mind, “If your burden does not fit your shoulder, bear it till it does.” Time will reconcile you to the yoke if grace abides with you. It is not for us to choose our affliction; that remains with Him who chooses our inheritance for us. Read well this word, “The Lord hath chastened me sore,” and see the Lord’s hand in the soreness of your trial. Even while the wound is raw, and the smart is fresh; be conscious that the Lord is near.

Yet there is in the verse a “but”, for the psalmist perceives that his trial is limited; “but He hath not given me over to death.” Certain of the buts in Scripture are among the choicest jewels we have. Before us is a “but” which shows that, however deep affliction may be, there is a bottom to the abyss. There is a limit to the force, the sharpness, the duration and the number of our trials. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm