promises

The Effect of Grace

Sherry Christian Life, promises Leave a comment

I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. – Hosea 14:5

The very first effect of grace in the heart is, that it makes us grow upward. We shall “grow as the lily.” This refers to the daffodil lily, which on a sudden, in a night, will spring up. There may have been no lilies at all in a field, but after a shower of rain the lilies may be seen springing up everywhere and the ground will appear perfectly covered with their yellow hue. Mark, that is what grace does in a man’s soul. Wherever grace comes, its first operation is to make us grow up. It is a remarkable fact, that young Christians grow upward faster than any other Christians. They grow upward in their flaming love, mighty zeal, ardent hopes and longing expectations. Sometimes indeed our old friends step in and say, “Ah! young man, you are growing a great deal too fast; you are springing too rapidly upward; you will have a bitter frost to nip you a little presently.” Very well, that is true enough; but that frost will come quite soon enough, without any of your frosty breath going before it. Let the young grow when they can- do not give them a piercing nip with your freezy fingers. Let them thrive while they can. You may tell us we shall hurt our constitutions, and by-and-bye we shall not be so zealous; nevertheless, let us alone till our constitutions are hurt, suffer us to be zealous while we can. You know very well, with all your prudence, you would give a king’s ransom if you could tomorrow have your juvenile ardor over again; and yet you quarrel with us because we grow upward. Why it is the effect of grace to grow upwards. The very first thing that grace does for us is to make us grow upward in love. Oh! what sweet love that is that we have in the early morning of life! There is not a prayer-meeting, but we are there; there is not a lecture, but oh how sweet it is to us; there is scarce a good deed to be done, but we must be engaged in it; we are so earnest, we are growing so fast. “They shall grow as the lily;” that is the promise. So when you see the promise fulfilled, my dear aged friends, do not be peevish or rebuke the young people, because they grow up and flourish in the courts of the Lord’s house.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0342.cfm

The Work of Grace

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

I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. – Hosea 14:5

When did the dew tell us that it was about to fall? Who ever heard the footsteps of the dew coming down upon the meadow grass? Who ever knew when it was descending? We see it when it has fallen; but who saw it come? And so with Christianity: it is very often imperceptible in its operations. True it is sometimes like the rattling hail, pelting on the windows: the sinner knows when it comes by stormy convictions, and by troubled feelings within, but quite as often the work of grace in man’s heart is like the “still small voice,” which few hear, and of which even the man himself is partially unconscious, not as to its operation perhaps, but as to its nature, feeling that there is a something in his heart, though not positively sure that it really comes from God. Christian! despise not spiritual things, because thou hearest not a sound therewith. Much that God doeth, He doeth in silence. There is a plant which bursts with the sound of a trumpet; but full many a flower called beautiful, openeth in silence, and no man heareth the sound thereof. There be some Christians who seem bound to make a noise in the world, they were made for that purpose; but there be far more who have to blush unseen whose glory it is not to “waste their sweetness,” though to perfume “the desert air,” and to make it sing and blossom like the garden of the Lord. Beloved, you may perhaps fancy that you have not grace, because it has not come upon you in terrible excitements and in awful convictions. I beseech you, do not distrust the power of grace, because it has stolen imperceptibly into your hearts. Mark the promise: “I will be as the dew unto Israel.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0342.cfm

As the Dew

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

“I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.”-Hosea 14:5-7.

In reading this passage, does it ever fail to charm you? How full of beauty, and how full of poetry it is! Every word is a figure. Fair flowers that adorn, and corn that enricheth the fields; the olive tree, and the vine; the scent of the wine of Lebanon, and all rich things are here gathered and clustered together, to set forth the beauty of Israel under the reviving influences of God’s favor… Here is a promise of grace made to the Christian: “I will be as the dew unto Israel.” I need not remind you that the Christian is here compared to a plant, a plant which cannot be watered by any water that is to be found on earth, a plant which needs heavenly watering, even the dew from above. Hypocrites may be watered by natural religion. Formalists may get their supply from the wells and springs of earth; but the Christian is a plant which can only be supported by dew from heaven. He feels that though the river of Egypt might be turned to his roots, he could not grow; though all the water in its floods, and though the ocean itself might be brought to irrigate him, yet he could get no genial moisture, no true growing power, from all that could be had on earth. He needs to have his dew from heaven. “Well,” says God to Israel, “thou art of thyself dewless, and sapless, and motionless, and thou hast no moisture. Thou canst not obtain any of thine own, nor can mortals give it thee; but do thou stand still where I have planted thee, and I will water thee every moment. I, the Lord will keep thee, I will be as the dew unto thee.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0342.cfm

For My Praise and Glory

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

…I will help thee… – Isaiah 41:14

And now, just take the last word-“I will help thee.” Lay the stress there. “Fear not, thou worm Jacob; I will help thee.” If I let the stars fall, I will help thee; if I let all nature run to rack and ruin, I will help thee. If I permit the teeth of time to devour the solid pillars upon which the earth doth stand, yet I will help thee. I have made a covenant with the earth, “that seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, shall never cease;” but that covenant, though true, is not so great as the covenant that I have made concerning thee. And if I keep my covenant with the earth, I will certainly keep My covenant with My Son. “Fear not; I will help thee.” Yes, thee! Thou sayest, “I am too little for help;” but I will help thee, to magnify My power; thou sayest, “I am too vile to be helped,” but I will help thee to manifest My grace. Thou sayest, “I have been ungrateful for former help;” but I will help thee to manifest My faithfulness. Thou sayest, “But I shall still rebel, I shall still turn aside.” “I will help thee,” to show forth My long suffering: let it be known, “I will help thee.”

Now just conceive my Master on His cross bleeding there, looking down on you and on me. Picture Him, whilst His voice falters with love and misery conjoined; and hear Him. He has just now spoken to the thief, and He has said to him, “To-day, shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” And after He has said that, He catches a sight of you and of me, poor and depressed, and He says, “Fear not, worm Jacob; I will help thee; I helped the thief-I will help thee. I promised him that he should be with Me in paradise; I may well promise thee that thou shalt be helped. I will help thee.” O Master! may Thy love that prompts Thee thus to speak, prompt us to believe Thee.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0157.cfm

He Will Help Thee

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

…I will help thee, saith the LORD…

“I will help thee. That is very little for Me to do, to help thee. Consider what I have done already. What! not help thee? Why, I bought thee with My blood. What! not help thee? I have died for thee; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help thee, My beloved! It is the least thing I will ever do for thee. I have done more, and I will do more. Before the day-star first began to shine I chose thee. ‘I will help thee.’ I made the covenant for thee, and exercised all the wisdom of My eternal mind in the scheming of the plan of salvation. ‘I will help thee.’ I became a man for thee; I doffed My diadem, and laid aside My robe; I laid the purple of the universe aside to become a man for thee. If I did this, I will help thee. I gave my life, My soul, for thee; I slumbered in the grave, I descended into Hades, all for thee; I will help thee. It will cost Me nothing. Redeeming thee cost Me much, but I have all and abound. In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have bought for thee already. It is no new thing. I can do it easily. Help thee? Thou needst never fear that. If thou needest a thousand times as much help as thou dost need, I would give it thee; but it is little that thou dost require compared with what I have to give. ‘Tis great for thee to need, but it is nothing for Me to bestow. Help thee? Fear not. If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art nothing but a tiny insect at the door of My all-sufficiency. All that thou couldst ever eat, all that thou couldst ever take, if thou wert to take on to all eternity, would no more diminish My all-sufficiency, than the drinking of the fish would diminish the sea. No; I will help thee. If I have died for thee, I will not leave thee.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0157.cfm

The Sweetest Words in the Bible

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

…I will… – Isaiah 41:14

Oh, the “wills” and the “shalls:” they are the sweetest words in the Bible. “I will help thee.” When God says “I will,” there is something in it, brethren. The will of God started worlds into existence; the will of God made nature leap from chaos; the will of God sustains all worlds, “bears the earth’s huge pillars up,” and establishes creation. It is God’s “I will.” He lets the world live; they live on the “will” of God; and if He willed that they should die, they must sink as the bubble into the breaker, when its moment has arrived. And if the “will” of God is so strong as that, may we not lay a great stress upon it here-“I will help thee? There is no doubt about it. I do not say I may help thee peradventure. No; I will. I do not say that possibly I may be persuaded to help thee. No; I voluntarily will to help thee. ‘I will help thee.’ I do not say that, in any probability, ninety-nine chances out of a hundred, it is likely I may help thee. No; but without allowing any peradventure, or so much as a jot or tittle of hap or hazard, I will.” Now, is there not strength in that? Indeed, my brethren, this is enough to cheer any man’s spirit, however much he may be cast down, if God the Holy Spirit does but breathe upon the text, and let its spices flow abroad into our poor souls, “Fear not, I will help thee.”

And now ought not we who love the Saviour let our eyes run with tears, and say, “O Thou blest Redeemer! Thou needst not tell us Thou wilt help us, for we know Thou wilt. Oh do not suppose that we doubt Thee so much as to want to be told of it again; we know Thou will help us; we are sure of it; Thy former love, Thine ancient love, the love of Thine espousals, Thy deeds of kindness, Thine everlasting drawings, all these declare that Thou never canst forsake us.” No, no; “I will help thee.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0157.cfm

“Unbelief! wilt thou doubt Jehovah?”

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

Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. – Isaiah 41:14

“In the mouth of two or three witnesses surely the whole shall be established.”

“Blind unbelief is sure to err.”

Now begin. “I will help thee;” lay a stress on that word. If you read it so, there is one blow at your unbelief. “I will help thee,” saith the Redeemer. “Others may not, but I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and by the bands of My lovingkindness have I drawn thee. ‘I will help thee, though the earth forsake thee; though thy father and thy mother forsake thee, I will take thee up. Wilt thou doubt Me? I have proved My love to thee. Behold this gash, this spear thrust in my side. Look hither at My hands: wilt thou but believe Me? ‘ ‘Tis I.’ I said that on the waters, and I said to My people, ‘Be not afraid; it is I.’ I say to thee, now thou art on the waters, ‘ Be not afraid; I will help thee.’ Sure thou needst not fear that I shall ever forget thee. ‘Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.’ ‘I have graven thee on My hands; thy walls are ever before Me.’ ‘I will help thee.'” ” O my Lord, I have ungratefully doubted Thy promise many a time; but methinks, if I could see thee in all Thy woe and sorrow for me, if I could hear Thee say, “I will help thee,” I should cast myself at Thy feet, and say, “Lord, I believe, help mine unbelief.” But though He is not here to speak it, though the lips that utter it are but the lips of man, remember that He speaks through His word, as truly as if He spoke Himself…  “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him; for the Redeemer says, I will help thee,” and if He saith “I will help thee,” who can doubt Him? Who dare distrust Him?~ C.H.Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0157.cfm