promises

Saved from Trusting in a Lie

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

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. – ! Timothy 2:4

I have known men, when first they have come to a knowledge of this truth, become unable to sleep. They have started up in the night. They have asked those who were with them to help them to pray. The next day they have been scarcely able to mind their business, for a dreadful sound has been in their ears. They feared lest they should stumble into the grave and into hell. Thus they were saved from carelessness. They could not go back to be the mere brute beasts they were before. Their eyes had been opened to futurity and eternity. Their spirits had been quickened-at least so much that they could not rest in that doltish, dull, dead carelessness in which they had formerly been found. They were shaken out of their deadly lethargy by a knowledge of the truth…Often when men are awakened to know something about the wrath of God they begin to plunge about to discover divers methods by which they may escape from that wrath…Under such untruthful notions we have known people who were somewhat aroused sit down again in a false peace. They have done all that they judged right and attended to all that they were told. Suddenly, by God’s grace, they come to a knowledge of another truth, and that is that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God. They discover that salvation is not by works of the law or by ceremonies, and that if any man be under the law he is also under the curse. Such a text as the following comes home, “Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” and such another text as this, “Ye must be born again,” and then this at the back of it-“that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” When they also find out that there is necessary a righteousness better than their own, a perfect righteousness to justify them before God, and when they discover that they must be made new creatures in Christ Jesus, or else they must utterly perish, then they are saved from false confidences, saved from crying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. It is a grand thing when a knowledge of the truth stops us from trusting in a lie. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1516.cfm

 

Coming Out All Right At the Last

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

I was also upright before Him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity. – Psalm 18:23

If when you are in need, if when you are under temptation, God helps you to keep straight, you will come out all right at the last. What a number of stories I might tell here of young men, who were great losers at first by being godly; but they kept themselves right, and they had to thank God for it ever afterwards. I know, at this present moment, a personal friend who was a banker’s clerk. On a certain day, he was told to do something which he judged to be, speaking plainly, dishonest; and he told the manager that he could not do it, whereupon he received a month’s notice. It was a country bank, and he was not sent about his business at once; and he had to turn the matter over. He had a wife and children; and when he went home, it was not easy to tell the wife that the excellent situation that he held would be vacated within a short time. But he stood fast in his integrity, he said that he was sure God would bring him safely through, and he never had even the slightest thought of doing other than he had said he would do. It was within twelve months that he obtained the situation of manager for that very bank, and it belongs to him at this moment; he very speedily became a man in a much better position than he could have expected to have obtained, simply from the fact that it had been proved that he could be trusted. It is not always so; some people have to be a long time under a cloud; but, in the long run, if thou as a child of God wilt but stand fast, God will not let thee be a loser. If He does, it shall be thy glory to lose everything sooner than tarnish thy character. Thou shalt find it a greater joy to lose all things for Christ than it would be to gain the whole world by doing anything that was wrong. If you are able to say, “I kept myself from mine iniquity,” then you shall also be able to say with David, “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2432.cfm

Will You Have Him?

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

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28

This morning, I got, from a friend who came in to see me, an illustration which I will give to you. He told me-and oh, how he made my heart rejoice!-that, six years ago, he was, so the apostle says, “going about to establish his own righteousness.” He is a man of reputation, and when a friend sent him some of my sermons to read, he thought to himself, “What do I want these sermons for? I am as good as any man can be.” But he did read them, and the friend asked him, “Have you read those sermons of Mr. Spurgeon’s that I sent you?” “Yes,” he replied, “I have; but I have got no good out of them.” “Why not?” “Why,” he said, “he has spoiled me; he has dashed my hopes to the ground, he has taken away my comfort and my joy; I thought myself as good as anybody living, and he has made me feel as if I were rotten right through.” “Oh!” said his friend, “that medicine is working well, you must take some more of it.” But the more of the sermons he read, the more unhappy he became, the more he saw the hollowness of all his former hopes; and he came into a great darkness, and the day did not break, and the shadows did not flee away. But, on a sudden, he was brought out into the light. As he told me the story, this morning, his eyes were wet, and so were mine. This is how the Lord led him into peace; I wish the telling of it might bring the same blessing to some of you. He said, “I went with my friend to fish for salmon in Loch Awe. I threw a fly, and as I threw it, a fish leaped up, and took it in a moment.” “There,” said the friend to him, “that is what you have to do with Christ, what that fish did with your fly. I am sure I do not know whether the fly took the fish, or the fish took the fly; it was both, the bait took the fish, and the fish took the bait. Do just so with Christ, and do not ask any questions. Leap up at Him, take Him in, lay hold of Him.” The man did so, and at once he was saved; I wish that somebody else would do the same. I never ask you to answer the question whether it is Christ who takes you or you who take Christ, for both things will happen at the same moment. Will you have Him? Will you have Him? If you will have Him, He has you.  ~ C.H.Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2477.cfm

Lord, Hear My Prayer

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

Yet the LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. – Psalm 42:8

We have to wait, brothers and sisters; we have to wait in the darkness, cheered here and there with the light from a golden lamp that glows with the light of God. The world lieth in darkness, but we are of God, little children, therefore this must be our prayer to our Well-beloved, “Come unto us.” “Turn to me, O my Beloved, for Thou hast turned away from me, or from Thy Church. Turn again, I beseech Thee. Pardon my lukewarmness, forgive my indifference. Turn to me again, my Beloved. O Thou Husband of my soul, if I have grieved Thee, and Thou hast hidden Thy face from me, turn again unto me! Smile Thou, for then shall the day break, and the shadows flee away. Come to me, my Lord, visit me once again…Great Master, sweetly-beloved One, come over the mountains of division, and come quickly, like a roe or a young hart. Come easily, come unexpectedly; as roes and harts let no man know when they will come, so come Thou unto me.”

Have you never felt an influence steal over you which has lifted you out of yourself, and made you go as on burning wheels with axles hot with speed, where before you had been sluggish and dull? Our Well-beloved can come and visit us, all on a sudden, without any trouble to Himself. It cost Him His life’s blood to come to earth to save us; it will cost Him nothing to come just now to bless us. Remember what He has already done; for, having done so much, He will not deny you the lesser blessing of coming to you. Are you saved by His grace? Then do not think that He will refuse you fellowship with Himself. Pray for it now.

Oh, that this might be one of those happy seasons when you shall not be fed by the preacher’s talk, but by the Master revealing Himself to you! May God graciously grant it! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2477.cfm

Keep Yourselves to Your Lord

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

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you… – 2 Corinthians 6:17

Keep up a careful separateness from the works of darkness that are going on all around us. If it seems dark to you, gather up your skirts, and gird up your loins. The more sin abounds in the world, the more ought the Church of God to seek after the strictest holiness. If ever there was an age that wanted back again the sternest form of Puritanism, it is this age…O Christian people, if you could but know, as the most of you ought not to know, how bad this world is, you would not begin to talk about its wonderful improvements, or to question the doctrine of human depravity. We are going on, according to some teachers, by “evolution” into something; if I might prognosticate what it is, I should say that it is into devils that many men are being evolved. They are going down, down, down, save where eternal grace is begetting in the heart of men a higher and better and nobler nature, which must bear its protest against the ignorance or hypocrisy which this day talks about the improvements of our civilization, and the progress that we are making towards God. “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away,” keep yourselves to your Lord, and hear you this voice sounding through the darkness, the voice of a wisdom that sees more than you see, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, said the Lord Almighty.” “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away,” lift your hands to heaven, and pledge yourselves to walk a separated pilgrim life, until He cometh before whose face heaven and earth shall flee away. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2477.cfm

Watch!

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

And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. – Mark 13:37

“Watch!” Oh, how little is done of this kind of work! We scarcely watch as we ought against the devil; but how little do we watch for the coming of our Master! Look for every sign of His appearing, and be ever listening for the sound of His chariot wheels. Keep the candle burning in the window, to let Him see that you are awake; keep the latch on the door, that when He cometh you may quickly open unto Him. Hopefully watch until the day break, and the shadows flee away.

I seem just now as though I were a soldier in this great guard-room, and as if we were sitting in these shadows, and perhaps in the darkness, and seemed very much dispirited; and I would say to you my comrades, “Come, brothers, let us cheer up. The Lord hath appeared to one and another of us. He hath given to some of us the light of His countenance, and He is coming back to welcome us all unto Himself. Let us not be dismayed; our glorious Leader forgets not the weakest and feeblest of us, neither is any part of the battle-field beyond the reach of the great Captain’s eye. He sees which way the struggle is going, and He has innumerable reserves, which He will bring up at the right time. I seem to hear the music of His horse’s hoofs even now. He is coming who shall turn the scale in the worst moment of the conflict, for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will deliver the enemy into our hand. Let no man’s heart fail him because of yonder Goliath; the God who has raised up men to slay the lion and the bear, will yet find a David and a smooth stone to kill this mighty giant. Wherefore, brothers, be of good courage.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2477.cfm

 

The Shadows Shall Flee

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

…until the day break, and the shadows flee away… – Song of Songs 2:17

What are those shadows that are to flee at His approach? The types and shadows of the ceremonial law were all finished when Christ appeared the first time; but many shadows still remain: the shadows of our doubts, the grim mysterious shadows of our fears, the shadows of sin, so black, so dense, the shadows of abounding unbelief, ten thousand shadows. When He cometh, these shall all flee away; and with them shall go the heaven and earth that now are, for what are these but shadows? All things that are unsubstantial shall pass away when He appeareth; when the day breaks, then everything but that which is eternal and invisible shall pass away.

We will wait in the darkness with patient endurance as long as God appoints it. Whatever of shadow is yet to come, whatever of cold damp air and dews of the night is yet to fall upon us, we will bear it. Soldiers of the cross, you must not wish to avoid these shadows; He who has called you to this service knew that it would be night time, and He called you to night duty; and being put upon the night watch, keep at your post…The day will break, and the shadows flee away; and until then, watch through the night, and fear not the shadows. Play the man, remembering through what a sevenfold night your Master passed, when, in Gethsemane, He endured even to a bloody sweat for you. When, on the cross, even His mid-day was midnight, what must have been the darkness over His spirit? He bore it; then bear you it. Let no thought of fear pass over your mind; or, if it does, let not your heart be troubled, but rise above your fear until the day break, and the shadows flee away. Be of good courage, soldiers of Christ, and still wait on in patient endurance. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2477.cfm