promises

By Sovereign Mercy

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 4 Comments

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God -Ephesians 2:8

“Ah!” says the man, “I see I am a lost and ruined sinner-my hope has deceived me; but I have another wall I can make myself better. I can build and repair.” So he begins piling up the wall, and sits down behind it. He makes the covenant of grace into a covenant of works. He thinks faith is a kind of work, and that we are saved for it. He imagines we are to believe and repent, and that we thus earn salvation. He denies that faith and repentance are God’s gifts only, and sits down behind his self-sufficiency, thinking, “I can do all that,” Oh! blessed day when God directs his shots against that. I know I hugged that old idea a long while with my “cans,” “cans,” “cans;” but I found my “cans “would hold no water, and suffered all I put in to run out. There came an election sermon; but that did not please me. There came a law sermon, showing me my powerlessness; but I did not believe it; I thought it was the whim of some old experimental Christian, some dogma of ancient times that would not suit men now. Then there came another sermon, concerning death and sin; but I did not believe I was dead, for I knew I was alive enough, and could repent, and set myself right by-and-bye. Then there came a strong exhortation sermon; but I felt I could set my house in order when I liked, that I could do it next Tuesday week as well as I could do it at once. So did I continually trust in my self-sufficiency. At last, however, when God really brought me to myself, He sent one great shot which shivered it all, and, lo, I found myself utterly defenseless. I thought I was more than mighty angels, and could accomplish all things, then I found myself less than nothing. So also every truly convinced sinner finds that repentance and faith must come from God, that reliance must be placed alone on the Most High; and instead of looking to himself, he is forced to cast himself at the feet of sovereign mercy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0038.cfm

The Bulwark of Extreme Caution

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

For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. -Acts 20:27

I think that the worst battlement the churches have now, is an earthwork of great and extreme caution. It is held to be improper that certain obnoxious truths in the Bible should be preached; sundry reasons are given why they should be withheld. One is, because it tends to discourage men from coming to Christ. Another is, because certain persons will be offended on account of these rough edges of the gospel. Some would say, “O keep them back! You need not preach such and such a doctrine. Why preach distinguishing grace? Why divine sovereignty? Why election? why perseverance? why effectual calling? These are calculated to offend the people, they cannot endure such truths.” If you tell them about the love of Christ, and the vast mercy of God, and such like it will always be pleasing and satisfying; but you must never preach deep searching law-work, you must not be cutting at the heart and sending the lancet into the soul-that would be dangerous. Hence most churches are shielding themselves behind an ignominious bulwark of extreme caution. You never hear their ministers spoken against; they are quite safe behind the screen you will be very much puzzled to tell what are the real doctrinal views of our modern divines. I believe you will pick up in some poor humble chapel more doctrinal knowledge in half an hour, than in some of your larger chapels in half a century. God’s church must be brought once more to rely upon the pure truth, upon the simple gospel, the unalloyed doctrines of the grace of God. O may this church never have any bulwark but the promises of God! May He be her strength and shield!…And whether men hear, or whether they forbear, may we say-

“Should all the forms that men devise
Assault my soul with treach’rous art
I’ll call them vanities and lies
And bind the gospel to my heart.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0038.cfm

“I am her battlement. She is to have none other”

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

But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, Him shall ye fear, and Him shall ye worship, and to Him shall ye do sacrifice. – 2Kings 17:36

God’s church is very fond of building walls which her God has not sanctioned. She is not content to trust in the arm of God, but she will add thereto some extraneous help which God utterly abhors. “Beautiful for situation-the joy of the whole earth-is Mount Zion, upon the sides of the north, the city of the great king. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, even so is God round about His people, from henceforth, for evermore.” But His people are not content with God being round about them, they seek some other protection. The church has very often gone to king Jareboam for help, or to the world for aid; and then God has said to her enemies, “Go ye up against her, but make not a full end: take away her battlements, for they are not the Lord’s. She shall not have them. I am her battlement. She is to have none other.”

God will not have his church relying on man and putting trust in princes. “Cursed shall be such-a-one,” He says, “he shall be like a heath in the desert, he shall not see when good cometh; his leaf shall wither and he shall bring forth no fruit unto perfection.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0038.cfm

 

Perfume the Axe that Wounds You

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

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you -Matthew 5:44

Pray always, most for those who treat you worst. Make them the constant subjects of your prayer. In your actions prove the sincerity of your prayers by extra kindness towards those who are unkind to you… A Christian woman had often prayed for a very ungodly and unkind husband, but her prayers were not heard. However she did this, she treated him more kindly than she had ever done before. If there was any little thing that she could think of that would please his palate, if she had to deny herself, that would be on the table. She kept the house scrupulously comfortable, and did all she could. And one day someone said to her, “How is it that you, with such a husband can act so towards him?” “Well,” she said, “I hope I shall win his soul yet, but if not”-and then the tears came in her eyes-“all the happiness he will have will be in this life, and so I will let him have all I can possibly give him, since he has no happiness in the life to come.” Do that with the ungodly. Lay yourself out to oblige and serve them. Let it be known of you that the best way to get a good turn out of you is to do you a bad turn. “Oh!” says one, “it is too hard. Tread on a worm, and it will turn.” And is a worm to be an example to a Christian? Christ Jesus, art Thou not better for an exemplar than a poor worm that creeps into the earth? What did our Saviour do but pray for His murderers? The blood they shed redeemed them that shed it. We have heard the old story of the sandal-wood tree that perfumes the axe that cuts it. Do you so, O Christian! Perfume with your love the axe that wounds you…Be patient, be courteous, be kind-in a word, Christ-like; and how know you that these very persons who hate you most to-day will not love you well to-morrow, and come together with you to the communion table, and together rejoice in our blessed Saviour? ~ C.H.Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3512.cfm

Let Them Sneer!

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

Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. -Hebrews 13:13

How ought those who are mocked behave towards those that mock at them? Well, the first thing is, never yield an inch. You young men in the great firms of London, you working men that work in the factories-you are sneered at. Let them sneer. If they can sneer you out of your religion, you have not got any worth having. Remember you can be laughed into hell, but you can never be laughed out of it. A man may, by ridicule, give up what religion he thought he had, but if he cast away his soul, his companions who caused his loss cannot help him in the day of his travail, and anguish, and bitterness, before the throne of the Most High. Why be ashamed? “They called me a saint.” I remember once a person calling me a saint in the street. All I thought was, “I wish he could prove it.” Once a man, passing me in the street, said, “There is John Bunyan.” I think I felt six inches taller at the least. I was delighted to be called by such a name as that. “Oh! but they will point at you.” Cannot you bear to be pointed at? “But they will chaff you.” Chaff-let them chaff you. Can that hurt a man that is a man? If you are a molluscous creature that has no backbone, you may be afraid of jokes, and jeers, and jests; but if God has made you upright, stand upright and be a man. Moreover, there is one thing you should always do when you are ashamed-pray. The next verse in the Psalm is, “Oh! that God would turn the captivity of Zion.” The best refuge for a believer in times of persecution is his secret resort to God. Let him go on his knees and say, “My Lord, I have been counted worthy to be spoken ill of for Thy name’s sake. Help me to bear it. Now is my time of trial. Strengthen me to bear this reproach. Grant that it may be no heavy burden to me, but may I rather rejoice in it for Thy name’s sake.” God will help you, beloved. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3512.cfm

The Unbeliever’s Faith

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father, the unbelieving life 2 Comments

Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. -Isaiah 45:22

It takes much more faith to be an unbeliever than to be a believer. I am sure the philosophies of the present age which are currently set forth would require a deal more credulity than I am the master of. I can believe Scripture readily, and without violence to my soul, but I could not accept the theory even of the development of our race, which is so much cried up nowadays, nor a great many other theories. They seem to me to require a far greater sweep of credulity than anything that is written in the Word of God. To the ungodly man this seems reasonable. “It is reasonable to trust a great man, and to hope that he will be the maker of you; it is reasonable to trust your own reason-to believe you can steer your own course; it is reasonable to be a self-made man, self-reliant; it is reasonable to look after the main change; it is reasonable to get all the money you can; it is reasonable to put your confidence in it (of course, it has not any wings, and won’t fly away); it is a reasonable and discreet thing to live in this world as if you were to live for ever in it, and never think of another world at all.” To a great many it seems to be philosophy to get as far away from God as ever you possibly can, and then you will get to be a wise man that the creature is wisest when it forgets its Creator. That is the world’s creed, and I can only say that if they scoff at our creed, we can fairly enough scoff at theirs.

Truly it seems to me to be wisdom that I, a creature who certainly did not make myself, should think of my Creator; that I, a sinner, should accept that blessed way of salvation, which is laid before me in the Word of God; that I, weak and unable to steer my own course, should put my hand into the great Father’s hand and say, “Lead me, guide me by Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” This may be jested at and sneered at, but it can bear a sneer and will outlive the mocker. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3512.cfm

We Glory in Tribulation

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

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. -John 16:33

Our God does this for us: that we look upon those troubles as being so much fire that shall purge our silver: so much of the winnowing fan that shall drive away the chaff and leave the corn clean. We glory in tribulation and rejoice in the afflictions which God has laid upon us. Now this is what is the matter of jest for the mockers .I should, like any man who doubts the reality of faith in God, go down to Bristol, and go to Kingsdown and see the orphan-houses there which Mr. George Muller has built. Now there they stand, substantial brick and mortar, and inside there are 2,500 boys and girls. They eat a good deal, want a good deal of clothing, and so on. And how comes the money? All the world knows, and no man can gainsay it, that it comes in answer to prayer, and as the result of Mr. Muller’s faith that has often been tried but has never failed. What God has done for Mr. Muller, He has done for scores of us after our own way, and in our own walk, and we glorify His name. Though that stands as a palpable witness, we are not less able to say than Mr. Muller, there is a God that heareth prayer, and whoever may jest at faith, we continue in it still, and glory in it, and rejoice. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3512.cfm