promises

The Wicked Condemned

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

By faith Noah… prepared an ark…by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. – Hebrews 11:7

Ah! you may laugh, ye worldlings; but the man of God is your master after all! Noah’s preaching condemned them: they knew the way, and wickedly refused to run in it. His warning condemned them: they would not regard it and escape. His life condemned them, for he walked with the God whom they despised. How his faith condemned them! When the floods began to rise, and the door was shut, how the sight of the ark condemned them! I can imagine, when the water began to get knee-deep, there would be frightened ones around the ark door; but it could not be opened since God had shut it…The day in which they might have entered was gone by…

How often have I spoken of the pit which God hath digged for the wicked, into which your feet will slide in due time unless you seek the Saviour! May be, in those days of terror, the face of the preacher will condemn you, as you remember how he looked at you with earnest love, but you would have none of his pleading, and chose to perish in your sin. Your blood shall be upon your own heads. It is a solemn thought, that one lone man condemned a world. It was one against millions! Yet the one condemned the millions. If God is with a man, though that man be only one, he is in the majority. Men of the world wilt soon become a weeping, wailing, and despairing company; but he that stands alone for God shall be held in honour, and shall both judge and condemn the guilty world. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm

Nevertheless, Be You Faithful to Your God

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

By faith Noah…prepared an ark to the saving of his house… -Hebrews 11:7

He was saved and his house. Oh, that God would give to every preacher of righteousness this full reward-himself and his house! O my brothers in the ministry, there is no greater joy for us than to know that our children walk in the truth! Perhaps some of you fear the Lord; and yet He has never given you your Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Alas! it may even happen that she that lieth in your bosom does not yet know the Lord. Nevertheless, be you faithful to your God, and to the souls of men. Hold the truth, if you stand alone. Even if in your own house you find your worst foes, hold on, and never doubt. Do not come down a step or two as to holiness, nor seek a lower platform upon which to meet more cordially an ungodly world. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of the ever-blessed gospel. That is the one business of your life; and I believe that if you have faith in the Lord as to your family, your beloved ones shall be given you as a prey. Remember the Philippian jailer, to whom Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Do not rest content with half the promise. Grasp firmly the words, “and thy house.” Have you an Ishmael? then get alone, and, like Abraham, cry to God, “O that Ishmael might live before thee!” God will hear your prayer and bless Ishmael also. Oh, what a privilege it will be if you yourself and all your house are saved! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm

The Good Fruit of Obedience

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

Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. -Genesis 6:22

Noah obeyed the Lord very carefully. God said to him, “Make an ark”; and we read in answer thereto that he prepared an ark. There was careful preparation, and not hurried, thoughtless activity. He prepared the right materials; he prepared the different parts so as to fit together: he prepared his mind, and then prepared his work. In seeking the Lord, let us exercise our best thoughts. People do not go to heaven in the fashion of “hop, skip, and jump.” Carelessness cannot tread the highway of holiness. If you would know the way to hell, you may shut your eyes and find it: a little matter of neglect will surely ruin you- “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” But if you desire to go to heaven, I beg you to remember that “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” There must be determination, thought, care, attention; and faith must work with all these to produce obedience to the will of the Lord. Men are never right by accident, nor obedient to the Lord by chance; preparation of heart is wanted, and this the Lord must give. Alas! I fear some of you will miss eternal life, for you trifle about it! If you had a business to settle which involved the gain or loss of ten thousand pounds, how particular you would be; but when your whole soul is at stake, how many take up such matters at haphazard and risk eternal destruction! Not so Noah: he was precise in his obedience, and careful to remain so. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm

Only in Separation is Salvation

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

And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. -Genesis 7:16

See Noah and his family entering the ark! I do not think I should have selected the ark as a place of residence myself, nor would you have chosen to live in a place pitched within and without with pitch, with only one door and one window to it, and a great menagerie of birds, and beasts, and reptiles inside it. Whether that window ran all round the top just under the roof, so as to let light into the whole structure, I cannot tell; but I have no doubt that the jeering world said to Noah, “Well, old man, you have built a prison for yourself, and the sooner you go inside and shut yourself in the better; for we have had enough of your preaching!” When the good man and his family went in, and the Lord shut the door, they were dead to the world…When the Lord shuts you off from the world, you are best alone. Nowadays professors have not faith enough to dwell alone. They want two or three doors in the back of the ark, so that they may slip out every now and then, and do a little pleasuring with the world, and then glide back again and look like saints. As to being shut in with God and separated from the world-religious and irreligious-how few will endure it! How little is ever heard of that cry-“Come out from among them, and be ye separate!” “You might as well be dead,” cries one, “as be out of society.” Exactly so: and that is what the child of God looks for. “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” “Buried with Him by baptism into death.” “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” That separatedness which Noah took upon himself so willingly was involved in his salvation; for if he had lived with the world, he would have died with the world. Only in separation is salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm

We Dwell in the Realm of Faith

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises 6 Comments

For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights… -Genesis 7:4

Noah believed what seemed highly improbable, if not absolutely impossible. There was no sea where Noah laid the keel of his ark: I do not even know that there was a river there. He was to prepare a sea-going vessel, and construct it on dry land. How could water be brought there to float it? O mad old man! how canst thou play the fool on so huge a scale as to build a three-decked vessel of vast dimensions where no waters can ever come? Yet he was bidden of the Lord to do it, and he was persuaded that the Lord’s command involved no blunder. The floods would fill the valley, rise up the hills, and prevail above the tops of the mountains.

At times you and I are assailed as to our faith in the Bible, by people who say, “How do you make that out? It is in the Scriptures, certainly, but how do you reconcile it with science?” Let your reply be-We no longer live in the region of argument as to the Word of the Lord; but we dwell in the realm of faith. We are not squabblers, itching to prove our superiority in reasoning, but we are children of light, worshipping our God by bowing our whole minds to the obedience of faith. We would be humble, and learn to believe what we cannot altogether comprehend, and to expect what we should never have looked for, had not the Lord declared it. It is our ambition to be great believers, rather than great thinkers; to be child-like in faith, rather than subtle in intellect. We are sure that God is true! Like Noah, we stagger not at the Word of God, because of evident improbability and apparent impossibility. What the Lord has spoken He is able to make good; and none of His words shall fall to the ground. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm

Believe the Threat and the Promise

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, repentance, salvation, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth… Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. -Genesis 6:13, 22

Faith is to be exercised about the commandments; for David says, “I have believed Thy commandments.” Faith is to be exercised upon the promises; for there its sweetest business lies. But, believe me, you cannot have faith in the promise unless you are prepared to have faith in the threatening also. If you truly believe a man, you believe all that he says. He who does not believe that God will punish sin, will not believe that God will pardon it through the atoning blood. He who does not believe that God will cast unbelievers into hell, will not be sure that he will take believers into heaven. If we doubt God’s Word about one thing, we shall have small confidence in it upon another thing. Sincere faith in God must treat all God’s Word alike; for the faith which accepts one word of God and rejects another is evidently not faith in God, but faith in our own judgment, faith in our own taste. Only that is true faith which believes everything that is revealed by the Holy Spirit, whether it be joyous or distressing. Noah had, in this case, received a promise; but, as the dark background to it, he had listened to the terrible threatening that God would destroy all living things with a flood: his faith believed both the warning and the promise. If he had not believed the threat, he would not have prepared an ark, and so would not have received the promise…With solemn awe believe the bitter word of judgment, that the word of mercy may be sweet to you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm

Have You Daily Faith?

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises 1 Comment

…the just shall live by faith… -Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38

To be just in the sight of God is never possible apart from faith; for “the just shall live by faith.” It is a great thing to have faith in the presence of a terrible trial; but the first essential is to have faith for ordinary every-day consumption. Hast thou faith in God as to thy daily bread? Hast thou faith as to thy children and thy house? Hast thou faith about thy trade and business? Hast thou faith in the God of providence?-faith in the God who answers prayer? Is it habitual with thee to roll thy burden upon the Lord? If it be not so with thee, what wilt thou do when the floods break forth? Faith will not come to thee all of a sudden, in the dark night, if thou hast shut it out through all the bright days. Faith must be a constant tenant, not an occasional guest. I have heard of Latter-day Saints, and I do not think much of them: I far more admire Every-day Saints. Thou needest faith this Sabbath-day: have it, and come to the communion-table with it. But thou needest faith on Monday, when the shutters are taken down to begin another six days’ trading. Thou wilt need faith the next day; for who can tell thee what will happen? To the end of the week thou wilt need to look to the hills whence cometh thine help. Thou needest faith anywhere and everywhere. A man of God alone in his chamber still needs faith, or solitude may be a nest for temptation. When the servant of Christ is at his ease, and has no work pressing upon him, he has need of faith to keep him, lest, like David, he fall into temptation, and commit folly. Rest days or work days, we alike need faith…We wish everywhere to please God, and we cannot do it anywhere unless we have unfeigned faith in Him. The Lord teach us to have faith seven days in the week! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2147.cfm