promises

Our Climbing Shoes

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

Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. -Deuteronomy 33:24-25

Our spiritual life is an upward climb, with constant danger of a fall. It is a great mercy to have shoes of iron and brass in our spiritual climbings, that should our feet be almost gone, we may find a foothold before we are utterly cast down. We ought to climb: the higher our spiritual life the better. It is written of the believer, “He shall dwell on high.” We ought not to be satisfied till we reach the highest places of knowledge, experience, and practice. High doctrine is glorious doctrine, high experience is blessed experience, high holiness is heavenly living. Many souls always keep in the plains: the simple elements are enough for them; and, thank God, they are enough for salvation and for comfort. But if you want the richest delight and the highest degree of grace, climb the hills and roam among the mysteries of God, the sublimer revelations of His divine will. Especially climb into the doctrines of grace: be not afraid of electing love, of special redemption, of the covenant, and all that is contained in it. Be not afraid to climb high, for if thy feet be dipped in the oil of grace, they shall also be so shod that they shall not slip. Trust in God, and you shall be as Mount Zion, which can never be removed. Your shoes shall be iron and brass, for lofty thought and clear knowledge, if you commit your mind to the instruction of the Lord. Receiving nothing except as you find it in the Word, but in a childlike spirit receiving everything that you find there, you shall stand upon your high places. Your feet shall be like hinds’ feet, and your place of abode shall be above the mists and clouds of earth’s wretched atmosphere of doubt.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2062.cfm

God Has Promised Needful Grace

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

…as thy days, so shall thy strength be. -Deuteronomy 33:25

Our journey is a maze, a labyrinth: the Lord leads us up and down in the wilderness, and sometimes we seem further from Canaan than ever. Seldom does our march take us through gardens: often it leads us through deserts. We are always traveling, never long in one stay. Sometimes the fiery cloudy pillar rests for a little, but it is only for a little. “Forward!” is our watchword. We have no abiding city here. We pitch our tent by the wells and palms of Elim, but we strike it in the morning, when the silver bugle sounds, “Up, and away!” and so we march to Marah, or to the place of the fiery serpents. Ever onward; ever forward; ever moving! This is our lot. Be it so. Our equipment betokens it: we have appropriate shoes for this perpetual journey. We are not shod with the skins of beasts, but with metals which will endure all wear and tear. Is it not written, “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass”? However long the way, these shoes will last to the end.

Perhaps I address some friend whose way is especially rough. You seem to be more tried than anybody else. You reckon yourself to be more familiar with sorrow than anyone you know: affliction has marked you for its own. I pray you take home this promise to yourself by faith: the Lord saith to thee, “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass.” This special route of yours, which is beset with so many difficulties-your God has prepared you for it. You are shod as none but the Lord’s chosen are shod. If your way is singular, so are your shoes. You shall be able to traverse this thorny road-to journey along it with profit to yourself and with glory to God. For your traveling days you are well fitted, for your shoes are iron and brass.

“If the sorrows of thy case
Seem peculiar still to thee,
God has promised needful grace,
‘As thy days, thy strength shall be.'”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2062.cfm

The Digger’s Rich Yield

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

Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. –Deuteronomy 33:25

This promise meant that Asher should have treasures under his feet-that there should, in fact, be mines of iron and copper within the boundaries of the tribe. Metals enrich nations, and help their advancement in many ways. Tribes that possess minerals are thereby made rich, what ever metals those may be; but such useful metals as iron and copper would prove of the utmost service to the people of that time if they knew how to use them. Is there any spiritual promise at all in this! Asher is made rich and iron and copper lying beneath his feet. Are saints ever made rich with treasures under their feet? Undoubtedly they are. The Word of God has mines in it. Even the surface of it is rich, and it brings forth food for us; but it is with Scripture as Job saith it is with the earth: “As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire. The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold.” There are treasures upon the surface of the Word which we may pick up very readily: even the casual reader will find himself able to understand the simplicities and elements of the gospel of God; but the Word of God yields most to the digger. He that can study hard, and press into the inner meaning-he is the man that shall be enriched with riches current in heavenly places. Every Bible student here will know that God has put under his feet great treasures of precious teaching, and he will by meditation sink shafts into the deep places of revelation. I wish we gave more time to our Bibles. We waste too much time upon the pretentious, poverty-stricken literature of the age; and some, even Christian people, are more taken up with works of fiction than they are with this great Book of everlasting fact. We should prosper much more in heavenly husbandry if we would “dig deep while sluggards sleep.” Remember that God has given to us to have treasures under our feet; but do not so despise His gifts as to leave the mines of revelation unexplored.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2062.cfm

 

We Shall Behold His Glory

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

“Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me…” -John 17:24

What must it be to behold His glory? Some of my brethren think that when they get to heaven they shall like to behold some of the works of God in nature and so on. I must confess myself more satisfied with the idea that I shall behold His glory, the glory of the Crucified, for it seems to me that no kind of heaven but that comes up to the description of the Apostle when he saith, “Eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” But to see the stars has entered into the heart of man, and to behold the works of God in nature has been conceived of man; but the joys we speak of are so spiritual that the Apostle says, “He has revealed them unto us by His Spirit,” and this is what He has revealed, “That they may behold My glory.”…Why, even the distant glimpse which we catch of Him through a glass or a telescope darkly ravishes the soul. Dr. Hawker was once waited upon by a friend, who asked him to go and see a naval review. He said, “No, thank you; I do not want to go.” “You are a loyal man, doctor, and you would like to see the defences of your country.” “Thank you, I do not wish to go.” “But I have got a ticket for you, and you must go.” “No,” he said, “thank you,” and after he had been pressed hard he said, “You have pressed me till I am ashamed, and now I must tell you-mine eyes have seen the King in His beauty, and the land which is very far off, and I have not any taste now for all the pomps that this world could possibly show.” And if such a distant sight of Jesus can do this, what must it be to behold His glory with what the old Scotch divines used to call “a face-to-face view”; when the veil is taken down, when the clouds are blown away, and you see Him face to face? Oh! long-expected day begin, when we shall be to Him coming to dwell with Him.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3509.cfm

 

To Be Nearest To Jesus

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

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. -Hebrews 10:22

I have often told you, my dear brethren and sisters, that when you get a little above the ground, if it is only an inch, you get too high. When you begin to think that surely you are a saint, and that you have some good thing to trust to, that rotten stuff must all be pulled to pieces. Believe me, God will not let His people wear a rag of their own spinning; they must be clothed with Christ’s righteousness from head to foot. The old heathen said he wrapped himself up in his integrity, but I should think he did not know what holes there were in it, or else he would have looked for something better. But we wrap ourselves in the righteousness of Christ, and there is not a cherub before the throne that wears a vestment so right royal as the poor sinner does when he wears the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Oh! child of God, always live upon your Lord. Hang upon Him, as the pitcher hangs upon the nail. Lean on your Beloved; His arm will never weary of you. Stay yourselves upon Him; wash in the precious fountain always; wear His righteousness continually; and be glad in the Lord, and your gladness need never fail while you simply and wholly lean upon Him.

Oh! happy is that man who gets right into the wounds of Jesus, and, with Thomas, cries, “My Lord and my God!” This is no, fanaticism, but a thing of sober, sound experience with some of us. We can rejoice in Him, having no confidence in the flesh. Oh! to be like that-not to be far away from Jesus Christ, even with all the comforts of this life, but to be near Him, filled with life and sacred activity through the abundance of fellowship and communion with Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3509.cfm

Always Coming to Christ

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

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. -Romans 1:17

The Christian is always coming to Christ. He does not look upon faith as a matter of twenty years ago, and done with, but he comes today and he will come to-morrow. He will come to Jesus Christ afresh to-night before he goes to bed. We come to Jesus daily, for Christ is like the well outside the cottager’s house. The man lets down the bucket and gets the cooling draught, but he goes again to-morrow, and he will have to go again at night if he is to leave a fresh supply. He must constantly go to the same place. Fishes do not live in the water they were in yesterday; they must be in it today. Men do not breathe the air which they breathed a week ago; they must have fresh air into the lungs moment by moment. Nobody thinks that he can be fed upon the fact that he did have a good meal six weeks ago; he has to eat continually. So “the just shall live by faith.” We come to Jesus just as we came at first, and we say to Him:

“Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.”

This is the daily and hourly life of the Christian.

But while we thus come daily, we come more boldly than we used to do. At first we came like cringing slaves; now we come as emancipated men. At first we came as strangers. Now we come as brethren. We still come to the cross, but it is not so much to find pardon for past sins, for these are forgiven, as to find fresh comfort from looking up to Him who wrought out perfect righteousness for us.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3509.cfm

Simply Trusting Christ

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

He that believeth on Him is not condemned… -John 3:18

This is the first way of salvation-simply trusting and looking up to Christ for everything. But, then, we did trust. There is a difference between knowing about trust and trusting. By God’s Holy Spirit, we were not left merely to talk about faith, nor to think about it, but we did believe. If the Government were to announce that there would be ten thousand acres of land in New Zealand given to a settler, I can imagine two men believing it. One believes it and forgets it; the other believes it and takes his passage to go out and get the land. Now the first kind of faith saves nobody; but the second faith, the practical faith, is that which, for the sake of seeking Christ, gives up the sins of this life, the pleasures of it-I mean the wicked pleasures of it-gives up all confidence in everything else, and casts itself into the arms of the Saviour. There is the sea of divine love; he shall be saved who plunges boldly into it, and casts himself upon its waves, hoping to be upborne. Oh! my hearer, hast thou done this? If so, thou art certainly a saved one. If thou hast not, oh! may grace enable thee to do it ere yet that setting sun has hidden himself beneath the horizon. Hast thou known this before, that a simple trust in Christ will save thee? This is the one message of this inspired Volume. This is the gospel according to Paul, the one gospel which we preach continually. Try it, and if it save thee not, we will be bondsmen for God for thee. But it must save thee, for God is true, and cannot fail, and He has declared, “He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the Son of God.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3509.cfm