prophecy

The Future is in the Father’s Power

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, Sovereignty of God, The Father 1 Comment

When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? …It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. – Acts 1:6, 7

The future is all in God’s hand. No prophecy will lack its mate. No word of God will fall unfulfilled to the ground. Possess your souls in patience: the things that are foretold are sure to happen. “Though the vision tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” I am persuaded that God never is before His time, but He never is too late. He never failed to keep tryst with His people to the tick of the clock. The future is in the Father’s power….He must arrange it rightly; He must arrange it in infinite love to us. It cannot be that, in some dark hour yet to come, He will forget us. He is our Father; will He forget His children? If the times could be in my hand, how earnestly would I pray that Christ would take them into His hand, or that the Father would take away from me the dangerous power, and wield it all Himself!

“All my times are in Thy hand,
All events at Thy command”

The time of birth, the time of the new birth, the time of a sore trial, the time of the death of your beloved one, the time of your sickness, and how long it shall last, all these times must come, and last, and end, as shall please your Father. It is for you to know that your Father is at the helm of the ship, and therefore it cannot be wrecked. It may rock and reel to and fro; but, since He rules the waves, the vessel will not have one more tossing than His infinite love permits….The Father hath it in His own hands, and there we wish it to be. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2330.cfm

You are Witnesses, not Prophets

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prophecy, Sovereignty of God, The Father 2 Comments

Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. – Acts 1:6, 7

You are not sent into the world to be prophets; you are sent into the world to be witnesses. You do not come here to be prognosticators of the events of tomorrow about yourself, or about your children, or about your friends, or about the nations of the earth. A veil hangs between you and the future. Your prayer is to be, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” You are told to look for the coming of your Lord, and to stand in perpetual expectation of His return; but to know the time when He will come, is no part of your office. You are servants who are to look for your Lord, who may come at cock-crowing, or at midday, or at midnight. Keep you always on the tiptoe of expectation.

As it is not proper for you, so it is not profitable for you. What would you be the better if you could make a map of all that is yet to be? Suppose it were revealed to you tonight, by an angel, in what respect would it alter your conduct for tomorrow? In what way would it help you to perform the duties which your Master has enjoined upon you? …For my part, I would rather not know any more than my Lord pleases to reveal to me; and if He did reveal all the future to me, I should feel like the prophets who spake of “the burden of the Lord.” Neither would it ensure your salvation to be able to foretell the future, for Balaam was a great prophet, but he was a great sinner; he was an arch-rebel although he was an arch-divine. Nor do I know that, by foretelling the future, you would convince your fellow-men; for Noah told them that the world would be destroyed by the flood, he could give them a very accurate account of the time when the rain would descend, and yet they were not converted by his preaching, neither did they come into the ark. Those truths which God has revealed, you must accept for yourselves and proclaim to others; they are profitable for all purposes, and sufficient for your work; but the future is known only to God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2330.cfm

It is Not for Us to Know the Times or the Seasons

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

“When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. “-Acts 1:6, 7

It is not for us to know the times and the seasons, and to be able to make a map of the future. There are some great events of the future very clearly revealed. The prophecy is not at all indistinct about the facts that will occur; but as to when they will occur, we have no data. Some think that they have; but our Lord here seems to say that we do not know the times and the seasons, and that it is not for us to know them. I pass no censure upon brethren who think that, by elaborate calculations, they find out what is to be in the future; I say that I pass no censure, but time has passed censure of the strongest kind upon all their predecessors. I forget how many miles of books interpreting prophecy there are in the British Museum; but I believe it amounts to miles, all of which have been disproved by the lapse of time. Some of the writers were wonderfully definite; they knew within half-an-hour when the Lord would come. Some of them were very distinct about all the events; they had mapped them all within a few years. The men who wrote the books, happily for themselves, had mostly died before the time appointed came. It is always wise to pitch on a long period of prophecy, that you may be out of the way if the thing does not come off; and they mostly did so. There were very few of them who lived to suffer the disappointment which would certainly have come to them through having fixed the wrong date. I let time censure their mistake. God forgave it, for they did it with a desire for His glory. The bulk of them were most sincere students of the Word, and herein are a lesson to us, even though they were mistaken in their calculations; but, beloved, it is not for you to know the times and the seasons. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2330.cfm

Our Chief Business Here Below

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

And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as He went up… – Acts 1:10

What they did we are very apt to imitate. “Oh,” say you, “I shall never stand gazing up into heaven.” I am not sure of that. Some Christians are very curious, but not obedient. Plain precepts are neglected, but difficult problems they seek to solve. I remember one who used always to be dwelling upon the vials and seals and trumpets. He was great at apocalyptic symbols; but he had seven children, and he had no family prayer. If he had left the vials and trumpets and minded his boys and girls, it would have been a deal better. I have known men marvellously great upon Daniel, and specially instructed in Ezekiel, but singularly forgetful of the twentieth of Exodus, and not very clear upon Romans the eighth. I do not speak with any blame of such folks for studying Daniel and Ezekiel, but quite the reverse; yet I wish they had been more zealous for the conversion of the sinners in their neighborhoods, and more careful to assist the poor saints….I would have you understand all mysteries, brethren, if you could; but do not forget that our chief business here below is to cry, “Behold the Lamb!” By all manner of means read and search till you know all that the Lord has revealed concerning things to come; but first of all see to it that your children are brought to the Savior’s feet, and that you are workers together with God in the upbuilding of His church. The dense mass of misery and ignorance and sin which is round about us on every side demands all our powers; and if you do not respond to the call, though I am not a man in white apparel, I shall venture to say to you, “Ye men of Christendom, why stand ye gazing up into the mysteries when so much is to be done for Jesus, and you are leaving it undone?” O ye who are curious but not obedient, I fear I speak to you in vain, but I have spoken. May the Holy Spirit also speak. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1817.cfm

Look Up!

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

Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? – Acts 1:11

Methinks, if Jesus were among us now we would fix our eyes upon Him, and never withdraw them. He is altogether lovely, and it would seem wicked to yield our eyesight to any inferior object so long as He was to be seen. When He ascended up into heaven it was the duty of His friends to look upon Him. It can never be wrong to look up; we are often bidden to do so, and it is even a holy saying of the Psalmist, “I will direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up”; and, again, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” If it be right to look up into heaven, it must be still more right to look up while Jesus rises to the place of His glory. Surely it had been wrong if they had looked anywhere else; it was due to the Lamb of God that they should behold Him as long as eyes could follow Him. He is the Sun: where should eyes be turned but to His light? He is the King; and where should courtiers within the palace gate turn their eyes but to their King as He ascends to His throne? The truth is, there was nothing wrong in their looking up into heaven; but they went a little further than looking; they stood “gazing.” A little excess in right may be faulty. It may be wise to look, but foolish to gaze. There is a very thin partition sometimes between that which is commendable and that which is censurable…When the person of Jesus was gone out of the azure vault above them, and the cloud had effectually concealed Him, why should they continue to gaze when God Himself had drawn the curtain? If infinite wisdom had withdrawn the object upon which they desired to gaze, what would their gazing be but a sort of reflection upon the wisdom which had removed their Lord? …A steadfast gaze into heaven may be to a devout soul a high order of worship, but if this filled up much of our working time it might become the idlest form of folly. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1817.cfm

Christ’s Second Descension

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

“And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.”-Acts 1:10, 11.

All Christian minds delight to dwell upon His birth, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. These make four rungs in that ladder of light, the foot of which is upon the earth, but the top whereof reacheth to heaven. We could not afford to dispense with any one of those four events, nor would it be profitable for us to forget, or to under-estimate the value of any one of them. That the Son of God was born of a woman creates in us the intense delight of a brotherhood springing out of a common humanity. That Jesus once suffered unto the death for our sins, and thereby made a full atonement for us, is the rest and life of our spirits. The manger and the cross together are divine seals of love. That the Lord Jesus rose again from the dead is the warrant of our justification, and also a transcendently delightful assurance of the resurrection of all His people, and of their eternal life in Him. Hath He not said, “Because I live ye shall live also”? The resurrection of Christ is the morning star of our future glory. Equally delightful is the remembrance of His ascension. No song is sweeter than this-“Thou hast ascended on high; Thou hast led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.”

As for His ascension, He could not a second time descend if He had not first ascended; but having perfumed heaven with His presence, and prepared a place for His people, we may fitly expect that He will come again and receive us unto Himself, that where He is there we may be also. I want you, therefore, as in contemplation you pass with joyful footsteps over these four grand events, as your faith leaps from His birth to His death, and from His resurrection to His ascension, to be looking forward, and even hastening unto this crowning fact of our Lord’s history; for ere long He shall so come in like manner as He was seen go up into heaven. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1817.cfm

A Strong West Wind and Thunderbolts

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

Yet have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion. – Psalm 2:6

By every possible contrivance, in these modern days, they have tried to drive Christ out of His own church. A Christless, bloodless gospel defiles many a pulpit, and Christ is thus angered; but He is in heaven still. At the right hand of God He sits; and let this be our continual prayer to Him, “Look down from heaven, O Lord! Cast an eye upon Thy failing, faltering, fickle church. Look down from heaven.”

“Ye that make mention of the Lord-ye that are the Lord’s remembrances-keep not silence, and give Him no rest; take no rest, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” “That little cloud”, said one of old, when Julian the apostate threatened to extirpate Christianity, “That little church will soon be gone.” All that I see to-day of darkness, is but a wave of smoke. Behold, the Lord God Himself shall chase it away with a strong west wind. He doth but blow with His wind, and the clouds disappear; and what stands before us to-day shall be as nothing… The old Romans picture Jove as hurling thunderbolts. Sometimes God makes His servants thunderbolts, and when He hurls them, they will go crashing through everything until they reach their mark. Wherefore; be not for a moment discouraged; but trust you in God, and be glad without a shadow of fear. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2258.cfm