salvation

God’s High Motive

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

That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name?…the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name. – Isaiah 63:12, 14

God works His great wonders of grace with the high motive of making known to His creatures His own glory, manifesting what He is and who He is, that they may worship Him. He tells us in the text that He “led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name.” So He has done, for to this day the highest note of praise to God that we know of, is the one that tells of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, and when this world is burnt up, the song will go up to God in heaven will be the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb. Still, if we want a figure and a foretaste of the ultimate victories of God over all His people’s enemies, we have to go back to the Red Sea, and look at Miriam’s twinkling feet, and hear her fingers making the timbrel sound as she cries, “Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.” He did it to make Himself an ever-enduring name, and He has succeeded in that object.

Isaiah adds that the Lord led His people, and brought them into their rest, to make Himself “a glorious name.” God is glorious in the history of Israel. God is glorious in the history of His church. God is glorious in the history of every believer. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Non Nobis, Donine

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

“Then he remembered the days of old Moses, and his people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him? That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name.”-Isaiah 63:11-14

I see, through the text, God’s great motive in working these wonders for His people. It was God who did it all. He brought them up out of the sea. He put His Holy Spirit within them. He led them with His glorious arm. He led them through the deep. He caused them to rest. He did it all. When the history of the church is written, there will be nothing on the page but God. I know that her sin is recorded; but He hath blotted that out; and at the end, there will remain nothing but what God has done. When your life and mine shall ring out as a psalm amid the harps of glory, it will be only, “Unto Him that loved us and laved us, be glory and dominion for ever and ever.” “Non nobis, Donine.” “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory.” So will sing all of us who are the Lord’s redeemed, when we have come up out of the great tribulation, and have washed our robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

But then, why had God done all this? Did He do it because of His people’s merits, or numbers, or capacities? He tells them, many a time, “Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.” God finds in Himself the motive for blessing men who have no merits. If God looked for any motive in us, He would find none. He would see in us many reasons why He should condemn us; but only in Himself could He discover the motive for His matchless mercy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Rest Despite Every Difficulty

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

As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name. – Isaiah 63:14

There have been times with the church as at Pentecost, and the Reformation, when, though she had wandered, God returned to her, and made bare His arm, and raised up shepherds, and put His Spirit upon them, and then led His people straight ahead through every difficulty, and gave them rest. You are most of you acquainted with the history of the period before Luther’s day. It did not seem likely then that the gospel would be preached everywhere throughout Northern Europe; but it was so, and God singularly preserved the first Reformers’ lives when they were very precious. Zwingle died in battle; but he should not have been fighting, and he might have died a natural death. But Calvin, and Luther, and the rest of them, for the most part, remained until their work was done, and they quietly passed away; and the churches, despite long persecution, had comparative rest.

Some of you could tell how God led you through the deep as through a prairie. You went a way that you never knew, a new way, an untrodden path, as though it were the bottom of a sea but newly dry; but the Lord led you as a groom leads a horse, so that you did not stumble, and before long you came up out of the depths unharmed. With Moses and the children of Israel, you sang the praises of Him who had triumphed gloriously; and then you began to learn another song, not so martial, but very sweet: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

The Glorious Arm of the Lord

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

“That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name, Who led them through the deep,
As a horse in the wilderness, that they might not stumble?” – Isaiah 63:12

“The right hand of Moses,” by itself, was no more than your right hand or mine; but when God’s glorious arm worked by the right hand of Moses, the sea divided, and made a way for the hosts of Israel to pass over. As the Psalmist sings, “He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.” The right hand of Moses could not have wrought that miracle; but the glorious arm of the Lord did…Then, there came to God’s people a very marvellous deliverance: “That led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble.” Understand by the word “wilderness” here, an expansive grassy plain; a place of wild grass and herbs, for so it means. And as a horse is led where it is flat and level, and he does not stumble, so were the hosts of Israel led through the Red Sea. The bottom of the sea may be stony or gravelly, or it may be full of mire and mud. Probably, there will be huge rocks standing up in the middle of the stream. There may be a sudden fall from one stratum of rock to the other; and to come up from the sea on the further bank would be hard work for struggling people carrying burdens, as these Israelites did; for they went out of Egypt harnessed and laden, bearing their kneading-troughs in their clothes upon their shoulders. But God made that rough sea bottom to be as easy travelling for them as when a horse is led across a flowery meadow. Beloved, God has done so with His church in all time. Her seas of difficulty have had no difficulty about them. He has come in all the glory of His power, and smoothed the way for the ransomed to pass over. Has it not been so with you, my brethren? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

God is True, and Events are Witnesses of His Faithfulness

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

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the LORD. – Isaiah 54:17

O, blessed be the name of the Lord! “no weapon that is formed against the church shall prosper.” We glory because we can put our finger upon history and exclaim, God is true, and events are witnesses of His faithfulness. O beloved, has the Holy Ghost given you an inwrought knowledge of the truth of this word of God? Have you experienced blessed deliverances from the right hand of the Most High? Many of you, I fear, have neither part nor lot in this matter, and you have true cause to lament your terrible loss in being unable to grasp these covenant blessings. But some of us may now anticipate the hour when we shall obtain complete redemption with all the blood-bought family, and then, ah, then, how shall we with rapture review delivering grace in all its thousand instances! Hark! hark! methought I heard sweet music; methought I heard a song descending from the regions up above, borne down by gales whose breath is sweet as that which comes from the spicy groves of Araby. I hear a sound not earthly: it is, it must be, celestial, for no mortal sonnets can with these compare. O river of harmony! Where are the lips from which thou flowest? …Holy ones, repeat the song; saints of God, re-echo the chorus; repeat it yet again, that these ears may hear it. What do you sing? “No weapon that is formed against us hath prospered; every tongue that hath risen against us in judgment we have condemned.” This is the heritage-“Our righteousness is of the Lord.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm

What is Your Righteousness?

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

“Your righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” – Isaiah 54:17

What is your righteousness? O, I am as good as my neighbors. Go along with you; you are not my comrade. What is your righteousness? Well, I am rather better than my neighbors, for I go to chapel regularly. Off with you, sir; you do not know the watchword. And you next; what is your righteousness? I have been baptized, and am a member of the church. Yes, and so you may be; and if that is your hope, you are in the gall of bitterness. Now, you next; what is your hope? O, I do all I can, and Christ makes up the rest. Rubbish! You are a Babylonian, you are no Israelite: Christ is no make-weight-away with you. Here comes the last. What is your righteousness? My righteousness is filthy rags, except one righteousness which I have, which Christ wrought out for me on Calvary, imputed to me by God Himself, which makes me pure and spotless as an angel. Ah, brother, you and I are fellow-soldiers: I have found you out; that is the watchword. “Your righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” I do not ask whether you are Churchmen, or whether you are Methodists, or Independents, or Baptists, if you do but know this watchword-“Your righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” I can forgive all those other minor things, if you can sing-

“Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my glorious dress.”

Tell me you have got any other trust, and I will have nothing to do with you. Tell me you can work out your own salvation, and I will not acknowledge you for a brother. But if you tell me that from first to last you rely on Jesus, then I acknowledge you as a fellow-soldier; and I am glad to see you wherever I meet you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm

Lying Tongues We Shall Condemn

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

…and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. – Isaiah 54:17

Where are the various systems of infidelity which have arisen one after another? They are gone quite out of sight. Now and then we felt rather alarmed; because we heard that some great people were going to prove that the Bible was not true, and our creed was not sound. I remember talking with an old man once: “Ah,” said he, “sir, this geology will quite ruin man’s belief in the Bible.” But where is geology now? Instead of opposing the gospel, it furnishes many powerful confirmations of the facts of revelation. Each one of the sciences has, in its imperfect condition, been used as a battering-ram against the truth of God; but as soon as it has been understood it has been made a pillar in Zion’s outworks. Fear not, O son of God, that the perversions of men of science can damage our cause. Lying tongues we shall condemn. O infidelity! abortion of the night! thou hast been condemned a thousand times. Thou art a Protean creature, changing thy shape as ages change. Once thou wast a laughing idiotic plaything for Voltaire; then a bullying blasphemer with Tom Paine; then a cruel, blood-drinking fiend, fit mate for Robespierre; anon, a speculating theorist with Owen; and now a worldly, gross, secularizing thing for impious lecturers and profane admirers. I fear thee not, infidelity; thou art an asp, biting at iron, spending thy spleen, and breaking thy fangs.

My friends, did you ever walk the centuries, and mark the rise and fall of various empires of unbelief? If so, you will seem to be on a battle-field, and you see corpses; you ask the name of the dead, and some one replies, that is the corpse of such a system, and that the carcase of such a theory; and, mark you, as surely as time rolls on, the now rampant style of infidelity will perish, and, in fifty years, we shall see the skeleton of an exploded scheme, and of its admirers the epitaph will be, “Here lies a fool, called of old, a secularist.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm