salvation

Innumerable Blessings

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

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. – Psalm 16:11

The fact of God being in the camp cannot be hidden, for in a delightful way it distills joy into worship. The saints enjoy fellowship with one another; and when Christian people meet each other, and God is in the camp, they have many a happy word to exchange concerning their Master. 

When God comes into the camp, those who are troubled and tried begin to wipe away the tears of sorrow, and feel strengthened to bear their burdens; or, better still, they cast their care on Him who is so manifestly near. Our hearts are also cheered by seeing anxious sinners turn their eyes towards the cross of Christ. Then Jesus reveals His love to them, and they perceive it; they fly into His arms and find salvation there. Oh, what joyful times we have had of late in talking with many who have yielded themselves to Christ, and taken Him to be all their salvation, and all their desire! May God stay in the camp with us till every sinner that comes within our ranks, and many also who are outside, shall come to Jesus, and be saved!

When God is in the camp, His presence infuses daring faith. Feeble men begin to grow vigorous, young men dream dreams and old men see visions. Many begin to plot and plan something for Jesus which, in their timid days, they would never have thought of attempting. Others reach a height of consecration that seems to verge on imprudence. Alabaster boxes get broken, and the precious ointment is poured out upon the Master’s head, even though Judas shakes His money-bag, and cries, “To what purpose is this waste?”…Because God is in the camp, many take up the work which at first only the truly brave believer dared to try. ..I cannot tell you what innumerable blessings come to the camp of the spiritual Israel when God is there. I hope that we know a little of this even now; and I am sure we want to know a great deal more of it.

Is God in the Camp? by C. H. Spurgeon

When God Comes into the Camp

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. – Psalm 16:11

Whoever preaches the gospel, when God has come into the camp, speaks with power. He may have little eloquence, and less learning; but if God is with him, and if his heart is all aglow with divine love, he will speak with power, and the people will say, “Surely, God is in this place, and we know it.”

When God comes into the camp, new life is put into prayer. Instead of the repetition of holy phrases in a cold, feeble, lifeless fashion, the soul empties itself out before the Lord, like water flowing from a fountain; and men and women cry mightily unto Him, laying hold upon the horns of the altar; and they come away with both hands full of heaven’s own blessing, for they have prevailed with God in mighty wrestling.

By the presence of God in the camp fresh energy is thrown into service...He shakes men up and awakens the slumberers from their dreams! What a quickening, what a vivifying, the presence of God gives!..When the Lord comes to us with power, He makes us alive all over; every part of the man is quickened with a divine energy; then men really work for Jesus, and work successfully, too.

When God comes into the camp, His presence convinces unbelievers. Sinners turn to the Lord on the right hand, and on the left, in so marvellous a way that our weak faith is often quite astonished. The last persons in the world that we expected to be converted, come to our services, and there find Christ. When God comes into the camp, the Holy Ghost convinces men “of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment;” the arrows of conviction fly fast and far and pierce the hearts of the foemen of the King, and the slain of the Lord are many.

Is God in the Camp? by C. H. Spurgeon

Except a Man be Born Again

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit

And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again…God has come into the camp. – 1 Samuel 4:5,7

We fall into the same blunder that the Israelites and the Philistines made when we consider orthodoxy to be salvation. We have secured much that is worth keeping when we have, intellectually and intelligently, laid hold on that divinely revealed truth, “the gospel of the grace of God”; but we have not obtained everything even then. O sirs, if it were possible for you to believe every word of Christ’s teaching, if it were possible to hold with only an intellectual faith the teaching of the apostles, rejecting all besides, and to hold it with an accuracy so great that in no jot or tittle you had made a mistake, it would profit you nothing; for “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He may understand these things so as to be a theologian, but he must have them wrought into his soul by the Holy Ghost so as to make him a saint, or else he has not really understood them at all. Unless these are thy meat and thy drink, they are nothing to thee; unless thou findest Christ in them, thou wilt find in them thy ruin, they shall be the “savor of death” unto thee. Remember, it was a beautiful tomb in which the dead Christ was laid; but He left it, and there was nothing there but grave-clothes after He had gone; and, in like manner, the best-constructed system of theology, if it has not Christ in it, and if he who holds it be not himself spiritually alive, it is nothing more than a tomb in which are trappings for the dead. It is nothing better than a gilded ark, without the presence of God; and although you may shout, and say, “God is come into the camp,” it will not be so.

Thus, like the Israelites, we may shout as we see the ark of the covenant, although our sins have driven the Lord far from us; or, like the Philistines, we may say, “God has come into the camp,” and yet He may not be there at all in the sense in which they meant…Though what the Philistines said, and what the Israelites thought, on this occasion, was false, it is often true that God does come to the camp of His people, and His presence is the great power of His Church. O Brethren, what joy comes to us at such a time!

Is God in the Camp? by C. H. Spurgeon

Newer is Not Truer

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit

And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. – 1 Samuel 4:7

“The Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! For there hath not been such a thing heretofore.” The Israelites probably made the same mistake, fixing their hope on this new method of fighting the Philistines, which they hoped would bring them victory. We are all so apt to think that the new plan of going to work will be much more effective than those that have become familiar; but it is not so. It is generally a mistake to exchange old lamps for new. “There hath not been such a thing heretofore.” There is a glamour about the novelty which misleads us and we are liable to think the newer is the truer. If there has not been such a thing heretofore, some people will take to it at once for that very reason. “Oh,” says the man who is given up to change, “that is the thing for me!” But it is probably not the thing for a true-hearted and intelligent Christian, for if, “there hath not been such a thing heretofore,” it is difficult to explain, if the thing be a good one, why the Holy Ghost, who has been with the people of God since Pentecost, and who came to lead us into all truth, has not led the Church of God to this before. If your new discovery is the mind of God, where has the Holy Scriptures been all these centuries? Believing in the infallible Word and the abiding Spirit, I rather suspect your novelty; at least I cannot say that I endorse it until I have tested it by the Word of God. Philistines may like a thing that has not been heretofore; but we like the thing that has been since the days of Pentecost, the things that come from Him who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever”: the workings of that God who changes not, “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Let Him work His blessed will; and if He chooses to send a new thing on the earth, we will glorify His name; but because there are new things in the world, we will not ascribe them to Him for they may come from quite another quarter. We remember that “Lo, here is Christ, or there!” was the cry against which our Lord warned His disciples. Concerning such a cry the Saviour said, “Believe it not.”

Is God in the Camp? by C. H. Spurgeon

Superstitious Reverence

Sherry Christian Life, prayer, salvation, Sovereignty of God

So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. – 1 Samuel 4:4

These Israelites…preferred office to character. In their distress, instead of calling upon God, they sent for Hophni and Phinehas. Why did their hearts turn to them? Simply because they were priests, and the people had come to hold the sacred office in such superstitious reverence that they thought that was everything. But these young men were sinners against the Lord exceedingly; they were not even moral men; much less were they spiritual men. They made the house of God to be abhorred and dishonored the Lord before all Israel. Yet, because they happened to hold the office of the priesthood, they were put in the place of God. Dear friends, this is a kind of feeling which many indulge. They think they shall be saved if they have a Levite for their priest. They imagine that the worship of God must be conducted properly, because the man who conducts it is in the apostolic succession, and has been duly ordained. You shall see a man eminent for the holiness of his life, for the disinterestedness of his character, for the fidelity of his preaching, for his power in prayer, for the blessing that rests upon his ministry in the conversion of sinners; but he is counted a mere nobody, because he lacks the superstitious qualification which deluded men think is so necessary.

Now, God forbid that we should say a word against the house of Aaron, or against any who speak the name of the Lord, whom God has truly called unto His work! But, beloved, this work is not a mere matter of pedigree; it is a question of the abiding presence of God with man and in a man. Unless God be with the minister whom you hear, to what purpose do you listen? If the leader of the church be not one who walks with God, where will he lead you? “If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” The blind man may wear a badge on his arm to show that he is a certified guide; but will you be saved from the ditch simply because he belongs to the order of guides, and has his certification with him? Be not led away by any such vain notion. Yet this is the error into which many have fallen in all ages of the Church.

Is God in the Camp? by C. H. Spurgeon

This Must Be Done

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit

The LORD’S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see Thy name: hear ye the rod, and Who hath appointed it. – Micah 6:9

Israel was out of gear with God. The people had forgotten the Most High and had gone aside to the worship of Baal. They had neglected the things of God; therefore, they were given up to their enemies. When Jehovah had brought them out of Egypt, He instructed them how they were to live in the land to which He would bring them, and warned them that if they forsook Him, they would be chastened. His words were very plain: “If ye will not for all this hearken unto Me but walk contrary unto Me, then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury, and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.” In fulfillment of this threatening, the Philistines had been divinely permitted to make great havoc of the idolatrous Israelites, and to hold them in cruel slavery.

The only way for them to get out of their trouble was to return to God, who, by His judgments, seemed to say, “Hear ye the rod, and Who hath appointed it.” The only cure for their hurt was to go back with repentance and renew their faith and their covenant with God. Then all would have been right. But this is the last thing that men will do. Our minds, by nature, love not spiritual things. We will attend to any outward duty, or to any external rite; but to bring our hearts into subjection to the divine will, to bow our minds to the Most High, and to serve the Lord our God with all our heart, and all our soul, the natural man abhors. Yet nothing less than this will suffice to turn our captivity.

Instead of attempting to get right with God, these Israelites set about devising superstitious means of securing the victory over their foes. In this respect most of us have imitated them. We think of a thousand inventions; but we neglect the one thing needful…Get right with God; confess thy sin; believe in Jesus Christ, the appointed Saviour; be reconciled to God by the death of His Son; then all will be right between thee and the Father in heaven. We cannot bring men to this, apart from the Spirit of God.

Is God in the Camp? by C. H. Spurgeon

Sinner, Trust the Saviour Now

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

Then (the thief) said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” – Luke 23:42,43

For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. – 2 Corinthians 6:2

Just now, the wisdom of man is (the gospel’s) worst foe, but the Lord will deliver it now. The gospel lives and reigns. Tell it out among the heathen, that the Lord reigneth from the tree, and from that tree of the curse He issues His supreme commands. The self-same day in which Jesus died, He took with Him into His kingdom and His inmost paradise a thief who had hung at His side. He liveth and reigneth for ever and ever, and calleth to Himself whomsoever He hath chosen. Let us drown the taunts of the adversary with our shouts of Hallelujah! The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah. Amen!

Dear friends, who have never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ before, how I wish you could try Him now! You feel full of sin, and full of need. Come, then, and trust the Saviour now. See whether He will not save you now. Is there one day in the year in which Jesus cannot save a sinner? Come and see whether the 17th of June is that day. Try whether He will not deliver you now from the guilt, the penalty, the power of sin. Why not come? …Oh, that the Saviour may find you! Jesus Christ is a Saviour every day, all the year round. Whoever cometh to Him shall find eternal life now. “Oh,” you say, “I am in such an unfit state; I am in all the deshabille of my carelessness and godlessness.” Come along, man, come along, just as you are. Tarry not for improvement or arrangement, for both of these Jesus will give you; come and put your trust in the great Sacrifice for sin, and He will deliver you-deliver you now. Lord, save the sinner, now! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now