Sovereignty of God

What is The State of Your Immortal Soul?

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

He sitteth alone and keepeth silence… – Lamentations 3:28

I commend solitude to any of you who are seeking salvation, first, that you may study well your case as in the sight of God. Few men truly know themselves as they really are. Most people have seen themselves in a looking-glass, but there is another looking-glass, which gives true reflections, into which few men look. To study one’s own self in the light of God’s Word, and carefully to go over one’s condition, examining both the inward and the outward sins, and using all the tests which are given us in the Scriptures, would be a very healthy exercise; but how very few care to go through it! Yet, beloved friends, if it be a wise thing to look well to your business, how much more ought you to look to the business which concerns your immortal souls! If a true shepherd will not neglect his flocks and his herds, should not a wise man care about his thoughts, his feelings, and his actions? Must it not be a wretched condition not to know whether one is saved or not? I sometimes hear people express surprise if they are asked whether they are saved; yet in what ignorance of your own soul’s state must you be if you have never put that question to yourself, or if, when it is put, you feel inclined to give no answer to it! I press this matter home upon you, and if you would be saved, you must know first that you are lost. If you would seek to be healed, you must first learn that you are sick. It is not possible that you will repent unless you are aware of your sin; it is not likely that you will look to Christ unless you first know what it is for which you are to look to Him. Therefore, I pray you, set apart some season every day, or at least some season as often as you can get it, in which the business of your mind shall be to take your longitude and latitude, that you may know exactly where you are. You may be drifting towards the rocks, and you may be wrecked before you know your danger. I implore you, do not let your ship go at full steam through a fog; but slacken speed a bit, and heave the lead, to see whether you are in deep waters or shallow. I am not asking you to do more than any kind and wise man would advise you to do; do I even ask you more than your own conscience tells you is right? Sit alone a while, that you may carefully consider your case. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2468.cfm

The Humbled Soul

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

“He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because He hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.”-Lamentations 3:28, 29.

The prophet describes the conduct of a person in deep anguish of heart. When he does not know what to do, his soul, as if by instinct, humbles itself. He gets into some secret place, he utters no speech, he gives himself over to moaning and to tears, and then he bows himself lower and yet lower before the Divine Majesty, as if he felt that the only hope for him in the extremity of his sorrow was to make complete submission to God, and to lie in the very dust before Him.

It seems to me that such conduct as this, which is characteristic of every truly gracious man in his hour of trouble, should also be the mark of all who are seeking God’s grace, those who are not yet saved, but who are conscious of their need of salvation. I must, surely, be speaking right into the heart of some who are feeling the crushing weight and heavy burden of their guilt. If you cannot do anything else, dear friends, do what these two verses say, in order that, afterwards, you may be able to take that grand gospel step of faith in Jesus Christ which will certainly bring you into peace and joy.

Those of you who have the Revised Version will notice a correction which has been made long ago by all competent scholars:-“Let him sit alone and keep silence, because He hath laid it upon him. Let him put his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.” It does not matter which way you read the passage, because the conduct of one gracious man is virtually a precept to another; yet it is satisfactory to find that, if we are under the burden of sin, we are here commanded to do as the prophet did in his time of need. ~ C.H.Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2468.cfm

The Sweet Perfume

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

…his smell as Lebanon. – Hosea 14:6

Alas for the beautiful Christians we have in some of our places of worship on Sunday! Glorious Christians! Oh! if they could be packed up and sent to heaven just as they are, or provided their appearances were true indications of their state, what a blessed thing it would be!

Did you ever know a flower at all concerned about its odour, or about what people would think of it? Did you ever hear a rose have a law-suit with a thorn, because the thorn said the rose did not smell sweetly? No certainly not. The rose went silently on, casting up its perfume, and left Mr. Thorn alone. Now, at times, with all ministers and with all Christians, there will be all manner of reports and hard sayings; but I have found a great gain by letting the fellows alone. When they are tired, they will have done, I dare say; and I am sure they will not much hurt us. If there be anything amiss in us, we are much obliged to them, and we will try and mend it; but if they have lied about us it is a satisfaction to us, as far as we are concerned, to know that they are liars, and we pray God that they may not have a portion in “the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.” Beloved, you never need be very much concerned what men shall say of your character; only take care that in the midst of reproach you are without guile or guilt. Live, live, live! That is the way to beat all slanderers and all calumniators. Keep straight on with what you think is right, and in due time your light shall burst forth as the morning, and your brightness as the sun in his strength. “His beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.” Wherever the Christian goes he will cast a perfume about him; and when he is gone he will leave some savor behind which will be remembered.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0342.cfm

The Work of Grace

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

I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. – Hosea 14:5

When did the dew tell us that it was about to fall? Who ever heard the footsteps of the dew coming down upon the meadow grass? Who ever knew when it was descending? We see it when it has fallen; but who saw it come? And so with Christianity: it is very often imperceptible in its operations. True it is sometimes like the rattling hail, pelting on the windows: the sinner knows when it comes by stormy convictions, and by troubled feelings within, but quite as often the work of grace in man’s heart is like the “still small voice,” which few hear, and of which even the man himself is partially unconscious, not as to its operation perhaps, but as to its nature, feeling that there is a something in his heart, though not positively sure that it really comes from God. Christian! despise not spiritual things, because thou hearest not a sound therewith. Much that God doeth, He doeth in silence. There is a plant which bursts with the sound of a trumpet; but full many a flower called beautiful, openeth in silence, and no man heareth the sound thereof. There be some Christians who seem bound to make a noise in the world, they were made for that purpose; but there be far more who have to blush unseen whose glory it is not to “waste their sweetness,” though to perfume “the desert air,” and to make it sing and blossom like the garden of the Lord. Beloved, you may perhaps fancy that you have not grace, because it has not come upon you in terrible excitements and in awful convictions. I beseech you, do not distrust the power of grace, because it has stolen imperceptibly into your hearts. Mark the promise: “I will be as the dew unto Israel.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0342.cfm

For My Praise and Glory

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

…I will help thee… – Isaiah 41:14

And now, just take the last word-“I will help thee.” Lay the stress there. “Fear not, thou worm Jacob; I will help thee.” If I let the stars fall, I will help thee; if I let all nature run to rack and ruin, I will help thee. If I permit the teeth of time to devour the solid pillars upon which the earth doth stand, yet I will help thee. I have made a covenant with the earth, “that seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, shall never cease;” but that covenant, though true, is not so great as the covenant that I have made concerning thee. And if I keep my covenant with the earth, I will certainly keep My covenant with My Son. “Fear not; I will help thee.” Yes, thee! Thou sayest, “I am too little for help;” but I will help thee, to magnify My power; thou sayest, “I am too vile to be helped,” but I will help thee to manifest My grace. Thou sayest, “I have been ungrateful for former help;” but I will help thee to manifest My faithfulness. Thou sayest, “But I shall still rebel, I shall still turn aside.” “I will help thee,” to show forth My long suffering: let it be known, “I will help thee.”

Now just conceive my Master on His cross bleeding there, looking down on you and on me. Picture Him, whilst His voice falters with love and misery conjoined; and hear Him. He has just now spoken to the thief, and He has said to him, “To-day, shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” And after He has said that, He catches a sight of you and of me, poor and depressed, and He says, “Fear not, worm Jacob; I will help thee; I helped the thief-I will help thee. I promised him that he should be with Me in paradise; I may well promise thee that thou shalt be helped. I will help thee.” O Master! may Thy love that prompts Thee thus to speak, prompt us to believe Thee.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0157.cfm

He Will Help Thee

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

…I will help thee, saith the LORD…

“I will help thee. That is very little for Me to do, to help thee. Consider what I have done already. What! not help thee? Why, I bought thee with My blood. What! not help thee? I have died for thee; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help thee, My beloved! It is the least thing I will ever do for thee. I have done more, and I will do more. Before the day-star first began to shine I chose thee. ‘I will help thee.’ I made the covenant for thee, and exercised all the wisdom of My eternal mind in the scheming of the plan of salvation. ‘I will help thee.’ I became a man for thee; I doffed My diadem, and laid aside My robe; I laid the purple of the universe aside to become a man for thee. If I did this, I will help thee. I gave my life, My soul, for thee; I slumbered in the grave, I descended into Hades, all for thee; I will help thee. It will cost Me nothing. Redeeming thee cost Me much, but I have all and abound. In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have bought for thee already. It is no new thing. I can do it easily. Help thee? Thou needst never fear that. If thou needest a thousand times as much help as thou dost need, I would give it thee; but it is little that thou dost require compared with what I have to give. ‘Tis great for thee to need, but it is nothing for Me to bestow. Help thee? Fear not. If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art nothing but a tiny insect at the door of My all-sufficiency. All that thou couldst ever eat, all that thou couldst ever take, if thou wert to take on to all eternity, would no more diminish My all-sufficiency, than the drinking of the fish would diminish the sea. No; I will help thee. If I have died for thee, I will not leave thee.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0157.cfm

The Sweetest Words in the Bible

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

…I will… – Isaiah 41:14

Oh, the “wills” and the “shalls:” they are the sweetest words in the Bible. “I will help thee.” When God says “I will,” there is something in it, brethren. The will of God started worlds into existence; the will of God made nature leap from chaos; the will of God sustains all worlds, “bears the earth’s huge pillars up,” and establishes creation. It is God’s “I will.” He lets the world live; they live on the “will” of God; and if He willed that they should die, they must sink as the bubble into the breaker, when its moment has arrived. And if the “will” of God is so strong as that, may we not lay a great stress upon it here-“I will help thee? There is no doubt about it. I do not say I may help thee peradventure. No; I will. I do not say that possibly I may be persuaded to help thee. No; I voluntarily will to help thee. ‘I will help thee.’ I do not say that, in any probability, ninety-nine chances out of a hundred, it is likely I may help thee. No; but without allowing any peradventure, or so much as a jot or tittle of hap or hazard, I will.” Now, is there not strength in that? Indeed, my brethren, this is enough to cheer any man’s spirit, however much he may be cast down, if God the Holy Spirit does but breathe upon the text, and let its spices flow abroad into our poor souls, “Fear not, I will help thee.”

And now ought not we who love the Saviour let our eyes run with tears, and say, “O Thou blest Redeemer! Thou needst not tell us Thou wilt help us, for we know Thou wilt. Oh do not suppose that we doubt Thee so much as to want to be told of it again; we know Thou will help us; we are sure of it; Thy former love, Thine ancient love, the love of Thine espousals, Thy deeds of kindness, Thine everlasting drawings, all these declare that Thou never canst forsake us.” No, no; “I will help thee.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0157.cfm