Sovereignty of God

Turn and Live

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live… – Ezekiel 33:11

This will be at once evident to you when I ask: How would it be consistent with the holiness of God for Him to put aside our past sin, and then to allow us to go on sinning as we did before? How could He be thought to be just and pure if He should remit the punishment for past transgressions, without seeing in us any determination to abstain from such sin in the future? Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, but He never came here to spare their sins. God would never have sent His Son to this earth to be the messenger of sin, yet Christ would be nothing better than the messenger of sin if He had come, and said to men, “You may continue in your sin, yet I will forgive you. You may live as you like, yet you shall find mercy with the Lord at the last.” It must strike you, in a moment, that such a course as this would be inconsistent with the character of the Judge of all the earth, who must do right. There is no such teaching as that in the whole of the Scriptures; and he who dares to believe it, believes a lie. Nowhere, in the whole compass of revelation, is there a promise of forgiveness to the man who continues in his iniquity. There is a promise of pardon to the sinner who forsakes his wicked way, and turns from his evil thoughts; there are many promises of forgiveness to those who confess their sins in humble penitence, and who seek to live new lives under the power of the Holy Spirit.

“Ye must be born again,” is Christ’s own word to all unregenerate sinners. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” There has never been any revocation of these truths, and again I repeat that, in the whole compass of the Word of God, there is no promise of pardon to the man who continues in his iniquities. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2797.cfm

A Gospel Demand

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

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”- Isaiah 55:7

This is not merely legal demand; it is a gospel demand, found in the centre of a gospel chapter in the writings of the most evangelical of all the prophets. The chapter begins with a number of gracious and wide invitations, and so naturally leads on to the promise of the coming Saviour. Only God Himself could find a Saviour for our ruined race, and none but God’s own Son could be that Saviour. Then there follows, in due order, the promise of a people to be saved. The Savour shall not come to the earth in vain. He shall call a people unto Himself, and “nations” shall run unto Him. Then, following the promise of a Saviour, and the declaration of the certainty that many shall be saved by Him, there comes in this loving invitation, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.” Since He is to have a people who shall be His for ever, put in your claim to be amongst them; and since, as a Saviour, He is near to you, call upon Him, and He will hear your call.

Here we are told, first, that the wicked must forsake his way. There is no Saviour for the man who will not forsake his sin. Such a man can never be among the people who shall run to Christ, for how can he run to Christ while he continues in the way of sin? Such a man shall seek sin, he cannot embrace the Saviour who hates sin with a perfect hatred… “For who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” May the Master bless His own searching word, and He shall have all the praise.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2797.cfm

 

 

Our God Forgives Us All

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 7 Comments

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace… – Ephesians 1:7

If Thou wantest a platform on which to erect a monument of infinite grace, that men shall stand and wonder, and angels shall gaze on it with astonishment, Lord, here am I. If Thou wantest emptiness, here is one who is all emptiness. If Thou as the good physician wantest a bad case, a glaring case, a desperate case, to operate on, Thou wilt never have a worse case than mine. O God, turn aside and have pity upon me, and show Thy mighty power.” This is the way to plead. Not your merits-they will never get a hearing, but your misery, your sin, your guiltiness before God-these are the arguments. And then if faith can come in and plead the blood, and say, “Didst Thou not send Thy Son to save sinners?” Has He not said He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance? Is it not written that the Son of Man is come to seek and to save not the good, but that which was lost? Oh! if you can plead the blood in that fashion, you will not fail. His name is the Savior-He came to save His people from their sins. He died for the ungodly, He justifieth the ungodly-the unrighteous He makes righteous through His own merits. If you can plead this, oh, then, you shall not long wait, for though God does not deliver till we cry, yet He does deliver when we cry. “He will deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.” Oh, what a mercy it is when the tide is ebbed right out, and there is nothing left. It will turn now, it will turn now. The streams of grace will turn now. When you are empty, when you are overwhelmed, when you are like a dish wiped out, and there is not anything good left in you-now will God come to you. The darkest part of the night is that which precedes the dawn of the day. When God has killed you, He will make you live. When He has wounded you through and through, He will come to your healing.

May it be so now, for His name’s sake. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm

The Poor Man’s Friend

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 4 Comments

He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in His sight. – Psalm 72:13, 14

There shall always be a gracious limit put to the blows that come from Jehovah’s hand for His own people. Oh, what a mercy to be amongst His poor ones, and to feel that He will spare us; He spared not His own Son, but He will spare us, the poor and needy; He smote Him with the blows of avenging justice, but concerning us it is written, “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but the covenant of My love shall not depart. As I have sworn that the waters shall no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.” He wilt spare His people; He will bring them safely through, and, meanwhile, He will not let the waters be deep enough to overwhelm them.

“He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence.” Redemption belongs to the Lord’s poor people. He bought with a price His poor ones, and as the ransom has all been paid, they belong to Christ, and none shall take them out of His hand. He that redeemed them by price will redeem them by power…”Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word shall never pass away.” He would sooner shake the heavens themselves than suffer one of His children to famish, or utterly to perish, rest assured of that. Oh, what glorious comfort there is in all this! We shall be spared, we shall be redeemed, we shall be delivered, we shall be saved, we shall be revenged and cleared before the judgment-bar of God; and, all because the great King has made the poor and needy the special objects of His love. Oh! my soul revels in this. I cannot speak out the thoughts I feel, much less the joy that arises out of them; but what a mercy it really is, that the great King, the King who rules from the river to the ends of the earth, is the poor man’s friend. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm

Wise Mercy Seeks Out Chief Misery

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

But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. – James 4:6

We see in the poor, and the needy, and the helpless, a reason for God’s grace. They are the persons who are most willing to accept it, for they are the persons who most require it. Your generosity will not stand to be dictated to, but, at the same time, you usually prefer to give to those who want most. Wise mercy seeks out chief misery, and God therefore delights to give His blessings to those who need them most, not to those who fancy they deserve them-they shall have none of them, but those who need them, they shall have all of them.

When a soul is made to feel its own poverty, it does not set itself up in rivalry with Christ; it does not pretend to be able to help itself; it has no disputing about the terms of the gospel. A sinner, when he is thoroughly famished, has such an appetite that he eats such things as God’s mercy sets before him, and he raises no question. A proud Pharisee will say, “I will not submit to this, to be saved by faith alone-I will not have it. To accept mercy as the absolute gift of heaven, irrespective of my character, I cannot endure it.” The high soul of a Pharisee, I say, kicks at it. But when God has brought a man low, till like the publican he cries, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” he is glad to be saved in God’s way, and no matter however humbling the plan of grace, nor how the sinner is debased and Christ exalted, the poor sinner loves to have it so. It is a way suitable to his own wants, a way which he accepts for the very reason that God has adapted it to his position. Hence, if there be reasons they lie here, not in man’s merit but on the Lord’s mercy. The fact that bare misery, when touched and guided by the Spirit of God, makes the soul to open its mouth like the hard chapped soil to drink in the rain, as soon as the rain descends from above, is an argument why grace so commonly flows in this course. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm

When the Chariot of the Eternal Comes

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

“In Me ye shall have peace.” -John 16:33

For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. -Psalm 72:12

The trials of God’s servants are sometimes extremely severe. Not a few are literally as well as spiritually poor. Hunger, privation, and embarrassment haunt their steps. And when you once come to be poor, how often does it happen that you have no helper. In the summer of prosperity your friends and acquaintances are numerous as the leaves of the forest, but in the winter of your losses and distresses, your friends are few indeed; your neighbors stand aloof, your old mates desert you, for like the wind your trials have borne them all away as sere leaves, and you cannot find them.

But, do not think that the Lord has cast you off, because He is thus chastening you with the rod of men; take it as an exercise of your faith, and go to Him and plead this promise, “He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.”

When the chariot of the Eternal comes from above, He bids it roll far downward from the skies; He passes by the towers of haughty kings; He leaves the palaces of princes and the halls of senates, and down to the hovels of cottagers the chariot of His grace descends, for there He sees with joy and delight the objects of His everlasting love. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,” is the word of divine sovereignty, and God makes it true by taking the poor and the needy, and them that have no helper. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm

We Are Needy

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

For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth…He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. – Psalm 72:12,13

We are never a moment without need. We wake up, and our first glance might reveal our needs to us, and when we fall asleep it is upon a poor man’s pillow, for we need that God should preserve us through the night. We have needs when we are on our knees, else where would be the energy of our prayers? We have needs when we try to sing, else how should our uncircumcised lips praise Him aright? We have needs when we are relieving the needs of others, lest we become proud of our alms giving. We have need in preaching, need in hearing; we have need in working, need in suffering, need in resting. What is our life but one long need? All men are full of needs. But God’s peculiar people feel this need-they not only confess it is so, but they know it experimentally. They are full of needs. Once they thought that they were rich and increased in goods, and had need of nothing, but now, through the enlightenment of God’s Spirit, they feel themselves to be naked, and poor, and miserable. Their needs were great before, but they appear now to be incalculable, more in number than the hairs of their heads. They have need of a covering for the sin of the past; they have need of help against the temptation of the present; they have need of perseverance as to the entire future. If there are any people under heaven who could claim the title of “needy,” above all others, it is not the pauper in the workhouse, nor the mendicant who asks alms in the streets, but it is the child of God, for he feels himself to be so dependent that the more he gets from his great Benefactor the more he requires, and the more he must have to satisfy the enlarged desires of a heart that begins to know the will of God concerning us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm