Sovereignty of God

Convicted

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day, and night Thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. -Psalm 32:3-4

 David here describes a very common experience amongst convinced sinners. He was subjected to extreme terrors and pangs of conscience. These terrors were continual; they scared him at night with visions, they terrified him all day with dark and gloomy forebodings….His pain was so extreme, that when he resorted to prayer he could scarcely utter an articulate word. There were groanings that could not be uttered within his spirit; and hence he calls his prayer a “roaring all the day long.” Wherever he was, his spirit seemed to be always sighing, sending a full torrent of melancholy groans upwards towards God.  So far did this groaning proceed, that at last his bodily frame began to show evidences of it. He grew old, and that not merely in the lines of the countenance and the falling in of the cheeks, but his very bones seemed as if they partook of the suffering…here was a man who did not show merely externally, but even internally, the heavy pressure of grief, on account of sin…So intimate is the connection between the body and the soul, that when the soul suffers extremely, the body must be called to endure its part of grief…We gather from what David says in this Psalm, and indeed in all these seven penitential Psalms, that his convictions on account of his sin with Bathsheba, and his subsequent murder of Uriah, were of the deepest and most poignant character, and that the terrors he experienced were indescribable, filling his soul with horror and dismay.

…Remember, sinner, it is God that is dealing with you; when you lay dead in your sins He looked on you, and now He has begun not only to look, but to smite; He is now wounding you with the design of afterwards making you whole; He is killing you that He may afterwards make you spiritually alive. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0313.cfm

 

It Is A Settled Matter with God

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

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord – Hebrews 12:14

“Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord;” that is to say, no man can have communion with God in this life, and no man can have enjoyment with God in the life to come, without holiness. “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” If thou goest with Belial, dost thou think that Christ will go. with thee? Will Christ be a companion for thee? Dost thou expect to take the Lord of love and mercy with thee to the haunts of sin? Professor, dost thou think the just and holy One will stand at thy counter to be co-trader with thee in thy tricks? What thinkest thou, O man! wouldst thou make Christ a sharer of thy guilt? and yet He would be so if He had fellowship with thee in it. Nay, if thou wilt go on in acts of unrighteousness and unholiness, Christ parts company with thee, or, rather, thou never didst have any fellowship with Him. Thou hast gone out from us because thou wert not of us; for, if thou hadst been of us, doubtless thou wouldst have continued with us. And as to heaven, dost thou think to go there with thine unholiness? God smote an angel down from heaven for sin, and will He let man in with sin in His right hand? God would sooner extinguish heaven than see sin despoil it. It is enough for Him to bear with thine hypocrisies on earth; shall He have them flung in His own face in heaven? What, shall an unholy life utter its licentiousness in the golden streets? Shall there be sin in that higher and better paradise? No, no; God has sworn by His holiness-and He will not, He cannot lie, -that those who are not holy, whom His Spirit has not renewed, who have not been, by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, made to love that which is good, and hate that which is evil, shall never stand in the congregation of the righteous. Sinner, it is a settled matter with God that no man shall see Him without holiness. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2902.cfm

Pure and Spotless Let Us Be

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

I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. – Psalm 101:3

There are many things, in this world, that would be execrated if it were not that Christian men go to them, and the ungodly men say, “Well, if it is not righteous, there is not much harm in it, after all; it is innocent enough if we keep within bounds.” Mind! mind! mind, professor, if thine heart begins to suck in the sweets of another man’s sin, it is unsound in the sight. of God; if thou canst even wink at another man’s lust, depend upon it that thou wilt soon shut thine eye on thine own, for we are always more severe with other men than we are’ with ourselves. There must be an absence of the vital principle of godliness when we can become partakers of other men’s sins by applauding or joining with them in the approval of them. Let us examine ourselves scrupulously, then, whether we be among those who have no evidences of that holiness without which no man can see God. But, beloved, we hope better things of you, and things which accompany salvation. If you and I, as in the sight of God, feel that we would be holy if we could, that there is not a sin we wish to spare, that we would be like Jesus, -O that we could !-that we would sooner suffer affliction than ever run into sin, and displease our God; if our heart be really right in God’s statutes, then, despite all the imperfections we bemoan, we have holiness, wherein we may rejoice, and we pray to our gracious God,-

“Finish, then, Thy new creation,
Pure and spotless let us be.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2902.cfm

Heart-work Carried Out Into Life-work

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

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. -Hebrews 12:28

Sirs, you may say what you will about what you dream you have felt, you may write what you please about what you fancy you have experienced; but if your own outward life be unjust, unholy, ungenerous, and unloving, you shall find no credit among us as to your being in Christ: “Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.” The moment you know a man who is drunk on a Saturday night, and then enjoys So-and-so’s preaching on a Sunday; the moment you know a man who can tell you what a child of God should be, and then appears himself exactly what he should not be, just quit his company, and let him go to his own place, and where that is, Judas can tell you. Oh, beware of such high-fliers, with their waxen wings, mounting up to the very sun,-how great shall be their fall when He that searches all hearts shall open the book, and say, “I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink. Inasmuch as ye did it not. to one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it not to Me.”

Heart-work, carried out afterwards into life-work,-this is what the Lord wants. You may perish as well with true doctrines as with false, if you pervert the true doctrine into licentiousness. You may to go to hell by the cross as surely as you may by the theatre, or by the vilest of sin. You may perish with the name of Jesus on you lips, and with a sound creed sealed on your very bosom, for “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2902.cfm

Pursue Holiness

Sherry Christian Life, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord – Hebrews 12:14

There has been a desperate attempt made by certain Antinomians to get rid of the injunction which the Holy Spirit here means to enforce. They have said that this is the imputed holiness of Christ. Do they not know, when they so speak, that, by an open perversion, they utter that which is false? I do not suppose that any man in his senses can apply that interpretation to the context, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness.” Now, the holiness meant is evidently one that can be followed like peace; and it must be transparent to any ingenuous man that it is something which is the act and duty of the person who follows it. We are to follow peace; this is practical peace, not the peace made for us, but “the fruit of righteousness which is sown in peace of them that make peace.” We are to follow holiness,-this must be practical holiness; the opposite of impurity, as it is written, “God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.” The holiness of Christ is not a thing to follow; I mean, if we look at it imputatively. That we have at once; it is given to us the moment we believe. The righteousness of Christ is not to be followed; it is bestowed upon the soul in the instant when it lays hold of Christ Jesus. This is another kind of holiness. It is, in fact, as every one can see who chooses to read the connection, practical, vital holiness which is the purport of this admonition. It is conformity to the will of God, and obedience to the Lord’s command. It is, in fine, the Spirit’s work in the soul, by which a man is made like God, and becomes a partaker of the divine nature, being delivered from the corruption which is in the world through lust. No straining, no hacking at the text can alter it. There it stands, whether men like it or not… and it means no other than what it says: “Without holiness,”-practical, personal, active, vital holiness,-“no man shall see the Lord.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2902.cfm

Your Good Works Before Men

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

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. – Matthew 5:16

It is by such works that the mouths of gainsayers are to be stopped. One holy action is a better argument against blasphemers than a thousand eloquent discourses. You are our replies to sceptics-you who having been rescued from sin maintain a life of holiness. When they see the men that are healed, standing with Peter and John, they can say nothing against them. Oh, by your works confound gainsayers! These works, too, bring glory to God. “That they, seeing your good works may glorify your Father which is in heaven.” And these works also ensure peace to your own conscience, and have much to do with your close communion with God. “How can two walk together except they be agreed?” If ye walk contrary to Him He will walk contrary to you. Your sins will separate between you and your God, but the Holy Spirit, where He maintains holiness, maintains peace and communion in the soul. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” “If ye keep My commandments,” saith the Savior, “Ye shall abide in My love”-you shall abide in the conscious fellowship of that love, and in the enjoyment of it. May God help you, may God help you, for His name’s sake.

(Look ye here, ye who say you believe in Christ and are living in sin: what does this make of your boastings? Look you here, ye that say “I have only to believe by-and-by, and I may live as I like, and yet be saved.” Is it so? Is it so? “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where will the ungodly and the wicked appear?” …The salvation of Christ is not a salvation in sin, but a salvation from sin.) ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1029.cfm

Bring Forth the Fruits of Grace

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 9 Comments

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. -2 Corinthians 5:10

Did I hear one say, “I will avoid sin by being very retired; I will find out a quiet place where I shall not be tempted, and where I shall have few calls upon me.” Pretty soldier you who when your Captain says, “Win the victory,” reply, “I will keep clear of the fight.” No, Christian, go about your trade, go into the busy mart, attend to your business, attend to your family, attend to those matters which God has allotted to you, and glorify God in the battle of life by doing more than others. Will God enable you so to do.

(B)y our fruits we are to be known. Men will never know us by our faith, for that is within us; they know us by our works, which are visible to them. Bring forth, therefore, the fruits of grace that the world may know you have been with Jesus. Remember also that works are to be evidence at the last. It is consistent with the gospel of grace, no doubt, for it is a truth clearly revealed, that we shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or whether they be evil; and you know that when the Lord gives us the description of the judgment, He did not say to His disciples, “Ye believed in Me,” or “Ye loved Me”-these were secret matters-but He said, “I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was sick and in prison, and ye visited Me.” It is by your works ye will be judged. O believers, may grace enable you to abound in them. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1029.cfm