Sovereignty of God

Who Can Defeat God?

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Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? – Jeremiah 15:12

Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. – Revelation 18:20

What power, however like to iron, shall suffice to break the kingdom of Jesus, which is comparable to steel? We every now and then hear the babyish talk of persons who say that the gospel will die out in England—that Romanism will return in all its darkness, gospel light will be extinguished, and the candle which Latimer helped to light will be blown out. Atrocious nonsense, if not partial blasphemy. If this thing were of men it would come to nought; but if it be of God, who shall overthrow it? It has sometimes happened that fear has been the father of the thing it feared: let it not be so in this case; let us not court defeat by anticipating it. As surely as the Lord liveth the end of the Romish Anti-Christ will come, and the long-expected angel shall cry with a loud voice, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.” Other desponding prophets foretell that infidelity will so spread through all the churches and the fabric of society, that at last we shall see this country without a gospel ministry, and perhaps, through the spread of revolutionary principles, bereft of all respect for law and order. We are to go down by way of Paris to the foulness of Sodom, and thence into Pandemonium. Brethren, let those who will believe these evil tidings, I am not greatly moved thereby; for there are eternal principles and immutable decrees which uphold my joyful hopes. Consider for a moment what is involved in these gloomy forebodings. Then the gates of hell are to prevail against the church, are they? Then Christ is to be defeated by anti-Christ, is He? Then the pleasure of the Lord is not to prosper in His hand? Who said that? Who but a lying spirit that would lay low the faith and confidence of the people of God? It is no more possible for the truth of God and the Church of God to be defeated, than for God Himself to be overcome in conflict…Who shall stand against the Lord and prosper? 

The Northern Iron and the Steel by C. H. Spurgeon

What of Nonsuccess?

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

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. – Galatians 6:9

Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? – Jeremiah 15:12

When a man succeeds, he continues to succeed, as a rule; he derives encouragement from what God has already done by him and goes from strength to strength. Probably, however, there is more grace exhibited by the Christian, who, without present success, realises the things not seen as yet, and continues still to work on. To labor is not easy, but to labor and to wait is harder far. It is a grand thing to continue patiently in well doing, confident that in the end the reward is sure.

You know the story of the removal of old St. Paul’s by Sir Christopher Wren. A very massive piece of masonry had to be broken down, and the task, by pick and shovel, would have been a very tedious one, so the great architect prepared a battering-ram for its removal, and a large number of workmen were directed to strike with force against the wall with the ram. After several hours of labor, the wall, to all appearances, stood fast and firm. Their many strokes had been apparently lost, but the architect knew that they were gradually communicating motion to the wall, creating an agitation throughout the whole of it, and that, by-and-by, when they had continued long enough, the entire mass would come down beneath a single stroke. The workmen, no doubt, attributed the result to the one crowning concussion, but their master knew that their previous strokes had only culminated in that one tremendous blow and that all the nonresultant work had been necessary to prepare for the stroke which achieved the purpose. O Christian people, do not expect always to see the full outgrowth of your labors! Go on, serve your God, testify of His truth, tell of Jesus’ love, pray for sinners, live a godly life, serve God with might and main, and if no harvest spring up to your joyous sickle, others shall follow you and reap what you have sown, and since God will be glorified, it shall be enough for you.

The Northern Iron and the Steel by C. H. Spurgeon

No More Sin

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…only the stump of Dagon was left to him. – 1 Samuel 5:4

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

John Bunyan represents Mercy* as laughing in her sleep. She had a dream, she said, and she laughed because of the great favors which were yet to be bestowed upon her. Well, if some of you were to dream, tonight, that the great thing had actually happened to you, that you were completely free from all tendency to sin, would not you, also, be as they that dream and laugh for very joy? Think of it—no more cause for watchfulness, no more need of weeping over the day’s sin before you fall asleep at night! No more sin to confess, no devil to tempt you, no worldly care, no lust, no envy, no depression of spirit, no unbelief—will not this be a very large part of the joy of Heaven?

The Lord has undertaken our perfect sanctification and He will accomplish it! He has brought old Dagon down and broken his head and his hands—and He will break him to shivers before long. Yes, He will take the Ark of the Lord away where Dagon shall never come into contact with it any more. He will take you—the gracious part of you, your truest and best self—away into Glory to abide with Him forever! Think of this and sing!

*from Bunyan’s book, The Pilgrim’s Progress

Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon

The Day is Coming…

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…only the stump of Dagon was left to him. – 1 Samuel 5:4

We carry a bombshell heart about with us—and we had better keep clear of all the devil’s candles lest there should be an explosion of actual sin. These candles are common enough in the form of some plausible but skeptical friend, or in the form of amusements which are questionable. Keep clear of Lucifer’s matches! You have got enough mischief in your heart without going where you will get more!..The stump of Dagon is left. Be careful, watchful, prayerful—and loathe sin with all your soul.”

Here is mercy that though the stump of Dagon was not taken out of the Philistine temple, we may go beyond the history and rejoice that it will be taken from our hearts! The day is coming, Brother, Sister, in which there will be no more inclination in you to sin than there is in an angel! The day is coming in which your nature shall be so established in the Truth of God and righteousness and holiness that all the devils in Hell will not be able to make you think a wrong thought!

“Oh,” says one, “I wish that time would come soon.” It will come, Brother. The Lord will keep you fighting and warring, but there will come a day when a messenger will wait at your door and he will say, “The pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern. Your flesh must return to the dust and your spirit to God that made it.” And then your spirit shall open its eyes with glad surprise and find itself delivered from the body and, at the same time, delivered from all sin!..All its past sin will be washed away—no, is washed away—in the blood of the Lamb! And all its propensities, tendencies and inclinations to sin shall all be gone forever!

 Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon

Fear Your Self

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The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? – Jeremiah 17:9

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. – Ephesians 6:11

It is a good thing to look at your face in a mirror, but your face is not yourself—no mirror can show you yourself. There is a certain temptation which has an affinity to the evil within you and, should Satan bring that temptation near, you will see yourself to your horror and shame! There shall then look out of the window of your countenance a man whom you did not see when you looked in the glass, for you only saw the house he lived in! So ugly is he that he makes the very house he lives in look horrible! When the angry man comes up and is visible to the naked eye, how he deforms the countenance! When obstinate old Adam comes to the window, what a dark forbidding face he wears! When that envious spirit comes up, what an evil glance there is in the eye! When the unbelieving spirit peers through the lattice, what a miserable countenance he shows compared with the face of faith and childlike confidence in God!

There is nobody in this world, dear Brothers and Sisters, that you have so much cause to be afraid of as yourself! Augustine used to pray, “Lord, deliver me from that evil man, myself.” A very appropriate prayer for a woman, too— “Lord, save me from myself.” If you are saved from yourself, you will be saved from the devil—for what can the devil do unless self joins hands with him in unholy league? But, oh, what watchfulness it will need! Here is room for faith, indeed! Faith does not decline the conflict nor puff us up with the notion that the fight is over—on the contrary, it takes to itself the whole armor of God because it sees the battle to be still raging! Faith is needed to be the shield to keep off the fiery darts and the sword with which to smite the foe.

Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon

Yet the Stump of Dagon was Left

Sherry Christian Life, confession of sin, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

…only the stump of Dagon was left to him. – 1 Samuel 5:4

Though the fish-god was thus maimed and broken, yet the stump of Dagon was left. The original Hebrew is, “Only Dagon was left to him,” or, “only the fish”—only the fish part remained. The head and the upper portions were broken away—there remained only the fishtail of Dagon and that was all—but that was not broken. Now, this is the business which brings us so much sorrow—that the stump of Dagon is left. I wish it were not.

I have heard some say that they have no sin remaining in them. Well, dear Brothers and Sisters, may the Lord convert you! I shall say no more than that, for if there were in you enough light for you to perceive your darkness, it were better than to talk as you do. Every child of God who knows anything about himself and the experience of a real Believer, knows that there is indwelling sin in him and that to a most fearful extent, so as to make his very soul cry out in agony, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Can you draw near to God, my Brothers and Sisters, and not see that He can justly charge you with folly? Can you stand in His Presence, as Job did, and behold His Glory, and not say, “I abhor myself in dust and ashes”? Can you have dealings with Perfection and not perceive your faults? Can you come near unto the innermost court of the Temple and stand in that excessive light of fellowship which is the portion of the Lord’s chosen and not see within yourself spots and wrinkles, yes, thousands of them, so as to make you cover your face for shame and adore the amazing Grace which loves you still?

Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon

The Reigning Power of Sin is Destroyed

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

Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him. – 1 Samuel 5:4

The hands of Dagon were broken off and even thus the active power, the working power of sin is taken away. Both the palms of the idols’ hands were cut off upon the threshold, so that he had not a hand left. Neither right-handed sin nor left-handed sin shall remain in the Believer when God’s sanctifying Grace fetches Dagon down! The secret reigning power is broken and so is the manifest working power. The Christian is kept from putting forth his hand into iniquity. He is crucified with Christ and so both hands are nailed to the Cross and fastened up from performing those deeds of ill towards which the lusts of the flesh would urge him! This happened, too, if you notice, very speedily, for we are told, a second time, that when they arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face.

It does not take Grace long, when it is once in the soul, to overturn the reigning power and the active energy of sin, even when these, for a while, appear to get the upper hand. Brothers and Sisters, I hope you know this. I hope that the Spirit of God, which is in you, and the love of Christ, which reigns in you, have destroyed the power which sin once had in your souls. If it is not so, then question yourselves whether the Spirit of God is in you at all! It is not possible that the Ark should be in the temple and that Dagon should be standing there unbroken! Not till the morrow morning shall evil remain unchallenged and unmoved upon the throne!

Dagon’s Ups and Downs by C. H. Spurgeon