Sovereignty of God

Go and Serve Me!

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

Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field… – Song of Solomon 7:11

In the text the spouse speaks of “my beloved” as of a real person, whom she sees, upon whom she leans, and with whom she talks. Christ Jesus is to His Church no fiction, no myth, no imaginary hero…Now a Church will always be strong when the Lord Jesus is real to her! By this, indeed, may her power be estimated. Jesus must be to us no historical Person who was once on earth but is now dead and powerless—He must be an actual Person living still in our midst. Imagine, my Brothers and Sisters, with what enthusiasm the present audience would be stirred if I should retire and in my place there should come forward the very Christ who was nailed to the Cross of Calvary! You would know Him by His hands and His feet—the sacred marks of His passion. Oh, how the sight of Him would stir your souls! You would be bowing your heads in adoration and grudging the closing of your eyes even for a second in prayer, for you would desire, without a pause, to drink in the blessed vision! And if the Crucified One should stand here, and say, “My brethren, My blood-bought Ones for whom I laid down My life, there is yet much to be done to extend My kingdom. There are precious souls, brothers and sisters of yours who know not My name, who must be brought in. There are ignorant ones to be taught and sinful ones to be restored.” And suppose He should then point with His hand to one of you, and say, “I send you there,” and to another, “I send you there.” Why you would feel at once anointed to the appointed work and go forth to do it with much earnestness, carefulness and joy! …Jesus walks among the golden candlesticks and is in His Church now, saying to every one of His people, “Go and serve Me! Seek My blood-bought ones! Help My feeble ones! Feed My sheep and My lambs!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1066.cfm

Are We Like a Joseph?

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

He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds…The LORD lifteth up the meek… – Psalm 147:2,3,6

Our Lord Jesus gathered together some of the very poorest and most despised among men—those who might, under some respects, be regarded as outcasts. And it is certain that, to this day, the Gospel comes in the largest measure of power to the poor of this world. Often, too, it comes with amazing power to those who are despised by others or are regarded as being of inferior degree…Suppose it to be so—that none but foolish people embrace the old-fashioned faith—Puritanism which, they say, is nearly dead—the old evangelism which they ridicule as being exploded. Let it be so, that we are an inferior order of people with very little brains and all that. Well, we are not out of heart on that account, because we find that it so happened in our Savior’s day and has happened all days since—that the wisdom of the world has been at enmity with God.

And it has also flamed out that the foolishness of God has been wiser than men and God has mastered human wisdom by the foolishness of preaching! By that Gospel which wise men laughed at as being folly, God has brought carnal wisdom to nothing! …They may regard those who still stand by the old-fashioned Truth of God as being outcasts from the commonwealth of letters and not worthy to be named among the cultured intellects of the age, but if the Lord will but gather us continually to His bosom and refresh us with Himself, we shall be content! The text should be a source of joy to us if any of us happen to be extremely poor—so poor that even Christian men are so ungenerous as to give us the cold shoulder, or if we happen to be the despised ones of our family. Here and there, sad to say it, there will be in families a better one than the rest, less thought of than the others—a Joseph whom his brothers hate because he loves his God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

Christ Makes the Dead to Live!

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

He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. – Psalm 147:2

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. – John 12:32

There are men still left in the guilt and filthiness of human nature who have no desire after that which is good—but whose entire longings are after evil, only evil and that continually. These have no more eye to anything that is high and noble than the swine has for the stars. The minister of Christ may appeal to them, but he will appeal in vain. And Providence may warn them, by the deaths of others and by personal sickness, but they are not to be separated from the earth to which they are glued. Yet our Lord Jesus can gather together even these, the outcasts of Israel! Such is His power that He does not stop till He sees good desires in men—He imparts those desires to those who have them not! Such are the charms of His Cross, that blind eyes are made to see by its beauty! Such is the music of His voice, that deaf ears are opened by it! Such is the majesty of His life, that the dead hear His voice and they that hear are made to live!

No groundwork of goodness is asked or expected from any man that Christ may come and act upon it—He takes man in his ruin and in the extremity of his depravity—and begins with him then and there. When the good Samaritan came to the wounded man, he did not wait for him to make the first advance or come a little towards him. He went to him, where he was, and poured into his wounds the oil and the wine. So, the Lord comes where hurtful nature is and, bad as its condition is, He stoops to it, and He gathers together the outcasts of Israel! Oh, it is a wonderful thing, this, that there should be attractions about the Lord Jesus Christ which can draw to Him those whom nothing else that is good can possibly stir! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

He Gathers Together the Outcasts

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

“He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.”- Psalm 147:2.

Be glad, dear Friends, that we gather around such a Savior as this, from whom all pride and self-seeking are absent and who, coming down among us in gentleness and meekness, comes to gather those whom no man cares for—those who are judged to be worthless and irreclaimable! He comes to gather together the outcasts of Israel! Applying this text to our Lord Jesus Christ, we not only see His gentleness, but we also clearly see an illustration of His love to men, as men. Where Jesus Christ sees a man, though he is an outcast, an outlaw or one condemned by the law of his own country—He sees a human being—a creature capable of awful sin and terrible misery, but yet, renewed by grace, capable of bringing wondrous glory to the Most High.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, by gathering together the outcasts, proves that it is not the things which surround men, but the men, themselves, that He cares for. He considers not so much where a man is, but what he is—not what he has learned, or what he is thought of, or what he has done—just what he is. The man is the jewel. The immortal soul is the Pearl of Great Price which Jesus seeks as a merchantman seeks goodly pearls. Another thing is also clear. If Jesus gathers together the outcasts of Israel, it proves His power over the hearts of men. There is a certain class of men who follow that which is morally good because the Lord has given them a noble disposition. Thank God, He has, in mercy, been pleased to give some men a desire after that which is beautiful and true. They, too, are merchantmen seeking goodly pearls, and it is not difficult, when the heart is brought into such a desirable state, for the excellence and beauty of Jesus Christ to attract it! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

He Came to the Common People

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

“He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.”- Psalm 147:2

Does not this show us the great gentleness and infinite mercy of God? Should it not charm us to remember that when He came on earth, He did not visit kings and princes, but He came unto the humble and simple folk? He did not seek out Pharisees, wrapped up in their own supposed righteousness, but He sought out the guilty, for He said, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick.” The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost! It would have seemed natural that our Lord Jesus, when He came here, should, first of all, have addressed Himself to the most respectable people He could find and should have sent His message to the rabbis of Jerusalem, to the senators at Rome, to the philosophers of Greece. But instead, the common people heard Him gladly and He rejoiced in spirit while He said, “I thank You, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”

I think you may judge of a man’s character by the persons whose affection he seeks. If you find a man seeking only the affection of those who are great, depend upon it, he is ambitious and self-seeking. But when you observe that a man seeks the affection of those who can do nothing for him, but for whom he must do everything, you know that he, himself, is not seeking, but that pure benevolence sways his heart. When I read in the text that the Lord gathers together the outcasts of Israel—and when I see that the text is truly applicable to the Lord Jesus Christ, because this is just what He did—I see another illustration of the gentleness of His heart, who said, “Take My yoke upon you, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

A Double Cure

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

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. – Ezekiel 36:26

Justification without sanctification would be no salvation at all. It would call the leper clean and leave him to die of his disease; it would forgive the rebellion and allow the rebel to remain an enemy to his king. It would remove the consequences but overlook the cause, and this would leave an endless and hopeless task before us. It would stop the stream for a time but leave an open fountain of defilement which would sooner or later break forth with increased power. Remember that the Lord came to take away sin in three ways. He came to remove the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and last, the presence of sin…Our Lord Jesus came to destroy in us the works of the devil. That which was said at our Lord’s birth was declared in His death; for when the soldier pierced His side, there came out blood and water to set forth the double cure by which we are delivered from the guilt and the defilement of sin. If, however, you are troubled about the power of sin and about the tendencies of your nature, as you well may be, here is a promise for you. Have faith in it, for it stands in that covenant of grace which is ordered in all things and sure. God, who cannot lie, has said in Ezekiel 36:26, ‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.’ You see, it is all ‘I will’ and ‘I will.’ ‘I will give’ and ‘I will take away.’ This is the royal style of the King of kings who is able to accomplish all His will. No word of His shall ever fall to the ground. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

unknown source

Jesus Loves Men to Himself

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world… – John 18:36

Suppose the Lord Jesus had been made a king and had marshaled an army? He might have set up an established Church and have maintained it by the power and wealth of the State. A temple might have been built in every parish in the Roman empire and the heathen might have been compelled to pay tithes for the support of the ministry and Apostleship. By the help of imperial prestige and patronage, nominal professors of the faith would have been multiplied by millions and, outwardly, religion would have prevailed! Would it not have been as great a blessing as our Established Church is to us? But the Lord Jesus Christ did not choose this method, for His Kingdom is not to be set up by any force than by that of truth and love! It was His purpose to die for men, but not to lift the mailed hand of power, or even the jeweled finger of rank to bring them into subjection. Jesus loves men to Himself—Love and Truth are His battle-ax and weapons of war. Thus, He overcame the world which was in that most insidious form of worldliness—the suggestion to make alliance with it and set up a mongrel society, a kingdom at once earthly and heavenly, a State Church, a society loyal both to God and Mammon, fearing the Lord and serving the High Court of Parliament! It might have appeared to us to be the readiest means to bless the world—but it was not His Father’s way, nor the way of holiness—and, therefore, He would not follow it but overcame it! No force may be put on conscience. The altar of God must not be polluted by forced offerings. Caesar must not step beyond his province. However great the proffered benefit, the Lord never did evil that good might come! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3285.cfm