Sovereignty of God

Blessed of God, Not of Men

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 12 Comments

And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee…thou art now the blessed of the LORD. – Genesis 26:27-29

Though Isaac was the blessed of the Lord, this did not secure him from trial. Even before Abimelech saw the source of Isaac’s grace, he was “the blessed of the Lord”; yet he still had to move about. He was a pilgrim and a stranger, as was his father, and he lived as an alien in the land. He was without any inheritance in the country, and though his flocks and herds increased, he dwelt but in tents, while others reared for themselves stately houses and palaces. But God had prepared some better thing for him, and “he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.” Thus, this trial became a means of blessing to him, as trials always do when sanctified by the Spirit of God. If these words reach any child of God whose nest on earth has been disturbed, whose house has been broken up, I would seek to cheer you by the thought of the “continuing city” which shall soon be your portion. If you have, through Christ, an assurance of an abundant entrance there, though you never have a house of your own on earth, and roam from place to place a stranger, seeming to be very often in the way of other people, yet remember that “thou art now the blessed of the Lord.” He will never forsake thee, and His deliverance shall soon make thy heart glad. Daily He doth load thee with benefits, and thou canst even now have thy home in His love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2238.cfm

The Family Altar

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

And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for My servant Abraham’s sake. And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there… – Genesis 26:24,25

The Lord bore testimony to Isaac in secret manifestation. He came to him in the watches of the night, and spake with him face to face. None but those who are the blessed of the Lord have such communion with Him. If He manifests Himself to us in this choice manner, it is because He has blessed us in a way in which He would not bless the ungodly world. We find that “(Isaac) builded an altar,” and then he, “pitched his tent.” Keep up the altar of God in your home and keep to the right order-the altar first, and the tent second. When God accepts you there and makes your family altar to be a place of refreshment and delight to you, you will feel that in thus doing He is giving you the sweet assurance that you are now the blessed of the Lord. It is a pity that there are so many houses nowadays without roofs-I mean, houses of Christian people without family prayer. What are some of you at? If your children turn out ungodly, do you wonder at it, seeing that there is no morning and evening prayer, no reading of the Word of God in your home? In every home where the grace of God is known, there should be an altar, from which should rise the incense of praise, and at which the one sacrifice for sin should be pleaded before God day by day. In the midst of such family piety, which I fear is almost dying out in many quarters, you will get the witness, “Thou art now the blessed of the Lord.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2238.cfm

Our Covenant Relationship with God

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

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father… – Genesis 26:3

God said to Isaac, “I will be with thee, and will bless thee…I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father.” And in the twenty-fourth verse of the chapter, where the promise is renewed, it is still on the ground of the covenant: “I am with thee, and I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.” Now, do you know anything of the covenant relationship between God and His people? The bulk of Christians nowadays are wholly ignorant on this subject…I love the promises of God because they are covenant promises. God has engaged to keep His word with His people in the person of His dear Son. He has bound Himself, by covenant with Christ, and will not, cannot, go back from His word; and Christ has fulfilled the conditions of the covenant, and He who hath “brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,” will certainly, “make you perfect to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ.” The promise is a double promise when it is confirmed in Jesus. Though we are poor and worthless creatures, yet can we say with David, “Although my house be not so with God, yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.” Twice God says by Isaiah, “I have given Him for a covenant to the people” thrice happy are they who receive what God hath given, and who, in Christ, enter into that blessed bond. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2238.cfm

Blessed and Envied

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

For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. – Genesis 26:14

While these Philistines saw that God blessed Isaac, they nevertheless envied him, as we read in the fourteenth verse. How strange it is that men, who do not care to be blessed of God themselves, envy them who are blessed of Him! I heard one say, “It is not just that God should have a chosen people.” Sir, do you want to be one of God’s people? These blessings which God gives to them, do you want to have them? You may have them, if you will. If you will not have them, I pray you do not quarrel with God because He chooses to give them where He wills…If you want the blessing of the Lord, have it even now, for my commission as an ambassador of Christ is to beseech men to be reconciled to God; if you do not want it, do not quarrel with God for giving it to His own chosen. It was so with those Philistines-they wanted not Jehovah’s blessing, and yet they envied Isaac, who had it.

But while they envied him, they feared him, and courted his favour. Do I speak to some young believer who has gone into a house of business, or some Christian woman who has been placed in a family where her religion exposes her to opposition? Let me counsel you to go straight on, taking no notice of the hindrances thrown in your way. You will first be envied; after that you will be feared; and after that you will be sought after, and your company will be desired. If you can only keep as firm as Isaac did, never losing your temper, but always being gentle, and meek, and kind, you will conquer; and you who are to-day despised, will yet come to be honoured, even as Isaac was by the very Abimelech who had, just a little while before, asked him to go away. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2238.cfm

A Sign of His Blessing

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

Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him…thou art now the blessed of the LORD. – Genesis 26:12-14; 27-29

There are some of God’s people who are so evidently favoured of heaven that even those who despise and oppose them cannot help saying of them, “They are the blessed of the Lord.” I wish that we were all such; so distinguished by piety, so marked out by strength of faith and prevalence of prayer, that even our Abimelechs might be forced to say to each of us, “Thou art now the blessed of the Lord.” We read in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth verses, “Then Isaac sowed in the land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: for he had possession of flocks and possession of herds, and great store of servants.” Prosperity is not always a token of blessing. It may be proof of the Lord’s favour, and it may not be…Nevertheless, it is true that worldly prosperity may be sent, and has been sent, to the children of God, as a token of divine favour. It is not always when we eat the quails that they make us ill; God can send them in such a way that we may enjoy them and be strengthened by them. He can give riches as well as poverty. That was the Philistines’ reason, and it is a Philistine’s reason. It is not a very satisfactory one, but it has some force, for the Lord Jesus Himself gave the sign of blessing upon the meek, saying, “They shall inherit the earth;” and in the same memorable discourse upon the mount, He uttered the exhortation and promise, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things”-the things which the Gentiles seek after-“shall be added unto you.” So, we may fairly construe the “mercies of God” as a sign of His blessing. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2238.cfm

Begin with Christ, End with Christ

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

Let Israel hope in the LORD… – Psalm 130:7

Lay the foundation of your hope in the Lord; go on building up your comfort in the Lord Jesus; and in Him bring forth the topstone. Begin with Christ, and end with Christ. As Christ grows more to you, take care that self grows less and less. If your Christianity puffs you up, it is not Christ’s Christianity. Read in the Second of Chronicles, chapter twenty-six, at the fifteenth verse- “(Uzziah) was marvellously helped, till he was strong.” When he became strong, he went off the lines, and we read, “When he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.” Mind that. God will always help us while we are weak. When we are strong, what shall I say?- then are we weak, and have need to fear, for we are being lifted up already, or we should not count ourselves strong- poor, puny creatures that we are! God will always bless us as long as we confess our dependence upon His blessing. He will always fill us as long as we are empty. He will always feed us as long as we are hungry. He will be your all in all so long as you are nothing. But the moment you boast in yourself, and say, “I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing,” you will be left to learn that you are naked, and poor, and miserable. Nebuchadnezzar is proud, and soon finds a rapid descent from the throne to eating grass like the cattle. Worms, in the presence of the Lord, do all they may do when they hope, they do all they can do when they hope in Him. They have nothing but sin, and He has mercy upon them. They are slaves to evil, but He has plenteous redemption wherewith to set them free. The poorest, weakest, saddest among us may hope in the Lord, for He can do all things: wherefore, let us continue in our faith in “the God of hope,” till we receive the heaven we hope for through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2199.cfm

Remember Uzziah

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

Let Israel hope in the LORD…He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. – Psalm 130:7,8

Recollect what happened to Uzziah. He was a man of God, and a king; but when he had grown very great, he thought that he would act as priest for himself, and go into the sanctuary of the Lord, and burn incense on his own account, without the Lord’s appointed priest; but he was struck with leprosy, and not only was he thrust out, but he, himself, hastened to go out of the temple. I tremble for those in whom I see any sign of going before God in right of their own character. I fear that among God’s own professing people there are some who are so conscious of their own knowledge, and growth, that they pray without Christ, praise without Christ, and talk of being no longer in need of confessing sin. They dare to act without humbly depending upon the presence of the great High Priest; and then they fall into sin, and thus they are struck with leprosy, and, perhaps, to their dying day they can never enter into such fellowship with God as once they knew. I would do nothing without Jesus. I would not even wish to repent except my eye were upon the cross. I would not hope to think a holy thought except as my soul still gazed upon Jesus my all. Away, away with every idea of mercy except it be mercy received through Jesus, for He alone is full of grace, and of His fullness must we receive. I would bind you, brethren, if I could, to the cross as your one hope. I pray the Lord bind me for ever to the cross: the wounds my only founts of hope, the blood and water my only cleansing. Go you who have a righteousness of your own and hope elsewhere; but the long hope of my soul is the bleeding, dying, buried, risen, coming Savior. “Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy,” and with Him alone: all the exercises of faith about mercy must ever be tethered to the cross. Mercy flows through Christ alone. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2199.cfm