Sovereignty of God

Keep to Christ

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

“…wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.” – 2 Samuel 15:21

Our Master is to be found wherever there is anything to be done for the good of our fellow-men. The Lord Jesus Christ is to be found wherever there is work to be done in seeking after His lost sheep. Some people say that they have very little communion with Christ, and when I look at them, I do not wonder. Two persons cannot walk together if they will not walk at the same pace. Now, my Lord walks an earnest pace whenever He goes through the world, for the King’s business requires haste; and if His disciples crawl after a snail’s fashion they will lose His company. If some of our groaning brethren would go to the Sunday-school, and there begin to look after the little children, they would meet with their Lord who used to say, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me.” If others were to get together a little meeting, and teach the ignorant, they would there find Him who had compassion on the ignorant, on those that are out of the way. Our Master is where there are fetters to be broken, burdens to be removed, and hearts to be comforted, and if you wish to keep with Him you must aid in such service.

Our point must be to resolve in God’s strength to keep to Christ in all weathers and in all companies, and that whether in life or death. Ah that word “death” makes it sweet, because then we reap the blessed result of having lived with Christ. We shall go upstairs for the last time and bid good-bye to all, and then we shall feel that in death He is still with us as in life we have been with Him.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Be On the Side of Truth and Right

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

“…wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.” – 2 Samuel 15:21

Where is the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, brethren, He is wherever the truth is, and I pray God that He may raise up a race of men and women who are determined to be wherever the truth of God is. We have a host of molluscous creatures about who will always be where the congregation is the most respectable: respectability being measured by clothes and cash. Time was in the church of God when they most esteemed the most pious men; has it come to this that gold takes precedence of grace? Our fathers considered whether a ministry was sound, but now the question is-“Is the man clever?” Words are preferred to truth, and oratory takes the lead of the gospel. Shame on such an age. O you who have, not altogether sold your birthrights, I charge you keep out of this wretched declension.

Where is our Master? Well, He is always on the side of truth and right. And, O, you Christian people, mind that in everything- politics, business and everything you keep to that which is right, not to that which is popular. Do not bow the knee to that which for a little day may be cried up but stand fast in that which is consistent with rectitude, with humanity, with the cause and honor of God, and with the freedom and progress of men. It can never be wise to do wrong. It can never be foolish to be right. It can never be according to the mind of Christ to tyrannize and to oppress. Keep you ever to whatsoever things are pure and lovely and of good report, and you will so far keep with Christ. Temperance, purity, justice-these are favorites with Him; do your best to advance them for His sake. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Wherever Christ Is, There We Will Be

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

Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? …But Ittai answered the king, “As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.” – 2 Samuel 15:19,21

Canst thou lift thy hand to Christ, and say, “Henceforth I will live as Thy servant, not doing my own will, but Thy will; Thy command is henceforth my rule?” Canst thou say that? It involved, for Ittai, that he was to do his utmost for David’s cause, not to be his servant in name, but his soldier, ready for scars and wounds and death, if need be, on the king’s behalf. Now, if thou wouldst be Christ’s disciple, determine henceforth by His grace that thou wilt defend His cause; that if there be rough fighting, thou wilt be in it; and if there be a forlorn hope needed, thou wilt lead it, and go through floods and flames if thy Master’s cause shall call thee. Blessed is the man who will follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, giving himself wholly up to his Lord to serve Him with all his heart.

Ittai, in his promise, declared that he would give a personal attendance upon the person of his master. Brethren, let us make the same resolve in our hearts, that wherever Christ is, there we will be. Where is Christ? …Answer: in His church. The church is a body of faithful men; and where these are met together, there is Jesus in the midst of them…Where else did Jesus go? In the commencement of His ministry, He descended into the waters of baptism. Let us follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. At the close of His ministry, He brake bread, and said, “This do ye in remembrance of Me.” Be often at His table, for if there is a place on the earth where He manifests Himself to His children it is where bread is broken in His name…”Surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether it be in a prayer-meeting or at a sermon, even there also will thy servant be.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Be Not Ashamed of Your Lord

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

…whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. – 2 Samuel 15:21

 But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed… – 2 Timothy 1:12

Dear friend, you must publicly own yourself a Christian. If you are a Christian, you must not try to sneak to heaven round the back alleys but march up the narrow way like a man and like your Master. He was never ashamed of you, though He might have been: how can you be ashamed of Him when there is nothing in Him to be ashamed of? Some Christians seem to think that they shall lead an easier life if they never make a profession. Like a rat behind the wainscot, they come out after candlelight and get a crumb, and then slip back again. I would not lead such a life. Surely, there is nothing to be ashamed of. A Christian-let us glory in the name! A believer in the Lord Jesus Christ-let them write it on our door plates, if they will. Why should we blush at that? “But,” says one, “I would rather be a very quiet one.” I will now place a torpedo under this cowardly quietness. What saith the Lord Jesus? Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven; but he that shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven.” Take up your cross and follow Him, for “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” …If you have the spirit of Ittai you will say, “Wheresoever my lord the king is, there also shall thy servant be.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Thorough Consecration

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

And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. – 2 Samuel 15:21

Ittai gave himself up wholly to David when he was but newly come to him, David says, “Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? But Ittai does not care whether he came yesterday or twenty years ago, but he declares, “Surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.” It is best to begin the Christian life with thorough consecration. Have any of you professed to be Christians, and have you never given yourselves entirely to Christ? It is time that you began again. This should be one of the earliest forms of our worship of our Master-this total resignation of ourselves to Him. According to His Word, the first announcement of our faith should be by baptism, and the meaning of baptism, or immersion in water, is death, burial, and resurrection. As far as this point is concerned, the avowal is just this. “I am henceforth dead to all but Christ, whose servant I now am. Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. The watermark is on me from head to foot. I have been buried with Him in baptism unto death to show that henceforth I belong to Him.” Now, whether you have been baptized or not I leave to yourselves, but in any case, this must be true-that henceforth you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. As soon as ever Christ is yours you ought to be Christ’s. “I am my Beloved’s” should be linked with “My Beloved is mine,” in the dawn of the day in which you yield to the Lord. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

The Battlefield – Part 2

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

I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. – Psalm 77:5,6

Going on with the strategy of war, what next? Why, in the fifth verse we read how David maintained his courage and his constancy-“I considered the days of old.” He enquired of hoary fathers, and looked back upon the inspired traditions, if I may be allowed the expression, of the early church. He wanted to see whether God ever did forsake any of his people, rightly judging that if He never did, He never would, and firmly resolving that till he could find a clear case of God’s unfaithfulness he would not yield an inch of soil, nor give up a stone of any fortress, but would hold on and fight the battle out. That inward musing helped him much. The enemy began to weary, while he recruited His strength.

But now he used another weapon. He looked to his own experience-see the sixth verse. “I called to remembrance my song in the night.” Past experience acknowledged gratefully and taken as the index of what the future will be-this is another of David’s shields and spears. And then he seemed to put a whole path of spears before the enemy, and hold up an entire wall of shields when he came to close quarters with him, and said, “Will the Lord cast off for ever? Will He be favorable no more? Is His mercy clean gone for ever? Doth His promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?” Oh! this is how to win the battle. The next time, dear friend, you find yourself downcast in trouble, do not run away because Giant Despair is so strong. Though pressed by danger and beset by foes, feed not this frenzy of the soul with gloomy black forebodings. Armed with David’s shield and spears, attack him; show a bold front, and so shall you resist the devil and find that he flees from you, and you shall come back from the conflict with louder notes of victory than you had dreamed before. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0972.cfm

The Battlefield – Part 1

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

I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and He gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing. … – Psalm 77:1,2

Turn to the seventy-seventh Psalm, and you have a battlefield there. Should you ever have to fight the same battle, by looking through this Psalm, you will see David’s shields and spears, and you will soon learn how to screen yourself with the one, and how to do exploits with the other. Here is David fighting with despondency-an old enemy of mine. I daresay some of you are afflicted with it. But observe how he fought with it. The first weapon he drew out of the scabbard was the weapon of all-prayer. And how grandly he used it! “I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice.” Satan trembles when he hears the sound of prayer. They are the conquering legions that know how to pray. Despondency soon flies when a man knows how to ply this all-conquering and ever-useful weapon of petition to the Most High.

Then note how he used this weapon continually. “My hand was stretched out all night,” saith he. If the first prayer did not help him, he prayed again; if an hour’s prayer did not bring him peace, he would pray two hours; and all night long he kept at it. You will get a like result too, my brother, if you exercise a like perseverance-you must get a like result if you know how to linger at the mercy-seat. When he had used the weapon of prayer, what did he do next? He took out another spear. It was that of remembering God. He had long enough pored in thought over himself and his present sinfulness and weakness, and now he remembered God’s mercy, God’s faithfulness, God’s lovingkindness, God’s power, God’s covenant, God in the person of Christ. Oh! this is indeed to prepare a salvo against the enemy, and to fortify one’s own position with fresh succours. He can win the battle that knows how to use this artillery of remembering God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0972.cfm