Sovereignty of God

Lord, what is man?

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

Nevertheless, He saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known. – Psalm 106:8

You remember how (the Israelites) sang: “Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of Thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till Thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which Thou hath purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.” They felt quite sure of conquering the land and chasing out the foe. They were so strong in faith, that they thought they should never again mistrust the Lord, whose right hand was so glorious in power. The exultant women who followed Miriam never suspected that they could doubt the Lord, whose right hand had dashed in pieces the enemy. One of them would probably have said, “As for our enemies, the depths have covered them, there is not one of them left. I shall never fear again. I have attained full assurance and perfection, and I shall never again mistrust the Lord.” Yet these were the people who speedily murmured for want of bread, until the Lord heard them, and was grieved. I dare say the men of the Red Sea said, each one, “My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved”; and yet in how brief an hour were they challenging the faithfulness of Jehovah and questioning His power to give them bread in the wilderness! Lord, what is man? We distrust providence, we suspect grace, and we question the Lord Himself; and all this after the Lord had made our assurance doubly sure. We are sad creatures, and yet the Lord does not cast us away; for it is written, “Nevertheless He saved them for His names sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known.”

Admire the patient faithfulness of our God. Jehovah, though provoked, still loves His people. Admire His love to ourselves; and especially that He should entertain such constancy of affection towards such wayward, fickle, unreliable souls as we are! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

Do Not Doubt the Merciful God

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

We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies; but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. – Psalm 106:6,7

There is the sea; (the Israelites) have just marched through it, and they have reached Marah, where the waters are brackish. If they now distrust and complain, close on the heels of their great deliverance, it will be a crime indeed. O men, what are you at? There is the Red Sea which God divided: and yet you think He cannot give you water to drink! O fools and slow of heart, thus to doubt the Almighty! Doubt in the presence of a mercy! Doubt while so great a favor is before your eyes! This is evil indeed! O beloved, do not bear hard upon these Israelites, bear hard upon yourselves, and hate the sin which dares intrude within the sacred encloses of your joy in the cross, and dares to tempt you even when the five wounds of Jesus are shining on your soul like the stars of God. Hate the sins which follow you to the Table of the Lord. Hate the wandering mind which taints the sacred bread and wine and defiles you when the instructive symbols are yet in your mouths. Abhor the sin which dogs your heel, and follows you even to your knees, and hinders you in drawing near to God in prayer. Oh, the accursed sin which even on Tabor’s top makes us fall asleep or talk foolishly!

Do you wonder that God was provoked? Have you ever acted so? Did you ever rise high in rapture, and praise the Lord upon the high-sounding cymbals, and then find yourself groveling on the ground within an hour? What fools we are! “Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity.” When we know most, we are ignorant; when we swell to our greatest, we are big nothings. When God makes much of us, we think least of ourselves. How greatly do we prize and praise the precious blood of Jesus which cleanseth us from all sin?…O Thou blessed Holy Spirit, strengthen the faith of Thy people this day, and may that faith create in us perfect obedience to the will of the Lord, so that henceforth we may magnify His holy name, and walk with Him until we see His face unveiled above! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

Grieving the Holy God

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

…they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies; but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. – Psalm 106:7

Why did (the Israelites) transgression at the sea so greatly anger the Lord? Was it because it came at the outset of their existence as a nation? They had not gone many days’ journey out of Egypt before they rebelled. They had not yet eaten up the bread they carried in their kneading troughs, and they had scarcely met their first difficulty; and yet they hastened to provoke their God. How could they rebel so soon? They had scarcely reached the Red Sea before they began provoking the Lord with their dishonorable suspicions. Now this Red Sea was the place of their consecration. Here they were “baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Here it was that they said, “He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.” As they stood by that Red Sea which had swallowed up all their enemies, they sang the praises of God and proposed to do great things in His honor. What wonderful obedience they meant to render! And yet they provoked Him there and then. What! will you come up from the waters of your baptism, and go home and provoke God by unholy conversation and ungovernable temper? Can any of you go from the Communion Table into sin? I heard of one who went from the table of the Lord across the street into the public-house. This is too gross. Such conduct grieves holy men, and much more the Holy God. To go from prayer to robbery, from reading the Word to fellowship with ungodly men—this must be terribly provoking to the thrice holy Jehovah. It is as though it were written again, “They provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea.” It is a high crime and misdemeanor to sin in the presence of a great mercy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

Provoking God

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies; but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. – Psalm 106:7

Why does the Psalmist dwell upon the place, and say, “at the sea, even at the Red Sea”? Why was it worse to provoke the Lord there than elsewhere? It evidently was so, for the inspired Scripture mentions the spot twice to put an emphasis upon it. Why was this?

The offense itself was grievous anywhere. They doubted God when they heard that Pharaoh pursued after them, and they said, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast Thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?” This imputation of cruelty to their faithful God provoked His sacred heart. The Lord is very pitiful, and His name is love, and therefore He is not easily provoked; but He declares that He was provoked by this display of their mistrust. They provoked Him: they called Him forth, as it were, to battle; they vexed Him and stirred Him up to contend with them. O brothers and sisters, after so much love as God has shown us, we must not fall to provoking Him; let us far rather spend our lives in extolling Him! To provoke Him at any time is a wanton wickedness—unjust, ungenerous, diabolical. It is no common sin which thus provokes the longsuffering Lord. Many a sin God has endured patiently, but in this case, He is provoked to anger. This is an offense which touches the apple of His eye and causes His jealousy to burn like coals of fire. O children of God, how can you provoke your Father to wrath? The Lord have mercy upon us! We must bow low at His feet with sorrowful repentance. Let us shun this fault in the future. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

True Gratitude

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

Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto Thy holy name, and to triumph in Thy praise. – Psalm 106:47

True gratitude shows itself in acts and deeds. A gentleman had been the means of making a position for a tradesman; and by a misfortune he came to be himself in want of immediate help to tide over a season of great pressure. He called at the house of the person he had so successfully helped and found the wife at home. He told her the case, and she answered at once, “My husband will be ready to lend you his name to the full amount required. He will hasten to you the moment you need him and be glad to do so.” A prudent neighbor afterwards said, “But you may have to pay away all you have in the world.” “Yes”, said the grateful wife, “we do not mind that: he was the making of us; and if we have to lose everything for his sake, we shall do it very cheerfully, for we shall only be back to where we were when he first helped us.” That is a form of gratitude which is rare enough in this world, though I have seen it here and there. Beloved, if the Lord were to take all away that we have, we should only be back where we were at the beginning. We have nothing but what we have received from Him. He takes nothing from us, but what He first gave us: let us bless a taking as well as a giving God. Oh, for this practical gratitude towards the Lord, that we may in all things either do His will cheerfully or suffer it patiently! If we remember the multitude of His mercies practically, we shall be ready to surrender honor, ease, health, estate, yea, life itself for Him who gave Himself for us. Oh, to remember God’s mercies practically in every-day life, in thought and word, and deed! Beloved, we must not let go the memory of the Lord’s matchless kindness; but we must remember it more and more. The older we are, the more must we trust in Him, who has not suffered one of His promises to fail. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

Remember His Mercies

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

…they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies… – Psalm 106:7

Children forget what they learn unless they understand it. They may pass the School Board standards, and yet in a few years they may know very little. The capacity for forgetting in some children is amazing. Many even among grown-up people have splendid memories for forgetting. Alas! it is the case with certain of the Lord’s people. That which we do not understand we readily forget. When a child understands his lesson thoroughly, it will be fixed in his memory; but if he has merely learned the words, and has not entered into their senses, do you wonder that his lesson slips away? So was it with Israel in Egypt and at the Red Sea. Those sentences follow each other in true logical order: “They understood not Thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies.” A grievous thing is this, when God sends mercy, and mercy, and mercy, and mercy, and mercy, and mercy-heaps of mercies, loads of mercies, hills of mercies, mountains of mercies, worlds of mercies, and yet men forget. His mercies are more than the stars, more than the drops of dew, more than the sands on the seashore, and yet we do not remember. This is a mournful and inexcusable fault!

Mercies should be remembered. It is a great wrong to God when we bury His mercies in the grave of unthankfulness. Especially is this the case with distinguishing mercies, wherein the Lord makes us to differ from others. Light, when the rest of the land is in darkness! Life, when others are smitten with the sword of death! Liberty from an iron bondage! O Christians, these are not things to be forgotten! Abundantly utter the memory of distinguishing mercies! Discriminating grace deserves unceasing memorials of praise. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm

Lord, have mercy upon us!

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

Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies… – Psalm 106:7

The tribes of Israel did not see in all this the claim which the Lord had upon them. As a people, they belonged to Him who had made them a nation. Because of what He had done for them, the Lord took up a peculiar position to them, which He would have them acknowledge. Remember how, in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, before the Lord proclaims His ten commands, He says—”I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” By this, Jehovah separated them to be His people, and He declared Himself to be their God. During the plagues, He marked His special love to His own; for when the Lord sent a thick darkness over all the land, we read, “But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” When the cattle of Egypt died, Pharaoh sent and found, upon inquiry that “there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead.” When the firstborn of Egypt fell dead beneath the angel’s sword, the sprinkled blood of the Passover lamb secured to all Israel protection from the midnight slaughter; and men were made to know that God did put a difference between His chosen and the men of Egypt. Yet the favored people did not understand it: the truth was conspicuous enough; but they did not perceive it as they ought to have done; neither did they practically show that they were the Lord’s people, and that He only was their God. The like slowness to take up our true position, we may see and mourn in ourselves. After all the Lord’s wonders of grace towards us, we do not exalt Him as our God, nor serve Him as His people, as we ought to do. Lord, have mercy upon us! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2204.cfm