These Three Will Help Thee

“Fear not… I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”- Isaiah 41:14

Hear Jehovah, the everlasting Father, saying, “I will help them.” “Mine are the ages: before the ages began, when there were no worlds, when nought had been created, from everlasting I am thy God. I am the God of election, the God of the decree, the God of the covenant; by My strength I did set fast the mountains, by My skill I laid the pillars of the earth; and the beams of the firmament of heaven; I spread out the skies as a curtain, and as a tent for man to dwell in; I, the Lord, made all these things. ‘I will help thee.'” Then comes Jehovah the Son. “And I, also, am thy Redeemer, I am eternal; My name is wisdom. I was with God, when there were no depths, before He had digged the rivers, I was there as one brought up with Him. I am Jesus, the God of ages; I am Jesus, the man of sorrows; ‘ I am He that liveth and was dead, I am alive for evermore.’ I am the High Priest of your profession, the Intercessor before the throne, the Representative of My people. I have power with God. ‘I will help thee.'” Poor worm, thy Redeemer vows to help thee; by His bleeding hands He covenants to give thee aid. And then in comes the Holy Spirit. “And I,” saith the Spirit, “am also God-not an influence, but a person -I, eternal and everlasting, co-existent with the Father and the Son-I, who did brood over chaos, when as yet the world was not brought into form and fashion, and did sow the earth with the seeds of life when I did brood over it,-I, that brought again from the dead your Lord Jesus Christ, the Shepherd of the sheep, who am the Eternal Spirit, by whose power the Lord Jesus did arise from the thraldom of His tomb -I, by whom souls are quickened, by whom the elect are called out of darkness into light-I, who have the power to maintain My children and preserve them to the end-‘I will help thee.'”

Stand up, Christian, in this thy might Jehovah Father, Jehovah Jesus, Jehovah Spirit,-these are with thee to help thee. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0157.cfm

The Pledge of Heaven

The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands. – Psalm 138:8

There is given to us, when we are regenerated, the very same life which we are to live forever in heaven. We have now the root, the bulb, the seed, out of which immortality and perfection will most surely grow; we may not yet be perfect, but we have that which will come to perfection. We have within us a new nature, which cannot sin, because it is born of God; and this will gradually overcome the old nature, as the Israelites drove out the Canaanites, and we shall be perfect before the throne of the Most High. A man may have, in a very small room, a whole field of wheat lying in embryo, in the seed which is to be sown in the springtime, and reaped in the autumn; and we have, in the gift of God’s grace, all heaven in embryo, in the seeds of faith and love, and the work of the Holy Spirit within our souls… So, the Holy Spirit is the Divine Person who virtually puts heaven into us, and makes us fit to be in the heaven which Christ has gone to prepare for us. What a mercy it is to have the witness of the Holy Spirit, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God our Heavenly Father, to have aspirations after holiness which we never had in our unregenerate state! All this is the pledge of heaven; and in having the pledge, we have practically the salvation itself. The Holy Spirit would not have come into our hearts, and given us all these blessings, if He had not meant to “perfect that which concerneth us,” and to save us in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2770.cfm

 

Accepted by Jesus

“Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”- Luke 7:50

There had, doubtless, been a work of the Spirit of God upon that woman’s heart, turning her from her sin to her Saviour… When the copious tears from her eyes fell upon His feet, He did not withdraw them. When those feet were wiped with the luxuriant tresses of her hair, still He did not withdraw them; and when she ventured upon a yet closer familiarity, and not only kissed His feet, but did not cease to kiss them, He still did not withdraw them, but quietly accepted all that she did. And when the precious ointment was poured in lavish abundance upon those precious feet of His, He did not upbraid her, He did not refuse her gifts, but tacitly accepted them, though without a word of acknowledgment just then. And I think it is a very blessed thing for any one of you to be accepted before God, even though no word has come from His lips assuring you that it is so. When your tears, and cries, and secret love, and earnest seeking,–when your confession of sin, your struggle after faith, and the dawnings of your faith are just accepted by the Lord, though as yet He has not said to you, “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” it is a very blessed stage for you to have reached, for the Lord does not begin to accept anyone, even by a silence which means consent, and then draw back. He accepted this woman’s love and gifts, though, for a time, He gave her no assurance of that acceptance, and that fact must have greatly cheered her. When Simon’s evil thoughts had condemned her, and her Lord also, Jesus spoke that wonderful parable which set forth the greatness of this woman’s love, and justified the extraordinary way in which she manifested it. Christ did not speak to her, but He spoke up for her; and such action as that should be quite sufficient to stay the soul of a believer in Him. What though my Lord has not revealed Himself to me, He has revealed Himself to the Father for me. What if He has not spoken to me? Yet, if He has spoken to God on my behalf -if He has spoken in the Scriptures in defence of poor sinners, and advocated their cause in the High Court of Heaven, then how thankful I may be, and how thankful they may be! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2770.cfm

Our Infirmities in Prayer Overlooked

For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. – Hebrews 4:15

Suppose I come to the throne of grace with the burden of my sins; there is one on the throne who felt the burden of sin in ages long gone by, and has not forgotten its weight. Suppose I come loaded with sorrow; there is One there who knows all the sorrows to which humanity can be subjected. Am I depressed and distressed? Do I fear that God Himself has forsaken me? There is One upon the throne who said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” It is a throne from which grace delights to look upon the miseries of mankind with tender eye, to consider them and to relieve them… But, brethren, suppose in our prayers there should be defects of knowledge: it is a throne of grace, and our Father knoweth that we have need of these things. Suppose there should be defects of faith: He sees our little faith and still doth not reject it, small as it is. He doth not in every case measure out His gifts by the degree of our faith, but by the sincerity and trueness of faith. And if there should be grave defects in our spirit even, and failures in the fervency or in the humility of the prayer, still, though these should not be there and are much to be deplored; grace overlooks all this, forgives all this, and still its merciful hand is stretched out to enrich us according to our needs. Surely this ought to induce many to pray who have not prayed, and should make us who have been long accustomed to use the consecrated art of prayer, to draw near with greater boldness than ever to the throne of grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1024.cfm

The Spirit Helps Us

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. – Romans 8:26

If I cannot find words in which to utter my desires, God in His grace will read my desires without the words. He takes the meaning of His saints, the meaning of their groans. A throne that was not gracious would not trouble itself to make out our petitions; but God, the infinitely gracious One, will dive into the soul of our desires, and He will read there what we cannot speak with the tongue. Have you never seen the parent, when his child is trying to say something to him, and he knows very well what it is the little one has got to say, help him over the words and utter the syllables for him, and if the little one has half-forgotten what he would say, you have seen the father suggest the word: and so the ever-blessed Spirit, from the throne of grace, will help us and teach us words, nay, write in our hearts the desires themselves. We have in Scripture instances where God puts words into sinners’ mouths. “Take with you words,” saith He, “and say unto Him, Receive us graciously and love us freely.” He will put the desires, and put the expression of those desires into your spirit by His grace; He will direct your desires to the things which you ought to seek for; He will teach you your wants, though as yet you know them not; He will suggest to you His promises that you may be able to plead them; He will, in fact, be Alpha and Omega to your prayer, just as He is to your salvation; for as salvation is from first to last of grace, so the sinner’s approach to the throne of grace is of grace from first to last. What comfort is this. Will we not, my dear friends, with the greater boldness draw near to His throne, as we suck out the sweet meaning of this precious word, “the throne of grace”?~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1024.cfm

Prayer is No Trifle

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. – Psalm 29:2

Prayer is no trifle. It is an eminent and elevated act. It is a high and wondrous privilege. Under the old Persian Empire a few of the nobility were permitted at any time to come in unto the king, and this was thought to be the highest privilege possessed by mortals. You and I, the people of God, have a permit, a passport to come before the throne of heaven at any time we will, and we are encouraged to come there with great boldness; but still let us not forget that it is no mean thing to be a courtier in the courts of heaven and earth, to worship Him who made us and sustains us in being. Truly, when we attempt to pray, we may hear the voice saying out of the excellent glory: “Bow the knee.” From all the spirits that behold the face of our Father who is in heaven, even now, I hear a voice which saith, “Oh, come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; fear before Him all the earth.”

We are still on praying ground and pleading terms with God, and the throne to which we are bidden to come…is the throne of grace. It is a throne set up on purpose for the dispensation of grace; a throne from which every utterance is an utterance of grace; the scepter that is stretched out from it is the silver sceptre of grace; the decrees proclaimed from it are purposes of grace; the gifts that are scattered down its golden steps are gifts of grace; and He that sits upon the throne is grace itself. It is the throne of grace to which we approach when we pray; and let us for a moment or two think this over, by way of consolatory encouragement to those who are beginning to pray; indeed, to all of us who are praying men and women.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1024.cfm