The Father

Have You No Thanks to Bring?

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God, The Father 4 Comments

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort – 2 Corinthians 1:3

Are we to be always receiving and never to return thanks? Aristotle rightly observes: “A return is required to preserve friendship between two persons,” and as we have nothing else to give to God except gratitude, let us abound therein. If we have no fruit of the field, let us at least render to Him the fruit of our lips. Have you no thanks to bring? How, then, can you expect further favours? Does not liberality itself close its hand when ingratitude stands in the way? What, never a word of gratitude to Him from whom all blessings flow! Then may even the ungodly despise you. It would argue great selfishness if we did not combine praise with prayer. Can it be right to think only of ourselves, to pray for benefits and never honour our Benefactor?…What, no thought for God’s glory? No idea of magnifying His great and blessed name! God forbid that we should fall into a spirit so mean and narrow. Healthy praise and thanksgiving must be cultivated, because they prevent prayer from becoming overgrown with the mildew of selfishness.

Thanksgiving also prevents prayer from becoming an exhibition of the want of faith; for indeed some prayer is rather a manifestation of the absence of faith than the exercise of confidence in God. If when I am in trouble I still bless the Lord for all I suffer, therein my faith is seen. If before I obtain the mercy, I thank God for the grace which I have not yet tasted, therein my faith is manifest. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1469.cfm

Recollect His Great Goodness

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father 8 Comments

He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? – Romans 8:32

Beloved, beyond the fact of prayer and our power to exercise it, there is a further ground of thanksgiving that we have already received great mercy at God’s hands. We are not coming to God to ask favours and receive them for the first time in our lives. Why, blessed be His name, if He never granted me another favour, I have enough for which to thank Him as long as I have any being. And this, moreover, is to be recollected, that whatever great things we are about to ask, we cannot possibly be seeking for blessings one-half so great as those which we have already received if we are indeed His children. If thou art a Christian, thou hast life in Christ. Art thou about to ask for meat and raiment? The life is more than these. Thou hast already obtained Christ Jesus to be thine, and He that spared Him not will deny thee nothing. Is there, I was about to say, anything to compare with the infinite riches which are already ours in Christ Jesus? Let us perpetually thank our Benefactor for what we have while we make request for something more. Should it not be so? Shall not the abundant utterances of the memory of His great goodness run over into our requests, till our petitions are baptized in gratitude. While we come before God, in one aspect, empty handed to receive of His goodness, on the other hand we should never appear before Him empty, but come with the fat of our sacrifices, offering praise and glorifying God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1469.cfm

Thanksgiving in Prayer

Sherry Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God, The Father 7 Comments

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all…that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.”- Romans 1:8-9

It was natural to Paul so to thank God when he prayed. Look at Colossians 1:3-“We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.” To the same effect we read in 1Thessalonians 1:2-“We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers.” Look also at 2Timothy 1:3- “I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.” And if it be so in other epistles, we are not at all surprised to find it so in Philippians 1:3-4-“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy.” Nor need I confine you to the language of Paul’s epistle, since it is most noteworthy that in Philippi itself (and those to whom he wrote must have remembered the incident) Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God at midnight, so that the prisoners heard them. It is clear that Paul habitually practiced what he here enjoins. His own prayers had not been offered without thanksgiving; what God hath joined together he had never put asunder.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1469.cfm

Joy In the Lord, a Sea of Delight

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

Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice… – Psalm 32:11

We read in Scripture that children are to obey their parents “in the Lord.” We read of men and women being married “only in the Lord.” Now, dear friends, no child of God must go outside that ring, “in the Lord.” There is where you are, where you ought to be, where you must be. You cannot truly rejoice if you get outside that ring; therefore, see that you do nothing which you cannot do “in the Lord.” Mind that you seek no joy which is not joy in the Lord; if you go after the poisonous sweets of this world, woe be to you. Never rejoice in that which is sinful, for all such rejoicing is evil. Flee from it; it can do you no good. That joy which you cannot share with God is not a right joy for you. No; “in the Lord” is the sphere of your joy.

Rejoice in the Father, your Father who is in heaven, your loving, tender, unchangeable God. Rejoice, too, in the Son, your Redeemer, your Brother, the Husband of your soul, your Prophet, Priest, and King. Rejoice also in the Holy Ghost, your Quickener, your Comforter, in Him who shall abide with you for ever. Rejoice in the one God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; in Him delight yourselves, as it is written, “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” We cannot have too much of this joy in the Lord, for the great Jehovah is our exceeding joy. Or if, by “the Lord” is meant the Lord Jesus, then let me invite, persuade, command you to delight in the Lord Jesus, incarnate in your flesh, dead for your sins, risen for your justification, gone into the glory claiming victory for you, sitting at the right hand of God interceding for you, reigning over all worlds on your behalf, and soon to come to take you up into His glory that you may be with Him for ever. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus. This is a sea of delight; blessed are they that dive into its utmost depths. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2405.cfm

Beholding Christ’s Glory

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father 3 Comments

“…that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me.” – John 17:24

This is heaven’s sweetest employment, “That they may behold My glory.” O for the tongue of an angel! O for the lip of Cherubim! for one moment to depict the mighty scenes which the Christian shall behold when he seeth the glory of his Master, Jesus Christ! Let us pass as in a panorama before your eyes the great scenes of glory which you shall behold after death. The moment the soul departs from this body, it will behold the glory of Christ. The glory of His person will be the first thing that will arrest our attention. There will He sit in the midst of the throne, and our eyes will first be caught with the glory of His appearance. Perhaps we shall be struck with astonishment. Is this the visage that was more marred than that of any man? Are these the hands that once rude iron tore? Is that the head that once was crowned with thorns? Oh, how shall our admiration rise, and rise, and rise to the very highest pitch, when we shall see Him who was-

“The weary Man, and full of woes
The humble Man before His foes,”

now King of Kings, and Lord of Lords…I doubt not the next glory we shall see will be the glory of His enthronement. Oh, how will the Christian stop at the foot of His Master’s throne and look upward, and if there could be tears in heaven, tears of rich delight will roll down his cheeks when he looks and sees the Man enthroned. “Oh,” saith he “I often used to sing on earth Crown Him! crown Him! crown Him! King of Kings, and Lord of Lords!” And now I see Him, up those hills of glorious light, my soul doth not dare to climb. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0188.cfm

Heaven’s Sweetest Joy

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, The Father 6 Comments

“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” – John 17:24

A few more rolling suns, and you and I shall be in heaven. Go on, O Time! with thy swiftest pinions fly! A few more years, and I shall see His face. O canst thou say, my hearer, “I shall see His face?” Come, thou gray-headed one, nearing the goal of life, canst thou with confidence say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth?” If thou canst say that, it will fill thy soul with joy. I can never think of it without being moved to tears. To think that this head shall wear a crown; that these poor fingers shall strike the harp-strings of everlasting song; that this poor lip, which now faintly tells the wonders of redeeming grace, shall join with cherubim and seraphim, and rival them in melody. Is it not too good to be true? Does it not seem sometimes as if the very greatness of the thought overwhelmed our faith? But true it is, and though too great for us to receive it, it is not too great for God to give. We shall be with Him where He is. Yes, John; thou laidst thy head upon thy Saviour’s bosom once, and I have ofttimes envied thee; but I shall have thy place by-and-bye. Yes, Mary; it was thy sweet delight to sit at thy Master’s feet, while Martha was cumbered with her much serving. I too, am too much cumbered with this world; but I shall leave my Martha’s cares in the tomb and sit to hear thy Master’s voice. Yes, O spouse, thou didst ask to be kissed with the kisses of His lips, and what thou askedst for poor humanity shall yet see. And the poorest, meanest, and most illiterate of you, who have trusted in Jesus, shall yet put your lip to the lip of your Saviour, not as Judas did, but with a true “Hail, Master!” you shall kiss Him. And then, wrapped in the beams of His love, as a dim star is eclipsed in the sunlight, so shall you sink into the sweet forgetfulness of ecstacy, which is the best description we can give of the joys of the redeemed. “Father, I will that they whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” That is heaven’s sweetest joy, to be with Christ.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0188.cfm

Given to Christ by God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit 7 Comments

“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am…” – John 17:24

Answer this question-Have you given yourselves to Christ? Have you been brought, by the constraining power of His own free love, to make a voluntary surrender of yourself to Him? Have you said, “O Lord, other lords have had dominion over me; but now I reject them, and I give myself up to Thee…Little am I worth, but such as I am, I give all I have and all I am to Thee. It is true, I was never worth Thy purchasing, but since Thou hast bought me, Thou shalt have me. Lord, I make a full surrender of myself to Thee.” Well, soul, if thou hast done this, if thou hast given thyself to Christ, it is but the result of that ancient grant made by Jehovah to His son long ere the worlds were made. And, once again, canst thou feel to-day that thou art Christ’s? If thou canst not remember the time when He sought thee and brought thee to Himself, yet canst thou say with the spouse “I am my Beloved’s?” Can you now from your inmost soul say, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee!” If so, trouble not your minds about election, there is nothing troublesome in election to you. He that believes is elected, he who is given to Christ now, was given to Christ from before the foundation of the world. You need not dispute divine decrees, but sit down and draw honey out of this rock, and wine out of this flinty rock. Oh, it is a hard, hard doctrine to a man who has no interest in it, but when a man has once a title to it, then it is like the rock in the wilderness, it streams with refreshing water whereat myriads may drink and never thirst again.

Again, I say, be not cast down, neither let your hearts be disconsolate. If you be given to Christ now, you are among the happy number for whom He intercedes above, and you shall be gathered amongst the glorious throng, to be with Him where He is, and to behold His glory. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0188.cfm