Is the Harp Never to Give Forth a Joy-Note?

November 6, 2021October 11, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

…when they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were they thankful. – Romans 1:21

Some live in the presence of God, so they tell us, and they are full of divine delights, but yet they are greatly afflicted with aches and pains, and all the dolors of rheumatism, and therefore they murmur. I admit that rheumatism is a dreadful pain enough, but at the same time to dwell always on the dark side of things, and to forget our mercies, is a sad instance of ingratitude. We are few of us as thankful as we ought to be; and there are some people who are not thankful at all, for instead of a song concerning their mercies, their life is one long dirge for their miseries. Must we always hear the sackbut? Is the harp never to give forth a joy-note?

Some show their unthankfulness by fretting under their supposed ills. They know from Scripture that even their afflictions are working for their good, yet they do not rejoice in the prospect, or feel any gratitude for the refining process through which the Lord is passing them. Heaven and perfection are left unsung, but the present processes are groaned over without ceasing. Their monotonous note is always this pain, this loss, this burden, this uncomfortable sensation, this persecution from the world, this unkindness from the saints, and so on; all this goes to show that, though they know God, they do not glorify Him as God, neither are they thankful.

We can be guilty of unthankfulness, also, by never testifying to the goodness of God. A great many people come in and out of your houses; do you ever tell them about God’s goodness to you? Did you ever take up a single ten minutes with the tale of the Lord’s lovingkindness to you? Oh, what backwardness there is to testify to God as God, and to all His goodness and love! Our mouths are full of anything rather than the goodness of the Lord. Shame on our wicked lips! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm

Inexcusable Unthankfulness

November 5, 2021October 11, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful… – Romans 1:20, 21

Unthankfulness is a sin for which there is no excuse if it be attended with knowledge. I tremble both for myself and you when I see want of thankfulness thus set in the front rank of sins.

There is in some a want of gratitude for mercies possessed. They receive many blessings without making a note of them, or even seeming to know that they have them. The Lord continues to bless them in things temporal, to keep them in health and strength, ay, and to give them the means of grace and spiritual opportunities; and they live as if these things were so commonplace that they were not worth thanking God for. Many professors are of that kind, recipients of countless mercies, but destitute of such common thankfulness as even beast might manifest. From them God hears no song of gratitude, no chirp of praise, though birds would charm the woodlands with their minstrelsy: these are worse than the dumb driven cattle, or the fishes in the brook, which do at least leap up, and mean their Maker’s praise.

God deliver us from such a state of heart as that; and may we never, in any of these senses, be found amongst those professors, of whom it is said that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm

If God Be Our Master…

November 4, 2021October 11, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. – Romans 6:13

If I glorify God as God, then I desire to obey God’s commandments, to spread His glory, to magnify His name. I desire in all things to please Him, if indeed I treat Him as God should be treated. If I know God, and yet live for my own profit, for my own honour, for my own comfort, then I do not glorify God as God. When the Lord is glorified as God, we yield ourselves to His control without a murmur. He may take what He will away from us, and we say, “It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good.” He may remove every comfort from us, and cover us with sore boils and blains, but we shall sit down with Job upon the dunghill, and say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” We shall feel the force of Elijah’s cry, “If the Lord be God, follow Him.” We shall rouse ourselves to the utmost energy to serve Him when He stands before us as really God. If we serve man and are faithful, we do the best we can for our master; but if God be our Master, oh, what service we are bound to render to Him! What enthusiasm ought to be kindled in our breast by the belief that we are God’s servants! “I am Thy servant,” is our happy claim, our honoured challenge. This it is that makes a man of a man, and something more than man. Oh, to learn this lesson, and to practise it! To glorify God as God will make us akin to angels! Even you Christians may feel that this is much beyond you yet, but towards it you must ever fly. I shrink before my Lord in speaking of Him, but I desire what I have not yet attained-that I may truly glorify Him as my Lord and my God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm

Trust the Merciful God

November 3, 2021October 11, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

The LORD redeemeth the soul of His servants: and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate. – Psalm 34:22

…when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God… – Romans 1:21

In revelation God has presented Himself as the object of trust to His creatures, and He has promised that all who trust in Him shall be forgiven their transgressions through the atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ. Such as trust Him He declares shall be saved; and he sends out a messenger of mercy to all mankind, proclaiming-“He that believeth in Him is not condemned.” He bids sinners come and trust under the shadow of His wing; and He declares that none that come to Him will ever be cast out. Revealing Himself in Christ Jesus, He pleads with guilty men. Asking nothing of them, He entreats them to accept His mercy, which He freely presents to them without money and without price. Making no distinction in the gospel-call, He bids men come to Him, saying, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and besides Me there is none else.” When proud man replies, “No, I shall trust in myself, trust in my own works, trust in my own prayers, but I shall not trust in Christ,” then he knows God, but he glorifies him not as God, and when he perishes he will be without excuse. What kind of God is that whom we will not trust? How do we honour Him when we refuse to believe Him? Do we accept His Godhead, and yet refuse His mercy? This cannot be. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm

He Is God Over All

November 2, 2021October 11, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life 4 Comments

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. – Philippians 2:13

I lay this charge against many professing Christians-that their God is not the God of the Bible, and that they have no notion of Jehovah, the true God. The one God of heaven and earth is Jehovah-that God who said of old, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” Certain professed followers of Jesus will not have this God, but they make to themselves a god who is under some degree of obligation to his sinful creatures, of whom they say that he is bound to treat all alike. These are guilty of robbing Divinity of its most majestic attribute, namely, sovereignty. They are for dictating to the King of kings, and tying the hands of infinite compassion, lest the supreme will of God should have too much liberty. I know of no such God as that: the God I worship can never do other than right, yet is He under no bond to His creatures, but ordereth all things according to the counsel of His own will. I believe that if the Lord had denied me mercy, I had so sinned that I could never have impugned His justice. When I see Him save a sinner, I look not at it as a deed which He was bound to do, but as a spontaneous act, free as the air, full of His own goodness which arises entirely from Himself. “He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth.” I, for one, am perfectly satisfied with everything that God does, whether of power, justice, or mercy. My heart says, “It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good.”

The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob is the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and in Him my soul delights. Let Him sway His sceptre even as He pleases. His will be done on earth even as it is in heaven. ~ C.H. Spurge on

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm

Fitly Adore God

November 1, 2021October 11, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God… – Romans 1:21

Many may be met with who know God, but never glorify Him as God, because they never adore Him, and worship Him, with the love of their hearts. They go to church or to some place of worship regularly, and sing psalms and hymns, and they may even have family-prayer at home; but their heart has never adored the living God with living love. Their worship has a name to live, but it is dead. They present to the Lord all the eternal harvest of worship, but the corn is gone, only the straw and the husk are there. And what is the value of your husky prayers? Your prayers are without a kernel, made up of the straw of words, and the chaff of formality? What is the value of professions of loyalty from a rebel? What is the worth of professed friendship to God when your heart is at enmity against Him? Is it not a mockery of God to present to Him a sacrifice “where not the heart is found”? When the Lord has to say, “They come as My people, and they sit as My people, and they sing as My people, but their heart is far from Me”, can He take any pleasure in them? May not God thus complain of many? Oh, let it not be so with you! Oh, my brethren, if we accept Jehovah as the living God, let us give Him the utmost love of our souls. Will you call a man brother, and then treat him like a dog? Dare you call God your God, and then act towards Him as though He were not worthy of a thought. With what joy does David cry, “I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds”! This is the kind of spirit with which to deal with the Lord. Oh, to rejoice in God all the day, and to make Him our exceeding joy! Thus, and thus only, do we glorify Him as God. Without the fire of love no incense will ever rise from the censer of praise. If we do not delight in God we do not fitly adore God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1763.cfm