Obey God’s Word as God’s Word

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

…speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward…- Exodus 14:15

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” That word was sufficient guide. Suppose they had said, “Lord, we will go forward if the fiery pillar leads us forward, but not else.” What then? Why, they would have been rebels. We are to obey God’s Word as God’s Word. I heard a brother say some time ago that he should be baptized when it was laid home to him. I thought of what a father would say to his boy if he said, “Father, I shall obey you if it is laid home to me.” In all probability the child would have it laid home to him more feelingly than he desired. There are some disobedient children in the Lord’s family who, if they do not mind, will have scriptures laid home to them in a way they do not quite reckon upon. What have you and I to guide us but the word of the Lord? “Well,” says one, “I guide myself by outward providences.” Do you? You will get into a terrible maze one of these days. Jonah wanted to flee from the presence of the Lord, and therefore he went down to the seaside, and lo, he found a ship going to Tarshish. Might he not have said, “I must be in the way of duty in going to Tarshish, for no sooner did I go down to the wharf than I found a ship starting immediately, and a cabin vacant for a passenger. I paid my fare and walked on board at once. I had not to go off to the shipping-agent’s, and wait for the next liner, but all was prepared for me. Was not that a providence!” Yes, but if you get following providence, and turning aside from the Word, you may soon find yourself in the sea, and no whale prepared for you. Our way is clearly set before us in the Word of God, and that most sure word of testimony should be followed…True believers expect difficulties. It is ours to do what we are bidden to do, not to act according to fancied indications of providence. When the Lord said “Forward!” forward Israel must go, without a fiery cloudy pillar to cheer the way. Has not the Lord spoken? Who shall ask for plainer guidance? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1793.cfm

God the Wonder-Worker 

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You who are King of kings and Lord of lords, we worship You. Before Jehovah’s awful throne we bow with sacred joy.

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God Never Spoils His Children

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

And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them… – Exodus 14:19

So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground…And it came to pass, in the morning watch, the LORD looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. – Exodus 14:22,24

Faith performs her greatest feats in the darkest places. These Israelites were to do what after all was a grandly glorious thing for them to do, -to march right down into the heart of the sea. What people ever did this before? Modern haters of miracles may say that they passed over the sands at an unusual tide, and that an extraordinarily strong wind drove back the water and left a passage, but that is not the notion of the Holy Spirit. He says by His servant Moses, “The floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.” It is also written, “But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.” The tribes went down into the dread valley which remained when the waters dried up, and they crossed over between two frowning walls of water. You and I would have needed great faith to have gone down into such an abyss as that, but they descended without fear. Moses lifting up his rod and the waters rolling apart to make them a passageway, with no fiery cloudy pillar in front of them, they calmly marched into the heart of the sea. That was a grand act of faith. This would not have been so clearly of faith had the way been made easier by miracle and token. I know some of you who are Christian people want to be always coddled and cuddled, like weakly babies…and be wheeled in a spiritual perambulator all the way to heaven, but your heavenly Father is not going to do anything of the sort. He will be with you, but He will try your manhood and so develop it. God never spoils His children… Beloved, you and I lose the enjoyments of religion and the comforts of hope in order that we may walk by faith and not by sight and may the more greatly glorify God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1793.cfm

Look Back!

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

And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. – Exodus 14:19

Earnestly I desire you to think of this. If you cannot see the Lord bright before you, and you are very dull and heavy, then, I pray you, look back and see how the Lord has helped you hitherto. Sit not down with your eyes shut but look back! Steadily observe the past! What see you there? Loving-kindness and tender mercy, and nothing else. As I look back upon my own past life-and I think I am not one by myself-I cannot discover, even with the quick eye of selfishness, anything of which I can complain of my God. “Truly God is good to Israel.” “His mercy endureth for ever.” Not one good thing hath failed; He has never left me, nor forsaken me. I have received blessings through my joys, and even greater blessings through my sorrows. The Lord’s way has been all goodness, undiluted goodness, all the while. I look back and see the light of His presence shining like the sun at noon; it is as a morning without clouds, I am overwhelmed with the boundless bounty of my God. I am unable to conceive of anything more kind than the heart of God towards His unworthy child. Well, then, God is not far away, if we look backward, He is there. He has been mindful of us; He will bless us. He gave us mercies yesterday; and He is the same today and for ever. The blessings of last night we have not forgotten; the blessings of this morning, are they not still with us? The fountain will not fail: it has flowed too long for us to raise the question. If there be no light breaking in the east, behold, it is lighting up the western sky. The Lord is evidently still behind us, and it is enough; for we can sing, “The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.” “He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1793.cfm

Thy Rock, Thy Safeguard, Thy Watcher

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

And the Angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them… – Exodus 14:19

…the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. – Isaiah 58:8

The Angel of the Lord had removed, but it is added, He “removed and went behind them,” and He was just as close to them when He was in the rear, as when He led the van. He might not seem to be their guide, but He had all the more evidently become their guard. He might not for the moment be their Sun before, but then He had become their Shield behind. “The glory of the Lord was their reward.” The Lord may be very close to thee, dear child, when thou canst not see Him, perhaps closer than ever He was when thou couldst see Him. The presence of God is not to be measured by thy realization of it. When thou canst not tell that He is with thee at all, and thou art sighing and crying after Him, those very sighs and cries after Him are the holy fruit of His secret presence. It may be, the day shall come when thou shalt think that He was more near thee when thine eyes were filled with weeping after Him, than when thou didst take thine ease, and speak confidently.

That glorious Angel, shrouded in the clouds, stood with His drawn sword in the rear of Israel, saying to Pharaoh, “Thou darest not come further, thou canst not break in upon My chosen.” He lifted up His vast shield of darkness, and held it up before the tyrant king, so that he could not strike, nay, could not see. All that night his horses champed their bits but could not pursue the flying host. “They were as still as a stone till Thy people passed over, O Lord, till Thy people passed over whom Thou hadst purchased.” It is glorious to think that the Lord stood there, and the furious enemy was compelled to halt. Even thus the Lord remaineth with the dear child of God. Thou canst not see anything before thee to make thee glad, but the living God stands behind thee to ward off the adversary. He cannot forsake thee… He standeth fast as thy rock, steadfast as thy safeguard, sleepless as thy watcher, valiant as thy champion. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1793.cfm

All Trouble is Not Chastisement

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

And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them. – Exodus 14:19

It is true, and does happen, that the Lord often hides His face behind the clouds of dust that His own children make by their sins; but this is not always the case. When the consolations of God are small with you, you may generally conclude that there is some secret sin with you: and then it is your duty to cry, “Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me.” But in this case God was not punishing the Israelites for their sins, as He did on after occasions. He seems to have been very patient with their early murmurings, because they were such feeble folk, so unused to pilgrimage, and so unfit for anything heroic. Every trial was severe to the raw, undisciplined spirits of the tribes, and therefore the Lord winked at their follies. There was not a touch of the rod about this withdrawing of His presence from the van, not even a trace of anger; it was all done in loving-kindness and tender mercy, and no sort of chastisement was intended by it. So, dear child of God, you must not always conclude that trouble is sent because of wrath, and that the loss of conscious joy is necessarily a punishment for sin. Such thoughts will be a case of knives cutting your heart in pieces. Do not make for yourself a needless pain. All trouble is not chastisement; it may be a way of love for your enriching and ennobling. Upon the black horse of trouble, the Lord sends His messengers of love. It is a good thing for us to be afflicted; for thus we learn patience and attain to assurance. Shall the champion who is bidden to go to the front of the battle think that he is punished thereby? No, verily, my brethren: whom the Lord loveth He sets in the heat of the conflict, that they may earn the rarest honors. Great suffering and heavy labor are often rewards of faithfulness. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1793.cfm

Removed Yet Moved

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

And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed… – Exodus 14:19

God never leaves us, but we sometimes think He has done so. The sun shines on, but we do not always bask in its beams; we sometimes mourn an absent God-it is the bitterest of all our mourning. As He is the sum total of our joy, so His departure is the essence of our misery. If God does not smile upon us, who can cheer us? If He be not with us, then the strong helpers fail, and the mighty men are put to rout. If we see no cloud or flame, yet may we know that God is with us, and His power is around us. According to our text, “The angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed.” The chosen of the Lord may lose the manifested presence of God; and, indeed, often they may miss it in the particular form in which they have been accustomed to enjoy it… Aforetime everything had seemed bright, and we expected to go from strength to strength, from victory to victory, till we came unto the mount of God, to dwell for ever in His rest; but now before us on a sudden things look dark; we do not feel so sure of heaven as we were, nor so certain of perpetual growth and progress… Sometimes you also may imagine that God’s promise is failing you; even the word of God which you had laid hold upon may appear to you to be contradicted by your circumstances. Then your heart sinks to the depths, for “if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” …When the cloud of the divine glory is no longer seen in front it has gone behind, because it is more wanted there, and it is no loss after all. When the Lord hides His face for a moment, it is to make us value His face the more, to quicken our diligence in following after Him, to try our faith, and to test our graces… Oh, my Lord, if ever Thou dost leave me, forsake me not in the day of trouble. Yet what have I said? It is a day of trouble when Thou art gone, whatever my condition may be. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1793.cfm