Everything Ordered By God

We are not as those who believe in two co-existent forces, each supreme, one of whom shall create disasters, and the other shall distribute blessings. The prince of evil is, according to our faith, subordinate to the great Lord of all. Thus saith Jehovah, by the mouth of his servant Isaiah, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and I create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”

He reigneth in the calm summer’s day, and gives us the precious fruits of harvest, but he is equally present and regnant in the hurricane which destroys, or the blight which desolates. His providence speeds the ship to its desired haven, but it is equally his providence which sinks the barque and its mariners to the bottom of the sea. It is his power which looses the bands of Orion and binds the sweet influence of the Pleiades; his are the lightnings as well as the sunbeams, the thunderbolts as well as the raindrops. He is able to make the heaven as iron and the earth as brass, so that our land shall not yield her increase; he can call for a famine and break the whole staff of bread; for famine, pestilence, and war are as rods in his hand.

Everywhere is God, and in all things his hand is present: in the things which seem to us to be evil as well as in the events which appear to us to be good, God is at work. He doeth no wrong, for God is not tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man, but we speak of physical evil, which causeth sorrow, pain, and death among men, and we say that certainly God is there. If not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our Father, we are sure that no great calamity can befall us apart from him. He is not far from us in our deepest sorrow, and however we may trace a calamity to the carelessness or the mistake of men, these are but the second causes, and we see behind all mere detail the permit of the Lord. If it were not so, mourners would be deprived of the greatest reason for submission, and the surest source of consolation.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Divine Interpositions," delivered September 8, 1878. Image by Steven Bratman on Flickr under Creative Commons License, without alteration.

But when He shall be manifested

All power is given unto him in heaven and in earth, and therefore are we to proclaim his life-giving word with full assurance of success. He causes the wheel of providence to revolve in such a manner as to help his cause; he abridges the power of tyrants, overrules the scourge of war, establishes liberty in nations, opens the mysteries of continents long unknown, breaks down systems of error, and guides the current of human thought. He works by a thousand means, preparing the way of the Lord. It is from heaven that he shall shortly come, and when he cometh, when Christ himself shall put forth all his might then shall the wilderness rejoice and the solitary place be glad. The reserve force of the gospel is Christ Jesus himself. The latent power which shall at last break every bond, and win universal dominion, is the energy, the life, the omnipotence of Jesus himself. He sleeps in the vessel now, but when he arises and chides the storm there will he a deep calm. He now for awhile concealeth himself in the ivory palaces of glory, but when he is manifested in that day his chariot wheels shall bring victory to his church militant.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Jesus Christ Himself," delivered December 9, 1877. Image by Teo on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Trusting in His mighty aid

While carnal men say “seeing is believing,” we assure them that to us “believing is seeing.” We turn their saying upside down, our faith is eye and ear, and taste and touch to us, it is so mighty in us that we do not only know that there is a God, but we regard him as the great motive force of the universe, and daily calculate upon his mighty aid. Hence it is the Christian’s habit to fall back upon God in all time of faintness, to cry to God in all time of danger: he does not pray because he thinks it a pious though useless exercise, but because he believes it to be an effectual transaction, the potent pleading of a child with its parent, rewarded with loving grants of blessing.

The believer does not look up to heaven because it is a natural instinct to hope for better days, and to cheer one’s self with a pious fiction about providence, but he looks up to heaven because God is actually there, truly observant, tenderly sympathetic, and ready with a mighty arm to come to the rescue of his people. So, then, because it is our wont to wait upon the Lord, we go to him in troublous days as a matter of course. We do not make him an occasional resort to be used only when we cannot help it, but we dwell in him, and morning by morning pour out our hearts before him; and so when adversity comes, we fly to God as naturally as the dove to its dovecote, or the coney to the rock, or the weary child to its mother’s bosom. The nautilus, when disturbed, folds up its sails and sinks into the depths, and even so in every hour of storm we descend into the deeps of divine love. Blessed is that man whose spirit looks to God alone at all times. Let us each one ask his own heart — is this my case? And if we can answer aright, let us sing with Madame Guyon —

“Ah then! to his embrace repair;
My soul, thou art no stranger there;
There love divine shall be thy guard,
And peace and safety thy reward.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Singular Title And A Special Favor," delivered July 12, 1874. Image by Jerry Kirkhart on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Trust Your Father in Heaven!

You have been unable to trust God to give you day by day your daily bread, and therefore you have been craving for what you call “some provision for the future.” You want a more trusty provider than providence, a better security than God’s promise. You are unable to trust your heavenly Father’s word, a few bonds of some half bankrupt foreign government you consider to be far more reliable; you can trust the Sultan of Turkey, or the Viceroy of Egypt, but not the God of the whole earth!

In a thousand ways we insult the Lord by imagining “the things which are seen” to be more substantial than his unseen omnipotence. We ask God to give us at once what we do not require at present, and may never need at all; at bottom the reason for such desires may be found in a disgraceful distrust of him which makes us imagine that great stores are needful to ensure our being provided for. Brethren, are you not to blame here, and do you expect the Lord to aid and abet your folly? Shall God pander to your distrust? Shall he give you a heap of cankering gold and silver for thieves to steal, and chests of garments to feed moths? Would you have the Lord act as if he admitted the correctness of your suspicions and confessed to unfaithfulness? God forbid!

Expect not, therefore, to be heard when your prayer is suggested by an unbelieving heart: “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Conditions of Power in Prayer," delivered March 23, 1873. Image by Tom BKK on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

He empowers you where you are

Work on, dear friend, and wait on, for it is no business of yours to correct your Maker’s arrangements. He who placed you where you now are, knew what he was at. Look at your infirmities with another eye. No longer allow them to distress you; but the rather glory in them because they afford room and space for the divine power to rest in you and work by you. Listen no more to the wailings of your trembling flesh, which cries, “Alas, I am weak,” but hear the voice of him who saith “I am God Almighty.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Life, Walk and Triumph of Faith." Image by Robert S. Donovan on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

He has provided!

The Lord our God has provided for us in Christ, for all the necessities that can occur, for he has foreknown all these necessities. “I knew that thou wouldst be this and that.” Oh, is your heart heavy this morning? God knew it would be: there is the comfort that your heart wants already treasured in the promise. Seek the promise, believe it and obtain it. Do you feel, this morning, that you never were so consciously vile as you are now? Behold, the crimson fountain is open still with all its former efficacy to wash your sin away. Never shall you come into such a position that Christ cannot aid you. No pinch shall ever come in your spiritual affairs in which Jesus Christ shall not be equal to the emergency, for it has all been foreknown and provided for in him.

A man goes a journey across the desert, and when he has made a day’s advance and he pitches his tent, he discovers that he wants many comforts and necessaries, which he has not brought in his baggage. “Ah!” says he, “I did not foresee this: if I had this journey to go again, I should bring these things with me, so necessary to my comfort.” But God has foreseen all the necessities of his poor wandering children, and when those needs occur, supplies will be found ready. “My grace is sufficient for thee.” “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.”

From a sermon entitled "God's Foreknowledge of Man's Sin," delivered November 3, 1867. Image by Keven Law under Creative Commons License.

Thy face, Lord, will I seek

When the Creator saith, “Seek ye my face,” it is the natural duty of the creature to reply, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” And the more is this so, because our Creator renews our obligations hourly, by exercising his sustaining power, and maintaining our existence. In a certain sense we are “created” every day, because the creature would go back to its native nothingness, our bodies would return to the dust, and our spirits would expire, if it were not for a continued action of divine omnipotence, by which we are retained in being. Being, therefore, every day, dependent upon the Preserver of men, it is but an every-day obligation that when God saith, “Seek ye my face,” the daily debtor should cheerfully reply, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

If any should say that this is not a duty on such grounds, I would reply that the commands of God are always so good, and so reasonable, that it must be the duty of man to obey them. If it were possible for the Most High to command anything unrighteous, or unreasonable, the question of his claims might be raised; but since what the word of God commands is always most to our interest, at once the wisest and the best thing that we could possibly do, it becomes the duty of a rational and an intelligent being to follow the wise, loving, and tender counsels of the great God; and when his heavenly Father bids him seek his face, he should readily answer, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

From a sermon entitled "The Echo." Image by topher76 under Creative Commons License.

The breadth of His love

Do you not think, however, that we most of us fail to see the breadth of Christ’s love in matters of providence? You know what is meant by the breadth of a man’s mind, the breadth of his thought, when he can consider a great many subjects at once, when he has the ability to accomplish many designs and many purposes with one stroke. Now, the breadth of the Savior’s love is just this: there is no part of his people’s interests, which he does not consider, and there is nothing, which concerns their welfare which is not important to him.

Not merely does he think of you, believer, as an immortal being, but as a mortal being too. Do not deny it or doubt it; the very hairs of your head are all numbered. There is nothing that concerns his beloved that is unimportant to our Lord. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way.” It were a sad thing for us if this river of love did not cover all our concerns, for what mischief might be wrought for us in that part of our business which did not come under our gracious Lord’s inspection! Oh! believer, rest assured that the heart of Jesus concerns itself about, your meaner affairs; your buying and selling he cares for, your counter and counting-house, your ships and your carts and your horses, and your barley, and your wheat, and your hay, and your straw; your children, your little ones, and everything which concerns you concerns him also. The breadth of his tender love is such that you may go to him in all matters; for in all your afflictions he is afflicted, and like as a father pitieth his children, so doth he pity you.

From a sermon entitled "Heavenly Geometry," delivered August 19, 1866. Image by Dawn Endico under Creative Commons License.

Delivered from wrath!

The wrath of God is the thunderbolt which scathes the soul; and now that you are delivered from that tremendous peril, you must not be overwhelmed with the few showers and gales which Providence sends you. A God of love inflicts our sorrows: he is as good when he chastens as when he caresses: there is no more wrath in his afflicting providences than in his deeds of bounty. God may seem unkind to unbelief, but faith can always see love in his heart. Oh! what a mercy that Sinai has ceased to thunder!

From a sermon entitled "The Barley-Field On Fire," delivered April 3, 1864. Flickr photo by Nad Renrel; some rights reserved.

God will guide us

In the great and in the little, Jehovah reigneth. Standing in the chariot of providence he holds the reins, and when the coursers seem to be wild and to know no bit or bridle, he guideth them according to his will. O rest thou in this, believer: he shall guide thee with his counsel. But this counsel also represents the written word - his decree is his counsel, his written Word is our counsel, his counsel to us.

Happy is the man who has God’s word always to direct him! What would the mariner be without his compass? What would the Christian be without the Bible? This is the unerring chart, the map in which every shoal is described, and all the channels from the port of destruction to the haven of salvation mapped, and marked by one who has sailed along the sea. Blessed, blessed be thou, O God, that we may trust thee to guide us now and guide us even to the end!

From a sermon entitled "Flesh And Spirit - A Riddle," delivered August 31, 1862. Flickr photo by Louise Docker; some rights reserved.

Let your enemies be scattered!

Are you serving God in some particular work where many are seeking to undo all that you can accomplish?... Does it seem that what you do in one day is undone in one hour by others? Take it to the throne of grace. Say, “Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered.”

Have you a great purpose conceived within your soul, and does providence seem to stand in the way of its accomplishment? Has the Lord commanded you to some special work, and do friends discourage and enemies abuse? This prayer may suit you: “Rise up, Lord.” It needs but that God should make bare his arm; his uprising is enough. As Luther said when opposing the Church of Rome — “They are not strong; God can overthrow them with his little finger.” And so say you. All the foes of the Church with all their battlements behind which they are entrenched are nothing.

From a sermon entitled "The March," delivered March 31, 1861. Flickr photo by Minette Layne; some rights reserved.

The very hairs of your head are all numbered

I believe my text means literally what it says.

“The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

God’s wisdom and knowledge are so great, that he even knows the number of the hairs upon our head. His providence descends to the minute particles of dust in the summer gale, he numbers the gnats in the sunshine, and the fishes in the sea. While it certainly doth control the massive orbs that shine in heaven, it doth not blush to deal with the drop that trickles from the eye.

From a sermon entitled "Providence," delivered April 11, 1858.

Flickr photo by Christian Abend ; some rights reserved.

Take God for your compass

When we get into trouble the first thing we do is to knock at our neighbour’s door. “Have you heard about my trouble? Come and give me your advice.” If your neighbor were prudent he would say, “My brother, have you gone to God first? I will give you no advice till God has given you his counsel?” It is laughed at as an enthusiastic idea that men should ever take counsel of God. “Oh,” say some, “it is superstitious to imagine that God will ever give to his people guidance in their temporal affairs.” It would be superstitious to you perhaps; but it is not to a David, and it is not to any other child of God. He says, “My soul, wait only upon God.”

Christian, if you would know the path of duty take God for your compass; if you would know the way to steer your ship through the dark billows, put the tiller into the hand of the Almighty. Many a rock might be escaped, if we would let God take the helm; many a shoal or quicksand we might well avoid, if we would leave to his sovereign will to choose and to command. The old Puritans said, “As sure as ever a Christian carves for himself he’ll cut his own fingers;” and that is a great truth. Said another old divine, “He that goes before the cloud of God’s providence goes on a fool’s errand;” and so he does. We must mark God’s providence leading us; and then let us go. But he that goes before providence will be very glad to run back again.

Take your trouble, whatever it is, to the throne of the Most High and on your knees put up the prayer, “Lord, direct me.” You will not go wrong.

From a sermon entitled "Waiting Only Upon God," delivered August 2, 1857.

Flickr photo by Mel; some rights reserved.

He Cares For You

“He careth for you.”

Believe in an universal providence, the Lord cares for ants and angels, for worms and for worlds; he cares for cherubim and for sparrows, for seraphim and for insects. Cast your care on him, he that calleth the stars by their names, and leadeth them out by numbers, by their hosts. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and thinkest, O Israel, "My way is passed over from God and he has utterly forgotten me?” Let his universal providence cheer you.

Think next of his particular providence over all the saints. “Precious shall their blood be in his sight.” “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose.” Let the fact that while he is the Savior of all men, he is specially the Savior of them that believe, let that cheer and comfort you, that special providence which watches over the chosen, “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him.”

And then, thirdly, let the thought of his special love to you be the very essence of your comfort. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” God says that as much to you as he said it to any saint of old. “Fear not, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” Oh! I would beloved, that the Holy Ghost would make you feel the promise as being spoken to you; out of this vast assembly forget the rest and only think of yourself, for the promises are unto you, meant for you.

From a sermon entitled "A Cure For Care," delivered January 12, 1862.

Photo by Renata Diem; some rights reserved.

Our help is in the Name of the Lord

Photo by Mark Waters, some rights reserved

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 124:8)

Our Creator is our preserver. He is immensely great in his creating work; he has not fashioned a few little things alone, but all heaven and the whole round earth are the works of his hands. When we worship the Creator let us increase our trust in our Comforter. Did he create all that we see, and can he not preserve us from evils which we cannot see? Blessed be his name, he that has fashioned us will watch over us; yea, he has done so, and rendered us help in the moment of jeopardy. He is our help and our shield, even he alone. He will to the end break every snare. He made heaven for us, and he will keep us for heaven; he made the earth, and he will succour us ripen it until the hour cometh for our departure. Every work of his hand preaches to us the duty and the delight of reposing upon him only. All nature cries, "Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah there is everlasting strength." "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

From "The Treasury of David," exposition of Psalm 124.

Consider the goodness of God in creation

Consider the goodness of God in creation. Who could ever tell all God's goodness there? Why, every creek that runs up into the shore is full of it where the fry dance in the water. Why, every tree and every forest rings with it; where the feathered songsters sit and make their wings quiver with delight and ecstasy. Why, every atom of this air, which is dense with animalculae, is full of God's goodness. The cattle on a thousand hills he feeds; the ravens come and peck their food from his liberal hands. The fishes leap out of their element, and he supplies them; every insect is nourished by him. The lion roars in the forest for his prey, and he sendeth it to him. Ten thousand thousand creatures are all fed by him. Can you tell, then, what God's goodness is? If you knew all the myriad works of God, would your life be long enough to make all God's creative goodness pass before you?

From a Sermon (No. 3120) published on November 26th, 1908.