God Always Hears

Mic 7:7  Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

Friends may be unfaithful...

But the LORD will not turn away from the gracious soul...

On the contrary, He will hear all its desires. 

The prophet says,  Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. 

A man's enemies are the men of his own house.

This is a wretched state of affairs...

But even in such a case the Best Friend remains true, and we may tell Him all our grief.

Our wisdom is to look unto the LORD and not to quarrel with men or women. 

If our loving appeals are disregarded by our relatives, let us wait upon the God of our salvation, for He will hear us.

He will hear us all the more because of the unkindness and oppression of others...

And we shall soon have reason to cry, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy!"

Because God is the living God, He can hear; because He is a loving God...

He will hear; because He is our covenant God...

He has bound Him-self to hear us. 

If we can each one speak of Him as "My God," we may with absolute certainty say, "My God will hear me."

Come, then, O bleeding heart, and let thy sorrows tell themselves out to the LORD thy God!

I will bow the knee in secret and inwardly whisper, "My God will hear me."

~Charles Spurgeon~

Deliverance From The Snare

Psalm 91:3  Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

God delivers his people from the snare of the fowler in two senses...

From, and out of...

First, he delivers them from the snare-does not let them enter it...

And secondly, if they should be caught therein, he delivers them out of it. 

The first promise is the most precious to some; the second is the best to others.

He shall deliver thee from the snare.

How?

Trouble is often the means whereby God delivers us. 

God knows that our backsliding will soon end in our destruction, and he in mercy sends the rod. 

We say, “Lord, why is this?”...

Not knowing that our trouble has been the means of delivering us from far greater evil. 

Many have been thus saved from ruin by their sorrows and their crosses...

These have frightened the birds from the net.

At other times, God keeps his people from the snare of the fowler by giving them great spiritual strength...

So that when they are tempted to do evil they say, “How can I do this great wickedness, and
sin against God?”

But what a blessed thing it is that if the believer shall, in an evil hour, come into the net, yet God will bring him out of it! 

O backslider, be cast down, but do not despair.

Wanderer though thou hast been, hear what thy Redeemer saith...

Return, O backsliding children; I will have mercy upon you...

But you say you cannot return, for you are a captive.

Then listen to the promise...“Surely he shall deliver thee out of the snare of the fowler.”

Thou shalt yet be brought out of all evil into which thou hast fallen...

And though thou shalt never cease to repent of thy ways, yet he that hath loved thee will not cast thee away...

He will receive thee, and give thee joy and gladness...

That the bones which he has broken may rejoice.

No bird of paradise shall die in the fowler’s net.

~Charles Spurgeon~

God's Enemies Shall Bow

Exodus 7:5  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.  

The ungodly world is hard to teach. 

Egypt does not know Jehovah and therefore dares to set up its idols and even ventures to ask, "Who is the LORD?"

Yet the LORD means to break proud hearts, whether they will or not. 

When His judgments thunder over their heads...

Darken their skies, destroy their harvests, and slay their sons, they begin to discern somewhat of Jehovah's power. 

There will yet be such things done in the earth as shall bring skeptics to their knees. 

Let us not be dismayed because of their blasphemies, for the LORD can take care of His own name, and He will do so in a very effectual manner.

The salvation of His own people was another potent means of making Egypt know that the God of Israel was Jehovah, the living and true God.

No Israelite died by any one of the ten plagues. 

None of the chosen seed were drowned in the Red Sea. 

Even so, the salvation of the elect and the sure glorification of all true believers will make the most obstinate of God's enemies acknowledge that Jehovah, He is the God.

Oh, that His convincing power would go forth by His Holy Spirit in the preaching of the gospel...Till all nations shall bow at the name of Jesus and call Him LORD!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Even The Faintest Call

Why do I not call on His name?

Why do I run to this neighbor and that when God is so near and will hear my faintest call?

Why do I sit down and devise schemes and invent plans! 

Why not at once roll my- self and my burden upon the LORD?

Straightforward is the best runner -- why do I not run at once to the living God?

In vain shall I look for deliverance anywhere else...

But with God I shall find it; for here I have His royal "shall" to make it sure.

I need not ask whether I may call on Him or not, for that word whosoever is a very wide and comprehensive one. 

Whosoever means me, for it means anybody and everybody who calls upon God. 

I will therefore follow the leading of the text and at once call upon the glorious LORD who has made so large a promise.

My case is urgent, and I do not see how I am to be delivered; but this is no business of mine. 

He who makes the promise will find out ways and means of keeping it.

It is mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels. 

I am His servant, not His solicitor. 

I call upon Him, and He will deliver me.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Christ Sometimes Delays His Help

Son 5:6  I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

The Lord, when He hath given great faith, hath been known to try it by long delayings.

He has suffered His servants voices to echo in their ears as from a brazen sky.

They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained unmovable, as though it were rusted upon its hinges.

Like Jeremiah, they have cried, "Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through."

Thus have true saints continued long in patient waiting without reply...

Not because their prayers were not vehement...

Nor because they were unaccepted...

But because it so pleased Him who is a Sovereign, and who gives according to His own pleasure.

If it pleases Him to bid our patience exercise itself, shall He not do as He will with His own!

No prayer is lost.

Praying breath was never spent in vain.

There is no such thing as prayer unanswered or unnoticed by God...

And some things that we count refusals or denials are simply delays.

~H. Bonar~
     
Christ sometimes delays His help that He may try our faith and quicken our prayers. 

The boat may be covered with the waves, and He sleeps on; but He will wake up before it sinks. 

He sleeps, but He never oversleeps; and there are no "too lates" with Him.

~Alexander Maclaren~
     
Be still, sad soul!

Lift thou no passionate cry...

But spread the desert of thy being bare To the full searching of the All-seeing eye...

Wait!

And through dark misgiving, black despair...

God will come down in pity...

And fill the dry Dead place with light, and life, and vernal air.

~J. C. Shairp~

Divine Recompense

Pro 11:25  The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.  

If I carefully consider others, God will consider me...

And in some way or other He will recompense me. 

Let me consider the poor, and the LORD will consider me. 

Let me look after little children, and the LORD will treat me as His child. 

Let me feed His flock, and He will feed me. 

Let me water His garden, and He will make a watered garden of my soul. 

This is the LORD's own promise; 

Be it mine to fulfill the condition and then to expect its fulfillment. 

I may care about myself till I grow morbid...

I may watch over my own feelings till I feel nothing...

And I may lament my own weakness till I grow almost too weak to lament.

It will be far more profitable for me to become unselfish...

And out of love to my LORD Jesus begin to care for the souls of those around me. 

My tank is getting very low; no fresh rain comes to fill it...

What shall l do... 

I will pull up the plug and let its contents run out to water the withering plants around me.

What do I see? 

My cistern seems to fill as it flows. 

A secret spring is at work. 

While all was stagnant, the fresh spring was sealed... 

But as my stock Rows out to water others the LORD thinketh upon me. 

Hallelujah!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Help From Without

Yesterday's promise secured us strength for what we have to do, but this guarantees us aid in cases where we cannot act alone. 

The LORD says, "I will help thee." 

Strength within is supplemented by help without. 

God can raise us up allies in our warfare if so it seems good in His sight...

And even if He does not send us human assistance...

He Himself will be at our side...

And this is better still. 

Our August Ally is better than legions of mortal helpers.

His help is timely...

He is a very present help in time of trouble. 

His help is very wise...

He knows how to give each man help meet and fit for him. 

His help is most effectual, though vain is the help of man. 

His help is more than help, for He bears All the burden and supplies All the need.

The LORD is my helper, I will not fear what man can do unto me.

Because He has already been our help, we feel confidence in Him for the present and the future.

Our prayer is, "LORD, by thou my helper"...

Our experience is, "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities"...

Our expectation is, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, whence cometh my help"...

And our song soon will be, "Thou, LORD, hast holden me."

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Achan Factor

Joshua 7:20  And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:

Joshua 7:21  When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

The Achan factor is significant.

There were two things connected with Achan's sin, or which were the forms of expression which that sin took.

There was the wedge of gold, and the Babylonish garment.

The wedge of gold incidentally is of interest, inasmuch as it has been discovered that wedges of gold, not coins, formed the currency of that part of the world at that time.

Business was transacted, and payments were made in this way, and, in a word, credit hung upon these wedges of gold.

It was one of those wedges of gold representing the commercial values of this world which Achan took.

The Babylonish garment, on the other hand, is a foreign element, which has proved to have been a link with a religious system, the Babylonish religious system...

For that Babylonish garment was nothing other than something connected with the system of worship in Babylon.
 
It might have been a garment of a priestess.

The gold was claimed by Jehovah.

When the city was taken it was commanded that the gold should be devoted to the Lord for His purposes...

That is, the Lord laid claim to the gold...

And all the gold was the Lord's property, the Lord's by right.

Achan, therefore, appropriated what belonged to the Lord, and sought to turn it to his own account.

That is what the flesh Always does.

The flesh Always takes to itself the glory that belongs to the Lord.

The flesh is Always taking God's rights from Him.

The flesh is Always putting itself in the place of the Lord.

As to the Babylonish garment: that was a part of the whole system of things which was to be utterly destroyed from the Lord...

And it represented a spiritual order which was in antagonism to God...

A worship which was energized by the god of this world, his religious system, in usurping God's place as God...

And that whole system, with every accompaniment, every feature, was to be utterly destroyed.

But Achan preserved something which was a representation of a spiritual antagonism to God as the only God...

So that Achan's sin was a Very Deep Sin.

You see how inclusive Jericho was, in that its every feature foreshadowed, or represented, what the conquest of the land was to be.

The judgment of Achan's sin showed that God had first rights...

And the flesh must not appropriate what belongs to God...

Must not take God's place.

It showed that the land represents a false spiritual system which had to be blotted out...

And not one fragment of it left to survive.

When Achan took the Babylonish garment he was violating a law which had to govern the conquest of the land...

And he became the enemy's instrument of breaking into the Divine order, so that Jericho gathered up everything through the whole land.

We are told in the Book of the Acts that the Lord cast out seven nations greater than Israel.

The "seven" of Jericho is symbolic of the seven nations which are to be destroyed, and they are virtually destroyed in Jericho.

Thus you have the flesh as energized by Satan...

And Calvary's inclusive victory over the whole.

That is what Jericho speaks of to begin with.

~T. Austin Sparks

Absolute Assurance

Heb 13:5  Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Several times in the Scriptures the LORD hath said this. 

He has often repeated it to make our assurance doubly sure.

Let us never harbor a doubt about it. 

In itself the promise is specially emphatic. 

In the Greek it has five negatives, each one definitely shutting out the possibility of the LORD's ever leaving one of His people so that he can justly feel forsaken of his God. 

This priceless Scripture does not promise us exemption from trouble, but it does secure us against desertion.

We may be called to traverse strange ways, but we shall always have our LORD's company, assistance, and provision. 

We need not covet money, for we shall always have our God, and God is better than gold; His favor is better than fortune.

We ought surely to be content with such things as we have, for he who has God has more than all the world besides. 

What can we have beyond the Infinite? 

What more can we desire than almighty Goodness. 

Come, my heart; if God says He will never leave thee nor forsake thee, be thou much in prayer for grace that thou mayest never leave thy LORD, nor even for a moment forsake His ways. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Stand Still

Exo 14:13  And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

These words contain God's command to the believer when he is reduced to great straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties. 

He cannot retreat; he cannot go forward; he is shut upon the right hand and on the left. 

What is he now to do?

The Master's word to him is "stand still."

It will be well for him if, at such times, he listens only to his Master's word, for other and evil advisers come with their suggestions.

Despair whispers, "Lie down and die; give it all up." 

But God would have us put on a cheerful courage, and even in our worst times, rejoice in His love and faithfulness.

Cowardice says, "Retreat; go back to the worldling's way of action; you cannot play the Christian's part; it is too difficult. Relinquish your principles."

But, however much Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it, if you are a child of God. 

His Divine fiat has bid thee go from strength to strength, and so thou shalt, and neither death nor hell shall turn thee from thy course. 

What if for a while thou art called to stand still; yet this is but to renew thy strength for some greater advance in due time.

Precipitancy cries, "Do something; stir yourself; to stand still and wait is sheer idleness." 

We must be doing something at once--we must do it, so we think-instead of looking to the Lord, who will not only do something, but will do everything.

Presumption boasts, "If the sea be before you, march into it, and expect a miracle." 

But faith listens neither to Presumption, nor to Despair, nor to Cowardice, nor to Precipitancy, but it hears God say, "Stand still," and immovable as a rock it stands.

Stand still...keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice...

And it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, Go forward.

~Charles Spurgeon~
     
 Be quiet! why this anxious heed About thy tangled ways?
 
God knows them all. He giveth speed And He allows delays.

Tis good for thee to walk by faith And not by sight.

Take it on trust a little while. 

Soon shalt thou read the mystery aright In the full sunshine of His smile.

In times of uncertainty, wait. 

Always, if you have any doubt, wait. 

Do not force yourself to any action. 

If you have a restraint in your spirit, wait until all is clear, and do not go against it.

Christmas Is Coming!

Jer 10:1  Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

Jer 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

Christmas is coming! Quite so-but what is "Christmas?"

Does not the very term itself denote it's source, "Christ-mass." 

It is of Roman origin, brought over from paganism.

But, says someone, "Christmas is the time when we commemorate the Savior's birth."

It is?

And who authorized such commemoration?

Certainly God did not.

The Redeemer bade His disciples to "remember" Him in His death...

But there is not a word in Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, which tells us to celebrate His birth. 

Moreover, who knows when, in what month, He was born?

The Bible is silent thereon.

And WHO is it that celebrates "Christmas?" 

The whole "civilized world." 

Millions who make no profession of faith in the blood of the Lamb, who "despise and reject Him". 

We would ask: Is it fitting that Christ's friends should unite with His enemies in a worldly round of fleshly gratification? 

Does any true believer really think that He whom the world cast out, is either pleased or glorified by such participation in the world's joys?

Truly, the customs of the people are vain! It is written, "You shall not follow a multitude to do evil." Exodus 23:2

Some will argue for the "keeping of Christmas" on the ground of "giving the kiddies a good time." 

But why do this under the cloak of honoring the Savior's birth?

Why is it necessary to drag in His holy name in connection with what takes place at that season of carnal jollification?

There are those who do abstain from some of the grosser carnalities of the "festive season"--yet are they nevertheless in cruel bondage to the prevailing custom of "Christmas".

In the sight of God, the circus and the theater are far less obnoxious than the "Christmas celebration" of Romish and Protestant "churches."

Why? Because the latter are done under the cover of the holy name of Christ-the former are not.

You shall not follow a multitude to do evil.

Ah, it is an easy thing to float with the tide of popular opinion...

But it takes much grace, diligently sought from God, to swim against it. 

Yet that is what the heir of Heaven is called on to do: "Do not be conformed to this world"...to deny self, take up the cross, and follow a rejected Christ.

Our final word is to the pastors...

To you the Word of the Lord is, "You should be an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12). 

Is it not true, that the most corrupt "churches" you know of, where almost every fundamental of the faith is denied--will have their "Christmas celebrations?"

Will you imitate them?

Seek grace to firmly but lovingly set God's truth on this subject before your people, and announce that you can have no part in following Pagan, Romish, and worldly customs!

~Arthur Pink~

And Then He TurnsThe Picture!

He told them this parable: The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.

He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops!' 

Then he said, This is what I will do.

I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

And I will say to myself: You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. 

Take life easy-eat, drink and be merry!
 
But God said to him, You fool!

This very night your life will be demanded from you. 

Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
 
This is how it will be with anyone who stores up treasure for himself-but is not rich toward God. Luke 12:16-21

Let us mark in these verses-what a withering exposure our Lord makes of the folly of worldly-mindedness.

He draws the picture of a rich man of the world, whose mind is wholly set on earthly things. 

He paints him scheming and planning about his property, as if he was master of his own life, and had but to say, "I will do a thing"-and it would be done.

And then He turns the picture-and shows us God requiring the worldling's soul, and asking the heart-searching question, "You fool!...

This very night your life will be demanded from you. 

Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?

Folly, he bids us to learn-nothing less than folly, is the right word by which to describe the conduct of the man who thinks of nothing but his money. 

The man who "stores up treasure for himself-but is not rich toward God"...is the man whom God declares to be a fool!

It is a solemn thought, that the character which Jesus brings before us in this parable, is far from being uncommon. 

Thousands in every age of the world have lived continually doing the very things which are here condemned! 

Thousands are doing them at this very day! 

They are laying up treasure upon earth-and thinking of nothing but how to increase it.

They are continually adding to their hoards, as if they were to enjoy them forever-and as if there was no death, no judgment, and no world to come!

And yet these are the men who are called clever, and prudent and wise!

These are the men who are commended, and flattered and held up to admiration!

Truly the Lord does not see, as man sees! 

The Lord declares that rich men who live only for this world, are utter fools!

Let us pray for rich men. Their souls are in great danger!

Heaven, said a great man on his death-bed, "is a place to which few kings and rich men come."

Even when converted, the rich carry a great weight, and run the race to Heaven under great disadvantages. 

The possession of money has a most hardening effect upon the conscience. 

We never know what we may do-if we were to become rich. 

1Ti 6:10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Poverty has many disadvantages-but riches destroy far more souls than poverty!

~J. C. Ryle~

Do Men Make Their Own Gods?

One great besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry...

And we who are the spiritual Israel are vexed with a tendency to the same folly! 

We no longer bow down to sticks and stones but Mammon still intrudes his golden calf...

And the shrines of pride are not forsaken.  

SELF in various forms, struggles to subdue the chosen ones under its dominion...

And the flesh sets up its altars wherever it can find space for them.

Children are often the cause of much sin in believers.

The Lord is grieved when He sees us doting upon them above measure...

They will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to David, or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate.

If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows...let them dote on their children! 

It is truly said that "they are not gods," for the objects of our foolish devotion are very doubtful blessings...

The solace which they yield us now is dangerous...

And the help which they can give us in the hour of trouble is little indeed.

Why, then, are we so bewitched with vanities?

We pity the poor heathen who adore a god of stone and yet worship a god of gold! 

Where is the vast superiority between a god of wood and one of flesh? 

The principle, the sin, the folly is the same in either case...

Only that in our case the crime is more aggravated because we have more light...

And sin in the face of it.

The heathen bows to a false deity but he has never known the true God.

But we commit two evils, inasmuch as we forsake the living God and turn unto idols!

May the Lord purge us all from this grievous iniquity!

The dearest idol I have known, Whatever that idol be; Help me to tear it from Thy throne, And worship only Thee!

~Charles Spurgeon~

Have You Got A Heart For The LORD?

Mat 13:51  Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.
 

Mat 13:52  Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

Have you got a heart for the Lord?

Have you got a heart for the Kingdom of God?

Really, is this a heart matter?

The Lord says that if you really have a heart, that is going to mean spiritual understanding.... 

There are people whose good hearts are not rebellious to the Lord. 

They are not the people who say, "I will not have the Lord's Words." 

They make a response to the Lord, and it comes from their hearts. 

But some good people have reservations. 

Some very good people say, "Now if I go all out for the Lord, you know what my friends will think of me? 

Do you know what the people in my church would say about me?

And you know, perhaps my position in business will be interfered with. 

I must be very careful. 

I must not lose my influence with others. 

I must think about what other people will think and say. 

Now, my committee expects this of me. 

If I really go all out for the Lord, my committee will be very angry.

Perhaps they will ask me to resign.

Do you see what I mean?

Very good people, but they are influenced by policy. 

I was talking to a man once, and as I talked to him, he saw what I was meaning. 

And when I was finished, this is what he said...

Yes, Mr. Sparks, you are quite right. I quite agree with you...

But if I was to go the way that you are going, I should offend all my friends. 

And in my work for the Lord, people would begin to withdraw their support with money. 

So I must think about my people and about the Lord's work.

Very good people, very devoted to the Lord. 

There is no doubt about it that they love the Lord, but you see these reservations. 

It says about Caleb of the Old Testament, that he had another spirit, and he wholly followed the Lord....

I say to you: have you understood all these things? 

I have much more to say to you about spiritual understanding. 

But, oh, how important it is that I should have eyes to see, to see behind the things that are said and done, and see the meaning of the Lord. 

These people only heard His Words, and saw His works, but they did not understand the meaning. 

And they lost so much. 

Ask the Lord to give you spiritual understanding.

And if you don't understand, don't say, I don't understand....

Go to the Lord and say, "Lord, make me understand. Open the eyes of my heart."

That will show that you mean business with the Lord...

And if you mean business with the Lord...

The Lord will mean business with you.

~T. Austin Sparks~