What more could they desire?
(Charles Simeon) LISTEN to Audio! Download Audio
"The Lord God is a sun and a shield.
The Lord will give grace and glory.
No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly!
O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in You!" Psalm 84:11-12
God will not withhold anything that is truly good from His redeemed people—those who walk uprightly!
If wealth and honor were good for them here below, then God would give it to them. If God withholds earthly good things from His people now, He does it because He knows that those things would not, on the whole, be good for them. He who gave His own Son to die for them, will assuredly give them all other things that will promote their eternal welfare. They shall never lack anything for time or eternity—that is truly good for them.
To have the Lord God Himself for their sun to guide them, their shield to defend them; and to have all the blessings of grace and glory ensured to them by the unalterable promise of Jehovah—what more could they desire? Let every upright soul then rejoice, for he is exceedingly blessed, and shall be exceedingly blessed forever!
"We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose!"
"He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all all—then how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:28, 32
But alas! In what a pitiable state are unbelievers! The know nothing of that unreserved devotedness to God which characterizes the true Christian.
Is God then a sun to them?
Is He not rather a cloud of darkness to them; or rather, I should say, a consuming fire? Hebrews 12:29
Is God a shield to them?
Is He not rather, their irresistible adversary?
Will God give them grace and glory?
Shall He not instead visit them with wrath and fiery indignation?
Will God withhold nothing good from them?
Is there not rather a time shortly coming, when they shall not have so much as a drop of water to cool their tormented tongue?
O that men would consider this!
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We have published Grace Gems for OCTOBER 2023 in one file.