Your Most Important Concern

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved… – Acts 16:31

Procrastination often comes in to cause the solemnities of the Gospel to seem less serious. “There is plenty of time,” we say. “We are quite young as yet and we have many years in which to think of these things.” Where the sere and yellow leaf is beginning to fall, there is something else to put away thoughts of eternity. There is another daughter to be married, so a few more hundreds of pounds must be saved up for her. And then when you have retired to your country house, you will think about “making your peace with God”—as if it were nothing to you that you are “condemned already” because you have “not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,” and as if it were a matter of no importance to be an enemy of God and to be unsaved for 50 or 60 years of sin—as if it were a small thing to have the leprosy of sin still eating into your immortal spirits!

We live in vain if we do not live unto God and if we do not live by faith in Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior. “Live in vain,” did I say? It were better for you, dear Hearers, and for me, that we had never been born if we should live and die without faith in Jesus Christ! You may neglect your business, you may neglect what you will—but do not neglect your souls. First, first, FIRST—beyond and before everything else—must be the matter of your own personal salvation! On board a vessel that is going down, a man may forget his luggage and many precious treasures that he has with him. It is for his life that he is concerned. Even Satan spoke the truth for once when he said, “Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has will he give for his life.” Let it be so with you in the highest sense. Make your soul your first care, for what shall it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul? So the first thing for you to do is to follow Christ for life, for salvation—looking to Him by faith, in obedience to the Apostolic command, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.”

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

Delight in Jesus

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. – Colossians 3:2

You who are in business and mix with the world by the necessity of your callings must find it difficult to keep quite clear of the dragging down influences of this poor world—it will hamper you if it can. You are like a bird which is always in danger when it alights on the earth. There are twigs and traps and nets and guns, and a poor bird is never safe except upon the wing and up aloft. Yet birds must come down to feed, and they do well to gather their meal in haste and take to their wings again.

When we come down among men we must speedily be up again. When you have to mix with the world and see its sin and evil, yet take heed that you do not light on the ground without your Father. And then, as soon as ever you have picked up your barley, rise again—away, away, for this is not your rest! You are like Noah’s dove flying over the waste of waters—there is no rest for the sole of your feet but on the ark with Jesus!

Fence out the world! Let us chase away the wild boar of the woods and let the vines bloom and the tender grapes give forth their good smell and let the Beloved come and walk in the garden of our souls while we delight ourselves in Him and in His heavenly gifts. Let us not carry our burden of things below…Put these away, Beloved, for we are risen with Christ and it is not right that we should wander among the tombs! No, rather let us sing unto the Lord a new song and praise Him with our whole soul.

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

These Sweet Thoughts

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. – Colossians 3:2

Need I press upon you, Beloved, to set your love upon the Well-Beloved? …I know you love Him! Fix your mind on Him, then. Often meditate upon His Divine Person, His perfect work, His mediatorial Glory, His second coming, His glorious reign, His love for you, your own security in Him, your union with Him! Oh, let these sweet thoughts possess your breasts, fill your mouths and influence your lives. Let the morning break with thoughts of Christ and let your last thought at night be sweetened with His Presence. Set your affection upon Him who has set His affection upon you!

And what else is there above that our hearts should love but Heaven itself? It is the place of holiness! Let us so love it that we begin to be holy here. It is the place of rest—let us so delight in it that by faith we enter into that rest! O my Brothers and Sisters, you have vast estates which you have never seen—and I think if I had an estate on earth which was soon to be mine, I would wish to take a peep over the hedge now and then. If I could not take possession, I should like to see what I had in reversion. I would make an excuse to pass that way and say to any who were with me, “That estate is going to be mine before long.”

In your present poverty console yourselves with the many mansions. In your sickness delight much in the land where the inhabitants shall no more say, “I am sick.” In the midst of depression of spirit comfort your heart with the prospect of unmixed felicity…What? Are you fettered to earth? Can you not project yourself into the future? The stream of death is narrow—cannot your imagination and your faith leap over the brook to stand on the other shore awhile and cry, “All is mine and mine forever! Where Jesus is there shall I be! Where Jesus sits there shall I rest. ‘Far from a world of grief and sin, with God eternally shut in’”?

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

Set Your Affection

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Father

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. – Colossians 3:2

“Set your affection.” These words do not quite express the meaning, though they are as near it as any one clause could well come. We might render it thus—“Have a relish for things above” or, “Study industriously things above” or, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” That which is proper enough for a dead man is quite unsuitable for a risen one! Objects of desire which might suit us when we were sinners are not legitimate nor worthy objects for us when we are made saints. As we are quickened, we must exercise life and, as we have ascended, we must love higher things than those of earth.

What are these “things above” which we should set our affection upon? I ask you, now, to lift your eyes above yonder clouds and this lower firmament to the residence of God. What do you see there? First, there is God Himself. Make Him the subject of your thoughts, your desires, your emotions, your love. “Delight yourself, also, in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” “My Soul, wait only upon God, for my expectation is from Him.” Call Him, “God my exceeding joy.” Let nothing come between you and your heavenly Father! What is all the world if you have not God and when you once have God, what matters it though all the world is gone? God is all things and when you can say, “God is mine,” you are richer than Croesus. O to say, “Whom have I in Heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside You”! O to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength—that is what the Law required—but it is what the Gospel enables us to render.

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

Live According to Your Risen Nature

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. – Colossians 3:1

If you, then, are risen with Christ, live according to your risen nature, for your life is hid with Christ in God. What a magnet to draw us towards Heaven should this fact be—that Christ sits at God’s right hand! Where should the wife’s thoughts be when her husband is away but with the absent and beloved one? You know, Brothers and Sisters, it is not otherwise with us—the objects of our affection are always followed by our thoughts. Let Jesus, then, be as a great loadstone, drawing our meditations and affections towards Himself. He is sitting, for His work is done, as it is written, “This Man, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.” Let us rise and rest with Him! He is sitting on a Throne. Observe His majesty! Delight in His power and trust in His dominion.

He is sitting at the right hand of God in the place of honor and favor. This is a proof that we are beloved and favored of God, for our Representative has the choicest place, at God’s right hand! Let your hearts ascend and enjoy that love and favor with Him. Take wing, my thoughts, and fly away to Jesus! My Soul, have you not often said, “Woe is me that I dwell in Meshach and tabernacle in the tents of Kedar! Oh, that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly away and be at rest”? Now, then, my Soul, here are wings for you! Jesus draws you upward! You have a right to be where Jesus is, for you are married to Him! Therefore, let your thoughts abide with Him, rest in Him, delight in Him, rejoice in Him and yet again rejoice!

The sacred ladder is before us, Brothers and Sisters, let us climb it, until, by faith, we sit in the heavenlies with Him. May the Spirit of God bless these words to you.

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon

Glory!

Sherry sermon

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

Sermon Text

Seek the Things That Are Above

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. – Colossians 3:1

Let us be practical and in very deed seek the things that are above—seek them because we feel we need them. Seek them because we greatly prize them. Seek them because we hope to gain them; for a man will not heartily seek for that which he has no hope of obtaining. The things which are above, which we are even now to seek, are such as these—let us seek heavenly communion, for we are no more numbered with the congregation of the dead, but we have fellowship in Christ’s Resurrection and with all the risen ones. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” and, “our conversation is in Heaven.” Let us seek to walk with the living God and to know the fellowship of the Spirit. Let us seek heavenly Graces, for “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” Let us seek more faith, more love, more patience, more zeal—let us labor after greater charity, greater brotherly kindness, greater humbleness of spirit.

Let us labor after likeness to Christ, that He may be the firstborn among many brethren. Seek to bear the image of the heavenly and to wear those jewels which adorn heavenly spirits. Seek also heavenly objectives. Aim at the Glory of God in everything. You have to labor and toil in this world for you are yet in the body—take care to use worldly things to God’s Glory. Exercise your privileges and fulfill your duties as before God, not minding the judgment of men. Wherein you mingle with the sons of men, take heed that you descend not to their level, nor act from their motives. You are not to seek your own selfish ends or the aggrandizement of a party, but to promote the general good and the interests of truth, righteousness, peace and purity. Sanctify everything by the love of God and your neighbor. Seek no party ends, but things which are pure and honest and of good report.

Following the Risen Christ by C. H. Spurgeon