What Did It Mean?

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

Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom… – Matthew 27:50,51

The more you think of the death of the Son of God, the more will you be amazed at it. As much as a miracle excels a common fact, so does this wonder of wonders rise above all miracles of power. That the Divine Lord, even though veiled in mortal flesh, should condescend to be subject to the power of death so as to bow His head on the Cross and submit to be laid in the tomb is among mysteries the greatest. Yet the rending of the veil of the temple is not a miracle to be lightly passed over. It was made of “fine twined linen, with Cherubim of cunning work.” This gives the idea of a substantial fabric, a piece of lasting tapestry, which would have endured the severest strain. No human hands could have torn that sacred covering. And it could not have been divided in the midst by any accidental cause. Yet, strange to say on the instant when the holy Person of Jesus was rent by death, the great veil which concealed the holiest of all was “rent in two from the top to the bottom.” What did it mean?

Did not the miracle also mean that from that hour the whole system of types and shadows and ceremonies had come to an end? The ordinances of an earthly priesthood were rent with that veil. In token of the death of the ceremonial Law, the soul of it quit its sacred shrine and left its bodily tabernacle as a dead thing. The legal dispensation is over. The rent of the veil seemed to say— “Henceforth God dwells no longer in the thick darkness of the Holy of Holies and shines forth no longer from between the cherubim. The special enclosure is broken up and there is no inner sanctuary for the earthly high priest to enter—typical atonements and sacrifices are at an end.”

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh… – Hebrews 10:19,20

The Rent Veil by C. H. Spurgeon

God’s Wise Way of Deliverance

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. – Matthew 27:50

…to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering…Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. – Acts 1:3,9

God’s way of delivering those who trust in Him is always the best way. If the Father had taken His Son down from the cross, what would have been the result? Redemption unaccomplished, salvation work undone, and Jesus returning with His life-work unfinished. This would not have been deliverance, but defeat. It was much better for our Lord Jesus to die. Now He has paid the ransom for His elect, and having accomplished the great purpose of atonement, He has slept a while in the heart of the earth and now has ascended to His throne in the endless glories of heaven. It was deliverance of the fullest kind; for from the pangs of His death has come the joy of life to His redeemed. It is not God’s will that every mountain should be levelled, but that we should be the stronger for climbing the Hill Difficulty. God will deliver; He must deliver, but He will do it in our cases, as in the case of our Lord, in the best possible manner.

He will deliver His chosen: the taunt of the adversary shall not cause our God to forget or forego His people. I know that the Lord will no more fail me than any other of His servants. He will not leave a faithful witness to His adversaries. “I know that my Avenger liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” Is this also your confidence? Then do not sit down in sorrow, and act as though you despaired. Quit yourselves like men. Be strong, fear not. Cast yourselves on the love that never changeth and never fainteth, and the Lord will answer all the revilings of Rabshakeh, and the blusterings of Sennacherib. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

Sharing in Jesus’ Triumph

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

“He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” – Psalm 22:8

Some of God’s servants have been bitterly persecuted, but God has delivered them. Daniel came forth from the lions’ den, and the three holy children from the midst of the burning fiery furnace. These are only one or two out of millions who trusted God and He delivered them. Out of all manner of ill the Lord delivered them. God brought this crowd of witnesses through all their trials unto His throne, where they rest with Jesus, and share the triumph of their Master at this very day.

But God’s ways of deliverance are His own. He does not deliver according to the translation put upon “deliverance” by the ribald throng. He does not deliver according to the interpretation put upon “deliverance” by our shrinking flesh and blood. He delivers, but it is in His own way. Let me remark that, if God delivers you and me in the same way as He delivered His own Son, we can have no cause of complaint. If the deliverance which He vouchsafed to us is of the same kind as that which He vouchsafed to the Only Begotten, we may well be content. Well, what kind of a deliverance was that? Did the Father tear up the cross from the earth? Did He proceed to draw out the nails from the sacred hands and feet of His dear Son? Did He set Him down upon that “green hill far away, beyond the city wall,” and place in His hand a sword of fire with which to smite His adversaries? Did He bid the earth open and swallow up all His foes? No; nothing of the kind. Jehovah did not interpose to spare His Son a single pang; but He let Him die. He let Him be taken as a dead man down from the cross and laid in a tomb. Jesus went through with His suffering to the bitter end. O brothers and sisters, this may be God’s way of delivering us. We have trusted in God that He would deliver us; and His rendering of His promise is that He will enable us to go through with it; we shall suffer to the last, and triumph in so doing. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

Despised by Men Yet Delivered by God

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

“He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” – Matthew 27:43

God does deliver those who trust in Him. God’s interposition for the faithful is not a dream, but a substantial reality. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” All history proves the faithfulness of God. Those who trust God have been in all sorts of troubles; but they have always been delivered. They have been bereaved. What a horrible bereavement was that which fell to the lot of Aaron, when his two sons were struck dead for their profanity in the presence of God! “And Aaron held his peace”! What grace was there! Thus, will the Lord sustain you also should He take away the desire of your eyes with a stroke. Grave after grave has the good man visited till it seemed that his whole race was buried, and yet his heart has not been broken; but he has bowed his soul before the will of the ever-blessed One. Thus has the Lord delivered His afflicted one by sustaining him. In other ways the bush has burned and yet has not been consumed. Remember the multiplied and multiform trials of Job. Yet God sustained him to the end so that he did not charge God foolishly but held fast his faith in the Most High. If ever you are called to the afflictions of Job, you will also be called to the sustaining grace of Job. Some of God’s servants have been defeated in their testimony. They have borne faithful witness for God, but they have been rejected of men. It has been their lot, like Cassandra, to prophesy the truth, but not to be believed. Such was Jeremiah, who was born to a heritage of scorn from those whose benefit he sought. Yet he was delivered. He shrank not from being faithful. His courage could not be silenced. By integrity he was delivered.

Godly men have been despised and misrepresented and yet have been delivered. Remember David and his envious brethren; David and the malignant Saul; David when his men spake of stoning him. Yet he took off the giant’s head; yet he came to the throne; yet the Lord built him a house. Some of God’s servants have been bitterly persecuted, but God has delivered them. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Sherry sermon 2 Comments

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

Our Faith Must Be Tested

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…let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him… – Matthew 27:43

“Let Him deliver him now.” Beloved friends, we need not be afraid of this taunt if it is brought by adversaries; for, after all, no test will come to us apart from any malice, for it is inevitable. All the faith you have will be tried. I can see you heaping it up. How rich you are! What a pile of faith! Friend, you are almost perfect! Open the furnace door and put the heap in. Do you shrink? See how it shrivels! Is there anything left? Bring hither a magnifying glass. Is this all that is left? Yes, this is all that remains of the heap. You say, “I trusted in God.” Yes, but you had reason to cry, “Lord, help my unbelief.” Brethren, we have not a tithe of the faith we think we have. But whether or not, all our faith must be tested. God builds no ships but what He sends to sea. In living, in losing, in working, in weeping, in suffering, or in striving, God will find a fitting crucible for every single grain of the precious faith which He has given us.

Yes, the test will come again and again. May the gibes of adversaries only make us ready for the sterner ordeals of the judgment to come. O my dear friends, examine your religion. You have a great deal of it, some of you; but what of its quality? Can your religion stand the test of poverty, and scandal, and scorn? Can it stand the test of scientific sarcasm and learned contempt? Will your religion stand the test of long sickness of body and depression of spirit caused by weakness? What are you doing amid the common trials of life? What will you do in the swellings of Jordan? Examine well your faith, since all hangs there. Some of us who have lain for weeks together, peering through the thin veil which parts us from the unseen, have been made to feel that nothing will suffice us but a promise which will answer the taunt, “Let Him deliver us now.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

God Will Keep His Promise

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

…let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him… – Matthew 27:43

The taunt is specially pointed and personal. It is put thus: “He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him”; “Do not come to us with your fiddle-faddle about God’s helping all His chosen. Here is a man who is one of His people, will He help him? Do not talk to us big things about Jehovah at the Red Sea, or in the Desert of Sinai, or God helping His people in ages past. Here is a living man before us who trusted in God that He would deliver him: let Him deliver him now.” You know how Satan will pick out one of the most afflicted, and pointing his fingers at him will cry, “Let Him deliver HIM.”…If one promise of God to one of His people should fail, that one failure would suffice to mar the veracity of the Lord to all eternity; they would publish it in the “Diabolical Gazette,” and in every street of Tophet they would howl it out, “God has failed. God has broken His promise. God has ceased to be faithful to His people.” It would then be a horrible reproach-“He trusted in God to deliver him, but He did not deliver him.”

If God does not deliver His servants at one time as well as another, He has not kept His promise. For a man of truth is always true, and a promise once given always stands. A promise cannot be broken now and then, and yet the honour of the person giving it be maintained by his keeping it at other times. The word of a true man stands always good: it is good now. This is logic, bitter logic, cold steel logic, logic which seems to cut right down your backbone and cleave your spine. “He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him: let Him deliver him now.” Yet this hard logic can be turned to comfort…Our God whom we serve will deliver us. We will not bow down to modern thought nor worship the image which human wisdom has set up. Our God is God both of hills and of valleys. He will not fail His servants, albeit that for a while He forbears that He may try their faith. We dare accept the test, and say, “Let Him deliver us now.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now