Attributes of God

O ye guilty, the gospel is meant for you!

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

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God… – Hebrews 10:11,12

“This man,” says the Apostle, “offered one sacrifice for sins for ever.” If thou wouldst have peace of heart, thou must get it only from this one glorious person, the Christ of God…There must be no looking anywhere but to Jesus, not in any measure or degree. He who looks partly to Jesus, and partly to himself, looks not to Christ at all. If a man shall put one foot upon the land and the other on the sea—the foot that is on the land will not avail him, he must certainly fall, because his other standing place is weak. If a chain be made strong enough to bear huge weights in every portion except one link, yet as we all know its strength is not to be measured by the stronger portions, but by the weak link; and if you have one weak link in your hope, if you are resting in anything you are or hope to be, or can do or feel, that one weak link will snap and ruin you for ever.

“None but Jesus, none but Jesus,
Can do helpless sinners good.”

From top to bottom, from foundation to pinnacle, our hopes must be in the work of Jesus, and we must trust in Him alone, or else we shall build in vain. “Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid.” Other hope beneath the skies there is none. O soul, learn the uselessness of looking to anything but Christ; but be thou assured of this, if thou wilt look to Him, and to Him alone, He will put away thy sin, nay, He has done it by the sacrifice of Himself. O ye guilty, the gospel is meant for you. If there be any of you who are innocent and pure, and without spot, for you I have no words of consolation; but oh, ye sinners, the gospel is for you, for you the priesthood and the substitution of Jesus, for you His death on earth, for you His reign and power in heaven. This fact ought to encourage every trembling conscience…The gospel has for its special aim and intent the putting away of sin, and therefore it is suitable to your case.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

He Fulfilled the Ancient Promise

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

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel. – Genesis 3:16

But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. – Hebrews 10:12,13

Observe carefully the result of His offering with regard to His enemies. He sits there “expecting till they be made His footstool.” They are crushed already; sin, which is the sting of death, has been removed, and the law which was the strength of sin has been satisfied. Sin being put away by Christ’s death, He has effectually broken the jaw teeth of all His enemies. When Jesus Christ offered Himself unto God, He fulfilled that ancient promise, “The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” Christ has set His foot upon the old dragon’s head and crushed out his power. Still, however, a feeble fight is kept up; feeble, I say, for so it is to Christ, though to us it seems vigorous. Sin and Satan within us, and all Christ’s enemies without us, including death itself, are vainly raging against the Christ of God, for every day they are being put beneath His feet; every day as the battle rages the victory turns unto the enthroned Christ. In us I trust sin has been put beneath Christ’s feet; in thousands of others, it shall yet be so. Jesus upon the throne expects the growth of that victory till all His enemies shall be utterly and ignominiously beaten. “O long expected day, begin!” Father, fulfill Thy Son’s expectations, for Thy saints expect it in Him. Let the time come when every enemy shall be beneath His feet.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

He is All Sufficient

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

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God… – Hebrews 10:11,12

The twelfth verse says, “this Man.” The word “man” is not in the original; it is “this,” “this Priest,” if you will; “this Man,” if you please; but its vagueness may make us think that the apostle scarcely knew what to say. You see the stars and the moon in their brightness, but suddenly they are all eclipsed and lost in a superior light. What can this glory be which has paled their fires? It is the sun rising in his strength. So, while we are beholding the priesthood of Aaron with all its excellence, it suddenly ceases to shine, because of the glory which excelleth, the radiant presence of One, for whom, like heaven’s manna, it is not easy to find one fully descriptive name. Shall we call Him “man?” Blessed be His name; He is so, our near kinsman, the “Son of Man.” Shall we call him “priest?” He is so. Blessed be His name; He is the true Melchisedec. Shall we call him “God?” Well may we do so, for He counts it not robbery to be equal with God. But this one divinely mysterious person—this unique and solitary High-priest, accomplishes what the many priests of Aaron’s race could not compass. They were weak, but He is all sufficient. He has wrought out eternal redemption and made an end of sin.

Note well, that none stand with Him at the altar; none is appointed to aid Him, neither before Him nor after Him is there one to share His office. He is without father, without mother, without predecessor, and without successor. He stands alone and by Himself, this glorious One who looked and there was no man, and therefore His own arm brought salvation; He trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with Him. Jesus, the sole sacrificing priest of our profession, has completed what the long line of the Levitical priesthood must have left for ever incomplete.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

Come to Jesus as Sinful as You Are

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

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us…If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. – 1John 1:8,10

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. – Galatians 6:7

Beloved friends, suppose we have tried to appear before God what we are not, God has not been deceived, for He is not mocked. We may get up a very respectable character to please ourselves, and give it a few touches every now and then, just to set it off and improve it, and we may find a number of people to join with us to form a mutual admiration society, and our friends may cheerfully hear us talk about what wonderful beings we are, provided we will sit and hear them glorify themselves in return: but neither with one witness nor a thousand witnesses will our boasts be one jot more true, or likely to be believed in heaven. God is not misled, He looks at all boasters of their own purity, and says, “When you say you have no sin you make Me a liar, and My word is not in you, for if the truth were in you, you would know that sin is in you; and if My word were in you, you would also confess that you have sinned, and humble yourselves before Me.”

I exhort thee, sinner, to give up all thine attempts to feel right and to be right before coming to God in Christ Jesus. Have you not made a great failure of it already? You thought you were getting right for Christ, but just then you fell in the worst possible way. You have been trying to repair your old clothes and make yourself respectable before coming to Christ; but every time you have touched the garment the rent has grown worse. Give up all attempting to prepare for grace and come to Jesus Christ just as you are. ..Jesus Christ came, not to save the righteous, but sinners…May the Spirit of God help you to come to your heavenly Father on the ground of truth, confessing that you have sinned—that is the truth for you; and on the ground that Christ died for sinners—that is the truth on God’s side which enables Him to smile on sinners.

Honest Dealing with God by C. H. Spurgeon

Caught In Christ’s Net

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. – 1John 1:9

Religious lie-telling is a dreadful thing, and there is plenty of it; but if I could be saved by masking my condition before God, I would not like to be saved in that way. The man whose heart is in the light loves to do the right. It would be a great dishonor to God to suppose it possible that He will save us in any manner which would not accord with truth. It is right that we should come before God as we are and plead for mercy through Jesus Christ and therefore let us do it.

Moreover, upon some of us it is imperative, because we cannot do anything else. There may possibly be a person here who could say, “I have no sin”; but I could not. Why, if I were to claim innocence either of nature or practice the words would choke me. Say I have no sin! I should expect to turn black in the face and fall down dead, it would be so gross a falsehood. To say I have no sin, why there is no one part of my whole nature but what would protest against such an assertion! I am shut up to come to God as a sinner, I cannot help it; and I would to God that every one in this place felt shut up to it too, for it is the intent and design of the law to shut the sinner up in order that he may be compelled to accept salvation on free grace terms through Jesus Christ. You can never catch a fish in a net while there is one mesh through which he can escape, but when all around the meshes are so small that the fish cannot get out, then we have taken him. When you are such a sinner that you cannot plead that you have no sin, nor yet that you have not sinned, but are quite shut up to be saved by grace, then you are in Christ’s net, and He will lift you out, and the Fisher of Men shall have cause to rejoice.

Honest Dealing with God by C. H. Spurgeon

Remember and Confess All of Your Sins

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, repentance, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1John 1:9

O my friends, lay bare your consciences before the law of God. Go and open the twentieth chapter of Exodus and read the ten commands; think of their spirituality,—remember how he that looketh on a woman to lust after her committeth adultery with her in his heart; and let the law with all its blaze of light flash flame into your soul. Do not shirk the facts or shrink from knowing their full force, but feel the power of the condemning law. Then recollect your individual sins; recall them one by one: those greater sins, those huge blots upon your character, do not try to forget them. If you have forgotten them, raise them from the grave and think them over, and feel them as your own sins. Do not lay them at the door of anyone else. Do not look at circumstances in order to find an alleviation for your guilt, but set them in the light of God’s countenance…Think of your sins of omission, your failures in duty, your shortcomings in spirit. Repent of what you have done, and what you have not done. How both these forms of iniquity may stagger and humble you! Think of your sins of heart. How cold has that heart been towards your Savior! Your sins of thought, how wrongly your mind has often judged; your sins of imagination, what filthy creatures your imagination has portrayed in lively colors on the wall. Think of all the sins of your desires and delights and hopes and fears. What faculty is there that has not been defiled? “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.” We are bound to confess the aggravations of our sin, how we sinned against light and against knowledge, against conscience, and against divine love, against the monitions of the Holy Spirit, against tender warnings which came from His gentle voice…I beseech you, dear hearer, try to fix your eye on Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice, and live as a believer in Him, and this will make you live as a constant confessor of sin; for when the wounds of Jesus speak peace they also preach penitence, and when the atonement gives us rest it also makes us meek and lowly in heart under a sense of abiding faultiness…Thus, may you daily, as long as ever you live, confess sin and find cleansing from all.

Honest Dealing with God by C. H. Spurgeon

The Double Cure

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

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1John 1:9

Suppose you go to a surgeon because you have some deadly polypus or cancer growing upon you: you want to have it removed, and you know there are a great many physicians who will profess to cure such things, but in reality, only give temporary ease. From all these you keep clear. You are well aware that if only a little root of the growth should be left it will grow again. So, you say outright to the surgeon, “Sir, there is my disease; I will tell you all the symptoms of it: I only ask to have a thorough cure, cost me what it may in money or pain. I make no reserve, do just whatever you feel is best in the case, but make clean work of it. If you have the knife in your hand, do not spare it out of pity for my pain, but be just with me, cut out the disease, roots and all, so that it may be a complete cure.” Even in the same manner, go to the Lord, and say, “Lord, there is my sin, I confess it all; do not suffer me to have any peace unless it is true peace, do not let me have any comfort unless I get it from Christ; and if there must be more conviction of sin and more alarm of conscience, if there must be deeper gashes and sterner cuts into my soul, Lord, do not spare me; be pleased to purge me from the secret depravity of my nature, and make me pure. Thy holiness is what I crave after, and I cannot be satisfied till Thou make me holy, even as Thou art holy.” This is the way to plead with God, and the only way. Confess the sin, and then He will be faithful and just to give you the double cure, namely, first, the forgiveness, and next, the cleansing from all unrighteousness.

What a blessing it is that the Lord will be faithful and just to you in the cleansing of you from all the sinfulness of your nature. I pray you deal honestly with God and say to Him, “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults; Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts Thou wilt make me to know wisdom, purge me, therefore, O Lord, and I shall be clean.”

Honest Dealing with God by C. H. Spurgeon