Attributes of God

The Matchless Sufferings of Incarnate Love

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

“With His stripes we are healed.”—Isaiah 53:5

BROTHERS AND SISTERS, whenever we come to talk about the passion of our Lord—and that subject is clearly brought before us, here, by the two words, “His stripes”—our feelings should be deeply solemn and our attention intensely earnest. Take off your shoes when you draw near to this burning bush, for God is in it! If ever the spirit should be deeply penitential and yet humbly confident, it ought to be when we hear the lash falling upon the Divine and human Person of our blessed Master and see Him wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.

Stand still, then, and see your Lord and Master fastened to the Roman column and cruelly scourged! Hear the terrible strokes. Mark the bleeding wounds and see how He becomes a mass of pain even as to His blessed body! Then note how His soul, also, is flagellated. Hark how the whips fall upon His spirit till His inmost heart is wounded with the tortures, all but unbearable, which He endures for us! I charge my own heart to meditate upon this solemn theme without a single wandering thought—and I pray that you and I may be able to think together upon the matchless sufferings of Incarnate Love until our hearts melt within us in grateful love to Him.

Remember, Brothers and Sisters, that we were practically there when Jesus suffered those terrible stripes—

“‘Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins,
His chief tormentors were!
Each of my crimes became a nail,
And unbelief the spear.”

We certainly had a share in His sorrows. Oh, that we were equally certain that “with His stripes we are healed.” You smote Him, dear Friend, and you wounded Him—therefore do not rest until you can say, “with His stripes I am healed.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2499.cfm

A Larger Hope?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

…and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen. – Revelation 1:7

It is quite certain that when Jesus comes in those latter days, men will not be expecting great things of Him. You know the talk they have, nowadays, about “a larger hope.” Today they deceive the people with the idle dream of repentance and restoration after death—a fiction unsupported by the least tittle of Scripture. If these kindreds of the earth expected that when Christ would come they would all die out and cease to be, they would rejoice that, thereby, they escaped the wrath of God! Would not each unbeliever say, “It were a consummation devoutly to be wished”? If they thought that at His coming there would be a universal restoration and a general jail delivery of souls long shut up in prison, would they wail? If Jesus could be supposed to come to proclaim a general restoration, they would not wail, but shout for joy!

Ah, no! It is because His coming to the impenitent is black with blank despair that they will wail because of Him! If His First Coming does not give you eternal life, His Second Coming will not! If you do not hide in His wounds when He comes as your Savior, there will be no hiding place for you when He comes as your Judge! They will weep and wail because, having rejected the Lord Jesus, they have turned their backs on the last possibility of hope!

Why do they wail because of Him? Will it not be because they will see Him in His Glory and they will recollect that they slighted and despised Him? They will see Him come to judge them and they will remember that once He stood at their door with mercy in His hands and said, “Open to Me,” but they would not admit Him. They refused His blood! They refused His righteousness! They trifled with His sacred name and now they must give an account for this wickedness. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1989.cfm

Will You Be Wailing or Praising?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, prophecy, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

…and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen. – Revelation 1:7

“All kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” “All kindreds of the earth.” Then this sorrow will be very general. You thought, perhaps, that when Christ came, He would come to a glad world, welcoming Him with song and music. You thought that there might be a few ungodly persons who would be destroyed with the breath of His mouth, but that the bulk of mankind would receive Him with delight. See how different— “All kindreds of the earth,” that is, all sorts of men that belong to the earth! All earth‐born men. Men out of all nations and kindreds and tongues shall weep and wail and gnash their teeth at His coming! O Sirs, this is a sad outlook! We have no smooth things to prophesy. What do you think of this?

All the kindreds of the earth shall wail—wail as a mother laments over her dead child—wail as a man might wail who found himself hopelessly imprisoned and doomed to die! Such will be the hopeless grief of all the kindreds of the earth at the sight of Christ in the clouds! If they remain impenitent, they shall not be able to be silent—they shall not be able to repress or conceal their anguish. They shall wail or openly give vent to their horror! What a sound that will be which will go up before high Heaven when Jesus sits upon the cloud and, in the fullness of His power, summons them to judgment! Then “they shall wail because of Him.”

Will your voice be heard in that wailing? Will your heart be breaking in that general dismay? How will you escape? If you are one of the kindreds of the earth and remain impenitent, you will wail with the rest of them! Unless you now fly to Christ and hide yourself in Him and so become one of the kindred of Heaven—one of His chosen and blood‐washed ones who shall praise His name for washing them from their sins—unless you do this, there will be wailing at the Judgment Seat of Christ and you will be in it! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1989.cfm

Holy Gladness and Holy Boldness

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation, Sovereignty of God Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. – Romans 12:1

What a joyful Christian you ought to be! How you should live above the common trials and troubles of the world! Since sin is forgiven, can it matter what happens to you now? Luther said, “ Smite, Lord, smite, for my sin is forgiven; if Thou hast but forgiven me, smite as hard as Thou wilt;” and in a similar spirit you may say, “Send sickness, poverty, losses, crosses, persecution, what Thou wilt, Thou hast forgiven me, and my soul is glad.” Christian, if thou art thus saved, whilst thou art glad, be grateful and loving. Cling to that cross which took thy sin away; serve thou Him who served thee. “I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Let not your zeal evaporate in some little ebullition of song. Show your love in expressive tokens. Love the brethren of Him who loved you. If there be a Mephibosheth anywhere who is lame or halt, help him for Jonathan’s sake. If there be a poor tried believer, weep with him, and bear his cross for the sake of Him who wept for thee and carried thy sins. Since thou art thus forgiven freely for Christ’s sake, go and tell to others the joyful news of pardoning mercy. Be not contented with this unspeakable blessing for thyself alone but publish abroad the story of the cross. Holy gladness and holy boldness will make you a good preacher, and all the world will be a pulpit for you to preach in. Cheerful holiness is the most forcible of sermons, but the Lord must give it you. Seek it this morning before you go into the world. When it is the Lord’s work in which we rejoice, we need not be afraid of being too glad. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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Seen By All

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

…and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him… – Revelation 1:7

Note well that He is to be seen of all kinds of living men. Every eye shall see Him—the king and the peasant, the most learned and the most ignorant. Those that were blind, before, shall see when He appears. I remember a man born blind who loved our Lord most intensely and he was known to glory in this, that his eyes had been reserved for his Lord. He said, “The first whom I shall ever see will be the Lord Jesus Christ! The first sight that greets my newly‐opened eyes will be the Son of Man in His Glory!” There is great comfort in this to all who are now unable to behold the sun. Since “every eye shall see Him,” you, also, shall see the King in His beauty!

He will be seen of those who have been long since dead. What a sight that will be for Judas and for Pilate—and for Caiaphas and for Herod! What a sight it will be for those who, in their lifetime, said that there was no Savior and no need of one—or that Jesus was a mere man and that His blood was not a propitiation for sin! Those that scoffed and reviled Him have long since died, but they shall all rise again—and rise to this heritage among the rest—that they shall see Him, whom they blasphemed, sitting in the clouds of Heaven! Prisoners are troubled at the sight of the judge. The trumpet of assize brings no music to the ears of criminals. But you must hear it, O impenitent Sinner! Even in your grave, you must hear the voice of the Son of God—and live and come forth from the tomb to receive the things done in your body—whether they were good or bad! Death cannot hide you, nor the vault conceal you, nor rottenness and corruption deliver you. You are bound to see, in your body, the Lord who will judge both you and your companions! Small pleasure is this to eyes that are full of filthiness and pride—you care not for this sight—and yet you must see it whether you please or do not please! You have up to now shut your eyes to good things, but when Jesus comes you will see Him! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1989.cfm

Every Eye Shall See Him

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

…every eye shall see Him… – Revelation 1:7

The Lord Jesus Christ will not come spiritually, for in that sense He is always here—He will come really and substantially, for every eye shall see Him—even those unspiritual eyes which gazed on Him with hate and pierced Him! Go not away and dream and say to yourself, “Oh, there is some spiritual meaning about all this.” Do not destroy the teaching of the Holy Spirit by the idea that there will be a spiritual manifestation of the Christ of God and that a literal appearing is out of the question! That would be altering the record. The Lord Jesus shall come to earth a second time as literally as He has come a first time! The same Christ who ate a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb after He had risen from the dead—the same who said—“Handle Me and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see I have”—this same Jesus, with a material body, is to come in the clouds of Heaven! In the same manner as He went up, He shall come down! He shall be literally seen. The words cannot be honestly read in any other way.

“Every eye shall see Him.” Yes, I do literally expect to see my Lord Jesus with these eyes of mine, even as that saint expected who long ago fell asleep, believing that though the worms devoured his body, yet in his flesh he would see God, whom his eyes should see for himself and not another! There will be a real resurrection of the body, though the moderns doubt it—such a resurrection that we shall see Jesus with our own eyes! We shall not find ourselves in a shadowy, dreamy land of floating fictions where we may perceive, but cannot see. We shall not be airy nothings—mysterious, vague, impalpable—but we shall literally see our glorious Lord, whose appearing will be no phantom show, or shadow dance! Never day more real than the Day of Judgement! Never sight more true than the Son of Man upon the Throne of His Glory! Will you take this statement home, that you may feel the force of it? We are getting too far away from facts, nowadays, and too much into the realm of myths and notions. “Every eye shall see Him”—in this there shall be no delusion! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1989.cfm

The Clouds

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

Ascribe ye strength unto God: His excellency is over Israel, and His strength is in the clouds. – Psalm 68:34

“Ascribe ye strength unto God: His excellency is over Israel, and His strength is in the clouds.” This was the royal token given by Daniel, the Prophet, in his seventh chapter, at the 13th verse, “I saw in the night visions and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of Heaven.” The clouds are meant to set forth the might, as well as the majesty, of His coming. Not less than Divine is the Glory of the Son of God who once had not where to lay His head! The most sublime objects in nature shall most fitly minister to the manifest Glory of the returning King of men! “Behold, He comes,” not with the swaddling bands of His Infancy, the weariness of His Manhood, the shame of His death, but with all the glorious tapestry of Heaven’s high chambers!

The clouds denote the terror of His coming to the ungodly. His saints shall be caught up together with Him in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. But to those that shall remain on earth, the clouds shall turn to their blackness and horror of darkness. Then shall the impenitent behold this dread vision—the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven. The clouds shall fill them with dread and the dread shall be abundantly justified, for those clouds are big with vengeance and shall burst in judgment on their heads! …Think clearly for a moment, until the meaning becomes real to you. Jesus Christ is coming, coming in unknown splendor! When He comes, He will be enthroned far above the attacks of His enemies, the persecutions of the godless and the sneers of skeptics. He is coming in the clouds of Heaven, and we shall be among the witnesses of His appearing! Let us dwell upon this Truth of God! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1989.cfm