Attributes of God

The Absolute Essential to True Godliness

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

Charity beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. – 1Corinthians 13:7

The grace of charity, or love, of which so much is most admirably spoken in this chapter, is absolutely essential to true godliness. So essential is it that, if we have everything beside, but have not charity, it profiteth us nothing. The absence of charity is absolutely fatal to vital godliness; so saith the Holy Ghost in this chapter. When, then, you read the apostle’s high encomiums of charity, do not say, “This is a fancy virtue to which certain special saints have attained, and we are bound to admire them for it, but we need not imitate them.” Far from it. This charity is the common, everyday livery of the people of God. It is not the prerogative of a few; it must be the possession of all. Do not, therefore, however lofty the model may be, look up to it as though you could not reach it: you must reach it. It is put before you not only as a thing greatly desirable, but as absolutely needful; for if you excelled in every spiritual gift, yet if you had not this all the rest would profit you nothing whatever. One would think that such excellent gifts might benefit us a little, but no, the apostle sums them all up, and saith of the whole, “it profiteth me nothing.” I pray that this may be understood of us at the very beginning, lest we should manage to slip away from the truth taught us by the Holy Ghost in this place, and should excuse ourselves from being loving by the notion that we are so inconsiderable that such high virtue cannot be required of us, or so feeble that we cannot be expected to attain to it. You must attain it, or you cannot enter into eternal life, for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His, and the Spirit of Christ is sure to beget the charity of our text, which “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Christ’s Love to Us and Our Love to Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

We love Him, because He first loved us.- 1 John 4:19

We first learn of His love to us, and then as the result of that, we are brought to love Him. Ours is a poor little love, not worthy of His acceptance; but, such as it is, we give it all to Him; and He will not refuse it, or despise it. Oh, that we all might be joined to Christ in love now!

“I give my heart to Thee,
O Jesus, most desired!
And heart for heart the gift shall be,
For Thou my soul hast fired:
Thou hearts alone would’st move,
Thou only hearts dost love;
I would love Thee as Thou lov’st me,
O Jesus most desired!”

In this loving union, Christ’s love to us and our love to Christ flow in the same channel. Together they make a stream of love of a glorious kind. We love one another for Christ’s sake; we love sinners for Christ’s sake. We love the truth as Christ loves the truth. We love the Father in the same manner that Christ loves the Father, though not to the same degree. There is, in fact, but one love in the Head and in all the members. What the Head loves all the body loves. As one man we go with Christ. Being united to Him, His desires and longings become our desires and longings too; we grow into His likeness, and “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2245.cfm

Our Everlasting Union with Christ

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

“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” – John 10:28

Our union with Christ is not only lasting, it is everlasting. With great boldness we utter the challenge. “Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?” It is true that we hold Christ, and that we will hold Him tighter still; but the greater mercy is that He holds us, and He will never let us go… You may take Christ from our hand, but you cannot take us from Christ’s hand; He holdeth us fast; He is married to us, and He Himself declares, “The Lord, the God of Israel, saith that He hateth putting away.” He will have no divorce between our soul and Himself. This living, loving, lasting union, which we have already found to be such a glorious reality, is to last for ever and ever, blessed be the name of the Lord!

I want you, beloved friends, to draw much comfort from this truth: Christ will not lose His members. My head would not willingly lose a little finger, and Christ our Head will not lose one of us if “we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” Think you that Christ can be mutilated? Think you that He will lose even the least joint of the least finger? Never shall that be true. The word written of His body of flesh is equally true concerning His mystical body, which is His Church. “A bone of Him shall not be broken.” Not even the smallest and most insignificant believer in Christ shall be lost, else would His body be incomplete. He is a perfect Christ, and you that are members of His body shall never be cut away from Him by the wounds of Satan’s sword, the surgery of infidelity, or any earthly accident or diabolical temptation. If you are one with Him, you will be one with Him for ever, for the union between you and your Lord is an eternal union, and to break it would be to disfigure and mutilate the Christ of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2245.cfm

Herein is Love

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

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. – 1 John 4:10

This is where all our hope, and our joy, and our love begin: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.” In connection with this same truth of union with Christ, and fruitbearing as the result of it, our Lord Himself says, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” When this love thus made choice of us, He entered into covenant with His Father concerning His people; and before we were born He identified Himself with us, so that in the purpose of God from all eternity we were accepted in Him. But union with us meant union with our sins; and though the Son of God could never be overcome of evil, or become a sharer in human guilt, yet by the blessed mystery of His unity with His people, He could take their sin upon Himself, and bear it in His own body on the tree. Thus, as there is no past or future to the eyes of Him before whom all events are spread out in one eternal “now”, the Son of God was able to atone for the iniquities of those who, through all the ages, would be truly joined to Him. His love that chose us did not shrink back from the awful payment which our debt rendered necessary: it was stronger than death, and mightier than the grave. Many waters could not quench it; many floods could not drown it; nor will it cease to exert its blessed influence over us until it shall bring us home to the mansions above; and not even then, for Christ’s love is everlasting. By this loving union Christ brings us safely through all the temptations of life; the ransomed spirits of such as are joined to Him are taken to be with Christ the instant they are absent from the body; and at last out of the tomb that same love shall call the body, and on the glad day of resurrection it shall be clearly seen how wonderful is the love which made our Lord so one with us.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2245.cfm

A Living Union with Christ

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

For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. – John 5:21

This living union is Christ’s life in us. It is given to Him, not only to take us in our feebleness; but it is His divine prerogative to impart life to us, and to call dead men, and to make them live. “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.” This is how we come to have life in connection with Him. His life flows into us, as out of the tree into the branches: so that we can truly say, with the apostle, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith to the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” The living union begins with our Lord’s life, and then that life flows into us, and we begin to live also.

O souls, if the life of Christ is not in you, you are dead while you live, and you will die forever when you die! Unless you get linked to Christ, you will be driven from the presence of God, and away from all that makes for true life and joy. Lay hold on Christ, and you will “lay hold on eternal life”; for He is “that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us,” and living contact with Him is our only hope either for the present or for the future.

God grant to you and to me to have such a living union to Christ!~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2245.cfm

A Living, Loving, Lasting Union

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

For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones- Ephesians 5:30

“We”, that is His believing people, “are members of His body, and of His flesh, and of His bones.” He is our Head, and we are the members of the body, and so we are joined to Him by a living, loving, lasting union.

Now what does this living union to Christ mean? It means Christ’s life laying hold of us. “For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.” He is full of life, and when He takes hold of us, and raises our life into His, there is truly a living union between Him and us.

The union of a soul to Christ is made so sweet because it is as loving as it is living! Christ’s love to us begins this loving union. Its source is not in ourselves; but in love eternal, love immeasurable, love which caused itself, free-grace love, love to the unworthy, love to enemies, love to those who had no life, no strength, and no hope apart from Him. Christ loved us so that He deigned to join Himself to us in eternal union. The great Artesian well from which we drink, and which has tapped the divine fountains, is the love of Christ.

O friends, what a sad thing it would be for anyone to have only a temporary union with Christ! Why, you are not building at all unless your building stands; and you are not truly in union with Christ unless the union is lasting union; and it will not be unless it is a living union! Be satisfied with nothing short of that union which the Spirit of God works in the hearts of those who, without reserve, yield to His power.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2245.cfm

I in Them

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

“I in them.” – John 17:23, 26

“I in them.” It is the most blessed word I know of. You, beloved, need not go abroad to find the Lord Jesus Christ. Where does He live? He lives within you. “I in them.” As soon as ever you pray you are sure He hears you, because He is within you. He is not knocking at your door: He has entered into you, and there He dwells, and will go no more out for ever.

What a blessed sense of power this gives to us. “I in them.” Then it is no more “I” in weakness, but, since Jesus dwells in me, “I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.” “I in them.” It is the glory of the believer that Christ dwells in him. “Unto you that believe He is precious.”

Hence we gather the security of the believer. Brother, if Christ be in me, and I am overcome, Christ is conquered too, for He is in me. “I in them.” I cannot comprehend the doctrine of believers falling from grace. If Christ has once entered into them, will He not abide with them? Paul saith, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” To that persuasion I set my hand and seal. Well, then, if Christ is in us, whatever happens to us will happen to Him. If it is an indissoluble union-and so He declares it is-“I in them,” then His destiny and ours are linked together; and if He wins the victory we conquer in Him: if He sits at the right hand of God we shall sit at the right hand of God with Him, for He is in us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1667.cfm