Attributes of God

Saints Redeemed by Blood

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

For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. – 1 Corinthians 6:20

It is inevitable that if you be “bought with a price,” you have ceased to be your own property, and belong to Him who bought you. Holiness, therefore, is necessary to all the redeemed. If you cast off your responsibility to be holy, you at the same time cast away the benefit of redemption. Will you do this? As I am sure you could not renounce your salvation, and cast away your only hope, so I charge you by the living God be not so inconsistent as to say: “I am redeemed, and yet I will live as I list.” As redeemed men, let the inevitable consequences follow from the fact, and be ye evidently the servants of the Lord Jesus…That you were redeemed “with a price” is the greatest event in your biography. Even your birth, what was it unless a second birth had been yours! Might you not say: “Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night in which it was said, there is a man child conceived”? Would it not have been to you the direst calamity to be born into the world if you had not been rescued from the wrath of which you were the heir? You left your father’s house, and it was an important step in life; perhaps you crossed the great and wide sea; it may be you aspired to high office in the state and you obtained it; it is possible you have been sore sick, or it may be you have sunk from affluence to poverty. Such events leave their impress upon the memory; men cannot forget these great changes in their lives; but they all shrivel into less than nothing compared with this fact that you were “bought with a price.” Your connection with Calvary is the most important thing about you. Oh, I do beseech you then, if it be so, prove it; and remember the just and righteous proof is by your not being your own, but consecrated unto God. If it be the most important thing in the world to you, that you were “bought with a price,” let it exercise the most prominent influence over your entire career. Be a man, be an Englishman, but be most of all Christ’s man… a saint redeemed by blood. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1004.cfm

The Holiness of Christians

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

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. – 1Corinthians 6:19-20

Paul, who above all others, speaks most positively of salvation by grace, and is most clear upon the fact that salvation is not by the works of the law, is at the same time most intensely earnest for the holiness of Christians, and most zealously denounces those who would say, “Let us do evil, that good may come.” In this particular instance he sets the sin of fornication in the light of the Holy Spirit; he holds up, as it were, the seven-branched candlestick before it, and lets us see what a filthy thing it is. He tells us that the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and therefore ought not to be profaned; he declares that bodily unchastity is a sacrilegious desecration of our manhood, a violation of the sacred shrine wherein the Spirit takes up its dwelling-place; and then, as if this were not enough, he seizes the sin and drags it to the foot of the cross, and there nails it hand and foot, that it may die as a criminal; for these are his words: “Ye are not your own: for ye are bought with a price:” the price being the blood of Jesus. He finds no sharper weapon, no keener instrument of destruction than this. The redemption wrought on Calvary by the death of Jesus must be the death of this sin, and of all other sins, wherever the Spirit of God uses it as His sword of execution. Brethren and sisters, it is no slight thing to be holy. A man must not say, “I have faith,” and then fall into the sins of an unbeliever; for, after all, our outer life is the test of our inner life; and if the outer life be not purified, rest assured the heart is not changed. That faith which does not bring forth the fruit of holiness is the faith of devils. The devils believe and tremble. Let us never be content with a faith which can live in hell, but rise to that which will save us—the faith of God’s elect, which purifies the soul, casting down the power of evil, and setting up the throne of Jesus Christ, the throne of holiness within the spirit. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1004.cfm

Ye Are Bought with a Price

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

“Ye are not your own: for ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

 “Ye are bought with a price.” Paul might, if his object were to prove that we are not our own, have said: “Ye did not make yourselves.” Creation may well furnish motives for obedience to the great Lawgiver. He might also have said, “Ye do not preserve yourselves: it is God who keeps you in life; you would die if He withdrew His power.” The preservation of divine providence might furnish abundant arguments for holiness. Surely, He who feeds, nourishes, and upholds our life should have our service. But He prefers, for reasons known to Himself, which it would not be hard to guess, to plead the tenderer theme, redemption. The most potent plea for sanctity is not “Ye were made,” or, “Ye are nourished,” but “Ye are bought.” This the apostle selects as a convincing proof of our duty, and as a means to make that duty our delight. And truly, beloved, it is so. If we have indeed experienced the power of redemption we fully admit that it is so. Look ye back to the day when ye were bought, when ye were bondslaves to your sins, when ye were under the just sentence of divine justice, when it was inevitable that God should punish your transgressions; remember how the Son of God became your substitute, how He bared His back to the lash that should have fallen upon you, and laid His soul beneath the sword which should have quenched its fury in your blood. You were redeemed then, redeemed from the punishment that was due to you, redeemed from the wrath of God, redeemed unto Christ to be His for ever. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1004.cfm

The Lord Hath Done It

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

Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit (My Father) taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. – John 15:2

Supposing Him to be the gardener. – John 20:15

Certain of us have been made to suffer much physical pain, which often bites into the spirit, and makes the heart to stoop: others have suffered heavy temporal losses, having had no success in business, but, on the contrary, having had to endure privation, perhaps even to penury. Are you ready to complain against the Lord for all this? I pray you, do not do so. Take the supposition of the text into your mind this morning. The Lord has been pruning you sharply, cutting off your best boughs, and you seem to be like a thing despised that is constantly tormented with the knife. Yes, but “supposing Him to be the gardener,” suppose that your loving Lord has wrought it all, that from His own hand all your grief has come, every cut, and every gash, and every slip: does not this alter the case? Hath not the Lord done it? Well, then, if it be so, put your finger to your lip and be quiet, until you are able from your heart to say, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord.” I am persuaded that the Lord hath done nothing amiss to any one of His people; that no child of His can rightly complain that He has been whipped with too much severity; and that no one branch of the vine can truthfully declare that it has been pruned with too sharp an edge. No; what the Lord has done is the best that could have been done, the very thing that you and I, if we could have possessed infinite wisdom and love, would have wished to have done; therefore, let us stop each thought of murmuring, and say, “The Lord hath done it,” and be glad…Let us believe great things from the work of Christ by His Spirit in the midst of His people’s hearts, and we shall not be disappointed. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1699.cfm

Turn Unto the Lord

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

Supposing Him to be the Gardener. – John 20:15

But He answered and said, Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. – Matthew 15:13

In this great congregation many are to the Church what weeds are to a garden. They are not planted by God; they are not growing under His nurture; they are bringing forth no fruit to His glory. My dear friend, I have tried often to get at you, to impress you, but I cannot. Take heed; for one of these days, “supposing Him to be the gardener,” He will reach you, and you shall know what that word meaneth, “Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.” Take heed to yourselves, I pray.

Others among us are like the branches of the vine which bear no fruit. We have often spoken very sharply to these, speaking honest truth in unmistakable language, and yet we have not touched their consciences. Ah, but “supposing Him to be the gardener,” He will fulfill that sentence: “Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away.” He will get at you, if we cannot. Would God you would turn unto the Lord with full purpose of heart; so that instead of being a weed you might become a choice flower; that instead of a dry stick, you might be a sappy, fruit-bearing, branch of the vine. The Lord make it to be so; but if any here need the caution, I pray them to take it to heart at once. “Supposing Him to be the gardener,” there will be no escaping from His eye; there will be no deliverance from His hand. As “He will thoroughly purge His floor, and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire,” so He will thoroughly cleanse His garden and cast out every worthless thing. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1699.cfm

It Is in His Own Hands

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

Supposing Him to be the gardener. – John 20:15

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. – Malachi 3:11

I am sometimes troubled by the question, what if roots of bitterness should spring up among us to trouble us? We are all such fallible creatures, supposing some brother should permit the seed of discord to grow in his bosom, then there may be a sister in whose heart the seeds will also spring up, and from her they will fly to another sister, and be blown about till brethren and sisters are all bearing rue and wormwood in their hearts. Who is to prevent this? Only the Lord, Jesus by His Spirit. He can keep out this evil. The root which beareth wormwood will grow but little where Jesus is. Dwell with us, Lord, as a church and people: by Thy Holy Spirit reside with us and in us, and never depart from us, and then no root of bitterness shall spring up to trouble us.

Then comes another fear. Suppose the living waters of God’s Spirit should not come to water the garden, what then? We cannot, make them flow, for the Spirit is a sovereign, and He flows where He pleases. Ah, but the Spirit of God will be in our garden, “supposing our Lord to be the gardener.” There is no fear of our not being watered when Jesus undertakes to do it. “He will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” But what if the sunlight of His love should not shine on the garden? If the fruits should never ripen, if there should be no peace, no joy in the Lord? That cannot happen “supposing Him to be the gardener;” for His face is the sun, and His countenance scatters those health-giving beams, and nurturing warmths, and perfecting influences which are needful for maturing the saints in all the sweetness of grace to the glory of God. So, “supposing Him to be the gardener” I fling away my doubts and fears and invite you who bear the Church upon your heart to do the same. It is all well with Christ’s cause because it is in His own hands. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1699.cfm

Deliverance from Gloomy Fears

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

…supposing Him to be the gardener… – John 20:15

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel. – Genesis 3:15

I was sitting about a fortnight ago in a very lovely garden, in the midst of all kinds of flowers which were blooming in delightful abundance all around…I walked down the garden, and I saw a place where all the path was strewn with leaves and broken branches, and stones, and I saw the earth upon the flower-beds, tossed about, and roots lying quite out of the ground: all was in disorder. Had a dog been amusing himself? Or had a mischievous child been at work? If so, it was a great pity. But no: in a minute or two I saw the gardener come back, and I perceived that he had been making all this disarrangement. He had been cutting, and digging, and hacking, and mess-making; and all for the good of the garden. It may be it has happened to some of you that you have been a good deal clipped lately, and in your domestic affairs things have not been in so fair a state as you could have wished: it may be in the Church we have seen ill weeds plucked up, and barren branches lopped, so that everything is en deshabille. Well, if the Lord has done it out, gloomy fears are idle.

Supposing Adam to be the gardener, then the serpent gets in and has a chat with his wife, and mischief comes of it; but supposing Jesus to be the gardener, woe to thee, serpent: there is a blow for thy head within half a minute if thou dost but show thyself within the boundary. So, if we are afraid that the devil should get in among us let us always in prayer entreat that there may be no space for the devil, because the Lord Jesus Christ fills all, and keeps out the adversary. Other creatures besides serpents intrude into gardens; caterpillars and palmerworms, and all sorts of destroying creatures are apt to devour our churches. How can we keep them out? The highest wall cannot exclude them: there is no protection except one, and that is, “supposing Him to be the gardener.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1699.cfm