Attributes of God

To Be Used by God

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

As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. -John 17:18

Methinks we should all be willing to remain on earth for the good of others. Why may not saints die as soon as they are converted? For this reason: because God meant that they should be the means of the salvation of their brethren. You would not, surely, wish to go out of the world if there were a soul to be saved by you. Methinks if I could go to glory before I had converted all the souls allotted to me, I should not be happy; but that would be impossible, for God will not shut His saints in till they have been spiritual fathers to those appointed. We do not wish to enter heaven till our work is done, for it would make us uneasy on our beds if there were one single soul left to be saved by our means. Tarry, then, Christian; there is a brand to be plucked out of the fire, a sinner to be saved from his sins, a rebel to be turned from the error of his ways, and may hap that sinner is one of thy relatives. May hap, poor widow, that art spared in this world, because there is a wayward son of thine not yet saved, and God hath designed to make thee the favored instrument of bringing him to glory. And thou hoary-headed Christian, it may be that though “the grasshopper is a burden to thee,” and thou longest to go, thou art kept here because one of thy offspring, by thy instrumentality, is yet to be saved. Tarry, then, for thy son’s sake, who came from thy loins. I know how deeply thou dost love him, and for his sake surly thou art content to be left here a little, counting it for the best that thou mayest bring in thy son to glory with thee.

Do not be afraid to go out into the world to do good. Christ is keeping you in the world for the advantage of your fellow-men.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0047.cfm

Fellowship with Christ

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

I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world…They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. -John 17:14, 16

Fellowship with Christ is so honorable a thing that it is worth while to suffer, that we may thereby enjoy it. You have sometimes heard me express a desire that I might be in the number of those who shall be alive and remain, and so shall escape death, but a dear friend of mine says, he had rather die, in order that he might thus have fellowship with Christ in his sufferings, and methinks the thought finds an echo in my own breast. To die with Jesus makes death a perfect treasure, to be a follower in the grave with Him makes death a pleasure. Moreover, you and I might be taken for cowards, although we may have fellowship with Him in His glory, if we had no scars to prove the sufferings we had passed through, and the wounds we had received for His name. Thus, again you see it is for our good to be here; we should not have known fellowship with the Saviour, if we had not tarried here a little while. I should never have known the Saviour’s love half so much if I had not been in the storms of affliction. How sweet it is to learn the Saviour’s love when nobody else loves us! When friends flee away, what a blessed thing it is to see that the Saviour does not forsake us but still keeps us, and holds fast by us, and clings to us, and will not let us go! O beloved brother and sister, believe that your remaining here on earth is for your eternal benefit, and therefore Jesus said. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0047.cfm

A Little Stay on Earth

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Father 6 Comments

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.-Philippians 1:21

We conceive that the greatest blessing we shall ever receive of God is to die; but doubtless it would not be for our good to withdraw from this world as soon as we had escaped from sin. It is better for us to tarry a little while; far better. And the reasons for this are, first, because a little stay on earth will make heaven all the sweeter. Nothing makes rest so sweet as toil; nothing can render security so pleasant as a long exposure to alarms, and fears, and battles. No heaven will be so sweet as a heaven, which has been preceded by torments and pains. Methinks the deeper draughts of woe we drink here below, the sweeter will be those draughts of eternal glory which we shall receive from the golden bowls of bliss; the more we are battered and scarred on earth the more glorious will be our victory above, when the shouts of a thousand times ten thousand angels welcome us to our Father’s palace. The more trials the more bliss, the more sufferings the more ecstasies, the more depression the higher the exaltation. Thus we shall gain more of heaven by the sufferings we shall pass through here below. Let us not then, my brethren, fear to advance through our trials: they are for our good; to stop here awhile is for our benefit. Why! we should not know how to converse in heaven if we had not a few trials and hardships to tell of, and some tales of delivering grace to repeat with joy. An old sailor likes to have passed through a few shipwrecks and storms, however hazardous they may have been, for he anchors in Greenwich Hospital, he will there tell, with great pleasure, to his companions, of his hair-breadth escapes. There will be some old soldiers in heaven, too, who will recount their fights, how their Master delivered them, and how He won the victory and kept off all their foes.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0047.cfm

We Are, For Now, to be Earthbound

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

“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world…” -John 17:15

Some hermits and others have fancied that if we were to shut ourselves from the world and live alone, we should then be more devoted to God and serve Him better…Why, brethren, common sense tells us at once that living alone is not the way to serve God. It may be the way to serve self, and wrap ourselves in a garment of self-complacency; but it cannot be the way to worship God truly. If it be possible, by this means, to fulfil one part of the great law of God, we cannot possibly carry out the other portion-to love our neighbour as ourselves, for we thus become unable to bind up the broken-hearted, to bring the wanderer back, or to win souls from death and sin. Out of the heart proceedeth all evil, and if we were in retirement we should sin, because we should carry our hearts with us into whatever solitude we entered.

…But it may be understood in a second sense. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of this world”–by death…But Jesus does not pray that one of His chosen people should be too soon removed, He does not desire to see His newly begotten souls plume their wings and fly aloft to heaven until their time shall come…He leaves it to His Father, until, like shocks of corn fully ripe, we shall each of us be gathered into our Master’s garner… Christ does not pray that we should be taken out of the world, because our abode here is for our own good, for the world’s benefit, and for His glory. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0047.cfm

Thrice Happy Are Ye in God

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

And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment. -1 John 3:23

You who dwell in God, allow me to congratulate you. Thrice happy men are ye, if ye are dwelling in God! You need not blush to compare yourselves with angels, you need not think that any on earth can share such happiness as yours! Zion, O how blessed art thou, freed from all sins! Now thou art, through Christ, made to dwell in God, and therefore art eternally secure! I congratulate you, Christians, first, that you have such a magnificent house to dwell in. You have not a palace that shall be as gorgeous as Solomon’s-a mighty palace as immense as the dwellings of the kings of Assyria, or Babylon; but you have a God that is more than mortal creatures can behold; you dwell in an immortal fabric, you dwell in the Godhead-something which is beyond all human skill. I congratulate you, moreover, that you live in such a perfect house. There never was a house on earth that could not be made a little better; but the house you dwell in has every thing you want; in God you have all you require. I congratulate you, moreover, that you live in a house that shall last forever, a dwelling-place that shall not pass away; when this world shall have been scattered like a dream; when, like the bubble on the breaker, creation shall have died away; when all this universe shall have died out like a spark from an expiring brand, your house shall live and stand more imperishable than marble, more solid than granite, self-existent as God, for it is God! Be happy then.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

 

 

Have I the Spirit of God?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit 6 Comments

Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. -1 John 4:13

Have we ever had the Spirit of God in us? That is one of the most solemn questions I can ask. Many of you know what it is to be excited by religious feeling who never had the Spirit of God. Many of us have great need to tremble lest we should not have received that Spirit. I have tried myself scores of times, in different ways, to see whether I really am a posssessor of the Spirit of God or not. I know that the people of the world scoff at the idea, and say, “It is impossible for any body to have the Spirit of God.” Then it is impossible for any body to go to heaven; for we must have the Spirit of God, we must be born again of the Spirit, before we can enter there. What a serious question is this: “Have I had the Spirit of God in me? True, my soul is at times lifted on high, and I feel I could sing like a seraph. True, sometimes I am melted down by deep devotion, and I could pray in terrible solemnity. But so could hypocrites, perhaps. Have I the Spirit of God? Have you any evidence within you that you have the Spirit? Are you sure that you are not laboring under a delusion and a dream? Have you actually the Spirit of God within you? If so, you dwell in God…

“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” The confession of our faith in the Saviour is another sign that we live in God. Oh! poor heart, canst thou not come under this sign? Thou mayest have but little boldness, but canst thou say, “I believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ?” If so, thou dwellest in God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm

 

If We Love One Another…

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises 1 Comment

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. -1 John 4:12

How may we know whether we be Christians or not, whether the Lord is our dwelling-place, and will be throughout all generations?..It is remarkable that almost the only scriptural writer who speaks of God as a dwelling-place, is that most loving apostle, John…

He gives us in the 12th verse of the 4th chapter (of 1 John), one means of knowing whether we are living in God: “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” And again further on, he says, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” You may then tell whether you are a tenant of this great spiritual house by the love you have toward others. Have you a love toward the saints? Well, then, you are a saint yourself. The goats will not love the sheep; and if you love the sheep, it is an evidence that you are a sheep yourself. Many of the Lord’s weak family never can get any other evidence of their conversion except this- “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” And though that is very little evidence, yet it is such a one that the strongest faith often can not get a much better… What! has the devil told thee thou art not the Lord’s? Poor Faintheart, dost thou love the Lord’s people? “Yes,” sayest thou, “I love to see their faces, and to hear their prayers; I could almost kiss the hem of their garments.” Is it so? and would you give to them if they were poor? would you visit them if they were sick, and tend them if they needed assistance? “Ah! yes.” Then fear not. You who love God’s people must love the Master. We know we dwell in God if we love one another. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0046.cfm