Character of Jesus

He Came to Himself

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

“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”- Luke 15:17.

“He came to himself.” The word may be applied to one waking out of a deep swoon. He had been unconscious of his true condition, and he had lost all power to deliver himself from it; but now he was coming round again, returning to consciousness and action. The voice which shall awaken the dead aroused him; the visions of his sinful trance all disappeared; his foul but fascinating dreams were gone; he came to himself. Or the word may be applied to one recovering from insanity. The prodigal son had played the madman, for sin is madness of the worst kind. He had been demented, he had put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, darkness for light and light for darkness; he had injured himself and had done for his soul what those possessed of devils in our Savior’s time did for their bodies, when they wounded themselves with stones, and cut themselves with knives. The insane man does not know himself to be insane, but as soon as he comes to himself he painfully perceives the state from which he is escaping. Returning then to true reason and sound judgment, the prodigal came to himself.

There are men here to-day who perhaps are still in this swoon; O God of heaven arouse them! Some here who are morally insane; the Lord recover them, the divine Physician put His cooling hand upon their fevered brow and say to them: “I will; be thou made whole.” Perhaps there are others here who have allowed their animal nature to reign supreme, may He who destroys the works of the devil deliver them from the power of Satan and give them power to become the sons of God. He shall have all the glory! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1000.cfm

Sinner, Mercy Waits for Thee

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

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power… – Revelation 20:6

Pray, you dear people of God that are awake, that the sinner may be awakened, for there is this awful danger that he may sleep himself into hell. Spiritual sleep deepens and the slumberer becomes more heavy still, the stupor more dense, till the conscience grows seared, and the soul is unimpressionable; the flesh is turned into stone, the heart is harder than steel. It may be that some of those who hear these words of warning may never wake to think about their souls till in hell they lift up their eyes. What an awful lifting up of the eyes will that be! O you who are now peaceful and secure, what a change awaits you! Hurled from vainglorious security to blank despair in a moment! You took it all so easily: you said, “Let me alone; do not worry me; there’s time enough. The preacher ought not to frighten us with these bugbears; we all have a great deal else to do besides listening to horrible stories of hell and damnation;” and so you wrapped it up, and so you smoothed it over, but the end thereof who shall describe? Some persons on their dying beds just wake up in time to see their danger, but not to escape from it: they are carried right over the cataract of judgement and wrath. They are gone, for ever gone, where mercy is succeeded by justice, and hope forbidden to enter. Let much prayer go up from believing hearts that God would awaken sinners now… Ask for the arm of God to be revealed while the heavenly message is delivered; for His is our message: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”

Come, thou guilty one, awake! for mercy waits for thee. Come and receive the mercy which Jesus Christ is ready to bestow upon thee! God give thee waking grace and saving grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0996.cfm

Awake, Unconverted Man!

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

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. – 2 Corinthians 6:2

You, you unconverted man, are asleep; a deep and horrible sleep holds you fast. If it were not so, you would perceive your danger, and you would be alarmed. You have broken God’s law; the fact is certain and solemn, though you treat it lightly. Punishment must follow every breach of that law, for God will not be mocked nor suffer His government to be treated with contempt. For every transgression there is an appointed recompense of reward. The retribution which is your lawful due will not long be withheld: it is on its road towards you. The feet of justice are shod with wool: you hear not its coming, but it is as sure as it is silent. Its steps are swift, and its stroke overwhelming.

If you were awakened, O sin-stricken transgressor, you would also perceive that there is a remedy for your disease, a rescue from your present danger. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;” and “Whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ hath everlasting life.” Forgiveness of sin is guaranteed to every one that rests in the work of Jesus…If God would awaken thee, thou wouldst tremble at the jaws of hell which are open to receive thee; thou wouldst turn to Christ, and say, “Jesus, save me! Save me now!” You are asleep, sinner-you are asleep, or you would not take matters so coolly. I am afraid for you and bowed down with amazement and dread. The mercy is that you may be awakened: you are not yet among the slain that go down into the pit. Oh, that that almighty grace would awaken you at this present moment ere your doom is sealed and your damnation executed! Here I offer my fervent prayers for you, believing that He to whom I pray is able to bring to holy sensibility the most stolid of mankind. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0996.cfm

Only the Wakeful are Praiseful

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

Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. – Psalm 47:6

Under Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, the acceptableness of our praise depends very much upon the warmth of it. As cold prayers virtually ask God to deny them, so cold praises ask God to reject them. Cold praises are a sort of semi-blasphemy: they do, as it were, say, “Thou art not worthy to be ardently praised. O God, we bring Thee these poor thanksgivings: they are good enough for Thee.” Surely if we treated our heavenly Father as we should, every sacred passion would glow in our hearts like a furnace: our whole heart would catch fire, and as Elijah went up into heaven with horses of fire and chariots of fire, so, too, our souls, as we thought upon the goodness and the graciousness of God, would ascend to heaven in vehement joy of adoration…Mark with what exhilaration the psalmist rendered praise unto God and imitate him therein. See him dancing before the ark, and hear him cry aloud, “Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.”

Only the wakeful are praiseful. The very best praises God receives from earth are from His troubled saints; but then they are awake; the strokes of the rod have aroused them…When martyrs have magnified God standing on the burning fagot, they have given God better praise than even the angels can. It was the old fable, that the nightingale was made to sing by the thorn that pricked her breast: and many a child of God has poured forth his sweetest music when the thorn of affliction has pierced his heart…Remember what Job did when he sat on the dunghill, scraping himself with a bit of broken pot- he praised God and said, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” It was grand of thee, O patriarch of Uz, to be able thus to extol thy Lord: then was thy soul fully awake. Beloved friends, may our inmost souls be so energetic with the power of grace that we may spontaneously and earnestly bless the Lord at all times and under all circumstances. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0996.cfm

Fuel for the Flame of Gratitude

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

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. – Psalm 103:8

We should have a vivid sense of the mercies we have received, or we cannot bless God aright for them. You who have not yet received spiritual blessings, should not be forgetful of His temporal mercies: it is surely sufficient cause for lively thanksgiving that you are not upon a bed of sickness; that you are not in the lunatic asylum; that you are not in the workhouse; that you are not on the borders of the grave; that you are not in hell; that you still have food and raiment, and that you are where the gospel is graciously presented to you. Should not all this be thought of? Should not this be fuel for the flame of gratitude? As for us who have tasted spiritual blessings, if our minds were awake, we should think of eternal love and His going forth from eternity; of redeeming love, and the streams that flow from the fount of Calvary; of God’s immutable love and His patience with our ill-manners in the wilderness; of covenant mercy, of mercies yet to come; of heaven and the bliss hereafter. Such recollections should call up our whole man to praise the Lord. If the innumerable benefits which we receive were thought of and dwelt upon, the contemplation would put a force, a volume, a body into our song…To praise God is to stand in the immediate presence of the blessed and only Potentate. Do not even seraphs veil their faces in that august presence? With what earnestness of spirit should we praise!.. Let all sleepiness be put away in the presence of the ever-wakeful Jehovah, before whose eyes all things are naked and open. He never slumbereth nor sleepeth, so as to make a pause in His mercy to us: let not our slumbering spirits cause an omission of our grateful song. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0996.cfm

Contending for the Health of the Church

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

But speaking the truth in love, may (we) grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ… – Ephesians 4:15

I do not think the time will ever come when we shall all of us see eye to eye and shall all use the same terms and phrases in setting forth doctrinal truths. I do not imagine there ever will be a period, unless it should be in that long looked for millennium, when every brother is able to subscribe to every other brother’s creed; when we shall be identical in our apprehensions, experiences, and expositions of the gospel in the fullest sense of the word. But I do maintain there should be, and there must be if our churches are to be healthy and sound, a constant adherence to the fundamental doctrines of divine truth…if it should ever come to be a matter which casts doubts upon the divinity of Christ, or the personality of the Holy Ghost; if it should come to a matter of using gospel terms in a sense the most contrary to that which has ever been attached to them in any age of the truth; if it should ever come to the marring and spoiling of our ideas of Divine justice, and of that great atonement which is the basis of the whole gospel, as they have been delivered to us; then it is time, my brethren, once for all that the scabbard be thrown aside, that the sword be drawn. Against any who assails those precious vital truths which constitute the heart of our holy religion, we must contend even to the death…Verily there were giants at one time, when the sons of God saw the daughters of men and we may live to see gigantic heresies, when God’s own children may look upon the fair daughters of philosophy, and monster delusions shall stalk across the earth. A want of union about truth too clearly proves that the body of the Church is not in a healthy state…We must look to the preservation of the health of the Church. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0314.cfm

But, Blessed But

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

“One who is righteous has many adversities, but the LORD rescues him from them all.” – Psalm 34:19

Scripture does not flatter us like the story books with the idea that goodness will secure us from trouble; on the contrary, we are again and again warned to expect tribulation while we are in this body…It is the earthly portion of the elect to find thorns and briers growing in their pathway, yes, to lie down among them, finding their rest broken and disturbed by sorrow.

But, bless-ed but, how it takes the sting out of the previous sentence! “But the LORD rescues him from them all.” Through troops of ills Jehovah shall lead His redeemed scatheless and triumphant. There is an end to the believer’s affliction, and a joyful end too. None of his trials can hurt so much as a hair of his head, neither can the furnace hold him for a moment after the Lord bids him come forth of it. The same Lord who sends the afflictions will also recall them when His design is accomplished, but He will never allow the fiercest of them to rend and devour His beloved.

Lord, we thank You now in the retrospect for the trials which we have endured. Some of us have been brought very low with physical pain and mental weariness, and others have been sore smitten with bereavement, losses and crosses, and persecutions; but there is not one out of all our trials which we could have afforded to have been without. No, Lord, all has been ordered well; there was a need-be for every twig of the rod, and we desire now to thank you that we can see in looking back, how all things have even now worked together for good, though we know we cannot see the end as yet. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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