Character of Jesus

His Beauty

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

Yea, he is altogether lovely. – Songs 5:16

You find all virtues in Jesus, and each one of them at its best. If you would take the best quality of one saint, and the best quality of another-yea, the best out of each and all the myriads of His people, you would find no grace or goodness among them all which Jesus does not possess in the fullest degree and in the highest perfection. He combines all the virtues, and gives them all a sweetness over and beyond themselves. In flowers you have a separate beauty belonging to each; no one flower is just like another, but each one blushes with its own loveliness: but in our Lord these separate and distinct beauties are found united in one. Christ is the posy in which all the beauties of the garden of perfection are bound up. Each gem has its own radiance: the diamond is not like the ruby, nor the ruby like the emerald; but Christ is that ring in which you have sapphire, ruby, diamond, emerald, set in choice order, so that each one heightens the other’s brilliance. Look not for anything lovely out of Jesus, for He has all the loveliness. All perfections are in Him making up one consummate perfection; and all the loveliness which is to be seen elsewhere is but a reflection of His own unrivalled charms...In Him is nothing redundant, nothing overgrown. He is altogether lovely. You never need put the finger over the scar in His case, as Apelles did when he painted his hero. No; tell it all out: reveal the details of His private life and secret thoughts, they need no concealment. Lay bare the very heart of Christ, for that is the essence of love and loveliness. Speak of His death-wounds, for in His scars there is more beauty than in the uninjured comeliness of another: and even when He lies dead in the tomb He is more comely than the immortal angels of God at their best estate. Nothing about our Lord needs to be concealed; even His cross at which His enemies stumble, is to be daily proclaimed, and it will be seen to be one of His choicest beauties. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1446.cfm

This is Rare Praise

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father 5 Comments

My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. – Songs 5:16

There is no point in our Lord Jesus that you could improve. To paint the rose were to spoil its ruddy hue. To tint the lily (for He is lily as well as rose), were to mar its whiteness. Each virtue in our Lord is there in a state of absolute perfection: it could not be more fully developed. If you were able to conceive of each virtue at its ripest stage it would be found in Him. In the matter of transparent ingenuousness and sterling honesty, did ever man speak or act so truthfully as He? Ask, on the other hand, for sympathizing tenderness and love, was ever any so gentle as Jesus? Do you want reverence to God? See how He bows before the Father. Do you want boldness before men? See how He bears the Pharisees. You could not better anything which you find in Jesus. Wherever you shall cast your eye it may rest with satisfaction, for the best of the best of the best is to be seen in Him. He is altogether lovely at every separate point, so that the spouse, when she began with His head, descended to His feet, and then lifting her eyes upward again upon a return voyage of delight, she looked into His countenance and summed up all that she had seen in this one sentence, “He is altogether lovely.” This is rare praise. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1446.cfm

What is Loveliness?

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

He is altogether lovely. – Songs 5:16

What, I pray you, what is loveliness? To discern it is one thing, but it is quite another thing to describe it…How can I-enamoured, entranced, enraptured as I am with Him whom my soul loveth-how can I speak of Him? He is altogether lovely? Where shall I find words, terms, expressions that shall fitly set Him forth? Unless the Eternal Spirit shall upraise me out of myself I must for ever be incapable of setting forth the Well-beloved… I suppose that, by-and-by, when our Lord had entered upon His active life, and encountered its struggles, His youthful beauty was marred with lines of sadness and sorrow. Still His courage so overshadowed His cares, the mercy He showed so surpassed the misery He shared, and the grace He dispensed so exceeded the griefs that He carried, that a halo of real glory must ever have shone around His brow. His countenance must still have been lovely even when surrounded with the clouds of care and grief. How can we describe even the marred visage? It is a great mystery, but a sure fact, that in our Lord’s marred countenance His beauty is best seen. Anguish gave Him a loveliness which else He had not reached. His passion put the finishing touch upon His unrivalled loveliness.

Brethren, I am not about to speak of Christ’s loveliness after the flesh, for now after the flesh know we Him no more. It is His moral and spiritual beauty, of which the spouse in the song most sweetly says, “Yea, he is altogether lovely.” The loveliness which the eye dotes on is mere varnish when compared with that which dwells in virtue and holiness; the worm will devour the loveliness of skin and flesh, but a lovely character will endure for ever. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1446.cfm

His All-Conquering Loveliness

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

His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. – Songs 5:16

“He is altogether lovely.” Not only is His teaching attractive, His doctrine persuasive, His life irreproachable, His character enchanting, and His work a self-denying labour for the common good of all His people, but He Himself is altogether lovely. I suppose at first we shall always begin to love Him because He first loved us, and even to the last His love to us will always be the strongest motive of our affection towards Him; still there ought to be added to this another reason less connected with ourselves, and more entirely arising out of His own superlative excellence; we ought to love Him because He is lovely and deserves to be loved. The time should come, and with some of us it has come, when we can heartily say “we love Him because we cannot help it, for His all-conquering loveliness has quite ravished our hearts.” Surely it is but an unripe fruit to love Him merely for the benefits which we have received at His hand. It is a fruit of grace, but it is not of the ripest flavour; at least, there are other fruits, both new and old, which we have laid up for Thee, O our Beloved, and some of them have a daintier taste. There is a sweet and mellow fruit which can only be brought forth by the summer sun of fellowship-love because of the Redeemer’s intrinsic goodness and personal sweetness. Oh that we might love our Lord for His own sake, love Him because He is so supremely beautiful that a glimpse of Him has won our hearts, and made Him dearer to our eyes than light. Oh that all true and faithful disciples of our beloved Lord would press forward towards that state of affection, and never rest till they reach it! If any of you have not reached it, you need not therefore doubt your own safety, for whatever the reason why you love Jesus, if you love Him at all, it is a sure pledge and token that He loves you, and that you are saved in Him with an everlasting salvation. Still covet earnestly the best gifts, and rise to the highest degree of devotion,. Love as the purest of the saints have loved; love as John the apostle loved, for still your Lord exceeds all the loving homage you can pay to Him. Love His person, love Himself; for He is better than all that He has done or given; and as from Himself all blessings flow, so back to Himself should all love return. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1446.cfm

Our Business is to Live for God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer 1 Comment

And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. – Matthew 10:22

To bring souls to Christ is my main endeavour, but it is not the ultimate proof of my ministry. My business is to live for God, to lay aside self, and give myself up wholly to Him, and if I do that I shall be accepted whatever else may happen. I wish we had the spirit of that brave old man who was condemned to the stake. They were going to burn him. He knew that the sentence was to be carried out the next morning, but with a soul full of courage, and with a merry heart, he sat the last thing at night talking with his friends-faggots and fire to face in the morning, recollect-and he said to one of them, “I am an old tree in my Master’s orchard. When I was young I bore a little fruit by His grace. It was unripe and sour, but He bore with it: and I have grown mellow in my older days and brought forth some fruit for Him by His grace. Now the tree has grown so old that my Master is going to cut it down and burn the old log. Well, it will warm the hearts of some of His family while I am burning”; and he even smiled for joy to think that he might be put to so good a purpose. I want you to have that spirit, and to say, “I will live for Christ while I am young: I will die for Him, and warm the hearts of my brethren…Oh, go to the Master’s cross to learn the way to live and die! See how He spent Himself for you, and then sally forth and spend yourselves for Him. “Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall ye be glorious in the sight of the Lord.” Though you may think that you do not succeed, your whole-hearted consecration shall be your honour in the day of the Lord. By your hallowed life, and your humble service, you shall bring glory to His name. O Lord, set us in our charges, and encourage us in the service of Thy house! “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; establish Thou the work of our hands: yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.” May the blessing of our covenant God rest upon you, my brethren, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

The Divine Economy

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

And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. – John 4:37

If you really do serve the Lord thoroughly and heartily, He will accept you and acknowledge your service, even though no good should come of it. It is your business to cast the bread on the waters: if you do not find it after many days, that is not your business. It is your business to scatter the seed; but no farmer says to his servant, “John, you have not served me well, for there is no harvest.” The man would say, “Could I make a harvest, sir? I have ploughed, and I have sowed. What more could I do”? Even so our good Lord is not austere, nor does He demand of us more than we can do. If you have ploughed and if you have sowed, although there should be no harvest, you are clear and accepted. Did it never strike you that you may be now employed in breaking up ground and preparing the soil from which other labourers who come after you will reap very plentifully. Perhaps your Master knows what a capital ploughman you are. He has a large farm, and he never means to let you become a reaper because you do the ploughing so well. Your Master does not intend you to take part in the harvest because you are such a good hand at sowing; and as He has crops that need sowing all the year round He keeps you at that work. He knows you better than you know yourself. Perchance if He were once to let you get on the top of a loaded wagon of your own sheaves, you would turn dizzy and make a fall of it; so He says, “You keep to your ploughing and your sowing, and somebody else shall do the reaping.” Peradventure when your course is run you will see from heaven, where it will be safe for you to see it, that you did not labour in vain nor spend your strength for nought. “One soweth and another reapeth.” This is the divine economy. I think that every man that loves his Master will say, “So long as there does but come a harvest, I will not stipulate about who reaps it. Give me faith enough to be assured that the reaping will come, and I will be content.”

Though Christ cometh quickly He may not come for another ten thousand years, but in any case idolatry must die, and truth must reign. The accumulated prayers and energies of ages shall do the deed, and God shall be glorified. Only let us persevere in holy effort, and the end is sure. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

Do Not Be So Faint-hearted as to Give Up

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

Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any fish?” They answered Him, “No.” – John 21:5

Are there any of you who fear that you have toiled in vain and spent your strength for nought? I would entreat you, dear friends, not to be satisfied with casting in the seed unless you reap some good results; yet do not be so faint-hearted as to give up because of a little disappointment. Though you cannot be satisfied without fruit, yet do not cease to sow because one season proves a failure. I would not have our friends the farmers abandon agriculture because this year they have a bad crop: if they were to measure their future prospects by the present failure, it would be a great pity. If you have preached or taught, or done work for Christ with little success until now, do not infer that you will always be unsuccessful. Regret the lack of prosperity but do not relinquish the labour of seeking it. You may reasonably be sorrowful, but you have no right to despair. Non-success is a trial of faith which has been endured by many a trusty servant who has been triumphant in the issue. Did not the disciples toil all night, and catch nothing?…Did not our Lord say that some seed would fall on stony ground, and some among the thorns, and that from these there would be no harvest? What good did Jeremiah do? I have no doubt he laboured, and God blessed him, but the result of his preaching was that he said, “The bellows are burned in the fire.” He had blown up the fire till he had burnt the bellows, but no man’s heart was melted. “Woe is me”! said he. “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears”! I do not know what was the result of Noah’s ministry, but I do know that he was a preacher of righteousness for a hundred and twenty years, and yet he never brought a soul into the ark except his own family. Poor preaching we may count it judging by the influence it exerted: and yet we know that it was grand preaching, such as God commended. Do not, then, grudge the time, or the strength, you lay out in the service of our great Lord because you do not see your efforts thrive, for better men than you have wept over failure. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm