Character of Jesus

But Until Christ Comes…

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 6 Comments

Even when we were dead in sins, He hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) – Ephesians 2:5

Without Christ your religion is dead, corrupt, a stench, a nuisance before God-a thing of abhorrence, for where there is no Christ there is no life in any devotion, nothing in it for God to see that can possibly please Him. And this, mark you, is a true description, not of some, but of all who are without Christ. You moral people without Christ, you are lost as much as the immoral. You rich and respectable people, without Christ, you will be as surely damned as the prostitute that walks the streets at midnight. Without Christ, though you should heap up your charitable donations, endow your almshouses and hospitals, yea, though you should give your bodies to be burned, no merit would be imputed to you. All these things would profit you nothing. Without Christ, e’en if you might be raised on the wings of flaming zeal, or pursue your eager course with the enthusiasm of a martyr, you shall yet prove to be but the slave of your own passion, and the victim of your own folly. Unsanctified and unblest, you must, then, be shut out of heaven, and banished from the presence of God. Without Christ, you are destitute of every benefit which He, and He alone, can bestow.

It is all lost! lost! lost! without Christ, utterly lost, and until Christ comes not a single beam of hope can make glad that anxious eye.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3472.cfm

An Unconditional Peace

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

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:..Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; – Ephesians 2:8, 15

Most acceptable is a messenger of peace if the people know that he brings no hard terms. When a certain king sent to the inhabitants of a town that he would make peace with them, provided he put out their right eyes and cut off their right hands, I am sure the tidings must have caused the utmost consternation, and the ambassador could not be very popular. But there are no hard terms in the gospel. In fact, there are no terms, no conditions at all. It is an unconditional peace which God makes with men. It is a gospel which asks nothing of men, but gives them everything. The Lord saith, “My oxen and My fatlings are killed; all things are ready, come ye to the supper.” There is nothing for man to get ready; all things are prepared. The terms-if I must use a word I do not like-are simple and easy. “Believe, and live.” With what joy should a rebellious sinner hear the voice of the ambassador who brings no hard conditions from God.

No temporary peace is proposed that may presently be broken, but a peace that shall stand fast for ever and ever. No temporary armistice, no brief interlude between the deeds of battle do we herald. Peace; eternal, unbroken peace; peace that shall endure in life and outlive death; peace which shall endure throughout eternity, we testify and make known to you.

This peace is proclaimed to all men. It is proclaimed without exception. “Whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.” None are excluded hence but those who do themselves exclude. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3497.cfm

 

With Christ

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

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus – Ephesians 2:6

Without Christ there is no peace. See that poor soul hunted by the dogs of hell. It flies swift as the wind, but faster far do the hunters pursue. It seeks a covert yonder in the pleasures of the world, but the baying of the hell-hounds affright it in the festive haunts. It seeks to toil up the mountain of good works, but its legs are all too weak to bear it beyond the oppressor’s rule. It doubles; it changes its tack; it goes from right to left but the hell-dogs are too swift of foot, and too strong of wind to lose their prey, and till Jesus Christ shall open His bosom for that poor hunted thing to hide itself within, it shall have no peace.

Without Christ there is no rest. The wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, and only Jesus can say to that sea, “Peace, be still.”

Without Christ there is no safety. The vessel must fly before the gale, for it has no anchor on board; it may dash upon the rocks, for it has no chart and no pilot. Come what may, it is given up to the mercy of wind and waves. Safety it cannot know without Christ. But let Christ come on board that soul, and it may laugh at all the storms of earth, and e’en the whirlwinds which the Prince of the Power of the air may raise need not confound it, but without Christ there is no safety for it. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3472.cfm

Thou Cannot Stand Against Him

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, repentance 15 Comments

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men – 2 Corinthians 5:11

Ambassadors are always specially welcome to a people who are engaged in a war which is beyond their strength, when their resources are exhausted, and the peril of defeat is imminent. If some tiny little principality has ventured to rebel against a great empire, when it is absolutely certain that its villages will be consumed, its provinces, ravaged, and that all its power will be crushed, ambassadors are pretty sure to receive a cordial welcome. Ah! man, thou best bid defiance to the King of Heaven, whose power is irresistible; by whom rocks are thrown down; whose voice breaketh the cedars of Lebanon; whose hand controlleth the great deep sea. He it, is who bindeth the clouds with a cord, and girdleth the earth with a belt! Angels that excel in strength cannot stand against Him. From the lofty battlements of heaven He hurled down Satan, the great archangel, and the mighty host of rebellious morning stars! How canst thou stand against Him; shall the stubble contend with the fire? Shall the potter’s vessel resist the rod of iron? What art thou but a moth, easily crushed beneath His finger! The breath is in thy nostrils, and that is not thine own; how then canst thou, poor mortal, contend with Him who only hath immortality? Thy breath broken more rapidly than a sear leaf by the wind! How canst thou venture to be at war with the One who has heaven and earth at His command, who holds the keys of hell and of death, and who has Tophet as His source of ammunition against thee? Listen to His thunders, and let thy blood curdle! Let His lightning flash, and how art thou amazed! How, then, canst thou stand against the greatness of His power, or endure the terror of His wrath? Happy for thee that terms of peace are proclaimed in your ears. God is willing to cease the warfare; He would not have thee be His adversary. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3497.cfm

Without Christ

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, the unbelieving life 1 Comment

“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:” – Ephesians 2:12

“Without Christ.” No tongue can tell the depth of wretchedness that lies in those two words. There is no poverty like it, no want like it, and for those who die so, there is no ruin like that it will bring. Without Christ!.. Oh! what terrible evils lie clustering thick within these two words!..The man who is without Christ is without any of those spiritual blessings which only Christ can bestow. Christ is the life of the believer, but the man who is without Christ is dead in trespasses and sins. There he lies; let us stand and weep over his corpse. It is decent and clean, and well laid out, but life is absent, and, life being absent, there is no knowledge, no feeling, no power…As long as that sinner is without Christ, we may give him ordinances, if we dare; we may pray for him, we may keep him under the sound of the ministry, but everything will be in vain. Till thou, O quickening Spirit, come to that sinner, he will still be dead in trespasses and sins. Till Jesus is revealed to him there can be no life.

Men sit in darkness until Jesus appears… Without Christ there is no light of true spiritual knowledge, no light of true spiritual enjoyment, no light in which the brightness of truth can be seen, or the warmth of fellowship proved. Come, Jesus, come! Thou art the sun of righteousness, and healing is beneath Thy wings. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3472.cfm

 

 

Ambassadors for Christ

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

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”- 2 Corinthians 5:20

There has long been war between man and his Maker. Our federal head, Adam, threw down the gauntlet in the garden of Eden. The trumpet was heard to ring through the glades of Paradise, the trumpet which broke the silence of peace and disturbed the song of praise. From that day forward until now there has been no truce, no treaty between God and man by nature… Never in the heart of any natural man, unless divine grace has put it there, has a desire to re-establish peace been felt or entertained. If any of you long to be at peace with your Maker, it is because His Spirit has made you long for it. Left to yourselves, you would go from conflict to conflict, from struggle to struggle, and perpetuate the encounter, until it ended in your eternal destruction… That He anxiously desires man to be reconciled unto Him, He proves by taking the first step. He, himself, sends His ambassadors… and He commands those ambassadors to be very earnest, and to plead with men, to pray them, to beseech them that they would be reconciled to God. I take this to be a sure pledge that there is love in the heart of God. Why, at the very announcement of these tidings, the rebellious sinner’s ears should be opened! It were enough to make him say, “I will hearken diligently; I will hear what God the Lord shall speak, for if it be true that He takes the first step towards me, and that He is willing to take up this deadly quarrel, God forbid that I should turn away; I will even now hear and attend to all that God shall speak to my soul.” May He bless the message to you, that you may be reconciled to Him without a moment’s delay. ~ C.H, Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3497.cfm

Come, Broken Hearts, Come to the Physician

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

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. –Psalm 147:3

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. This the Holy Spirit mentions as a part of the glory of God, and a reason for our declaring His praise: the Lord is not only a Builder, but a Healer; He restores broken hearts as well as broken walls. The kings of the earth think to be great through their loftiness; but Jehovah becomes really so by His condescension. Behold, the Most High has to do with the sick and the sorry, with the wretched and the wounded! He walks the hospitals as the good Physician! His deep sympathy with mourners is a special mark of His goodness. Few will associate with the despondent, but Jehovah chooses their company, and abides with them till He has healed them by His comforts. He deigns to handle and heal broken hearts: He Himself lays on the ointment of grace, and the soft bandages of love, and thus binds up the bleeding wounds of those convinced of sin. This is compassion like a God. Well may those praise Him to whom He has acted so gracious a part. The Lord is always healing and binding: this is no new work to Him, He has done it of old; and it is not a thing of the past of which He is now weary, for He is still healing and still binding, as the original hath it. Come, broken hearts, come to the Physician who never fails to heal: uncover your wounds to Him who so tenderly binds them up! ~ C.H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David,