Character of Jesus

The First Gospel Sermon

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

-And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head,and you shall bruise His heel. Genesis 3:16

This is the first gospel sermon that was ever delivered upon the surface of this earth. It was memorable discourse indeed, with Jehovah Himself for the preacher, and the whole human race and the prince of darkness for the audience. Is it not remarkable that this great gospel promise should have been delivered so soon after the transgression? As yet no sentence had been pronounced upon either of the two human offenders, but the promise was given under the form of a sentence pronounced upon the serpent Not yet had the woman been condemned to painful travail, or the man to exhausting labour, or even the soil to the curse of thorn and thistle. Truly “mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” Before the Lord had said “dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return,” He was pleased to say that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. Let us rejoice, then, in the swift mercy of God, which in the early watches of the night of sin came with comfortable words unto us.

“Now is the hour of darkness past,
Christ has assumed His reigning power;
Behold the great accuser cast
Down from his seat to reign no more.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1326.cfm

 

 

Converted to God by His Still Small Voice

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

And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. – 1 Kings 19:12

Many have been converted to God by the still small voice whom no wind, though it rose to a hurricane, no earthquake, though it rent the world to its centre, and no fire, though it licked up the forests, could ever move. A gentle word has done it. Sometimes that still small voice has come to us by apparently very, very inadequate means. It is astonishing what little things God will use when He pleases to do so. He wanted to soften the heart of that rough prophet Jonah, and He sent a worm and a gourd, and they did it. He would bring Peter to repentance, and He bade a cock to crow… Means may seem to be absolutely ridiculous, yet God maketh use of the things that are not, as though they were. I remember to have heard the story of a man, a blasphemer, profane, an atheist, who was converted singularly by a sinful action of his. He had written on a piece of paper, “God is nowhere,” and bade his child read it, for he would make his child an atheist too. And the child spelt it, “God is n-o-w h-e-r-e-God is now here.” It was a truth, instead of a lie, and the arrow pierced the man’s own heart. I remember one who had lived a life of gross iniquity who stepped into Exeter Hall and found Christ there. It was not my sermon, however, that God blessed: it was only this. I read the hymn, “Jesus, lover of my soul.” Just those words touched his heart. “Jesus, lover of my soul,” he said to himself. “Did Jesus love my soul? Then how is it that I could have lived as I have done?”; and that word broke him down. God works great results by little things. A little hymn learnt at the Sunday School is sung at home by a little prattler, and the heart of the father is softened by it. One little sentence uttered by a friendly visitor reaches a mother’s conscience and impresses her heart. Ay, and God can use the quiet of the evening, or the stillness of the night, or a flash of lightning, or a peal of thunder, or a dewdrop, or a little flower-He can use anything He wills to bring His banished home. Often doth the Spirit speak thus with a still small voice. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3498.cfm

Fresh Strength from on High

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

So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat… -1 Kings 19:19 

Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth… -Isaiah 41:15

Elijah was to go back to anoint his successor. If Elijah flees, and if Elijah at length is taken up to heaven, yet Elisha shall succeed him. Perhaps there may be a brother here who is in the state I have described who does not know what God has in store for him. You are to call into the Christian ministry a brother that shall do greater than you have, you shall light a greater candle than your own. Oh! what joy Elijah must have had when he felt there would be someone to take up his work! You have not, my dear brother, yet called out for your master the man the Lord means to call. What a happy man he must have been who was the means of the conversion of Whitefield or Jonathan Edwards, or some great missionary of the cross. You may be that, in that little village-in that back slum. Go thou back then. What doest thou here, Elijah? What doest thou here? The Master’s voice speaks to thee. Go to thy closet, and get fresh strength from on high, and then go back to thy difficulties-go back to thy self-denials, go back to all thy service with a good heart and true. “Fear not thou worm Jacob; I will help thee, saith the Lord.” Arise, thou worm, and thresh the mountain, for “I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth.” I have delivered the message. It is to somebody, I know not to whom… ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3498.cfm

For The Lord Has Blessed Thee

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

And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left… ~ 1 Kings 19:13-14 

Elijah was a man of like passions with ourselves. We all know that when we have passed through any great excitement of high joy there almost always comes following, a corresponding reaction and depression.

But thus saith the Lord unto thee, “It may be thou hast not laboured in vain as thou hast supposed.” Elijah knew nothing of the seven thousand men that God had in reserve. You don’t know what converts God has given you. There are scattered up and down the world, perhaps, some precious ones who owe their salvation instrumentally to you, and could they all stand before you, you would blush with shame at the thought of leaving a harvest-field that has really been so prolific, though not in your sight. Go back again to thy work, for the Lord has blessed thee. Play not the fool by deserting the post where He will give thee honour yet. Oh! thou true servant of God, the Lord will not suffer thee to be rejected. If they have rejected thee, they have rejected thy God also. If thou hast been faithful to His truth, leave thou that matter to Him-go thou back to thy work.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3498.cfm

Seeking Soul, Heaven and Hell Tremble in the Balance for Thee!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee: for Thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee. -Psalm 9:10

Cry unto God to show thee the way; ask Him to do it, for, remember, He can do for thee what you canst never do for thyself. Understand that thou canst not save thyself-that thou hast no right to be saved-that if saved, it will be His sovereign grace; therefore, cry humbly, but oh! note the value of the blessing thou needest, and, therefore, pray earnestly. Do not let Him go, except He bless thee. Rob thyself of sleep, sinner, rather than rob thy soul of Christ…Oh! if a soul be resolved, “I will not perish if mercy is to be had; I will stoop to anything; I will have Christ or nothing; I will be nothing; I will let Him do what He wills with me, if I may but be saved; I will make no terms and no conditions, only let my sins be blotted out. My friend, thou art already not far from the kingdom of God. Already grace is at work in thy soul, and “if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee.” Continue in that blessed search. Let nothing take thee off from it; it is thy life; thy soul hangs on it; heaven and hell tremble in the balance for thee; give thy heart to God, thy faith to Christ, thy whole soul to the purpose of seeking thy salvation, and say, “It is my only business, with holy faith and holy fear, to make my calling and election sure while here I stand upon this narrow neck of land, betwixt the two unbounded seas.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/history/spurgeon/web/ss-0036.html

Seeking God Heartily and Earnestly

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

But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. -Deuteronomy 4:29

We have lost our God by the Fall-by our own sin. We have alienated ourselves from Him, but our case is not hopeless. Since Jesus Christ has come into the world, and given the gospel, and provided an atonement, it is a certainty that, if we desire the Lord and seek Him, He will be found of us. Now He has told us the way in which to seek. It is by coming to Him as He is revealed in Christ Jesus, and trusting our souls with Jesus. If we do this, we have found God, and we are saved. The sum and substance of the promise is this: any soul that, by prayer, seeks God, desires salvation through Jesus, through faith in Jesus-such a soul shall be heard, shall get the blessing it desires, shall find its God. You shall not pray in vain. Your tears, and cries, and longings shall be heard. Christ shall be revealed to you, and, through your believing in Christ, you shall certainly be saved. There is not, and never will be, in hell, a single person who dare say that he sought the Lord through Christ and could not find Him. There is not living a man who dares say that, or if he did, his own conscience would belie him…Seeking in God’s way, heartily and earnestly, God will not reject him…I do know this, that if “the wicked forsakes his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and turns unto the Lord, He will have mercy upon him, and our God will abundantly pardon” him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3490.cfm

Come Empty-Handed and He Will Be Found of Thee

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

…for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee… -1 Chronicles 28:9

It has been supposed that we should want a good deal of help in seeking after salvation. Certain persons who step in to be absolutely necessary priests between us and God. A great delusion, but there be thousands who believe it and who fancy that God won’t hear them if they pray, except they have some respect for these human mediators. Away with the whole, away with any pretence for anyone to stand between the soul and God, save Jesus Christ. “If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee.” Though thou bring no other man with thee, but come empty-handed as thou art to God here, without paraphernalia, or altar, or sacrifice of the Mass, He will be found of thee. Take the text in its simplicity and sublimity. It is just this: that if any heart really seeks God in His way, it shall find Him; if any man really wants mercy from God and seeks it as God tells him to seek it, he shall have it. Any man of woman born, be he who he may, if he comes to God in the way laid down, and sincerely asks for salvation, that salvation he shall surely have. The matter is simple enough; our pride alone obscures it. The way to heaven is so plain that “a wayfaring man, though a fool, may not err therein.”

Is anything impossible for the Saviour? Oh! conceive it not so. The idea that any guilt is too great for Christ to pardon scarcely deserves to be replied to. It is so absurd when you are dealing with the infinite mercy of a Saviour who is God Himself.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3490.cfm