Character of Jesus

Can Ye Cleave to Your Lord Then?

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises Leave a comment

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. – 1 Corinthians 10:12

If there were no temptation from without, you are fickle enough in yourself. Ah! we might sooner trust the wind or rely upon the glassy waves of the ocean than trust our own frail resolutions. We are changeable, we are false; our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Let him that putteth on his harness take care not to boast as him that putteth it off. There are dangers ahead and many trials. All is not gold that glitters. Firm resolutions are not always kept; yea, let me add they are never kept if they are made in your own strength; they will go most surely, and you that promised to stand fast will soon turn aside.

There will be, with some of you, the jeers and sneers of those you work with. They will call you ill names. Perhaps they have began it already. Well that you do not know what they can invent! The Christian soldier has a gauntlet to run. The Christian worker in many a large factory has to endure a lifelong martyrdom. Men will invent all sorts of gibes and jeers against a believer in Christ, and it is a fine sport to pelt a Christian. Can ye cleave to your Lord then? Oh! if you cannot, you do not know Him, for He is worth ten thousand times ten thousand sneers, and you should count it a joy to be permitted to bear a scoff for Him. Now are you in your measure partakers with the noble host of martyrs. You cannot in these softer days earn the ruby crown of martyrdom, but you have, at least, the trial of cruel mockings. Bear up manfully, and meet their mockery with your holy bravery and patient endurance.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

The Sweetness of Jesus

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

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. -Psalm 42:1

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. -Hebrews 10:38

Can anybody suggest a reason why the lover of Christ should turn from Him? Polycarp was asked that he should curse Christ, and he replied, “Wherefore should I curse Him?” The assembly in the amphitheatre could give no answer to that; all hell could never give a reply to that. What hath He done, what hath He done that we should leave Him? What can He have done, and what is there that the world can offer that would ever repay us for leaving Him? Could we so false, so traitorous, prove as to turn away from Christ, what should we gain? A little pleasure gone in a moment, like thorns that crackle beneath the pot. What should we lose, my brethren? We should lose the joy of life; we should lose our support in tribulation; we should lose our hope in death; we should lose heaven, to inherit nothing but the blackness of darkness for ever. I cannot conceive a bribe heavy enough to weigh against Him; I cannot imagine an honour bright enough to compare with Him. I cannot conceive a disgrace that can be black enough to compare with the disgrace of deserting Him. The silver mine of Demas is a poor reward for selling His Master. All the wealth of India, could it be poured into one’s lap, were but a mockery of a soul that damned itself by casting away its confidence in Christ. To whom should we go, Master; to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. To leave Christ would be the meanest thing of which any could be capable. I suppose the devil himself, with all that he has ever done, has never been able to compass a wickedness that would equal this wickedness, if it were possible of a truly gracious soul deliberately deserting Jesus for the world, for such a soul knows the hollowness of this world’s joys; such a soul knows something of the sweetness of Jesus; such a spirit has been with Him, and has learned of Him, has had the enlightenments of His grace, has learned the faithfulness of His promise and the love of His heart. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

Think of All He Has Done for Us!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation 2 Comments

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. -Psalm 22:6

His cross is despised; let us be despised with it, for He bore shame for us. His truth is counted a lie; let us be willing to be regarded as liars, for He had reproach cast on Him. Sometimes to defend His cause has required the loss of all things; be it ours. if needs be, to lose all things for Him who gave up all-and what an all that was!-the bliss of heaven, and a life itself for us, that He might redeem our souls. The deserts of Jesus are such that it would need an angel’s tongue to tell them out, even though it were but in brief catalogue. Look at Him in what He is Himself as His Father’s darling. Look at His character; was there ever such another? Survey the beauties of His person-were there ever such charms commingled before? Think of His life, and of His death, and of what He is doing still before the throne, and surely you will feel that it is but right and just that, with Jesus, you should enter into the ship and, with Him, sail the ocean over, be it rough or be it smooth.

If we could put our feet down exactly where His feet went down, even though we had to walk up to Calvary itself, it would be our duty so to do, for His path was perfect rectitude, and in Him was no sin. We challenge heaven, with its omniscience, to detect a flaw in Him. We challenge hell, with its malice, to discover in Him an aught that is amiss. Lovers of the right and of the true, ask grace that you may be as He was. You cannot be more adamant for virtue than He. You cannot serve your God better. You cannot do better than keep close to every step that He has taken, and, whether in life or in death, to follow Him. It is right, then, because He deserves it; it is right, again because in itself it is according to the eternal rules of equity.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

 

Jesus Deserves Our Faithful Service

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life 5 Comments

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. – Ephesians 6:2

Jesus deserves from all who have really tasted of His grace such faithful service, such unswerving following in all cases and under all circumstances. Who else has ever done for us what Jesus has? Our mother brought us forth, but He has given to us a second birth. Our mother dandled us upon her knee, but He has borne us all the days of old, and even to hoar hairs will He carry His people. We have had many kindnesses from friends, but never such love as Jesus showed when, we being His enemies, He yet redeemed us with His most precious blood. Think of these three words, and try to measure what they mean-Gethsemane-Gabbatha-Golgotha. Let those three words awaken your adoring memories. Gethsemane-with its garden and bloody sweat for you. Gabbatha-with its scourging, its mocking, its shame and spitting for you. Golgotha-with its cross and the five flowing wounds, and all the bitterness of the divine wrath, and the torment of death itself, for you. Men have been known to give away their lives cheerfully for some great military leader whose genius has commanded their admiration, but they were fools to throw their lives away, after all, for these men had done but little or nothing for them to make them their servants and slaves. But this Man, my brethren, if we had a thousand lives, and were to give them all, yet would deserve more of us, for He hath redeemed us from going down into the pit, saved us from flames that never shall be quenched, and from a pit that is darkness itself. By the eternal woe from which the blood of Christ hath uplifted us, let us, who believe that we have been redeemed from hell, consecrate ourselves for ever to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. .~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

Is Not That Good News?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Father 11 Comments

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.  -John 14:3

He is coming here again,-coming here for you,-coming to be admired by you and the rest of His redeemed family when He comes to take His people up to their eternal home. The message which He has sent is, “Behold, I come quickly.” What is your answer to that? I think I hear you say, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” It will not be very long before you will be with Him, or else He will be with you. In a short time, you will have ended your pilgrimage here; the days of your banishment from home will be over. Wait a little longer; only a few more tears, and, then,-

“Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast.”

Is not that good news?

There is another piece of news, which you have often heard before,-that is, that a great many of the saints have got home already. There is good news from the Fair Havens. Many have entered there,-thousands, millions,-who have had as stormy a sea to traverse as you yourself have had; but their Pilot has brought them to their desired haven. Many, whom we loved on earth, have gone home to be “forever with the Lord.” They are all right; all is well with them. The sheep are getting home to the fold; the children are going home to their Father’s house above. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

Our Holy Relationship with God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Father 4 Comments

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. – Genesis 5:24

Still do godly men walk with God as Enoch did. Do not imagine that God has gone away, and that no longer may we speak to Him as a man speaketh with his friend. No, for truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Still does Jesus lay bare His heart to His beloved.

And, dear friends, it should be our earnest aim to keep unbroken our intercourse with heaven, for it is the most refreshing thing beneath the sun, This world is like an arid desert where there is no water except as we maintain our intercourse with Christ. So long as I can say that the Lord is mine, all things here below are of small account; but if I once get a doubt about that matter, and if I cease to walk with God, then what is there here below that can content my immortal spirit? Without Christ, this world is to us as thorns without the roses, and as bitters without the sweets of life. But Thou, O Lord, makest earth to be a heaven to Thy saints even when they lie in dungeons, when Thy presence cheers them. But were, they translated to the palaces of kings, and thereby lost Thy blessed company, those palaces would be worse than prison-houses to them. It is most important that you, who are obliged to mingle with the world, should maintain your intercourse with Christ; for that is the only way to keep yourself clear from its corruptions. And you, who have much to do in the church, must keep up your intercourse with Christ; for that is the only way of preserving your service from becoming mechanical, and of preventing you from doing good works as a mere matter of routine. You, too, who have much to suffer, or even much to enjoy, must keep up this holy intercourse, or else your soul will soon be like a thirsty land where there is no water. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

Good News from Heaven to Saints

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. -2 Peter 1:4

Does someone ask, “Is there any news from heaven?” Yes, there is; and that shall be my first remark in this part of my theme,-that news does still come from heaven. There is an invisible telegraph between us and the glory-land; we are not cut off from communication with those who are there. Jacob dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven, but it was not merely a dream. Never was there anything more real than that vision of the night, for there is a blessed means of communication between this far-off land and the goodly land beyond the river. Our prayers and sighs and tears, our praises and thanksgivings, get there all right; they are not, lost en route. They reach the great heart of God, and messages come down to us from Him in response to them. How do they come? Well, they come by the Holy Spirit sealing home to the soul the promises of the Word. Do you know, experimentally, what I mean by that? “Ah!” says someone, “do I not!” Every now and then, some blessed portion of Scripture seems as if it were set on fire, and, as you read it, it blazes out before your eyes, just as, sometimes, we see the lamps that are being got ready for an illumination. There is some grand device; and, before it is lit up, it is little more than an array of pipes; but how different it looks after they have lit it all! So, there is many a text of Scripture which is like that design; you can see something of what it means, but you should see it when it is lit up. How very different it is then! You sometimes get a promise from the Word whispered into your ear, and it is just as new to you as if it had never been written down eighteen hundred or three or four thousand years ago. It is as fresh to you as if the eternal pen had written it to-day, and written it for you alone. Some of us I hope, many of us-know how the Spirit of God takes of the things of Christ, and reveals them unto us, leading us into the very heart and soul of the precious blessings of the covenant of grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm