Character of Jesus

Give Christ Your All

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life 3 Comments

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. -Mark 12:30

Christian, never join anything with Christ. Wouldest thou stitch thy old rags into the new garment He giveth? Wouldest thou put new wine into old bottles? Wouldst thou put Christ and self together? Thou mightest as well yoke an elephant and an emmet; they could never plough together. What! wouldst thou put an archangel in the same harness with a worm, and hope that they would drag thee through the sky! How inconsistent! how foolish! What! thyself and Christ? Sure, Christ would smile; nay, Christ would weep, to think of such a thing! Christ and man together? …No, it never shall be; He will have nothing of the sort; He must be all. Note how inconsistent it would be to put anything else with Him; and note, again, how wrong it would be. Christ will never bear to have anything else placed with Him. He calls them adulterers and fornicators that love anything else but Him; He will have thy whole heart to trust in Him, thy whole soul to love Him, and thy whole life to honor Him. He will not come into thy house, till thou puttest all the keys at His girdle; He will not allow thee to give Him all the keys but one; He will not come till thou givest Him garret, parlour, drawing-room, and cellar too. He will make thee sing-

“Yet if I might make some reserve,
And duty did not call,
I love my God with zeal so great,
That I should give Him all.”

Mark thee, Christian; it is a sin to keep anything from God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm

The Faith That Delights God

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

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. -Galatians 3:9

(T)he crown of Christian experience is to be delivered from all trust in self or man, and to be brought to rely wholly and simply on Jesus Christ. I say, Christian, thy highest and noblest experience is not to be groaning about thy corruption, is not to be crying about thy wanderings, but is to say-

“With all my sin, and care, and woe,
His Spirit will not let me go.”

“Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” I like what Luther says: “I would run into Christ’s arms if He had a drawn sword in His hands.” Trust is called venturesome believing; but as an old divine says, there is no such thing as venturesome believing; we cannot venture on Christ; it is no venture at all; there is no hap-hazard in the least degree. It is a holy and heavenly experience, when we can go to Christ, amid the storm, and say, “Oh! Jesus, I believe I am covered by Thy blood;” …”Lord, I believe that through Christ Jesus, ragged though I am, I am fully absolved.” A saint’s faith is little faith when he believes as a saint; but a sinner’s faith is true faith when he believes as a sinner. The faith, not of a sinless being, but the faith of a sinful creature-that is the faith which delights God. Go, then, Christian: ask that this may be thy experience, to learn each day, “He only is my rock and my salvation.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm

Providential Mercies

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

For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater -Isaiah 55:10

Providential mercies are wholly from the Lord. It is true that rain falls from heaven, and waters the earth, and “maketh it bring forth and bud, that there may be seed, for the sower, and bread for the eater;” but out of whose hand cometh the rain, and from whose fingers do the dew drops distill? It is true, the sun shines, and makes the plants grow, and bud, and bring forth the blossom, and its heat ripens the fruit upon the tree; but who gives the sun its light, and who scatters the genial heat from it? It is true, I work and toil; this brow sweats; these hands are weary; I cast myself upon my bed, and there I rest, but I do not “sacrifice to mine own drag,” nor do I ascribe my preservation to my own might. Who makes these sinews strong? who makes these lungs like iron, and who makes these nerves of steel? “God only is the rock of my salvation.” He only is the salvation of my body and the salvation of my soul. Do I feed on the word? That word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna, but Jesus Christ Himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink. Am I continually receiving fresh increase of might? Where do I gather my might? My salvation is of Him: without Him I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I except I abide in Him.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm

Deliverance is of God Alone

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

God is to us a God of deliverances; And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death. -Psalm 68:20

By salvation, I understand deliverance from the house of bondage, wherein by nature I am born, and being brought out into the liberty wherewith Christ makes us free, together with a putting “on a rock, and establishing my goings.” This I understand to be wholly of God. And I think I am right in that conclusion, because I find in Scripture that man is dead; and how can a dead man assist in his own resurrection? I find that man is utterly depraved, and hates the divine change. How can a man, then, work that change which he himself hates? I find man to be ignorant of what it is to be born again, and like Nicodemus, asking the foolish question, “How can a man enter again into his mother’s womb, and be born?” I cannot conceive that a man can do that which he does not understand: and if he does not know what it is to be born again, he cannot make himself to be born again. No. I believe man to be utterly powerless in the first work of his salvation. He cannot break his chains, for they be not chains of iron, but chains of his own flesh and blood; he must first break his own heart before he can break the fetters that bind him. And how should man break his own heart? What hammer is that which I can use upon my own soul to break it, or what fire can I kindle which can dissolve it? Nay, deliverance is of God alone…and he who doth not believe it doth not receive God’s truth. Deliverance is of God alone. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm

My Salvation

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

He shall cry unto Me, You are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. -Psalm 89:26

If any one should ask us what we would choose for our motto, as preachers of the gospel, we think we should reply, “God only is our salvation.” The late lamented Mr. Denham has put at the foot of his portrait, a most admirable text, “Salvation is of the Lord.” Now, that is just an epitome of Calvinism; it is the sum and the substance of it. If any one should ask you what you mean by a Calvinist, you may reply, “He is one who says, “salvation is of the Lord.”…By the term “salvation” here, I understand not simply regeneration and conversion, but something more. I do not reckon that to be salvation which regenerates me, and then puts me in such a position that I may fall out of the covenant and be lost; I cannot call that a bridge which only goes half-way over the stream; I cannot call that salvation, which does not carry me all the way to heaven, wash me perfectly clean, and put me among the glorified who sing constant hosannahs around the throne. By salvation, then if I may divide it into parts, I understand deliverance, preservation continually through life, sustentation, and the gathering up of the whole in the perfecting of the saints in the person of Jesus Christ at last.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0080.cfm

 

He Knows Us

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

But if any man love God, the same is known of Him. -1 Corinthians 8:3

“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called.”There are riches of grace in this; but we will consider it in another way. Our Savior knows us, our Shepherd knows us. Beloved, He knows your person and all about you. You, with that sick body, that aching head, He knows you and He knows your soul with all its sensitiveness; that timidity, that anxiety, that constitutional depression—He knows it all. A physician may come to see you, and be unable to detect what the disease is that pains or prostrates you, but Christ knows you through and through; all the parts of your nature He understands. “I know them,” saith He; He can therefore prescribe for you. He knows your sins. Do not let that dismay you, because He has blotted them all out; and He only knows them to forgive them, to cover them with His righteousness. He knows your corruptions; He will help you to overcome them; He will deal with you in providence and in grace, so that they shall be rooted up. He knows your temptations. Perhaps you are living away from your parents and Christian friends, and you have had an extraordinary temptation, and you wish you could go home and tell your mother. Oh, He knows it, He knows it; He can help you better than your mother can. You say: “I wish the minister knew the temptation I have passed through.” Do not tell it; God knows it. As Daniel did not want Nebuchadnezzar to tell him the nature of his dream, but gave him the dream and the interpretation at the same time, so God can send you comfort. There will be a word as plainly suited to your case as though it were all printed and the preacher had known it all. It must be so. Depend upon it, the Lord know’s your temptation, and watches your trial. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons17.xxviii.html

Keep Close to Christ

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

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen for his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  – John 10:3

It is the children’s wise rule: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” Oh, blessed shall they be above many of whom it shall be said, “These are they that have not defiled their garments.” “These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” Some of His followers are not very scrupulous. They love Him. It is not for us to judge them. Rather we place ourselves among them and share in the censure. But happiest of all the happy are they who see the footprint—the print of that foot that once was pierced with the nail—and put their foot down where He placed it, and then again, in the selfsame mark, follow where He trod, till they climb at last to the throne. Keep close to Christ; take care of His little precepts unto the end. Remember, “Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, He shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” Do not peril being least in the heavenly kingdom though it is better to be that than to be greatest in the kingdom of darkness. O seek to be very near Him, to be a choice sheep in His chosen flock, and to have the mark distinctly upon your foot!

I will not stay to apply these truths, but leave each one of you to make such self-searching enquiries as the text suggests. Have I the ear mark? Have I the foot mark? “My sheep hear My voice,” “and they follow Me.” I hope that I am among the number. ! C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons17.xxviii.html