Character of Jesus

The Restorer of Peace

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

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel. -Genesis 3:15

God is the great Peacemaker; and thus He is indeed the God of peace. When Satan fell, there was war in heaven. God made peace there, for He smote Satan and cast him and all his rebel hosts into eternal fire. He made peace by His might and power and majesty, for He drove him out of heaven, and expelled him by His flaming brand, never again to pollute the sacred floor of bliss, and never more to endanger Paradise by misleading his peers in heaven. So He made peace in heaven by His power. But when man fell, God made peace not by His power, but by His mercy. Man transgresses. Poor man! Mark how God goes after him to make peace with him!…Through the covenant He made with Jesus Christ from all eternity, God’s people were at peace with God. Although God saw that man shall fall; though He foresaw that His elect would with the rest depart from rectitude, and become His enemies, yet He did long before the fall draw up a covenant with Jesus, wherein Jesus stipulated that He would pay the debts of all His people, and the Father on their behalf did actually and positively forgive their sins, and justify their persons, take away their guilt, acquit them, accept and receive them unto peace with Him… Jesus was not our ambassador merely, but He was our peace; not the maker of peace merely, but our peace; and since there was a Christ before all worlds, there was peace before all worlds. Since there always will be a Christ, so there always will be peace between God and all those interested in the covenant. Oh, if we can but feel we are in the covenant, if we know we are numbered with the chosen race, and purchased with redeeming blood, then we can rejoice, because God has been to us the Restorer of breaches, the Builder of cities to dwell in, and hath given us peace which once we lost; He is the Restorer of peace.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0049.cfm

The God of Peace

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

Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen -Romans 15:33

If you consider God in the trinity of His persons for a few moments, you will see that in each-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-the title is apt and correct, “the God of peace.” There is God the everlasting Father, He is the God of peace, for He from all eternity planned the great covenant of peace, whereby He might bring rebels nigh unto Him, and make strangers and foreigners fellow-heirs with the saints, and joint-heirs with His Son Christ Jesus.

So is Jesus Christ, the second person, the God of peace for “He is our peace who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.” He makes peace between God and man. His blood sprinkled on the fiery wrath of God turned it to love, or rather that which must have broken forth in wrath, though it was love for ever, was allowed to display itself in loving-kindness through the wondrous mediatorship of Jesus Christ; and He is the God of peace because He makes peace in the conscience and in the heart.

So is the Holy Ghost the God of peace. He of old brought peace, when chaotic matter was in confusion, by the brooding of His wings: He caused order to appear where once there was nothing but darkness and chaos. So in dark chaotic souls He is the God of peace…When by earthly cares we are tossed about, like the sea-bird, up and down, up and down, from the base of the wave to the billows’ crown, He says, “Peace be still.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0049.cfm

Extra Time in Prayer

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

But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. -1 Corinthians 2:9

Ordinary closet prayer will only make ordinary Christians of us. It is in extraordinary seasons, when we are led by God to devote, say an hour, to earnest prayer; when we feel an impulse, we scarce know why, to cut off a portion of our time during the day to go alone. Then, beloved, we kneel down, and begin to pray in earnest. It may be that we are attacked by the devil; for when the enemy knows we are going to have a great blessing, he always makes a great noise to drive us away; but if we keep at it, we shall soon get into a quiet frame of mind, and hear him roaring at a distance. Presently you get hold of the Angel, and say, “Lord, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” He asks your name. You begin to tell him what your name was:

“Once a sinner, near despair,
Sought Thy mercy-seat by prayer;
Mercy heard and set him free;
Lord, that mercy came to me.”

You say, “What is Thy name, Lord?” He will not tell you. You hold Him fast still; at last He deigns to bless you. That is certainly some foretaste of heaven, when you feel alone with Jesus. Let no man know your prayers; they are between God and yourselves; but if you want to know much of heaven, spend some extra time in prayer; for God then reveals it to us by His Spirit. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0056.cfm

The Season of Quiet Contemplation

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

My beloved spoke, and said to me: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away…” -Song of Songs 2:10

There are precious hours, blessed be God, when we forget the world-times and seasons when we get quite away from it, when our weary spirit wings its way far, far from scenes of toil and strife. There are precious moments when the angel of contemplation gives us a vision. He comes and puts his finger on the lip of the noisy world; he bids the wheels that are continually rattling in our ears be still; and we sit down, and there is a solemn silence of the mind. We find our heaven and our God; we engage ourselves in contemplating the glories of Jesus, or mounting upwards towards the bliss of heaven-in going backward to the great secrets of electing love, in considering the immutability of the blessed covenant, in thinking of what wind which “bloweth where it listeth,” in remembering our own participation of that life which cometh from God, in thinking of our blood-bought union with the Lamb, of the consummation of our marriage with Him in realms of light and bliss, or any such kindred topics. Then it is that we know a little about heaven.

Christian! when you are enabled by the Spirit to hold a season of sweet contemplation, then you can say, “But He hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit;” for the joys of heaven are akin to the joys of contemplation, and the joys of a holy calm in God.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0056.cfm

Of Holy Calm and Trust

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

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. -1 Corinthians 2:9

We think a Christian gets a gaze of what heaven is when, in the midst of trials and troubles, he is able to cast all his care upon the Lord because He careth for him. When waves of distress and billows of affliction pass over the Christian there are times when his faith is so strong that he lies down and sleeps though the hurricane is thundering in his ears and though billows are rocking him like a child in its cradle, though the earth is removed and the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea, he says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Famine and desolation come; but he says, “Though the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall there be fruit on the vine, though the labour of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no increase, yet will I trust in the Lord, and stay myself on the God of Jacob.” Affliction smites him to the ground; he looks up, and says, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” The blows that are given to him are like the lashing of a whip upon the water, covered up immediately, and he seems to feel nothing. It is not stoicism; it is the peculiar sleep of the beloved. “So He giveth His beloved sleep.” Persecution surrounds him; but he is unmoved. Heaven is something like that; a place of holy calm and trust:

“That holy calm, that sweet repose,
Which none but he who feels it knows.
This heavenly calm within the breast
Is the dear pledge of glorious rest,
Which for the church of God remains,
The end of cares, the end of pains.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0056.cfm

The Deep Things of God

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

As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.-1 Corinthians 2:9-10

How very frequently at our prayer meetings do we hear our brethren describing heaven as a place of which we cannot conceive! They say, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him;” and there they stop, not seeing that the very marrow of the whole passage lies in this: “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.”

Any one who reads the connection will discover that the apostle is not talking about heaven at all. He is only speaking of this: that the wisdom of this world is not able to discover the things of God; that the merely carnal mind is not able to know the deep spiritual things of our most holy religion. He says, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”…”But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” I take it, that this text is a great general fact, capable of specific application to certain cases; and that the great fact is this: that the things of God cannot be perceived by eye, and ear, and heart, but must be revealed by the Spirit of God; as they are unto all true believers. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0056.cfm

They Did See Him

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

And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. -1 Corinthians 15:5-8

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is one of the best attested facts on record. There were so many witnesses to behold it, that if we do in the least degree receive the credibility of men’s testimonies, we cannot and we dare not doubt that Jesus rose from the dead. It is all very easy for infidels to say that these persons were deceived, but it is equally foolish, for these persons could not every one of them have been so positively deceived as to say that they had seen this man, whom they knew to have been dead, afterwards alive; they could not all, surely, have agreed together to help on this imposture: if they did, it is the most marvelous thing we have on record, that not one of them ever broke faith with the others, but that the whole mass of them remained firm. We believe it to be quite impossible that so many rogues should have agreed for ever. They were men who had nothing to gain by it; they subjected themselves to persecution by affirming the very fact; they were ready to die for it, and did die for it. Five hundred or a thousand persons who had seen Him at different times, declared that they did see Him, and that He rose from the dead; the fact of His death having been attested beforehand. How, then, dare any man say that the Christian religion is not true, when we know for a certainty that Christ died and rose again from the dead? And knowing that, who shall deny the divinity of the Saviour? Who shall say that He is not mighty to save? Our faith hath a solid basis, for it hath all these witnesses on which to rest, and the more sure witness of the Holy Spirit witnessing in our hearts. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0066.cfm