Character of Jesus

To Be Like Our Master

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, The Father Leave a comment

It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? -Matthew 10:25

It often happens, however, that when we are really earnest about some purpose, some enemy will rise up. Unconscious, perhaps, of the nobility of our purpose, he will misconstrue our motives, vilify our character, and tread our fair name in the dust. There is a strong temptation at such seasons to defend one’s self. We want to say just a word about one’s own sincerity and heartiness of purpose. The temptation comes very strongly on us, because we think that we ourselves are so wrapped up, so intimately connected with the work, that perhaps, if our name be injured that work may suffer also. How many good and great men have fallen into this snare, so that they have left their work in order to take care of themselves, and have at least diminished some little of their ardor, or commingled the ardor which they feel for those objects with another fervency of spirit-the fervency of self-defense.

Now, in our Lord Jesus Christ you see nothing of this. He is so set upon His purpose that when they call Him a drunkard He doth not deny it; when they say He is a Samaritan and is mad, He takes it silently and seems to say, “Be it so; think so, if you will.” Now and then there is a word of complaint, but not of accusation. When it is really for their good He will rebuke them, and say, “How can Beelzebub cast out Beelzebub?” But there is no elaborate defense of His character. Christ has left on record, in His sermons, no apology for anything He said. He just went about His work and did it, and left men to think what they pleased about Him. He knew right well that contempt and shame from some men are but another phase of glory, and that to suffer the despite of a depraved race was to be glorified in the presence of His Father, and in the midst of His holy angels…And so, too good to be selfish, too glorious to care for any one’s esteem, He could not and would not turn aside, but as an arrow from the bow of some mighty archer, He sped on His way towards His destined target.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0302.cfm

 

When Jesus Weeps

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

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! -Luke 13:34

A sure evidence that a man has espoused some mighty purpose, and that his purpose has saturated his whole soul, and steeped him in its floods, is, that if he be unsuccessful, he will weep. Now, see our Lord. Were there ever such tears shed as those which He poured forth over Jerusalem? Standing on the hilltops, He saw its towers and its glittering temple, and He discerned in the dim future the day when it should be burned with fire, and the ploughshare of destruction should be driven o’er its once fair, but then desolate, foundations and He cries, “O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Oh that wail of His,-“O Jerusalem! Jerusalem!” Does it not remind you of those words of God in one of the old prophets, where weeping over Ephraim, He saith “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together.” Jehovah’s bowels yearned to clasp His Ephraim to His breast. And so with Jesus. They may spit in His face, and He weeps not. They may drag Him out of the synagogue and seek to cast Him headlong down the brow of the hill, but I find not that He sighs. They may nail Him to the cross, and yet there shall be ne’er a tear. The only thing that can make Him weep is to see that they reject their own mercy, that they put away from them their only hope, and refuse to walk in that only way of peace. This alone might serve as a proof of the intensity of Jesus’ soul in his great purpose. He must save others; and if they be not saved, He will weep. If others oppose their salvation He will grow angry; not for Himself but for them. Careless of what happens to Himself, He has no fear, no anger for injuries that are poured on Him, but His whole spirit is given up to the one great work of rescuing souls from sin, and sinners from going down into the pit.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0302.cfm

The Glad Heart of Jesus

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

Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work… And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.-John 4:34, 36

Now you generally know when a man’s heart is in his work, by the joy he feels in it. You see some preachers go up into their pulpits as though they were going to be roasted at the stake; and they read their sermons through as if they were making their last dying speech and confession. What do you think they call it?-why, doing their duty. True ministers call preaching a pleasure, not a duty. It is a delight to stand up to tell to others the way of salvation and to magnify Christ. But mere hirelings cannot go higher than the idea of doing their duty when they are telling out this glorious tale. Jesus Christ was none of these. “My meat is” He said, “to do the will of Him that sent Me.” The only times that Jesus ever smiled and rejoiced are the times when He was in the midst of poor sinners. At that time “Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” Let Him see a penitent, let Him hear the groan of a sinner mourning over his evil way, let Him discern a tear trickling down the cheek of one of His hearers, and Jesus Christ begins to be glad, and the Man of Sorrows wears a smile for a moment upon that pale and sorrowful face. At all times there is a travailing in birth for souls: He is only happy when He sees the family of God enlarged.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0302.cfm

His Whole Soul Was in All that He Did

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 1 Comment

For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me. -Psalm 69:9

Mark our Master when He goes about doing good. The task is not irksome to Him. There are some men who if they distribute to the poor, or if they comfort the fatherless, do it with such reserve with such coldness of spirit, that you can perceive that it is but the shell of the man that acts, and not the man’s whole soul. But see our divine Lord. Wherever He walks, you see His whole self in flame. His whole being at work. Not a single power slumbers, but the whole man is engaged. How much at ease He seems among His poor fishermen! You do not discover that His thoughts are away in the halls of kings; but He is a fellow with them, bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. He walks in the midst of publicans and harlots, and He is not ill at ease; not like one who is condescending to do a work which He feels to be beneath Him; He is pleased with it, His whole soul is in it. Mark how He takes the little children on His knee, and though His disciples would put them away, yet His whole spirit is set truly with the poor, with the sinful, whom He came to save, that He says, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Look up into that face, and there is a whole-soured man there; not one whose thoughts are set on dignity and power, and who is schooling Himself down, toning down His mind to the circle in which He moves, as a matter of constraint and duty. His vocation becomes His delight. His Father’s service is His element. He is never happy when He is out of it. He casts His whole being, His whole spirit, into the work of man’s redemption.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0302.cfm

The Father’s Work

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

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.…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 1:1-2; 3:15

We know that when this world was made, the Father did not make it without reference to the Spirit, for “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” brooded over chaos, and brought order out of confusion. Nor did He make it without the Son; for we are told by John the Apostle, “Without Him was not anything made that was made.” Yet, at the same time, creation was the Father’s work. So also is it in salvation; the Father does not save without the Spirit, for “the Spirit quickeneth whom He will.” He doth not save without the Son, for it is through the merit of the Redeemer’s death that we are delivered from the demerit of our iniquity. But, notwithstanding this, God the Father is the worker of salvation as much as He is the worker of creation. Let us look up then, with eyes of delight, to our reconciled God and Father. O Lord our GOD, Thou art not an angry one! Thou art not an austere ruler! “Thou art not merely the Judge but Thou art the grand patriarch of Thy people! Thou art their great friend! Thou lovest them better than Thou didst Thy Son! For Thou didst not spare Him-Thou didst send Him down to suffer and to die, that Thou mightest bring Thy children home. “Glory be unto the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0302.cfm

God’s Work

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

Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.-John 4:34

It is peculiarly pleasing to the Christian to observe the interest which God the Father takes in the work of salvation. In our earlier days of childhood in grace, we conceived the idea that God the Father was only made propitious to us through the atonement of Christ that Jesus was the Savior, and that the Father was rather an austere Judge than a tender friend. But since then, we have learned the Father through the Son: for it was not possible we could come unto the Father except through Jesus Christ. But, now, having seen Christ, we have seen the Father also, and from henceforth, we both know the Father, and have seen Him, since we know the love of Christ, and have felt it shed abroad in our hearts. It is always refreshing then, to the enlightened Christian, to call to mind the intense interest which the Father takes in the work of salvation…Salvation-work is called the Father’s will. “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish;” but more, it is His will that His chosen, the blood-bought ones of Christ, should every one of them be redeemed from the ruins of the fall, and brought safely home to their Father’s house.

He gave up His only begotten Son; He withheld not the darling of His bosom, but sent away His well-beloved, and sent Him down with messages of love to man. Jesus Christ comes willingly, but still He comes by His Father’s appointment and sending…Salvation is here called God’s work: “It is my meat to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0302.cfm

Hold Fast Your Profession

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

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience…Hebrews 10:22

If we read the text according to our present authorised translation, we have faith. We have made a public avowal of our faith. We have obtained what the apostle calls “like precious faith”: it is a rare jewel, and he is rich that possesseth it. But another reading — and a very good reading too — runs thus: “The confession of our hope.” If we have faith we have hope. We will take both renderings; for they are both correct in fact if not in the letter. We have a blessed hope, a hope most “sure and steadfast, which entereth into that which is within the veil.” The day of our Lord’s appearing will be the day of the redemption of the body from the dust with which it mingles. We have a joyful, glorious, blessed hope which purifies, and comforts, and strengthens, and sustains us, and this hope is in us now. Are we not enriched with the grace of God? Where faith and hope are found, love cannot be far off; for the three Divine sisters are seldom separated. Let us love the Lord who has given us the first two.

We are to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, because He is faithful that has promised. Have you found Him faithful? Has the Lord failed you? Has the Lord been untrue in His promises to you? If He has, then do not hold fast your profession. If, after all, it has been a mistake and a delusion, then give it up. But if He is faithful that has promised — if till this moment you have proved the power of prayer, the wisdom of providence, and the truth of the Sacred Word, then deal with my Lord as He has dealt with you. Be not faithless to the Crucified. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/spurgeon/holding_fast_our_profession.htm