Character of Jesus

On This We Must Agree

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

“For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep.”- Act 13:36

It is remarkable that David should say, in the sixteenth Psalm, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption,” and yet that Paul should say concerning him, when preaching at Antioch, that he “saw corruption.” The key to this apparent contradiction is the fact that David did not speak of himself, but of his Lord. Peter, in his memorable sermon on the day of Pentecost, quotes the words of the psalmist, applies them to his risen Redeemer, and distinctly affirms that, in the Psalm, “David speaketh concerning Him.”

It is worthy of notice that Peter and Paul both use the same argument about this statement of David. These two apostles did not always agree; but however much they might differ about other matters, they were of one mind about the resurrection of Christ. I hope that whatever differences there may be among true preachers of the gospel, they will always be one in declaring the resurrection of our Lord. This corner-stone of the gospel must never be displaced or dishonoured. The good news we are commissioned to declare is the same that Paul received and delivered, “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” Chief among the Scriptures fulfilled by the resurrection of Christ stands this word, which David, inspired by the Holy Ghost, wrote so long before the event: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” The resurrection of Christ is the top-stone of our faith. Because “He, whom God raised again, saw no corruption,” Paul was able to say this to his hearers, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that before are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2243.cfm

Have You Done Your Part? 

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

Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto. – 1 Chronicles 22:14

You see that David had done his part toward the building of the temple. I should like to ask every believer here, “Have you done your part?” You are a child of God; God has loved you and chosen you; you have been redeemed with precious blood. You know better than to think of working in order to save yourself; you are saved; but have you diligently done all that you can for your Lord and Master? It was well said, in the prayer-meeting before this service, that there are several thousand members of this church who could not preach, and there were some who did preach of whom the same thing might be said, for it was poor preaching, after all; and our brother said in prayer, “Lord, help us who cannot preach, to pray for the man who does!” Have you, dear friend, who cannot preach, made a point of praying for the pastor of the church to which you belong? It is a great sin on the part of church-members if they do not daily sustain their pastor by their prayers.

Then there is much else that you can do for Christ, in your family, in your business, and in the neighbourhood where you live. Could you go to bed to-night, and there close your eyes for the last time, feeling, “I have finished the work which God gave me to do. I have done all that I could for the winning of souls”? I am afraid that I address some who have a talent wrapped in a napkin, hidden away in the earth. My dear man, go home, and dig it up, before it gets altogether covered with rust, to bear witness against you. Take it up, and put it out to heavenly interest, that your Lord may have what He is entitled to receive…We shall soon be gone; our day lasts not very long. “The night cometh when no man can work.” Shall it be said of you, or of me, that we wasted our daylight; and then, when the evening shadows came, we were uneasy and unhappy, and though saved by divine grace, we died with sad expressions of regret for wasted opportunities? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2261.cfm

Thou Shalt See the Glory of God

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

Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” – John 11:40

Faith is but the work of a moment. Believe and live. Thou hast nothing to do; thou needest no preparations: come as thou art, without a single plea, but that He bids thee to come. Come now, even now. If Christ were far away, the time that is left to some of you might be too short to reach Him; if there were many things which first of all you had to do, your life might close before they were half done; if faith had to grow strong before it received salvation, you might be in the place of eternal despair before your faith had time to be more than a mere mustard seed. But Christ is not far away; He is in our midst; He is by your side. You have nothing to do before you trust Him, He has done it all; and, however weak your faith, if it but comes in contact with Christ, it will convey you to instant blessing. Even now you may be saved for ever; for-

“The moment a sinner believes,
And trusts in His crucified God,
His pardon at once he receives,
Redemption in full, through His blood.”

Christ Jesus says to thee that, if thou wilt but believe, thou shalt see the glory of God…I desire earnestly that He would set the bells of heaven ringing because sinners have returned, and heirs of glory have been born into the family of grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2249.cfm

There is No Other Way of Salvation

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

…For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation… – Revelation 5:9

How many have already entered into glory by the blood of the Lamb! When a man comes to die, nothing else will do for him but this: our own works are a poor staff for us when we pass through the river. All those who are now in the land of light have but one confidence, and but one song: they stand upon the merit of Jesus Christ, and they praise the Lamb who was slain, by whose blood they have been cleansed and sanctified. There is no other way of salvation but that. Even now that blood has virtue to take away your sin. Christ is a sufficient Saviour, because His death has unexhausted power. Believe that He can save you even now.

I would remind you that even now is a time of hope to you because the Spirit still can renew. He is yet at work, regenerating and sanctifying. He came down at Pentecost to dwell with His people and has never gone back again. He is still in the church. Sometimes we feel His mighty power more than at other times, but He is always at work. Oh, you that do not know anything about the power of the Holy Ghost, let me tell you that this is the most wonderful phenomenon that can ever be observed! Those of us who have seen and known His mighty energy can bear testimony to it…That same Holy Ghost is able to give you a new heart even now, to make you a new creature in Christ Jesus at this moment. Believest thou this?

How longingly the Father looks along the road, to see whether at length some of you are turning homeward! Ah! did you but know the joy that awaits those who come, and the feast which would load the welcoming table, you would say, “I will arise and go to my Father.” You should have returned long ago; but blessed be His love, which even now waits to clasp you to His heart! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2249.cfm

What is the Old Gospel?

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

(…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) – 2 Corinthians 6:2

On earth, as long as a man desires to be saved, he may be saved; while there is life there is hope. I believe that, if a man’s breath were going from his body, if he could then look to Christ, he would live. But-

“There are no acts of pardon passed
In the cold grave, to which we haste;
But darkness, death, and long despair,
Reign in eternal silence there.”

Do not venture on that last leap without Christ; but even now, ere the clock strikes another time, fly to Jesus. Trust Him even now.

The old-fashioned gospel is not dead yet. There are a great many who would like to muzzle the mouths of God’s ministers; but they never will. The old gospel will live when they are dead; and, because it is still preached to you, you may believe and live. What is the old gospel? It is that, seeing you are helpless to save yourself, or bring yourself back to God, Christ came to restore you; that He took those sins of yours, which were enough to sink you to hell, and bore them on the cross, that He might bring you to heaven. If you will but trust Him, even now, He will deliver you from the curse of the law; for it is written, “He that believeth on Him is not condemned.” If you will trust Him, even now, He will give you a life of blessedness, which will never end; for again it is written, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” Because that gospel is preached, there is hope for you…Since there is a gospel, take it; take it now, even now. God help you to do so! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2249.cfm

Aged Sinners, it is Never Too Late for Christ to Save You

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” – John 11:25.26

For some of you, the time is late, very late; yet it is not too late. You are getting into years, my friend. I want you to believe that even now Christ can save you. I am glad to see the aged saints; but amongst so many elderly people, no doubt, there are some unsaved sinners, whose grey hairs are not a crown of glory, but a fool’s cap. But however old you are, though you are sixty, seventy, eighty or even ninety years of age, yet even now Christ can give you life. Blessed be God for that! But it is not altogether the years that trouble you; it is your sins. If you have gone to the very extremity of sin, you may believe that, after all those years of wandering, the arms of free grace are still open to receive you even now. There is an old proverb, “It is never too late to mend.” It is never too late for us to mend ourselves, but it is never too late for Christ to mend us. Christ can make us new, and it is never too late for Him to do it. If you come to Him, and trust Him, He will receive you even now.

By the longsuffering of God, there is a time left to you, in which you may turn to Him. What a thousand mercies it is that even now is a time of mercy to you: it might have been the moment of your everlasting doom! You have been in accidents; you have been within an inch of the grave many times; you have been ill, seriously ill; you have been well-nigh given up for dead; and here you are yet alive, but still an enemy to God! Plucked by His hand from the fire and flood, and, mayhap, from battle; delivered from fever and cholera, and still ungrateful, still rebelling, still spending the life that grace has lent you in resisting the love of God! …O God, strike many a man down, as Thou did Saul of Tarsus, and change their hearts by Thine own supreme love, as Thou canst do it, even now, on the very spot where they sit or stand. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2249.cfm

Seek Such Faith

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

“But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” – John 11:22

Like Jacob at Jabbok, may we lay hold of God, saying, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” To such faith the Lord will give a quick response. He that will not be denied shall not be denied. My friend, Hudson Taylor, who has done such a wonderful work for China, is an instance of this. Brought up in a godly home, he, as a young man, tried to imitate the lives of his parents, and failing in his own strength to make himself better, he swung to the other extreme, and began to entertain skeptical notions. One day, when his mother was away from home, a great yearning after her boy possessed her, and she went up to her room to plead with God that “even now” He would save him. If I remember aright, she said that she would not leave the room until she had the assurance that her boy would be brought to Christ. At length her faith triumphed, and she rose quite certain that all was well, and that “even now” her son was saved. What was he doing at that time? Having half an hour to spare, he wandered into his father’s library, and aimlessly took down one book after another to find some short and interesting passage to divert his mind. He could not find what he wanted in any of the books, so, seeing a narrative tract, he took it up with the intention of reading the story, and putting it down where the sermon part of it began. As he read, he came to the words “the finished work of Christ”, and almost at the very moment in which his mother, who was miles away, claimed his soul for God, light came into his heart. He saw that it was by the finished work of Christ that he was to be saved; and kneeling in his father’s library, he sought and found the life of God. Some days afterwards, when his mother returned, he said to her, “I have some news to tell you.” “Oh, I know what it is!” she answered, smiling, “You have given yourself to God.” “Who told you?” he asked in astonishment. “God told me,” she said, and together they praised Him, who, at the same moment, gave faith to the mother, and life to the son, and who has since made him such a blessing to the world…Seek such faith even now, I beseech you, “even now.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2249.cfm