Character of Jesus

Keep to Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

“…wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.” – 2 Samuel 15:21

Our Master is to be found wherever there is anything to be done for the good of our fellow-men. The Lord Jesus Christ is to be found wherever there is work to be done in seeking after His lost sheep. Some people say that they have very little communion with Christ, and when I look at them, I do not wonder. Two persons cannot walk together if they will not walk at the same pace. Now, my Lord walks an earnest pace whenever He goes through the world, for the King’s business requires haste; and if His disciples crawl after a snail’s fashion they will lose His company. If some of our groaning brethren would go to the Sunday-school, and there begin to look after the little children, they would meet with their Lord who used to say, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me.” If others were to get together a little meeting, and teach the ignorant, they would there find Him who had compassion on the ignorant, on those that are out of the way. Our Master is where there are fetters to be broken, burdens to be removed, and hearts to be comforted, and if you wish to keep with Him you must aid in such service.

Our point must be to resolve in God’s strength to keep to Christ in all weathers and in all companies, and that whether in life or death. Ah that word “death” makes it sweet, because then we reap the blessed result of having lived with Christ. We shall go upstairs for the last time and bid good-bye to all, and then we shall feel that in death He is still with us as in life we have been with Him.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Be On the Side of Truth and Right

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

“…wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.” – 2 Samuel 15:21

Where is the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, brethren, He is wherever the truth is, and I pray God that He may raise up a race of men and women who are determined to be wherever the truth of God is. We have a host of molluscous creatures about who will always be where the congregation is the most respectable: respectability being measured by clothes and cash. Time was in the church of God when they most esteemed the most pious men; has it come to this that gold takes precedence of grace? Our fathers considered whether a ministry was sound, but now the question is-“Is the man clever?” Words are preferred to truth, and oratory takes the lead of the gospel. Shame on such an age. O you who have, not altogether sold your birthrights, I charge you keep out of this wretched declension.

Where is our Master? Well, He is always on the side of truth and right. And, O, you Christian people, mind that in everything- politics, business and everything you keep to that which is right, not to that which is popular. Do not bow the knee to that which for a little day may be cried up but stand fast in that which is consistent with rectitude, with humanity, with the cause and honor of God, and with the freedom and progress of men. It can never be wise to do wrong. It can never be foolish to be right. It can never be according to the mind of Christ to tyrannize and to oppress. Keep you ever to whatsoever things are pure and lovely and of good report, and you will so far keep with Christ. Temperance, purity, justice-these are favorites with Him; do your best to advance them for His sake. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Wherever Christ Is, There We Will Be

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

Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? …But Ittai answered the king, “As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.” – 2 Samuel 15:19,21

Canst thou lift thy hand to Christ, and say, “Henceforth I will live as Thy servant, not doing my own will, but Thy will; Thy command is henceforth my rule?” Canst thou say that? It involved, for Ittai, that he was to do his utmost for David’s cause, not to be his servant in name, but his soldier, ready for scars and wounds and death, if need be, on the king’s behalf. Now, if thou wouldst be Christ’s disciple, determine henceforth by His grace that thou wilt defend His cause; that if there be rough fighting, thou wilt be in it; and if there be a forlorn hope needed, thou wilt lead it, and go through floods and flames if thy Master’s cause shall call thee. Blessed is the man who will follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, giving himself wholly up to his Lord to serve Him with all his heart.

Ittai, in his promise, declared that he would give a personal attendance upon the person of his master. Brethren, let us make the same resolve in our hearts, that wherever Christ is, there we will be. Where is Christ? …Answer: in His church. The church is a body of faithful men; and where these are met together, there is Jesus in the midst of them…Where else did Jesus go? In the commencement of His ministry, He descended into the waters of baptism. Let us follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. At the close of His ministry, He brake bread, and said, “This do ye in remembrance of Me.” Be often at His table, for if there is a place on the earth where He manifests Himself to His children it is where bread is broken in His name…”Surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether it be in a prayer-meeting or at a sermon, even there also will thy servant be.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Be Not Ashamed of Your Lord

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

…whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. – 2 Samuel 15:21

 But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed… – 2 Timothy 1:12

Dear friend, you must publicly own yourself a Christian. If you are a Christian, you must not try to sneak to heaven round the back alleys but march up the narrow way like a man and like your Master. He was never ashamed of you, though He might have been: how can you be ashamed of Him when there is nothing in Him to be ashamed of? Some Christians seem to think that they shall lead an easier life if they never make a profession. Like a rat behind the wainscot, they come out after candlelight and get a crumb, and then slip back again. I would not lead such a life. Surely, there is nothing to be ashamed of. A Christian-let us glory in the name! A believer in the Lord Jesus Christ-let them write it on our door plates, if they will. Why should we blush at that? “But,” says one, “I would rather be a very quiet one.” I will now place a torpedo under this cowardly quietness. What saith the Lord Jesus? Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven; but he that shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven.” Take up your cross and follow Him, for “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” …If you have the spirit of Ittai you will say, “Wheresoever my lord the king is, there also shall thy servant be.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Thorough Consecration

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

And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. – 2 Samuel 15:21

Ittai gave himself up wholly to David when he was but newly come to him, David says, “Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? But Ittai does not care whether he came yesterday or twenty years ago, but he declares, “Surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.” It is best to begin the Christian life with thorough consecration. Have any of you professed to be Christians, and have you never given yourselves entirely to Christ? It is time that you began again. This should be one of the earliest forms of our worship of our Master-this total resignation of ourselves to Him. According to His Word, the first announcement of our faith should be by baptism, and the meaning of baptism, or immersion in water, is death, burial, and resurrection. As far as this point is concerned, the avowal is just this. “I am henceforth dead to all but Christ, whose servant I now am. Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. The watermark is on me from head to foot. I have been buried with Him in baptism unto death to show that henceforth I belong to Him.” Now, whether you have been baptized or not I leave to yourselves, but in any case, this must be true-that henceforth you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. As soon as ever Christ is yours you ought to be Christ’s. “I am my Beloved’s” should be linked with “My Beloved is mine,” in the dawn of the day in which you yield to the Lord. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Loyalty to Christ

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

And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. 2 Samuel 15:21

David was now forsaken of everybody. His faithful bodyguard was all that he had on earth to depend upon, and then it was that Ittai cast in his lot with David. Now beloved, it is very easy to follow religion when she goes abroad in her silver slippers, but the true man follows her when she is in rags, and goes through the mire and the slough. To take up with Christ when everybody cries up His name is what a hypocrite would do, but to take up with Christ when they are shouting, “Away with Him! away with Him!” is another matter. There are times in which the simple faith of Christ is at a great discount. At one time imposing ceremonies are all the rage, and everybody loves decorated worship, and the pure simplicity of the gospel is overloaded and encumbered with meretricious ornaments; it is such a season that we must stand out for God’s more simple plan and reject the symbolism which verges on idolatry and hides the simplicity of the gospel.

At another time the gospel is assailed by learned criticisms and by insinuations against the authenticity and inspiration of the books of Scripture, while fundamental doctrines are undermined one by one, and he who keeps to the old faith is said to be behind the age, and so on. But happy is that man who takes up with Christ, and with the gospel, and with the truth when it is in its worst estate, crying, “If this be foolery, I am a fool, for where Christ is there will I be; I love Him better at His worse than others at their best, and even if He be dead and buried in a sepulchre I will go with Mary and with Magdalene and sit over against the sepulchre and watch until He rise again, for rise again He will; but whether He live or die, where He is there shall his servant be.” …Happy shall ye be! Your loyalty shall be proven to your own eternal glory. Ye are soldiers such as He loves to honor. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1512.cfm

Tokens of the Power of Love

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

And David said unto Ahimelech, and is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? – 1 Samuel 21:8

There are some great sinners at this day who are wonderful tokens of the power of love. When we look round the temple and see the shields and spears hung up, we say, “Who did those shields and spears belong to?” One says, “Why, that is the shield and spear of John Newton, the old blasphemer!” Glory be to God, Christ conquered him. Whose shield and spears are those? Why, that is the shield and spear of John Bunyan, the blasphemer on the village green. God’s mercy conquered him. Yes, there will be a pillar for many of us, and I do not know which will bring Christ most honor, for He had much ado to bring us down. I wonder whether there will be a place for you, you old sailor? These many years you have been living without God and without Christ. You have been a frequenter of every place of sin, every filthy haunt in London. I do trust God’s grace will meet with you. The poor harlot, Mary, the woman that was a sinner-there hangs her shield and spear. She was a hard fighter, a very Amazon, but Christ conquered her, hung up her shield and spear, and there it shall hang for ever, to the praise of the glory of His grace, who vanquished even her, and made her His willing servant, nay, His beloved friend. What will heaven be when all of us shall be trophies of His power to save, and when our bodies shall be there as well as our souls! “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”-when not only souls, but bodies shall be in heaven too, all as trophies of what Christ has done when He plucked His people from the jaws of the grave and delivered them from the grasp of the sepulcher. Let us take care that we have good confidence, always walking by faith, be the path of our pilgrimage rough or smooth, and ever maintaining the fight of faith, however fierce our temptations or fiery our trials. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0972.cfm