Christian Life

A Holy Unity

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life Leave a comment

Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business…And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch… – Acts 6:3,5

There had been a little trouble in the church; some had thought one thing, some had thought another. There appeared to have been a just cause for complaint. The apostles, conciliatory in their temper, and earnest in their endeavour to keep the church together, as all true ministers should be, proposed the election of seven men who should distribute the contributions impartially among the poor. This was agreed to and acted upon by the entire assembly, and straightway the multitude of them that believed were of one heart, and of one soul. Well might great grace rest upon them all, for they loved each other with a pure heart fervently. Such unanimity, as a rule, I consider essential to church prosperity. If there be divisions amongst you, and one shall say, “I am for this,” and another, “I am for that,” how can you expect that the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of peace, should be present with you, and working among you? But when we are knit together in brotherly affection, the Lord commandeth the blessing, even life for evermore. Where brotherly love continues, and saints walk in holy unity, the witness they bear is powerful, and the increase they gather is palpable. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0802.cfm

Christ’s Delight in Us

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

…for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation… – Revelation 5:9

What are we going to be, brothers and sisters, we who are in Christ? We have not any idea of what holiness, and glory, and bliss, shall yet be ours. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.” We may rise even while on earth to great heights of holiness, -and the higher the better; but there is something better for us than mortal eye has ever seen, or mortal ear has ever heard. There is more grace to be in the saints than we have ever seen in them, the saintliest saint on earth was never such a saint as they are yonder who are before the throne of the Most High; and I know not but that, even when they get there, there shall be a something yet beyond for them, and that through the eternal ages they shall still take for their motto, “Onward and upward!” In heaven, there will be no “Finis.” We shall still continue to develop, and to become something more than we have ever been before; not fuller, but yet capable of holding more, ever growing in the possibility of reflecting Christ, and being filled with His love; and all the while our Lord Jesus Christ will be charmed and delighted with us. As He hears our lofty songs of praise, as He sees the bliss which will ever be flashing from each one of us, as He perceives the divine ecstasy which shall be ours for ever, He will take supreme delight in it all. “My redeemed,” He will say, “the sheep of My pasture, the purchase of My blood, borne on My shoulders, My very heart pierced for them; oh! how I delight to see them in the heavenly fold! These, My redeemed people, are joint heirs with Me in the boundless heritage that shall be theirs for ever; oh, how I do delight in them!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2475.cfm

Giving Joy to Christ

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

Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. – Song of Songs 4:16

When the Beloved comes into His garden, the heart’s humble but earnest entreaty is, “Let Him eat His pleasant fruits.” Would you keep back anything from Christ? I know you could not if He were to come into His garden. The best things that you have, you would first present to Him, and then everything that you have, you would bring to Him, and leave all at His dear feet. We do not ask Him to come to the garden that we may lay up our fruits, that we may put them by and store them up for ourselves; we ask Him to come and eat them. The greatest joy of a Christian is to give joy to Christ; I do not know whether heaven itself can overmatch this pearl of giving joy to the heart of Jesus Christ on earth. It can match it, but not overmatch it, for it is a superlative joy to give joy to Him, -the Man of sorrows, who was emptied of joy for our sakes, and who now is filled up again with joy as each one of us shall come and bring his share and cause the heart of Christ a new and fresh delight.

Often, persons come to me, and tell me of souls that were saved through my ministry twenty years ago. I heard, the other day, of one who was brought to Christ by a sermon of mine nearly thirty years ago, and I said to the friend who told me, “Thank you, thank you; you could not tell me anything that would give my heart such joy as this good news that God has made me the instrument of a soul’s conversion.” But what must be the joy of Christ who does all the work of salvation; who redeems us from sin, and death, and hell, when He sees such creatures as we are, made to be like Himself, and knows the divine possibilities of glory and immortality that lie within us? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2475.cfm

His Garden

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

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. – Song of Songs 4:16

While the spouse was, as it were, shut up and frozen, and the spices of the Lord’s garden were not blowing out, she cried to the winds, “Blow upon my garden.” She hardly dared to call it her Lord’s garden; but now, notice the alteration in the phraseology: “Let my Beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” The wind has blown through the garden and made the sweet odours to flow forth; now it is no longer “my garden,” but “his garden.” It is wonderful how an increase of grace transfers our properties; while we have but little grace, we cry, “my,” but when we get great grace, we cry “His.” Wherein you are sinful and infirm, brother, that is yours, you rightly call it “my”; but when you become strong, and joyous, and full of faith, that is not yours, brother, and you rightly call it “His.” Let Him have all the glory of the change while you take all the shame and confusion of face to yourself that ever you should have been so destitute of grace. As the spouse says, “Let my Beloved come into his garden.” Here are all the sweet perfumes flowing out; He will enjoy them, let Him come and feel Himself at home amongst them. He planted every flower and gave to each its fragrance; let Him come into His garden and see what wonders His grace has wrought.

Do you not feel, beloved, that the one thing you want to stir your whole soul is that Christ should come into it? Have you lost His company lately? Oh, do not try to do without it! The true child of God ought not to be willing to bear broken communion for even five minutes; but should be sighing and crying for its renewal…The best condition a heart can be in, if it has lost fellowship with Christ, is to resolve that it will give God no rest till it gets back to communion with Him, and to give itself no rest till once more it finds the Well-beloved. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2475.cfm

Be Uplifted

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

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. – Song of Songs 4:16

“I will approach Thee-I will force
My way through obstacles to Thee:
To Thee for strength will have recourse,
To Thee for consolation flee!”

You, who are the true children of God, cannot ever come into a condition out of which the Holy Spirit cannot uplift you. You know the notable case of Laodicea, which was neither cold nor hot, and therefore so nauseous to the great Lord that He threatened to spue her out of His mouth, yet what is the message to the angel of that church? “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” This is not said to sinners, it is addressed to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Oh, matchless grace! He is sick of these lukewarm professors, yet He promises to sup with them, and that they shall sup with Him. That is the only cure for lukewarmness and decline, to renew heart-fellowship with Christ; and He stands and offers it to all His people now. “Only open the door, and I will sup with you, and you shall sup with Me.” O you whose graces are lying so sinfully dormant, who have to mourn and cry because of “the body of this death”-for death in you seems to have taken to itself a body, and to have become a substantial thing, no mere skeleton now, but a heavy, cumbrous form that bows you down,-cry still to Him who is able to deliver you from this lukewarm and sinful state! Let every one of us put up the prayer of our text, “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; and blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2475.cfm

The Winds of Trials

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

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. – Song of Songs 4:16

You see, there are sweet spices lying in Christians, like hidden honey and locked-up perfume within the flowers on a hot day. What is wanted is that those sweet odours should be diffused…Observe, that until our graces are diffused, it is the same as if they were not there. You may go through a wood, and it may be abounding in game, yet you may scarcely see a hare or notice a pheasant anywhere about. There they lie all quiet and undisturbed; but, by-and-by, the beaters go through the wood making a great noise, and away the pheasants fly, and you may see the timid hares run like hinds let loose, because they are disturbed and wakened up. That is what we sometimes need, to be aroused and stirred from slumber. We may not know that we have any faith till there comes a trial, and then our faith starts boldly up. We can hardly know how much we love our Lord till there comes a test of our love, and then we so behave ourselves that we know that we do love Him. Oftentimes, something is needed from without to stir the life that lies hidden within. It is so with these sweet flowers in the Beloved’s garden, they need either the north wind or the south wind to blow upon them that they may shed abroad their sweet odours. It is very painful to a Christian to be in such a condition that his graces are not stirring. He cannot endure it. We who love the Lord were not born again to waste our time in sinful slumber; our watchword is, “Let us not sleep, as do others.” We were not born to inaction; every power that God has put within us was meant to be used in working, and striving, and serving the Lord. So, when our graces are slumbering, we ourselves are in an unhappy state. Then we long for any agency that would set those graces moving. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2475.cfm

Am I Really a Child of God?

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. – Matthew 25:5

Alas! on a hot and drowsy day, when everything has fallen into a deep slumber, even God’s saints, though they be wise virgins, go as soundly asleep as the foolish virgins, and they forget that “the Bridegroom cometh.” “While the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept;” and, sometimes, you and I must catch ourselves nodding when we ought to be wide awake. We are going through a part of that enchanted ground which John Bunyan describes, and we do not know what to do to keep ourselves awake.

At such times, a Christian is very apt to ask, “Am I indeed planted in God’s garden? Am I really a child of God?” Now, I will say what some of you may think a strong thing; but I do not believe that he is a child of God who never raised that question. I have sung, and I expect that I may have to sing again, –

“‘Tis a point I long to know;
Oft it causes anxious thought;
Do I love the Lord or no?
Am I His, or am I not?”

I cannot bear to get into that condition, and I cannot bear to keep in it when I am in it, but still, there must be anxious thought about this all-important matter. Because you happened to be excited on a certain occasion, and thought you were converted and were sure of heaven, you had better look well to the evidence on which you are relying. You may be mistaken after all; and while I would not preach up little faith, I would preach down great presumption. No man can have a faith too strong, and no assurance can be too full, if it comes really from God the Holy Spirit. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2475.cfm