Christian Life

God’s Great Sacrifice

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

“Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God.”- John 1:35-36

The world was lost; God must punish sin; He sent His Son to take our sin upon Him that He might honor the law of God and establish God’s government by being obedient to the law, and yielding Himself up to the death-penalty. He whom Jehovah loves beyond all else came to earth, became a man, and, as a man, was obedient unto death of the cross. It is He who is called in our text “the Lamb of God,” the one Sacrifice for man’s sin. There is no putting away of sin without sacrifice; there is only one Sacrifice that can put away sin, and that is, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is divine, yet human; Son of God, yet son of Mary. He yielded up His life, “the Just for the unjust,” the Sinless for the sinful, “that He might bring us to God,” and reconcile us to the great Father. That is the story, and whosoever believeth in Him shall live. Any man, the world over, who will trust himself to Christ, God’s great Sacrifice, shall be saved, for this is our continual witness, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

I want to entreat men, who have looked elsewhere, now to turn their eyes away from the fruitless search after peace and life, and to come and “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” May the Spirit of God open their eyes, and incline their hearts, that they may look unto Him and live! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2329.cfm

To Be with Him Where He Is

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

Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. – Romans 8:33

The great white throne is set, the books are opened, men are trembling, fiends are yelling, sinners are shrieking-“Rocks hide us, mountains on us fall;” these make up an awful chorus of dismay. There stands the believer and looking round on the assembled universe of men and angels, he cries, “Who shall lay anything to my charge?” and silence reigns through earth and heaven. Again he speaks, and fixing his eyes full on the Judge himself, he cries, “Who is he that condemneth?” And lo, there upon the throne of judgment sits the only one who can condemn; and who is that? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who sitteth on the right hand of God, who maketh intercession for him. Can those lips say, “Depart, ye cursed,” to the man for whom they once did intercede? Can those eyes flash lightnings on the man whom once they saw in sin, and thence with rays of love they did lift him up to joy, and peace, and purity? No! Christ will not belie Himself. He cannot reverse His grace; it cannot be that the throne of condemnation shall be exalted on the ruins of the cross. It cannot be that Christ should transform Himself at last; but till He can do so, none can condemn. None but He hath a right to condemn, for He is the sole judge of right and wrong, and if He hath died shall He put us to death, and if He hath risen for us, shall He thrust us downwards to the pit, and if He hath reigned for us and hath been accepted for us, shall He cast us away, and if He hath pleaded for us, shall He curse us at the last? No! Come life, come death, my soul can rest on this: He died for me, I cannot be punished for my sin; He rose again, I must rise, and though I die yet shall I live again. He sits at the right hand of God, and so must I. I must be crowned and reign with Him for ever. He intercedes, and He must be heard. He beckons me, and I must be brought at length to see His face, and to be with Him where He is. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0256.cfm

No One Can Accuse God’s Elect

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

 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. – Romans 8:33

“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Why, Paul, Satan will bring thundering accusations against thee; art thou not afraid? “No,” says he, “I can stop his mouth with this cry, ‘It is Christ that died;’-that will make him tremble, for He crushed the serpent’s head in that victorious hour. And I can shut his mouth again-‘yea rather, that is risen again,’ for He took him captive on that day;-I will add, ‘who sitteth at the right hand of God.’ I can foil him with that, for He sits there to judge him and to condemn him forever. Once more I will appeal to His advocacy ‘Who maketh intercession for us.’ I can stop his accusation with this perpetual care of Jesus for His people.” Again, cries Paul, “Who shall lay anything to my charge?” There lie the bodies of the saints he has martyred, and they cry from under the altar-“O Lord! how long wilt Thou not avenge Thine own elect?” Paul says,-“Who can lay anything to my charge?” And they speak not; “because,” says Paul, “I have obtained mercy-who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious, that in me first He might show forth all longsuffering.” “Christ hath died, yea rather, hath risen again.” And now standing in the midst of men who mock, and boast, and jeer, he cries-“Who can lay anything to my charge?” and no one dares to speak, for man himself cannot accuse; with all his malevolence, and acrimony, and malice, he can bring nothing against him; no charge can stand at the bar of God against the man whom He hath absolved through the merits of the death of Christ, and the power of His resurrection. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0256.cfm

The Intercession of Christ

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

…who also maketh intercession for us… – Romans 8:34

When Christ pleads, He does not plead with one who is stronger than Him or inimical to Him, but with His own Father. “My Father,” saith He “it is My delight to do Thy will and it is Thy delight to do My will; I will then that they, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” And then He adds this blessed argument, “Father those for whom I plead are Thine own children, and Thou lovest them as much as I do,” yea, “Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me.” Oh, it is no hard task to plead, when you are pleading with a Father for a brother, and when the Advocate can say, “I go to My Father and to your Father, to My God and to your God.” Oh! I think I could indeed plead if I were pleading for myself. But, do you know, I have never felt that with regard to Christ. I can sit down and let Him plead, and I do not want to get up and conduct the pleading myself. I do feel that He loves me better than I love myself. My cause is quite safe in His hands, especially when I remember again that He pleads with my father, and that he is his own Father’s beloved Son, and that he is my brother-and such a brother-a brother born for adversity.

“Give Him, my soul, thy cause to plead,
Nor doubt the Father’s grace.”

It is enough; He has the cause, nor would we take it from His hand even if we could-

“I know that safe with Him remains,
Protected by His power-
What I’ve committed to His hands
Till the decisive hour.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0256.cfm

The Full Price Brought to the Mercy Seat of Heaven

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

…who also maketh intercession for us. – Romans 8:34

Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. – Hebrews 7:25

A quaint old divine says, that “When God in His justice rose from His throne to smite the Surety, He would make no concession whatever. The Surety paid the debt.” “Yet,” said the Judge, “I will not come down to earth to receive the payment; bring it to Me.” And, therefore, the Surety first groped through death to fight His way up to the eternal throne, and then mounting aloft by a glorious ascension, dragged His conquered foes behind Him, and scattering mercies with both His hands, like Roman conquerors who scattered gold and silver coins in their triumph, entered heaven. And He came before His Father’s throne and said, “There it is, the full price. I have brought it all.” God would not go down to the earth for payment; it must be brought to Him. This was pictured by the high priest of old. The high priest first took the blood, but that was not accepted. He did not bring the mercy-seat outside the veil, to carry the mercy-seat to the blood. No, the blood must be taken to the mercy-seat. God will not stoop when He is just; it must be brought to Him. So the high priest takes off his royal robes, and puts on the garments of the minor priest, and goes within the veil, and sprinkles the blood upon the mercy-seat. Even so did our Lord Jesus Christ. He took the payment and bore it to God; took His wounds, His rent body, His flowing blood, up to His Father’s very eyes, and there He spread His wounded hands and pleaded tor His people. Now here is a proof that the Christian cannot be condemned, because the blood is on the mercy-seat…it speaks in the very ears of God, and it must of a surety prevail. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0256.cfm

Safe and Secure Forever

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

…who is even at the right hand of God… – Romans 8:34

The right hand of God is the place of majesty, and the place of favour too. Now, Christ is His people’s representative. When He died for them they had rest; when He rose again for them, they had liberty; when He was received into His Father’s favour, yet again, and sat at His own right hand, then had they favour, and honour, and dignity. Do you not remember that the two sons of Zebedee asked to sit, one on the right hand and the other on the left? Little did they know that they had already what they asked for, for all the church is now at the right hand of the Father; all the church is now raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The raising and elevation of Christ to that throne of dignity and favour, is the elevation, the acceptance, the enshrinement, the glorifying of all His people, for He is their common head, and stands as their representative. This sitting at the right hand of God, then, is to be viewed as the acceptance of the person of the surety, the reception of the representative, and therefore, the acceptance of our souls. Who is He that condemneth, then? Condemn a man that is at the right hand of God? Absurd! Impossible! Yet am I there in Christ. Condemn a man who sits next to his Father, the King of kings! Yet there is the church, and how can she in the slightest degree incur condemnation when she is already at the right hand of the Father with her covenant Head. And let me further remark, that the right hand is the place of power. Christ at the right hand of God signifies that all power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth. Now, who is he that condemns the people that have such a Head as this? O my soul! what can destroy thee if omnipotence is thy helper? If the aegis of the Almighty covers thee, what sword can smite thee? Every blood-bought redeemed child of God is safe and secure for ever. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0256.cfm

A Sitting Christ in Heaven

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

…who is even at the right hand of God… – Romans 8:34 (see also: Hebrews 12:2)

Christ sits in heaven. Now, He never would sit if the work were not fully done. Jesus, when He was on earth, had a baptism to be baptised with, and how was He straitened until it was accomplished! He had not time so much as to eat bread, full often, so eager was He to accomplish all His work. And I do not, I cannot, imagine that He would be sitting down in heaven in the posture of ease, unless He had accomplished all-unless “It is finished!” were to be understood in its broadest and most unlimited sense. There is one thing I have noticed, in looking over the old levitical law, under the description of the tabernacle. There were no seats whatever provided tor the priests. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering sacrifice for sin. They never had any seats to sit on. There was a table for the shew-bread, an altar, and a brazen laver; yet there was no seat. No priest sat down; he must always stand; for there was always work to be accomplished, always something to be done. But the great High Priest of our profession, Jesus, the Son of God, hath taken His seat at the right hand of the majesty on high. Why is this? Because, now the sacrifice is complete for ever, and the priest hath made a full end of His solemn service. What would the Jew have thought if it had been possible for a seat to have been introduced into the sanctuary, and for the high priest to sit down? Why, the Jew would then have been compelled to believe that it was all over, the dispensation was ended; for a sitting priest would be the end of all. And now we may rest assured, since we can see a sitting Christ in heaven, that the whole atonement is finished, the work is over, He hath made an end of sin. I do consider that in this there is an argument why no believer ever can perish. If he could, if there were yet a chance of risk, Christ would not be sitting down; if the work were not so fully done, that every redeemed one should at last be received into heaven, He would never rest, nor hold His peace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0256.cfm