Christian Life

Hallelujah, Hallelujah! HALLELUJAH!

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

Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them. – Psalm 68:18

He has gone up on high, and has led captivity captive. Think of the gifts which were showered down from heaven in consequence of this Man’s ascent into the highest. For the Holy Spirit descended never to return till the close of this dispensation, and now all the gifts that rest in the Church of God, and all the works of regeneration, illumination, sanctification, and the like, which are wrought by the blessed Paraclete, are the effects of the entrance of this Man into the secret place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Every soul regenerated, every heart comforted, every mind quickened, every eye illuminated, every creature spiritually blessed, reflects glory upon this Man. How great is He!

HALLELUJAH. For He shall reign for ever and ever. HALLELUJAH! Break forth with your loud hosannas, oh, ye waiting spirits of believing men, for the time is at hand when He shall be admired in all them that believe! Consider how great this Man is. I have but reached the fringe of my subject. We see but the skirts of our Lord’s garments; His actual glory is unspeakable, unsearchable. Oh, the depths! Oh, the depths! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm

Life Imparted to All Who Are in Him

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

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. – 1 Corinthians 15:22

Beloved, I cannot speak as I would of Him. The blaze of this Sun blinds me! Yet consider how great this man was in His death; for then He appeared as the great Sin-offering, putting away the sin of His people. The Lord had made to meet in Him the iniquity of us all. What a weight was on Him, yet He sustained it! The wrath of God on account of sin fell upon Him who had never sinned, and He bore it all. A penalty which must have made a hell for us for ever was exacted of our Lord upon the cross, and He discharged it. He drank the whole of our bitter cup. He bore in Himself all that was necessary to vindicate the divine justice until He could truly say, “It is finished.” “Lama Sabachthani” is the most terrible word that ever came from human lips; and therefore “It is finished” is the greatest utterance that tongue ever gave forth. The work was colossal; what if I say it was infinite; and therefore our Lord Jesus when He cried “It is finished,” had reached the summit of greatness.

Now, beloved, consider for a minute “how great this Man was” when He rose again; for He could not be holden with the bonds of death, and His body could not see corruption. It was a great thing in itself for Christ to rise, but what I want you to remember is, that we all rose in Him. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive;” and especially His covenanted people were raised up together with Him. There was for His redeemed a death in His death and a rising again in His rising again; for we have been made partakers of His resurrection, and we live in newness of life by His rising from the dead. This is His cry as He rises from the tomb, “Because I live ye shall live also.” “Consider how great this Man was” whose life imparts life to all who are in Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm

He is Reality Itself

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

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. – Luke 19:10

If the Christian religion were supposed to be an invention, the existence of the narrative of the life of Jesus would be more wonderful than the facts themselves. The conception of a perfect character requires a perfect mind, and a perfect mind would never have prepared a fiction and imposed it upon men as a veritable history. If the life of Jesus be a fable, then a perfect being has deceived us; and this it is not possible for us to imagine. The life of Jesus Christ is great throughout. It is so tender and so gentle that it is never little and mean: it is so unselfish that it never ceases to be majestic; it is so condescending that it is pre-eminently sublime. Above all, it is full of truth, transparent, artless, natural. No one ever thought of Jesus as acting a part yet; He is reality itself. He is so simple, so unaffected, so truly the holy child Jesus, that in this He is great above all. Never was a man so wholly seen as the Christ; and yet never was man so little understood…it is Himself that is so great-I mean His soul, His spirit, the man Himself.

Consider the Lord Jesus, and it does not matter where you view Him: in the wilderness He is grandly victorious over temptation, in the crowd He is greatly wise in answering those who would entrap Him. Behold Him in His agony in the Garden; was there ever such an Agoniser? Behold Him as the crucified; did ever a cross hold such a sufferer? When Jesus is least He is greatest, and when He is in the direst darkness His brightness is best revealed. In death He destroys death; in the grave He bursts the sepulcher. “Consider how great this Man was”: the field of His life is ample; do not be slow to investigate it. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm

Jesus is the Center of History

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace… – Ephesians 1:7

Thousands of years before His birth holy men had been speaking of Him. Prophets and seers all pointed to Him as The Coming One. “How great this man was,” since the wisest and best of mankind all looked forward to His day with gladness. Think of that wonderful system of types, and emblems, and symbols which God ordained by His servant Moses; for the whole of this system was meant to set forth the Messiah, who would yet appear in the fulness of time. To Him witnessed each bleeding sacrifice, each censer of sweet incense, each golden vessel, each curtain and wall of tabernacle or temple: all spoke concerning Him. Ay, and more than that, all the histories of all the empires were all but concentric rings of which He was the center; for the Lord Jesus is the center of history, the sum total of all God’s doings and manifestations among the sons of men. That was an august Person towards whom all the past had been labouring, and for whom all the present was agonizing. “How great this man was,” that when He came the saints were watching for Him: Simeon and Anna could not depart till He appeared. Angels stood on tip-toe ready to descend and sing, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Humble shepherds, as they watched their flocks, did but wait for the signal to hasten to adore Him; and wise men from the east forgot the fatigues of a long journey that they might lay their gold and incense at His feet. How great this man was, when being born and laid in a manger, the whole earth was moved by His appearing.

For this man was not “born in sin,” as we are; neither was He “shapen in iniquity.” Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, He was truly a man, but not fallen man. The method by which the pure human nature of the man Christ Jesus was produced is a great mystery, but it serves to make us see “how great this man was.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm

Saints Are Blessed in Him

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

And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, Which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. – Ephesians 1:22, 23

Consider the relationship of Christ to His own people. Now we get on sure ground, and feel a rock beneath our feet. Long before the heavens and the earth were made, God with prescient eye beheld the person of His Son as God in human nature, and He saw all His elect lying in Him. The Church is His body, “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” God the Father saw in the divine decree the mystical Christ, and He was well pleased with all His redeemed for Christ Jesus’ sake. How wondrous was that transaction when in the council-chamber of eternity the covenant was made, and the Lord Jesus Christ became the surety of that covenant. He entered into covenant with the eternal God on the behalf of His chosen that He would make atonement for their sin, and would perfect the righteousness which should cover every one of them, and make them to be accepted in the Beloved. No actual sacrifice was offered for thousands of years; but see how great this man was, since on the strength of His bare promise the Lord continued to save men for thousands of years, admitting them to His infinite glory before the Mediator had appeared, or the Redeemer had put a hand to the work. Consider that you and I, and all of us who are in Christ, are this day beloved for His sake, accepted for His sake, justified for His sake. Still doth God embrace us in the arms of almighty love for His sake; for His sake heaven is being prepared for us; for His sake the treasures of the infinite are given to us; because we are the covenanted ones for whom He pledged His troth, and for whom in the fulness of time He poured out His heart’s blood, that He might redeem us unto God. “Consider how great this man was.” He is so great that all the saints are blessed in Him. He is so great that we, as many as have believed, dwell evermore in the clefts of this great Rock, and find in Him our castle and high tower. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. “Consider how great this Man was.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm

An Amnesty Proclaimed through This Man

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

Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. – 1 Corinthians 15:47

Christ Jesus is the second man, the Lord from heaven. Adam, our first father, was the head of the race, and all men were in him as their representative: in him they stood in the garden; in him, alas, they fell when he broke the divine command, and the Lord took up the quarrel of His covenant, and cast him out of Paradise. “Oh, what a fall was there, my brethren: then you and I and all of us fell down.” We inherit, because of Adam’s failure, a nature whose tendencies are towards evil…But now comes in the Lord Jesus Christ as the greater man, the representative man, in whom none are made to fall, but multitudes arise. In this man the Lord is again well pleased with men. Time was when God looked on rebellious man, and it repented Him that He had made him; but now that He turns His eye to this perfect man He feels no such repentance; but, on the contrary, we read that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” For the sake of the man Christ Jesus He deals with the innumerable race of sinners in a way of long-suffering and pity, and does not destroy them…Yea, more; for His sake He sends the gospel of peace to men, and in the name of Jesus glad tidings are sent to every creature. It has sometimes happened that the illustrious deed of one man has served to elevate a class, or even a nation into honour. A grand, heroic deed has welded you not only to that one person but to all His kith and kin. Consider, then, how great this Man was, that the divine mind which cannot look upon sin without indignation, nevertheless was so charmed to look upon the person and character of this glorious Man, that an amnesty was proclaimed to the race, and a message was sent to the sons of men bidding them repent and turn to Him and live. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm

Perfectly Man; Infinitely God

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

Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh… – Romans 1:3

I bid you consider how great this man was in His relationship to God. For though He was man, He was not merely man. He was assuredly and truly man in all respects, “man of the substance of His mother,” bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; and yet He was indeed and of a truth very God. Do not think of Him as a divine man, or as a human God; He was neither the one nor the other. He was perfectly man, yet He was infinitely God. Think, then, into what a position of honour and dignity His manhood was uplifted by union with the Godhead in one person. Born, growing, gathering strength, coming to manhood, suffering, dying, in all this He was man; yet He was never at any time less divine. Our Lord’s humanity is not to be thought of apart from His deity, for He is one and indivisible…Take note that in the Scriptures you shall find frequent confusions of speech upon the person of our Lord, intentionally made, in order to show that although the natures were distinct, yet they were indissolubly united in the one person of Jesus. Of His one person might popularly be predicated that which in strict accuracy could only be true of His humanity, or only of His deity…My Lord Jesus is to me no less a man because He is God. Oh, how my heart loves Him! He is to me fairest of the sons of men, chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. But He is to me because of His manhood none the less, but all the more, “God over all, blessed for ever.” Into the dust my spirit bows before His majesty, and my soul adores Him. I ask you, therefore, to consider the greatness of His manhood because it never was apart from His Godhead, and cannot be thought of except in connection therewith. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Inconceivable is the greatness of the man who is thus one with God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm