Christian Life

A Great Subject for Praise

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

“And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.”- Isa 2:2

Standing at the gate of that glorious temple, Isaiah looked into the future and he saw, with tearful eye, the structure burned with fire; he beheld it cast down and the plough driven over its foundations. He saw the people carried away into Babylon, and the nation cast off for a season. Looking once more through the glass he beheld the temple rising from its ashes, with glory outwardly diminished, but really increased. He saw on till he beheld Messiah Himself in the form of a little babe carried into the second temple; he saw Him there, and he rejoiced; but ere he had time for gladness his eye glanced onward to the cross; he saw Messiah nailed to the tree; he beheld His back ploughed and mangled with the whip. “Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,” said the prophet, and he paused awhile to bemoan the bleeding Prince of the House of David. His eye was now doomed to a long and bitter weeping, for he saw the invading hosts of the Romans setting up the standard of desolation in the city. He saw the holy city burned with fire and utterly destroyed. His spirit was almost melted in him. But once more he flew through time with eagle wing, and scanned futurity with eagle eye; he soared aloft in imagination, and began to sing of the last days-the end of dispensations and of time. He saw Messiah ones again on earth. He saw that little hill of Zion rising to the clouds-reaching to heaven itself. He beheld the New Jerusalem descending from above, God dwelling among men, and all the nations flowing to the tabernacle of the Most High God, where they paid Him holy worship.

Is it not a great subject for praise that the nations of the earth may flow to the hill of God and to His house? Ye are come to a mountain which is not forbidden to you. there are no bounds set about it to keep you off, but you are freely bidden and freely invited to come to it. And the God who invited you will give you grace to come. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0249.cfm

An Act of Free Distinguishing Love

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

For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. – Romans 10:10

Let me tell you solemnly: if you do not believe God’s right over you, I am afraid your heart has never been right before God. If you do feel this to be true, that God has a right to send your soul to hell, and that if He saves another, and not you, He will be just, but if He save you it will be an act of free distinguishing love, you show a spirit which is very near to the kingdom of heaven. I do not think a man will admit this truth unless he has a change of heart: he may admit it in his mind, but he will not feel it to be true, unless he has got a new heart and a right spirit. I will not go so far as to say that a man who believes divine sovereignty must be a Christian; that were to stretch the truth; but I do say, that if a man is humble enough, meek enough, contrite enough, to lay himself down at the Saviour’s feet with this,

“Nothing in my hands I bring;”

“I have no righteousness, no claims; if Thou shouldst damn me, Thou wouldst be just; if Thou savest me I will thank Thee for ever;” such a man must have had a work of grace in his heart to bring him to such a conclusion. If thou canst say that, then, poor sinner, come to Jesus, come to Jesus; for He will never cast you out.

“My grace shall like a fetter bind
That wandering heart to Me.”

If thou wilt come to Christ, thou shalt always stay there; and over and above that, He will keep thee there. Therefore rejoice; for though He has a right to destroy thee, recollect, He will not; for His heart is full of love and pity towards thee. Only come to Him, and thou shalt be saved. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0090.cfm

Victory By the Lamb

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

So the Philistines were subdued… – 1 Samuel 7:11, 13

The tribes had assembled unarmed to worship. The Philistines, hearing of their gathering, suspected a revolt. A rising was not at that time contemplated, though no doubt there was lurking in the hearts of the people a hope that they would somehow or other be delivered. Hearing that the people had come together, the Philistines determined to attack them; to attack the company who had come together for worship. The people were alarmed; naturally they might be. Samuel, however, the prophet of God, was equal to the occasion. He bade them bring a lamb. I do not know that the lamb was offered according to the Levitical rites, yet prophets in all ages had a right to dispense with ordinary laws. He takes the lamb, puts it on the altar, offers it, and as it smokes to heaven he offers prayer. The voice of man is answered by the voice of God; a great thunder dismays the Philistines, and they are put to rout.

Brethren, if we have done anything for Christ, if we have achieved any victories, if in this house any souls have been converted, any hearts sanctified, any drooping spirits comforted, bear witness that it has been all through the Lamb. And when we have preached Christ ascending up on high, leading captivity captive, and when we have glorified in the fact that He ever liveth to make intercession for us, and that He shall come to judge the quick and dead, if any good has been accomplished it has been through the Lamb-the Lamb slain, or else the Lamb exalted. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0500.cfm

I Am a Child of God Next to My Maker

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

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. – Hebrews 2:9

I consider that to be a Christian man is to be the greatest thing that God has made. Little as I am, I can say of myself, if I am a child of God, I am next to my Maker. Manhood is a noble thing, for God wore manhood once; manhood is a glorious thing, for it was the robe of the eternal; “God was made flesh and dwelt among us;” therefore, flesh is dignified and glorified. As I said, it would not be so comfortable to be a man, if Christ had not been a man. For I know that I must die; now, my comfort is, that I shall rise again; but I should not have had that comfort if Christ had not been a man, and if He had not died and risen again. Oh! death, I have often seen thy dungeon, and I have thought, how can it be that any should escape therefrom; the walls thereof are thick, and against the door is a ponderous stone; it is sealed fast, and watchers guard it. But I take comfort, for there was a Man who broke the bonds of death; there was one who snapped the fetter, cut the bars of brass, unlocked the gates, and made His way triumphant through the sky; in that Man I see an instance of what I, too, shall do; when the loud trump of the archangel shall startle my sleeping atoms, I, too, shall find it easy to rise, for as the Lord my Saviour rose, so all His followers must; and therefore, death, I look upon thy dungeon as one that must be opened again, for it has been opened once; I look upon thy worm as but a little thing that must yield up its prey, and give back the flesh whereon it fed; I look upon the stone of thy sepulchre as but some pebble of oceans’ shingly beach, which I shall cast away with eager hand, when I shall burst the cerements of the grave, and mount to immortality. It is a comfortable thing to be a man, because Christ died and rose again; but had He been an angel, the resurrection would not have had that great and glorious proof, nor should we have been so content to be human, seeing there would be death, but no immortality and life. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0090.cfm

His Love and His Wisdom Shown

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

For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. – Hebrews 2:16

Christ became a man, and not an angel, because He desired to be one with His dear Church. Christ was betrothed to His Church ere time began; and when He came into the world He virtually said, “I will go with thee, My Bride, and I will delight Myself in thy company. Angels’ garments were not a fitting wedding dress for Me to wear, if I am to be bone of thy bone, and flesh of thy flesh. I am allied to thee by a union firm and strong. I have called thee Hephzibah, my delight is in thee; and I have said, thy land shall be called Beulah, that is, married. Well, if I am married to thee, I will live in the same condition with thee; it were not fit that husband should live in palace, and that his wife would live in cottage; it were not meet that a husband should be arrayed in gorgeous robes, and his wife in meaner garments.” “No,” said He to His Church, “if thou dwellest upon earth, I will; if thou dwellest in a tabernacle of clay, I will do the same;

“Yea, said the Lord, with her I’ll go,
Through all the depths of care and woe,
And on the cross will even dare
The bitter pangs of death to bear.”

Christ cannot bear to be different from His Church. You know, He would not be in heaven without her, therefore, did He make that long, long journey, to redeem her and visit her, and when He came on this good errand, He would not that she should be made of clay, and He should not be made of clay too; He was the head, and it would have been out of order that the head should have been of gold, and the body of clay; it would have been like Nebuchadnezzar’s image, that must be broken. “Since the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He must also take part in the same,” for He became “perfect through suffering,” since He was “the captain of our salvation.” Thus, again, you see His love and His wisdom, that He “took not on Him the nature of angels, but took upon Him the seed of Abraham.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0090.cfm

Men Chosen and Fallen Angels Rejected

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

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth… – 2 Thessalonians 2:13

Angels were the elder born. God created them, and it pleased Him to give unto them a free will to do as they pleased; to choose the good or to prefer the evil, even as He did to man: He gave them this stipulation-that if they should prefer the good, then their station in heaven should be for ever fixed and firm; but if they sinned, they should be punished for their guilt, and cast out from the presence of His glory into flames of fire. In an evil hour, Satan, one of the chiefs of the angels, rebelled; he tempted others, and he led astray a part of the stars of heaven. God, in His divine vengeance, smote those rebel angels, drove them from their heavenly seats, banished them from their abodes of happiness and glory, and sent them down to dwell for ever in the abyss of hell; the rest He confirmed, calling them the elect angels; He made their thrones eternally secure, and gave them an entail of those crowns which, sustained by His grace, they had preserved by the rectitude of their holy conduct. After that it pleased Him to make another race of beings, called men. He did not make them all at once; He made but two of them, Adam and Eve, and He committed to their keeping the safety of their entire progeny throughout all generations; He said to Adam, as He had said to the angels, “I give unto thee free-will; thou mayest obey or disobey, as thou pleasest. There is My law; thou art not to touch yon tree. The command is by no means irksome. To keep that command will not be difficult to thee, for I have given thee free-will to choose the good.” However, so it happened, much to the misery of man, that Adam broke the covenant of works; he touched the accursed fruit, and in that day he fell. Ah! what a fall was there! Then you, and I, and all of us fell down, while cursed sin did triumph over us; there were no men that stood; there were some angels that stood, but no men, for the fall of Adam was the fall of our entire race…Now, here you notice divine sovereignty; sovereignty, that God chose to put both men and angels on the footing of their free-will; sovereignty, in that He chose to punish all the fallen angels with utter destruction; sovereignty, in that He chose to reprieve the whole human race, and to grant an eternal pardon to a number, whom no man can number, selected out of men, who shall infallibly be found before His right hand above. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0090.cfm

The Table of Communion

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

And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. – John 2:10

The table of communion is one at which God’s children must sit. And the first thing they must drink of there, is the cup of communion with Christ in His sufferings. If thou wouldst come to the table of communion with Christ, thou must first of all drink of the wine of Calvary. Christian, thy head must be crowned with thorns. Thy hands must be pierced, I mean not with nails, but, spiritually thou must be crucified with Christ. We must suffer with Him, or else we cannot reign with Him; we must labour with Him first, we must sup of the wine which His Father gave Him to drink, or else we cannot expect to come to the better part of the feast. After drinking of the wine of His sufferings, and continuing to drink of it, we must drink of the cup of His labours, we must be baptized with His baptism, we must labour after souls, and sympathise with Him in that ambition of His heart-the salvation of sinners, and after that He will give us to drink of the cup of His anticipated honours. Here on earth we shall have good wine in communion with Christ in His resurrection, in His triumphs and His victories, but the best wine is to come at last. O chambers of communion, your gates have been opened to me; but I have only been able to glance within them; but the day is coming when on your diamond hinges ye shall turn, and stand wide open for ever and ever; and I shall enter into the King’s palace and go no more out. O Christian! thou shalt soon see the King in His beauty; thy head shall soon be on His bosom; thou shalt soon sit at His feet with Mary; thou shalt soon do as the spouse did, thou shalt kiss Him with the kisses of thy lips, and feel that His love is better than wine. When you begin to see Him face to face, when you enter into the closest fellowship, with nothing to disturb or to distract you, then shall you say “The best wine is kept until now.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0225.cfm