Christian Life

The Incarnation: Matchless Pity Indeed

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

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. – Luke 2:11

It was purposed, in the eternal plan, ere the stream of time had commenced its course, or ages had began to accumulate their voluminous records, that there should be an interposer-one ordained to come and re-head the race, to be a second Adam, a federal Chief; to restore the breach, and repair the mischief of the first Adam; to be a Surety to answer for the sons of men on whom God’s love did light; that their sins should be laid upon Him, and that He should save them with an everlasting salvation… He it is of whom the Apostle John speaks as the Word who was God, and was in the beginning with God. Was He not moved with compassion when He entered into a covenant with His Father on our behalf, even on the behalf of all His chosen-a covenant in which He was to be the sufferer, and they the gainers-in which He was to bear the shame that He might bring them into His own glory? …He saw the fall of man; He marked the subtle serpent’s mortal sting; He watched the trail as the slime of the serpent passed over the fair glades of Eden; He observed man in his evil progress, adding sin to sin through generation after generation, fouling every page of history until God’s patience had been tried to the uttermost; and then, according as it was written in the volume of the Book that He must appear, Jesus Christ came Himself into this stricken world. Came how? O, be astonished, ye angels, that ye were witnesses of it, and ye men that ye beheld it. The Infinite came down to earth in the form of an infant; He who spans the heavens and holds the ocean in the hollow of His hand, condescended to hang upon a woman’s breast-the King eternal became a little child. Let Bethlehem tell that He had compassion. There was no way of saving us but by stooping to us. To bring earth up to heaven, He must bring heaven down to earth…Therefore, in the incarnation, He had compassion, for He took upon Himself our infirmities, and was made like unto ourselves. Matchless pity, indeed, was this! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3438.cfm

He Was Moved with Compassion

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

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. – Matthew 9:36

(He was moved with compassion.) This is said of Christ Jesus several times in the New Testament. The original word is a very remarkable one. It is not found in classic Greek. It is not found in the Septuagint. The fact is, it was a word coined by the evangelists themselves. They did not find one in the whole Greek language that suited their purpose, and therefore they had to make one. It is expressive of the deepest emotion; a striving of the bowels-a yearning of the innermost nature with pity. I suppose that when our Saviour looked upon certain sights, those who watched Him closely perceived that His internal agitation was very great, His emotions were very deep, and then His face betrayed it, His eyes gushed like founts with tears, and you saw that His big heart was ready to burst with pity for the sorrow upon which His eyes were gazing. He was moved with compassion. His whole nature was agitated with commiseration for the sufferers before Him.

Now, although this word is not used many times even by the evangelists, yet it may be taken as a clue to the Saviour’s whole life. If you would sum up the whole character of Christ in reference to ourselves, it might be gathered into this one sentence, “He was moved with compassion.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3438.cfm

Kept by the Power of God

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

To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. – 1 Peter 1:4,5

“Reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation;” This perhaps will be one of the greatest cordials to a Christian in heaviness, that he is not kept by his own power, but by the power of God, and that he is not left in his own keeping, but he is kept by the Most High. Ah! what should you and I do in the day when darkness gathers round our faith, if we had to keep ourselves!…I know that He hath said, “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” What, Lord, but suppose they should grow faint-that they should begin to murmur in their affliction. Shall they not perish then? No, they shall never perish. But suppose the pain should grow so hot that their faith should fail: shall they not perish then? No, “they shall not perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” But suppose their sense should seem to wander, and some should try to pervert them from the faith: shall they not be perverted? No; “they shall never perish,” But suppose in some hour of their extremity hell and the world and their own fears should all beset them, and they should have no power to stand-no power whatever to resist the fierce onslaughts of the enemy, shall they not perish then? No, they are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed,” and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” Ah! this is the doctrine, the cheering assurance “wherein we greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if needs be, we are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0222.cfm

That Sweet Hope, an Inheritance Incorruptible

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ… – 1Peter 1:2

The apostle says that we are “elect through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,”-“wherein we greatly rejoice.” Is the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ girt about my loins, to be my beauty and my glorious dress; and its the blood of Jesus sprinkled upon me, to take away all my guilt and all my sin and shall I not in this greatly rejoice? What shall there be in all the depressions of spirits that can possibly come upon me that shall make me break my harp, even though I should for a moment hang it upon the willows? Do I not expect that yet again my songs shall mount to heaven; and even now through the thick darkness do not the sparks of my joy appear, when I remember that I have still upon me the blood of Jesus, and still about me the glorious righteousness of the Messiah?

But the great and cheering comfort of the apostle is, that we are elect unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. And here, brethren, is the grand comfort of the Christian. When the child of God is sore-stricken and much depressed, the sweet hope, that living or dying, there is an inheritance incorruptible, reserved in heaven for him, may indeed make him greatly rejoice. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0222.cfm

The Two Streams Within the Christian

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

…wherein ye greatly rejoice… 1 Peter 1:6

Mariners tell us that there are some parts of the sea where there is a strong current upon the surface going one way, but that down in the depths there is a strong current running the other way. Two seas do not meet and interfere with one another; but one stream of water on the surface is running in one direction, and another below in an opposite direction. Now, the Christian is like that. On the surface there is a stream of heaviness rolling with dark waves; but down in the depths there is a strong under-current of great rejoicing that is always flowing there. Do you ask me what is the cause of this great rejoicing? The apostle tells us, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice.” What does he mean? You must refer to his own writings, and then you will see. He is writing “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,” and so forth. The first thing that he say’s to them is, that they are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God;” “wherein we greatly rejoice.” Ah! even when the Christian is most “in heaviness through manifold temptations,” what a mercy it is that he can know that he is still elect of God! Any man who is assured that God has “chosen him from before the foundation of the world,” may well say, “Wherein we greatly rejoice.” Let me be lying upon a bed of sickness, and just revel in that one thought. Before God made the heavens and the earth, and laid the pillars of the firmament in their golden sockets, He set His love upon me; upon the breast of the great high priest He wrote my name, and in Hs everlasting book it stands, never to be erased-“elect according to the foreknowledge of God.” Why, this may make a man’s soul leap within him, and all the heaviness that the infirmities of the flesh may lay upon him shall be but as nothing; for this tremendous current of his overflowing joy shall sweep away the mill-dam of his grief. Bursting and overleaping every obstacle, it shall overflood all his sorrows till they are drowned and covered up and shall not be mentioned any more for ever. “Wherein we greatly rejoice.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0222.cfm

Learning to be of Comfort for Others

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, Sovereignty of God 5 Comments

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials… – 1 Peter 1:6

Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. – 2 Corinthians 1:4

This heaviness is of essential use to a Christian, if he would do good to others. Ah! there are a great many Christian people that I was going to say I should like to see afflicted-but I will not say so much as that; I should like to see them heavy in spirit; if it were the Lord’s will that they should be bowed down greatly, I would not express a word of regret; for a little more sympathy would do them good; a little more power to sympathize would be a precious boon to them, and even if it were purchased by a short journey through a burning, fiery furnace, they might not rue the day afterwards in which they had been called to pass through the flame. There are none so tender as those who have been skinned themselves. Those who have been in the chamber of affliction know how to comfort those who are there. Do not believe that any man will become a physician unless he walks the hospitals; and I am sure that no one will become a divine, or become a comforter, unless he lies in the hospital as well as walks through it, and has to suffer himself. God cannot make ministers-and I speak with reverence of His Holy Name-He cannot make a Barnabas except in the fire. It is there, and there alone, that He can make His sons of consolation; He may make His sons of thunder anywhere; but His sons of consolation He must make in the fire, and there alone. Who shall speak to those whose hearts are broken, who shall bind up their wounds, but those whose hearts have been broken also, and whose wounds have long run with the sore of grief? “If need be,” then, “ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” …I must add it is but for a season. A little time, a few hours, a few days, a few months at most, it shall all have passed away; and then comes the “eternal weight of glory, wherein ye greatly rejoice.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0222.cfm

God Has Beauties

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God 2 Comments

My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen Thou me according unto Thy word. – Psalm 119:28

If the Christian did not sometimes suffer heaviness he would begin to grow too proud, and think too much of himself, and become too great in his own esteem. Those of us who are of elastic spirit, and who in our health are full of everything that can make life happy, are too apt to forget the Most High God. Lest we should be satisfied from ourselves, and forget that all our own springs must be in Him, the Lord sometimes seems to sap the springs of life, to drain the heart of all its spirits, and to leave us without soul or strength for mirth, so that the noise of tabret and of viol would be unto us as but the funeral dirge, without joy or gladness. Then it is that we discover what we are made of, and out of the depths we cry unto God, humbled by our adversities…in heaviness we often learn lessons that we never could attain elsewhere. Do you know that God has beauties for every part of the world; and He has beauties for every place of experience? There are views to be seen from the tops of the Alps that you can never see elsewhere. Ay, but there are beauties to be seen in the depths of the dell that ye could never see on the tops of the mountains; there are glories to be seen on Pisgah, wondrous sights to be beheld when by faith we stand on Tabor; but there are also beauties to be seen in our Gethsemanes, and some marvellously sweet flowers are to be culled by the edge of the dens of the leopards. Men will never become great in divinity until they become great in suffering. “Ah!” said Luther, “affliction is the best book in my library;” and let me add, the best leaf in the book of affliction is that blackest of all the leaves, the leaf called heaviness, when the spirit sinks within us, and we cannot endure as we could wish. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0222.cfm