Christian Life

Jesus Lives

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also. – John 14:19

He always lived. There never was a time when He was not. “Before the hills were brought forth I was there,” saith He. The eternal Wisdom of God is from everlasting. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. The same was in the beginning with God.” The life, however, which we think is intended in the text, is not His divine life, His life as Deity, but His life as man, His life as Mediator between God and man. In that life He lives. We needed not to be assured of His divine life: but seeing that, as a Mediator He died, it was necessary to assure us that as a Mediator He descended into the tomb; it is well for us to be assured that as a Mediator He rose again from His grave, and now lives at the right hand of the Father, no more to bleed and die.

Jesus Christ at this time lives in His proper manhood. He lives as to His soul: His human soul is as it was on earth. He lives as to His human body. He is a man before the throne; and I have no doubt that He wears the symbol, of course, mightily glorified, of his sufferings.

“Looks like a Lamb that had been slain.
And wears His priesthood still.”

That very Christ, who did once as a babe lie upon His mother’s breast, and who afterwards trod the waves of Gennesaret: who, after His resurrection, ate a piece of broiled fish and of honeycomb-that very Christ is now before the eternal throne. In very soul and body the man Christ Jesus is there. He lives. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3401.cfm

To See Jesus! ‘Tis Heaven Begun!

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

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. – 1 John 3:2

Blessed be God, there is this to be said, that he who has once seen Christ shall always see Him. The eye may sometimes gather dimness, but the light shall yet return. Where Christ hath opened a blind eye, blindness comes not back again. He takes the cataract totally away. He does not give a transient gleam of spiritual sight, and then permit the soul to go back into the darkness of its grave; but the sight which He gives is the sight of things eternal, a sight which shall strengthen and grow until at the last, when death shall take away every barrier which parts us from the unseen world, we shall know even as we are known and see even as we are seen. To see Jesus! ‘Tis heaven begun! And heaven consummated is but to see Jesus, no longer through a glass darkly, but face to face-still it is to see Jesus, to behold the King in His beauty. This, I say, is the sum and substance of life eternal, and it is true life here below.

Sometimes it is ours to speak to you of death, not necessarily with gloom, for it is to the Christian illuminated with rays of heavenly light; but here and now we desire to speak of life, the best and divinest life; we will forget the raven with its dusky wing, and see only the tender, gentle dove, bearing for each one of us the olive-branch of peace and victory.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3401.cfm

The Mark of the True Christian

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

“Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me; because I live, ye shall live also.”- John 14:19

This was, and is, the mark of the true believer, that he see Jesus. When Jesus was here among men, the world saw Him in a certain sense, but yet in truth it did not see Him at all. The world’s eye saw the outside of Christ-the flesh of the man Christ, but the true Christ the ungodly eye could not discern. They could not perceive those wonderful attributes of character, those delightful graces and charms, which made up the true spiritual Christ. They saw but the husk, and not the kernel; they saw the quartz of the golden nugget, but not the pure gold which that quartz contained. They saw but the external man; the real, spiritual Christ they could not see. But unto as many as God had chosen, Christ manifested Himself as He did not unto the world.

Now, to this hour, this is the mark of the true Christian: this is to be of the elect: this is the very badge and symbol of the faithful-they see Jesus. They look beyond the clouds. Other men see the cloud and the darkness, and they wist not what it is; but these men with more than eagle eye pierce through the clouds of mere sensual impressions, and they see the glory that was always His, even the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Beloved, have you ever seen Jesus with the eye of faith? Have you ever perceived the glory of His person, and the beauty of His character? Have you so perceived Jesus as to trust in Him? Have you been so enamoured of Him as to have yielded yourselves to be His servants for ever? Do you take up His cross? Do you avow yourselves to be His followers, come what may? If so, then are ye saved; but if ye see not Christ with your spirit, neither do ye know Him, nor shall ye enjoy a portion with Him.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3401.cfm

The Invitation for All Persons

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

“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.”-John 7:37

Pity expressed herself most plainly, for Jesus cried, which implies not only the loudness of His voice, but the tenderness of His tones. He entreats us to be reconciled. “We pray you,” says the Apostle, “as though God did beseech you by us.” What earnest, pathetic terms are these! How deep must be the love which makes the Lord weep over sinners, and like a mother woo His children to His bosom! Surely at the call of such a cry our willing hearts will come.

Provision is made most plenteously; all is provided that man can need to quench his soul’s thirst. To his conscience the atonement brings peace; to his understanding the gospel brings the richest instruction; to his heart the person of Jesus is the noblest object of affection; to the whole man the truth as it is in Jesus supplies the purest nutriment. Thirst is terrible, but Jesus can remove it. Though the soul were utterly famished, Jesus could restore it.

Proclamation is made most freely, that every thirsty one is welcome. No other distinction is made but that of thirst. Whether it be the thirst of avarice, ambition, pleasure, knowledge, or rest, he who suffers from it is invited. The thirst may be bad in itself, and be no sign of grace, but rather a mark of inordinate sin longing to be gratified with deeper draughts of lust; but it is not goodness in the creature which brings him the invitation, the Lord Jesus sends it freely, and without respect of persons. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://bible.christiansunite.com/Morning_and_Evening/chme1231.shtml

Imitating Our Lord

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 6 Comments

We love Him, because He first loved us. -1 John 4:19

We have known some saints who showed their love to their Lord by weeping over sinners and praying for their conversion. There have been gracious men and women, who could not sleep at night because of their anxiety about the eternal welfare of their relatives and friends, or even of lost ones who were personally unknown to them; and they have risen from their beds to agonize in prayer for sinners who were either calmly sleeping, and not even dreaming of their doom, or else at that very hour were adding to their previous transgressions. There have been others, who could not hear a blasphemous word, as they passed along the street, without feeling a holy indignation at the injury that was being done to their best Friend, and at the same time their eyes filled with tears of pity for the poor blasphemers, and their hearts poured out a stream of supplication for those who were thus ignorantly or wantonly sinning against the Most High.

Others have proved their love to their Lord by the way in which they have been given of their substance to His cause. They have not only given a tithe of all they had to the great Melchizdeck, but they have counted it a high privilege to lay all that they had upon his altar, counting that their gold was never so golden as when it was all Christ’s and that their lands were never so valuable to them as when they were gladly surrendered to Him. Alas, that there should be so few, even in the Church of Christ, who thus imitate their Lord who freely gave Himself and all He had that He might save His people! Blessed will the Church be when she gets back to the Pentecostal consecration which was the fitting culmination of the Pentecostal blessing: “all that believed were together, and had all things in common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3228.cfm

Behold How He Loves His Lord

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

We love Him because He first loved us. -1 John 4:19

Did anybody ever say of any one of us here, “Behold how he loves Christ”? If someone did say that of you, my brother or sister, was it true? I think I hear your answer, ” Oh, I do love Him! He knows all things, and He knows that I love Him.” But do you love Him so fervently that strangers or even your more intimate acquaintances would say of your love to Jesus what the Jews said of His love to Lazarus, “Behold how He loved him”? “I wish,” says one, “I could do so.” Then listen while I tell you of what some saints have done to show how they have loved their Lord.

There have been those who have suffered for Christ’s sake. They have lain in damp dungeons, and have refused to accept liberty at the price of treachery to their Lord and His truth. They have been stretched upon the rack, yet no torture could make them yield up their fidelity to God. If you have read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, you know how hundreds of brave men and women, and children too, stood at the stake, gloriously calm, and often triumphantly happy, and were burnt to death for Christ’s sake, while many of those who looked on learnt to imitate their noble example, and others who heard their dying testimonies, and their expiring songs, (not groans,) could not help exclaiming, “Behold how these martyrs love their Master!”

There have been others, who have shown their love to their Lord by untiring and self-sacrificing service. They have laboured for Him, at times, under great privations and amid many perils, some as missionaries in foreign lands, and others with equal zeal in this country. Their hearts were all aglow with love for their dear Lord and Saviour, and they spent their whole time and strength in seeking to win souls for Him, so that those who knew them could not help saying, “Behold how they love their Lord!” Some of us can never hope to wear the ruby crown of martyrdom, yet we may be honoured by receiving the richly-jewelled crown from the hand of Christ ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3228.cfm

Heaven is Our Home (Maranatha!)

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

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. -John 14:3

He has made us long for heaven, and given us at least a measure of preparation for it. We are expecting that, one of these days, if the chariot and horses of fire do not stop at our door, our dear Lord and Saviour will fulfil to us His promise, “if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also,” To a true believer in Jesus, the thought of departing from this world, and going to be “for ever with the Lord,” has nothing of gloom associated with it. This earth is the place of our banishment and exile; heaven is our home. We are like the loving wife who is sundered by thousands of miles of sea and land from her dear husband, and we are longing for the great re-union with our beloved Lord, from whom we shall then never again be separated. I cannot hope to depict the scene when He shall introduce us to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, and bid us sit with Him in His throne, even as He sits with His Father in His throne. Surely then the holy angels, who have never sinned, will unite in exclaiming, “Behold, how He loved them!” It is a most blessed thought, to my mind, that we may be up there before the hands of that clock complete another round; and if not so soon as that, it will not be long before all of us who love the Lord will be with Him where He is, and then the last among us shall know more of His love than the greatest of us can ever know while here below. Meanwhile, we have much of the joy of heaven even while we are upon this earth; for, as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3228.cfm