Christian Life

Work and Wait, Looking Up

Sherry Christian Life 1 Comment

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. – James 5:7

The first thing that a farmer does by way of seeking gain on his farm is to make a sacrifice which could seem immediately to entail on him a loss. He has some good wheat in the granary, and he takes out sacks full of it, and buries it; he is so much the poorer, is he not? At any rate, there is so much the less to make bread for his household. He cannot get it again; it is under the clods, and there it must die, for unless it dies, it brings not forth fruit! You must not expect, as soon as you become a Christian, that you shall obtain all the gains of your religion. Perhaps you may lose all that you have for Christ’s sake; some have lost their lives; they have sown their house and land, relatives, comfort, ease, and at last they have sown life itself in Christ’s field, and they seemed, for the time, to be losers. But verily I say unto you this day, if you could see them in their white robes before the throne of God, rejoicing, you would see how rich a harvest they have reaped, and how the sowing which seemed a loss at first has ended, through God’s abundant grace, in the greatest eternal gain! Have patience, brothers and sisters, have patience! That is a false religion that aims at present worldly advantages; he who becomes religious for the loaves and fishes, when he has eaten his loaves and fishes, has devoured his religion! There is nothing in such piety but pretension; if you can be bought, you can be sold; if you have taken it up for gain, you will lay it down for what promises you a better bargain! Be willing to be a loser for Christ, and so prove you are His genuine follower!

“I am to wait,” says a sufferer, “for God’s help, and for the graces that come by affliction. But I must wait with my eyes upward, for all the plowing of affliction will not profit me, and all the sowing of meditation will not speed me unless God sends His gracious Spirit like showers of heavenly rain. If I am a worker, I must work; when I wait, I must wait always looking upward.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1025.cfm

Have Long Patience

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

Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. – James 5:7

Now, brothers and sisters in Christ, our waiting, if it is the work of the Holy Spirit, must have this long patience in it. Are you a sufferer? There are sweet fruits to come from suffering! “Not for the present seems it to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them who are exercised thereby.” Have long patience for those peaceable fruits; you shall be brought out of your trouble, deliverance will be found for you out of your affliction when the discipline for which you were brought into it has been fulfilled. Have a lot of patience however, for not the first month does the farmer find a harvest. If he has sown in the winter, he does not expect he will reap in the early spring; he does not go forth with his sickle in the month of May and expect to find golden sheaves. He waits. The moons wax and wane; suns rise and set; but the farmer waits until the appointed time is come. Truth, like the grain of mustard seed, does not wax into a tree tomorrow, being sown today—it takes its time. Or, like the leaven in the measure, it does not work in the next moment; it must have its time. If you have some principle to teach that is now obnoxious, go on with it; perhaps you may never see it popular in your day, but do not mind the fickle winds, or fret yourself because of the nipping frosts. The truth of God is mighty, and it will prevail, though it may have a hard fight before it wins the victory! Wait O sufferer, until the night is over! Watch after watch, you have already passed through; the morning breaks; tarry you a little longer, for if the vision tarries it shall come. “You shall stand in your lot in the end of the days.” Before long you shall have a happy exit out of your present trials! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1025.cfm

Sowing the Seed, Patiently Waiting for the Fruit, and Finally Reaping the Harvest

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

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. – James 5:7-8

(The farmer) waits with a reasonable hope for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it until he receives the early and latter rain. He expects the harvest because he has plowed the fields and sown the grain; if he had not, he would not be an example for our imitation; had he left his fields fallow, never stirred the clods, and never cast in among them the golden seed, he would be an idiot if he were expecting the soil to produce a harvest by itself! Away with the folly of those who flatter their souls with a prospect of good things in times to come while they neglect the opportunity of sowing good things in the time present! They say they hope it will be well with them at the end—but since it is not well with them now, why should they expect any change—much less a change contrary to the entire order of providence? Is it not written, “He that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption”? Do you expect to sow to the flesh and reap salvation? That is a blessing reserved for him who sows to the Spirit, for he who sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. As for the man who scatters nothing but the wild oats of sin; that simply lives to indulge his own passions and determinately resolves to neglect the things that make for his peace; he can but upbraid himself if he expects to reap anything good of the Lord. They who sow to the wind shall reap the whirlwind; they who sow nothing shall reap nothing; they who sow sparingly shall reap sparingly. If you are a believer, to you shall be the promise; you shall share the victories and spoils of your Lord. If you are a careless, godless worldling, to you shall eat the fruit of your deeds, and sad and bitter shall be those grapes of Gomorrah that you shall have to eat. The farmer waits with a reasonable hope; he does not look for grain where he has cast in garlic. Unless you are a fool, you will, like he, count only on the fruit of your own sowing. While he waits with a patient hope, he is, no doubt, all the more patient of the issue, because his hope is so reasonable, and not only does he wait with patience, but some stress is put upon the length of it— “And has long patience for the precious fruit of the earth.” …It is only those who by God’s grace have been enabled to sow abundantly, though they have gone forth weeping, who shall afterwards come again rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1025.cfm

By this Divine Remedy

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

…with His stripes we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5

By this Divine remedy our life is healed of its rebellion. This medicine has worked within the heart, and it has also worked outside in the life. Now has the drunk become sober and he hates the cup he used to love. Now has the swearer’s foul mouth been washed and his lips, once so polluted, are like lilies dropping sweet, smelling myrrh. Now has the cruel and unkind one becomes tender, gentle and loving—the false has become true, the proud bends his neck in humility, the idle has become a diligent servant of Christ! The transformation is wonderful and this is the secret, “With His stripes we are healed.”

Yet again, our consciousness assures us that we are healed. We know that we are healed, and we rejoice in the fact— and we are not to be argued out of it. There seems to be a theory, held by some people, to the effect that we cannot tell whether we are saved or not. When we have had a disease in our body, we can tell whether we have been healed or not, and the marks and evidence of the supernatural change that takes place within the spirit are as apparent, as a usual rule, and certainly as positive and sure as the changes worked in the body by healing medicine! We know that we are healed. I am not talking to you of a thing which I do not know personally for myself. When the text says, “We,” my heart says, “I,” and I am longing that everybody here should be able to put his own seal to it and say, “That is true! With His stripes we are healed! With His stripes we are healed! With His stripes we are healed!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2499.cfm

Our Cry

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

…and with His stripes we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5

And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. – 2 Corinthians 5:15

(T)hose who have believed in the stripes of Jesus are witnesses to the instant and perfect efficacy of the medicine. We can, many of us, speak from experience, since we can say that “we are healed.” HOW are we healed?

Well, first, our conscience is healed of every smart. God is satisfied with Christ and so are we. If, for Christ’s sake, He has put away sin without dishonor to Himself, then are we, also, perfectly content and full of rejoicing in the Atonement and we need nothing else to keep our conscience quiet.

By these same wounds of Christ our heart is healed of its love of sin. It was once in love with sin, but now it hates all iniquity. If our Redeemer died because of our sin, how can we live any longer therein? All our past thoughts concerning sin are turned upside down or reversed. Sin once gave us pleasure, but now it gives us the utmost pain and we desire to be free from it, and to be perfectly holy—there is no evil that we would harbor in our bosoms. It did seem an amazing thing that we should look to Christ and so find pardon and that at that same moment we should be totally changed in our nature as to our view of sin, yet it did so happen! While sin was on us, we felt as if we had no hope and, therefore, we went on in sin. But when sin was pardoned, then we felt great joy and, consequently, gratitude and love to God. Our cry is, “Death to sin, now that Christ has died for sin!” “If the One died for all, then all died” and, as in Christ we died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2499.cfm

The Heavenly Medicine

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

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5

Jesus Christ, His dear Son, has taken upon Himself our nature and suffered on the Cross in our place—and God the Father has delivered Him up for us all—that we might be able to say, “With His stripes we are healed.” (D)ear Friends, behold the heavenly medicine—the stripes of Jesus in body and in soul! Picture Him before your mind’s eyes. He is scourged by the rough Roman soldiers till the sacred stream rolls down His back in a crimson tide. And He is scourged within as well as outside till He cries, in utmost agony, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” He is fastened to the cruel Cross—His hands and feet and brow are all bleeding and His inmost soul is poured out even unto death—whatever that wonderful expression may mean. He bears the sin of many, the chastisement of their peace is upon Him. He is bruised for their iniquities and wounded for their transgressions. If you would be healed of sin’s sickness, here is the Medicine! Is it not amazing surgery? Surgeons usually give us pain while trying to cure us, but here is a Physician who bears the pain, Himself, and thereby heals us! Here is no medicine for us to take, for it has all been taken by Him! He suffers, He groans, He dies—and it is by His grief and agonies that we are healed!

(I)f you are healed by His stripes, you should go and live like healthy men. When a man is healed of disease, he does not continue to lie in bed! So, dear Friends, do not any of you be lazy Christians! When a man is healed, he does not sit down and groan about the disease that is gone. So do not any of you be continually groaning and croaking and sighing. When a man is healed, he likes to go and tell about the remedy to others. So, dear Friends, do not keep to yourselves the news of this blessed heavenly balsam, but go and tell the tidings everywhere, “With His stripes we are healed.” When a man is healed, he is joyful and begins to sing with gladness. So, go and sing, and praise and bless the Lord all your days! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/isa/53/5/s_732005

Cured for Life

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. – 1 Peter 2:24

(S)in causes constant misery. I do not mean that godly sorrow which leads to penitence, for sin never brings its own repentance, but by way of remorse, or of ungratified desire, or restlessness such as is natural to men who try to fill their immortal spirits with the empty joys of this poor world. Are there not many who, if they had all they have ever wished for, would still wish for more? If they could, at this moment, gratify every desire they have, they would but be as men who drink of the brine of the sea—whose thirst is not thereby quenched, but only increased! Oh, believe me, you will never be content with the pleasures of this world if your mind is at all awakened concerning your state in the sight of God! If you are given over to spiritual paralysis, you may be without feeling, and that is a deadly sign, indeed. But if there is any sort of spiritual life within you, the more you sin the more uneasy you will become. There is no way of peace by plunging more deeply into sin, as some think they will do—drowning dull care in the flowing bowl or endeavoring to show their hardihood by rushing into still viler forms of lust in order that they may, somehow or other, be satisfied and content. No, this disease breeds a hunger which increases as you feed it! It engenders a thirst which becomes the more intense the more you try to satisfy it!

When Christ heals, people do not get the sickness again. His cures are cures for life—and cures for eternity! If the devil goes out of a man of his own accord, he always comes back and brings seven others with him. But if Christ turns him out, I guarantee you that he will never be allowed to come back! When the strong Man armed has dislodged the devil, He keeps the house that He has won and takes good care that neither by the front door nor by the back, shall the old enemy ever come back again! Having by His own right hand and His holy arm gotten the victory, He challenges the foeman to take back his spoil, crying, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?” No, that shall never be! So you may go on your way rejoicing and sing as you go, “With His stripes we are healed.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2499.cfm