Christian Life

Jesus Deserves Our Faithful Service

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

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. – Ephesians 6:2

Jesus deserves from all who have really tasted of His grace such faithful service, such unswerving following in all cases and under all circumstances. Who else has ever done for us what Jesus has? Our mother brought us forth, but He has given to us a second birth. Our mother dandled us upon her knee, but He has borne us all the days of old, and even to hoar hairs will He carry His people. We have had many kindnesses from friends, but never such love as Jesus showed when, we being His enemies, He yet redeemed us with His most precious blood. Think of these three words, and try to measure what they mean-Gethsemane-Gabbatha-Golgotha. Let those three words awaken your adoring memories. Gethsemane-with its garden and bloody sweat for you. Gabbatha-with its scourging, its mocking, its shame and spitting for you. Golgotha-with its cross and the five flowing wounds, and all the bitterness of the divine wrath, and the torment of death itself, for you. Men have been known to give away their lives cheerfully for some great military leader whose genius has commanded their admiration, but they were fools to throw their lives away, after all, for these men had done but little or nothing for them to make them their servants and slaves. But this Man, my brethren, if we had a thousand lives, and were to give them all, yet would deserve more of us, for He hath redeemed us from going down into the pit, saved us from flames that never shall be quenched, and from a pit that is darkness itself. By the eternal woe from which the blood of Christ hath uplifted us, let us, who believe that we have been redeemed from hell, consecrate ourselves for ever to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. .~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

Is Not That Good News?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Father 11 Comments

And 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.  -John 14:3

He is coming here again,-coming here for you,-coming to be admired by you and the rest of His redeemed family when He comes to take His people up to their eternal home. The message which He has sent is, “Behold, I come quickly.” What is your answer to that? I think I hear you say, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” It will not be very long before you will be with Him, or else He will be with you. In a short time, you will have ended your pilgrimage here; the days of your banishment from home will be over. Wait a little longer; only a few more tears, and, then,-

“Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast.”

Is not that good news?

There is another piece of news, which you have often heard before,-that is, that a great many of the saints have got home already. There is good news from the Fair Havens. Many have entered there,-thousands, millions,-who have had as stormy a sea to traverse as you yourself have had; but their Pilot has brought them to their desired haven. Many, whom we loved on earth, have gone home to be “forever with the Lord.” They are all right; all is well with them. The sheep are getting home to the fold; the children are going home to their Father’s house above. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

Our Holy Relationship with God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Father 4 Comments

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. – Genesis 5:24

Still do godly men walk with God as Enoch did. Do not imagine that God has gone away, and that no longer may we speak to Him as a man speaketh with his friend. No, for truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Still does Jesus lay bare His heart to His beloved.

And, dear friends, it should be our earnest aim to keep unbroken our intercourse with heaven, for it is the most refreshing thing beneath the sun, This world is like an arid desert where there is no water except as we maintain our intercourse with Christ. So long as I can say that the Lord is mine, all things here below are of small account; but if I once get a doubt about that matter, and if I cease to walk with God, then what is there here below that can content my immortal spirit? Without Christ, this world is to us as thorns without the roses, and as bitters without the sweets of life. But Thou, O Lord, makest earth to be a heaven to Thy saints even when they lie in dungeons, when Thy presence cheers them. But were, they translated to the palaces of kings, and thereby lost Thy blessed company, those palaces would be worse than prison-houses to them. It is most important that you, who are obliged to mingle with the world, should maintain your intercourse with Christ; for that is the only way to keep yourself clear from its corruptions. And you, who have much to do in the church, must keep up your intercourse with Christ; for that is the only way of preserving your service from becoming mechanical, and of preventing you from doing good works as a mere matter of routine. You, too, who have much to suffer, or even much to enjoy, must keep up this holy intercourse, or else your soul will soon be like a thirsty land where there is no water. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

Good News from Heaven to Saints

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. -2 Peter 1:4

Does someone ask, “Is there any news from heaven?” Yes, there is; and that shall be my first remark in this part of my theme,-that news does still come from heaven. There is an invisible telegraph between us and the glory-land; we are not cut off from communication with those who are there. Jacob dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven, but it was not merely a dream. Never was there anything more real than that vision of the night, for there is a blessed means of communication between this far-off land and the goodly land beyond the river. Our prayers and sighs and tears, our praises and thanksgivings, get there all right; they are not, lost en route. They reach the great heart of God, and messages come down to us from Him in response to them. How do they come? Well, they come by the Holy Spirit sealing home to the soul the promises of the Word. Do you know, experimentally, what I mean by that? “Ah!” says someone, “do I not!” Every now and then, some blessed portion of Scripture seems as if it were set on fire, and, as you read it, it blazes out before your eyes, just as, sometimes, we see the lamps that are being got ready for an illumination. There is some grand device; and, before it is lit up, it is little more than an array of pipes; but how different it looks after they have lit it all! So, there is many a text of Scripture which is like that design; you can see something of what it means, but you should see it when it is lit up. How very different it is then! You sometimes get a promise from the Word whispered into your ear, and it is just as new to you as if it had never been written down eighteen hundred or three or four thousand years ago. It is as fresh to you as if the eternal pen had written it to-day, and written it for you alone. Some of us I hope, many of us-know how the Spirit of God takes of the things of Christ, and reveals them unto us, leading us into the very heart and soul of the precious blessings of the covenant of grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

By His Given Power

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. -John 1:12

There is many a poor sinner who says, “I know that Christ is Himself the Truth, but how can that Truth be mine? I know that there is eternal life, and that Christ is the Life as well as the Truth and the Way, but I am spiritually dead, can I ever have that life?” Yes, you can, for our Lord Jesus Christ is not merely the Way, but He is also the power by which we run in that way. He is not only the Truth, but He gives us the illuminating Spirit to lead us into the Truth; and He is not only the Life, but He puts that Life into us, and sustains and perfects it. You have nothing to do, sinner, but to give yourself up to the leading, guiding, directing, assisting, quickening of the blessed Spirit of God. It is true that you must believe, but He will give you the grace of faith. It is true that you must repent, but it is also true that He works repentance in us. There must and there will be a change of life in all true converts but it is the Holy Spirit who converts you and turns you completely round. There must be sanctification in genuine believers, but it is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you. There is nothing asked of you in the gospel, but what the gospel itself gives you. Those things which, in one part of Scripture, are put as precepts, are, in other parts of Scripture, among the promises. What the Lord bids the sinner do, He enables the sinner to do, just as, when Jesus said to the man that was paralyzed, “Take up thy bed, and walk,” with the command He gave the power to obey it; and when He said to another man, “Stretch out thy hand, withered though it be,” the miraculous power, that gave the nerves and muscles force again, went with the mandate from the lips of Jesus. In like manner, trust thou the Lord to give thee the power to lay hold on the gospel. The very eye, with which to look at the brazen serpent is His gift; and that gift He is prepared to bestow upon all who come to Him for it. Is not this good news from a far country? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

Good News from God to Sinners

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation 3 Comments

…good news from a far country. -Proverbs 25:25

Sin has led the sinner into a far country. That part of the description of the prodigal son, who gathered all together, and went into a far country, aptly describes the condition of the whole human race…We are, by nature, far off from God in the whole bent and current of our life, which no longer runs in a parallel line with the life of God as first imparted to man (before the Fall), but runs rather according to the fashion of the life of Satan, so that we yield ourselves up to the evil influence of that foul spirit who worketh in the children of disobedience.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so is it with our God. He pities those who wander away from Him. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” God takes no delight in your sin, and no delight in the shame and sorrow which your sin will bring upon you unless you turn from it, but He will take delight in you if you return to Him. He still cries to you, “Return ye now every one from his evil way;” and He still remembers you in pity and compassion. Notwithstanding your forgetfulness of Him, and your wilful rebellion against Him, He doth remember you still; for God is love, and there is love in His heart even towards sinners who are dead in trespasses and sins. That, surely, is good news to you, and if God thus thinks of you in pity, should not you think of God with deep, heartfelt penitence and contrition?~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

Be Found Where the Lord Is

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises 3 Comments

The name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there [or in the Hebrew Jehovah-shammah]. -Ezekiel 48:35

These words may be used as a test as well as a text. They may serve for examination as well as consolation, and at the beginning of a year they may fulfill this useful double purpose. In any case they are full of marrow and fatness to those whose spiritual taste is purified. It is esteemed by the prophet to be the highest blessing that could come upon a city that its name should be, “JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH, The Lord is there.” Even Jerusalem, in its best estate, would have this for its crowning blessing: nothing could exceed this. Do we reckon the presence of the Lord to be the greatest of blessings? If in any gathering, even of the humblest people, the Lord God is known to be present in a peculiarly gracious manner, shouldn’t we make a point of being there? Very much depends upon our answer to these queries.

Do not be found anywhere where you could not say that the Lord was there; but if you are called into the world in the pursuit of your daily vocation, cry unto the Lord, “If Thy Spirit go not with me, carry me not up hence.” Determine that you will have the Spirit of God with you, and that, be it in busy Cheapside, or be it in the lonesome country while you are hoeing the turnips or attending to a flock of sheep, of every field, and every street, and every room, it shall be said that God is there. Take Jesus with you when you go; and, when you come home, may His Spirit still be with you! God grant that it may be so! The Holy Spirit can work you to this self-same thing.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm