Christian Life

Not Too Soon Nor Too Late

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

You shall come to the grave at a full age, as a sheaf of grain ripens in its season. Behold, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear it, and know for yourself.”Job 5:26, 27

“Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age.” “Ah!” says one, “that is not true. Good people do not live longer than others. The most pious man may die in the prime of his youth.” But look at my text. It does not say, thou shalt come to thy grave in old age-but in a “full age.” Well, who knows what a “full age” is? A “full age” is whenever God likes to take his children home…All fruit do not get ripe and mellow at the same season. So with Christians. They are at a “full age” when God chooses to take them home. They are at “full age” if they die at twenty one, they are not more if they live to be ninety.

There are two mercies to a Christian: First, he will never die too soon…no Christian ever does. But say some, “How useful might they have been had they lived.” Ah! but how damaging they might have been!..Are you quite sure they would have done so much good? Might they not have done much evil? Could we have a dream of the future, and see what they might have been, we should say, “Ah Lord! let it stop while it is well.”…The Christian dies well: he does not die too soon. Again, the Christian never dies too late. That old lady there is eighty years old. She sits in a miserable room, shivering by a handful of fire. She is kept by charity. She is poor and miserable. “What’s the good of her?” says everybody: “she has lived too long…Do not you find fault with your Master’s work? He is too good a husbandman to leave His wheat in the field too long and let it shale out.

Hear what God says to each of us:-“Thou shalt come to thy grave in full age.”…Heaven is ready enough for thee, and thy Lord will say, “Come up higher!” when thou hast arrived at a full age-but never before nor after.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0043.cfm

Nothing to Lose

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

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. -Philippians 1:21

A Christian has nothing to lose by death. You say he has to lose his friends. I am not so sure of that. Many of you have many more friends in heaven than on earth; some Christians have more dearly beloved ones above than below. You often count your family circle, but do you do as that little girl of whom Wordsworth speaks, when she said, “Master, we are seven.” Some of them were dead and gone to heaven, but she would have it that they were all brothers and sisters still. Oh! how many brothers and sisters we have up stairs in the upper room in our Father’s house; how many dear ones, linked with us in the ties of relationship, for they are as much our relations now as they were then! Though in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, yet in that great world, who has said that the ties of affection shall be severed, so that we shall not even there claim kindred with one another, as well as kindred with Jesus Christ? What have we to lose by death? Come when he may, should we not open the door for him? I would love to feel like that woman who said, when she was dying, “I feel like a latch on the door, ready to be opened to let my Lord in.” Is not that a sweet state, to have the house ready, so that it will require no setting in order? When death comes to a wicked man, he finds him moored fast, he snaps his cable, and drives his ship to sea; but when he comes to the Christian, he finds him winding up the anchor, and he says, “When thou hast done thy work, and shipped the anchor, I will take thee home.” With sweet breath he blows on him, and the ship is wafted gently to heaven, with no regrets for life, but with angels at the brow, spirits guiding the rudder, sweet songs coming through the cordage, and canvass silvered o’er with light.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0043.cfm

 

Christians At the Jordan River

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

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. -Philippians 1:21

(L)et me tell you what Dr. Owen said-that celebrated prince of Calvinists…A friend called to tell Dr. Owen that he had put to press his “Meditations on the Glory of Christ.” There was a momentary gleam in his languid eye as he answered, “I am glad to hear it. Oh!” said he, “the long-wished for time has come at last, in which I shall see that glory in another manner than I have ever done, or was capable of doing in this world.”

George Herbert, after some severe struggles, and having requested his wife and nieces, who were weeping in extreme anguish, to leave the room, he committed his will to Mr. Woodnott’s care, crying out, “I am ready to die-Lord, forsake me not now, my strength faileth; but grant me mercy for the merits of my Lord Jesus. And now, Lord receive my soul.” Then he laid himself back and breathed out his life to God. Thus the poet dies. That glorious fancy of his, that might have pictured gloomy things if it had pleased, was only filled with rapturous sight of angels. As he used to say himself, “Methinks I hear the church bells of heaven ringing.” And methinks he did hear them when he came near the river Jordan.

(Missionary Brainard) said, “I am almost in eternity. I long to be there. My work is done. I have done with all my friends. All the world is now nothing to me. Oh, to be in heaven, to praise and glorify God with His holy angels.”…(said he) who counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and went among wild untutored Indians to preach the gospel.

…I never wish to have the choice given to me; but to die is the happiest thing man can have, because it is to lose anxiety, it is to slay care, it is to have the peculiar sleep of the beloved. To the Christian, then, death must be acceptable.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0043.cfm

The Christian Comes to His Grave Readily

Sherry Christian Life, promises 3 Comments

Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season. -Job 5:26

“Thou shalt come to thy grave.” Old Caryl makes this remark on this verse-“A willingness and a cheerfulness to die. Thou shalt come, thou shalt not be dragged or hurried to thy grave, as it is said of the foolish rich man, Luke 12, “This night shall thy soul be taken from thee.” But thou shalt come to thy grave, thou shalt die quietly and smilingly, as it were; thou shalt go to thy grave, as it were upon thine own feet, and rather walk than be carried to thy sepulchre… Behold two men sat together in the same house: when Death came to each of them. He said to one, “Thou shalt die.” The man looked at him-tears suffused his eyes, and tremblingly he said, “O Death, I cannot, I will not die.” He sought out a physician, and said to him, “I am sick, for Death hath looked upon me. His eyes have paled my cheeks, and I fear I must depart. Physician, there is my wealth, give me health and let me live.” The physician took his wealth, but gave him not his health with all his skill. The man changed his physician and tried another, and thought that perhaps he might spin out the thread of life a little longer. But, alas! Death came and said, “I have given thee time to try thy varied excuses, come with me; thou shalt die.” And he bound him hand and foot, and made him go to that dark land of shades. As the man went, he clutched at every side post by the way; but Death, with iron hands, still pulled him on….Death said, “Come on! thou art my captive, and thou shalt die.” And unwillingly as the laggard schoolboy, who goeth slowly to school, so did he trace the road with Death. He did not come to his grave, but Death fetched him to it-the grave came to him. But Death said to the other man, “I am come for thee.” He smilingly replied, “Ah, Death! I know thee, I have seen thee many a time. I have held communion with thee. Thou art my Master’s servant, thou hast come to fetch me home. Go, tell my Master I am ready; whene’er He pleases, Death, I am ready to go with thee.” And together they went along the road, and held sweet company. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0043.cfm

We Shall Not All Sleep

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

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. -1 Thessalonians 4:17

“It is appointed unto all men once to die,” yet a time shall come when some Christian men shall not die at all. We know that had Adam never sinned he would not have died, for death is the punishment of sin, and we know that Enoch and Elijah were translated to heaven without dying. Therefore it does seem to follow, that death is not absolutely necessary for a Christian. And, moreover, we are told in Scripture, that there are some who shall be “alive and remain,” when Jesus Christ shall come; and the apostle says, “I tell you a mystery-we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” There shall be some who shall be found living, of whom the apostle says, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” We know that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom; but it is possible that they may be refined by some spiritual process, which shall preclude the necessity of dissolution. Oh! I have thought of that idea very much, and I have wondered whether it should not be possible that some of us might be in that happy number who shall not see death. Even if we are not, there is something very cheering in the thought: Christ did so conquer death that He not only delivers the lawful captive out of the prison, but He saves a band from the jaws of the monster, and leads them by his den unharmed! He not only resuscitates the dead, and puts new life into those that are slain by the fell scythe, but some He actually takes to heaven by a bye-road. He says to death-“Avaunt, thou monster! On these thou shalt never put thy hand! These are chosen men and women, and thy cold fingers shall never freeze the current of their soul. I am taking them straight to heaven without death. I will transport them in their bodies up to heaven without passing through thy gloomy portals, or having been captives in thy dreary land of shades.” How glorious is the thought, that Christ has vanquished death; that some men shall not die. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0043.cfm

Thy Father and Thy Love

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, The Father 3 Comments

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness. – Isaiah 41:10

Put me to sea, and let the ship be driven along, that wind is my Father’s breath; let the clouds gather, they are the dust of my Father’s feet; let the waterspout appear from heaven, it is my Father dipping His hand in the laver of His earthly temple. The child of God feareth nothing. All things are his Father’s; and divested now of everything that is terrible, he can look upon them with complacency, for he says, “The clouds are the dust of His feet.”

“He drives His chariot through the sky,
Beneath His feet His thunders roar;
He shakes the earth, He veils the sky,
My soul, my soul, this God adore-
He is thy Father, and thy love.”

Fall down before His feet and worship Him, for He hath loved thee by His grace. You know there are many fearful events which may befall us; but we are never afraid of them, if we are saints, because they are the dust of His feet. Pestilence may ravage this fair city once again; the thousands may fall, and the funeral march be constantly seen in our streets. Do we fear it? Nay; the pestilence is but one of our Father’s servants, and we are not afraid of it, although it walketh in darkness. There may be no wheat, the flocks may be cut off from the herd and the stall; nevertheless, famine and distress are our Father’s doings, and what our Father does we will not view with alarm. There is a man there with a sword in his hand; he is an enemy, and I fear him. My Father has a sword, and I fear him not; I rather love to see Him have a sword, because I know He will only use it for my protection. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0036.cfm

No Terror for the Child of God

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, The Father 3 Comments

The LORD has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. -Nahum 1:3

Sometimes clouds are very fearful things to mariners; they expect a storm when they see the clouds and darkness gathering. A cloud to many of us, when it forebodes a tempest is a very unpleasant thing. But let me read my text, and you will see what I mean by my remark that the most terrible things in nature are not terrible to the saints. The “clouds are the dust of His feet,”-of God’s feet. Do you not see what I mean? There is nothing terrible now, because it is only the dust of my Father’s feet. Did you ever know a child who was afraid of the dust of his father’s feet? Nay; if the child sees the dust of his father’s feet in the distance, what does he do? He rejoices because it is his father, and runs to meet him. So the most awful things in nature, even the clouds, have lost all their terror to a child of God, because He knows they are but the dust of His Father’s feet. If we stand in the midst of the lightning storm, a flash rives yon cedar, or splits the oak of the forest; another flash succeeds, and then another, till the whole firmament becomes a sea of flame. We fear not, for they are only the flashes of our Father’s sword as He waves it in the sky. Hark to the thunder as it shakes the earth, causes the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests; we shake not at the sound.

“The God that rules on high,
And thunders when He please,
That rides upon the stormy sky,
And manages the seas.

“This awful God is ours,
Our Father and our love.”

We are not afraid, for we hear our Father’s voice. And what favored child ever quaked at his Father’s speech. We love to hear that voice; although it is deep, bass, sonorous, yet we love its matchless melody, for it issues from the depths of affection. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0036.cfm