Christian Life

The Great Subject of Joy

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

Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it… – Isaiah 44:23

O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: His right hand, and His holy arm, hath gotten Him the victory. – Psalm 98:1

The great subject of joy is redemption-the redemption of God’s Israel. This is a stupendous work. It was a simple matter for man to sell himself into slavery, but to redeem him was another matter. This is the work; this is the labor! To redeem man from his iniquity is a work which all the cherubim and seraphim could not have accomplished, a work indeed which all creatureship would have failed to perform. My brethren, our slavery was terrible, and the price of deliverance was far beyond mountains of silver and gold. The redemption of the soul is precious; “it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.” As there needed a price, so there was needed a power to redeem; for with a high hand and an outstretched arm must Israel be brought out of Egypt; and where could such power be found? Neither angel nor archangel possessed it, and as for the sons of man, the insects which dance through a summer’s eve are not more feeble. Hopeless is human bondage unless the malice and craft and power of Satan can be matched by love and wisdom and force superior at all points. The price has been found; the power has been displayed. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord has found a ransom! We were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, and that price has effectually set us free. Break forth into singing, ye mountains, for the Lord hath also found the power: His own right hand and His holy arm has gotten Him the victory! He has brought up His people out of the house of bondage and made them free indeed. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm

The Day Will Come

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit 4 Comments

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee. – Isaiah 44:22

There are times when our unbelief makes new clouds and threatens new storms. Though our sin was all forgiven at the very first, and when we were first washed we were clean every whit, so that we needed not ever afterwards to wash again, except to wash our feet, yet unbelief can revive the memories of sin, and defile the conscience with dead works, and so it can create clouds between us and God: nevertheless, when our Lord reveals Himself He blotteth out our sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud our transgressions, and again we return unto Him and rejoice in Him. We need not come under these returning glooms, and we ought not to do so; but should it happen to us that we come under a cloud, it will be a blessed thing to look up and remember that the Lord can clear the skies in a moment and turn our dreariest shades into the brightness of the morning.

The day will come when the gospel shall have been preached for the last time, when the chosen of God shall have been all gathered out from among men, and the dispensation shall be fulfilled. Then shall all the saints rise to glory at the call of God. The elect multitude shall be all there, every one according to the purpose of the Father, every one according to the redemption of the Son, every one according to the calling of the Spirit, all there; upon their faces there shall be no spot nor wrinkle, and on their garments no stain nor defilement, for they are without fault before the throne of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm

God’s Wrath Spent on Christ

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

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee. – Isaiah 44:22

Oh, the blackness of the darkness above; oh, the horror of the tempest within, in the dreadful hour of conviction of sin, when my weary soul longed for nothingness, that it might escape from its own hell. Oh, the dread of the wrath to come. I saw all of God’s indignation gathering up to spend itself upon me, but glory be to God, it spent itself elsewhere!

“The tempest’s awful voice was heard;
O Christ, it broke on Thee!
Thy open bosom was my ward,
It braved the storm for me.
Thy form was scarr’d, Thy visage marr’d,
Now cloudless peace for me.”

Well do I remember the day in which I looked to the Jews and was lightened in a moment; the rain was over and gone, and all was peace and joy. Oh, that blessed day! I went forth with joy and was led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills brake forth before me into singing, and all the trees of the field did clap their hands. Nor has the joy departed: for me the mountains still are singing, and the trees still clap their hands; for still my heart is glad within me at every mention of the precious name of Jesus; His blood still speaketh peace within my conscience, and His finished sacrifice is still my joy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm

The Black Cloud of Sin Obliterated

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

“I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.” Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel. – Isaiah 44:2,23

In the fullness of time Jesus appeared, and up to the tree carried all the sins of His people. Having all His life long carried their sicknesses and sorrows, He bore the burden of sin to the place of its annihilation, and by His death He made an end of it. Apart from the atonement, the chosen of God, like other men, lay under sin; the black cloud was over all the race, but Jesus took the dense mass of all the transgressions of His people, past, present, and to come, and obliterated the whole, even as a cloud is blotted out from the face of heaven. Jesus took the whole incalculably ponderous load, all charged with tempest as it was, and bore it all upon those shoulders, which must have been crushed to the earth had they not been divine: on the tree He bore that sin and the wrath which was due to it, feeling all its crowded tempests in His own soul, until in that moment when He had borne all, and ended all, He sent up the victorious shout of “It is finished.” Then shone forth the unclouded glory of boundless love; then was gone for ever the threatened storm; then righteousness sprang out of the earth, and peace looked down from heaven, and the reconciled ones might well exclaim, “Sing, O heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel.” Sin was put away, transgression was cast into the depths of the sea, and loud o’er all rang out the jubilant challenge-“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? who is he that condemneth, now that Christ hath died?” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm

Beneath the Cleared Sky

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

“Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel.”-Isaiah 44:23.

No doubt this prophecy had a fulfillment in the restoration of the captive Jews from Babylon, in the rebuilding of the temple, and the completion of the walls of Jerusalem. This made the nation rejoice with unspeakable joy, and made them cry, “Sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted His people; He hath redeemed Jerusalem.”…A cloud, even a thick cloud of sin shut out the light of God’s countenance from His people and turned its dark side on their upward gazing eyes. Sins and transgressions interposed like a curtain, nay, rather like a wall of brass, between the sinful people and their God, so that their prayers could not pass through to Him, nor could His favor shine down on them. They cowered down in terror, as they heard the voice of God threatening judgment, and they expected every moment that He would overthrow them in His wrath. Lo instead thereof, the Lord hung out the covenant rainbow, gospel promises were seen, Jesus was set forth as the great atoning sacrifice; and as men looked upon Him gleams from the light of God’s countenance filled them with hope. Nor did they hope in vain, for anon the Lord fulfilled, as in a moment, the word wherein it is written, “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.” So, going forth and returning to their God beneath that clear sky, from which the Sun of Righteousness shone down with beams of love, the forgiven people were filled with rejoicing, and by the mouth of the prophet they cried aloud, “Sing, O heaven, clouds veil thee no longer; shout, ye lower parts of the earth, which have been refreshed with fertilising showers; shout, O ye forest trees, whose every bough has been hung with diamond drops; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm

Have You That Evidence?

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

And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am… – 1 Corinthians 15:8-10

How do we know that Paul was born again, and that he was called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ?

See how he confessed his sin and forsook it. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Are you, dear friend; willing now to confess your sin? Do you turn from it with loathing. Do you desire, henceforth, to be delivered entirely from it? Well, then, your repentance is another sure evidence that you are born again. If you have seen Jesus taking your sin upon Himself and suffering its dread penalty; if you have confessed your sin, and by faith laid it upon Him as your Sacrifice and Substitute, you are born again, though you may have been, in a certain sense, “born out of due time.”

I am sure he was converted, also, because he praised the grace of God. Read the 10th verse: “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Even when he truthfully says, “I labored more abundantly than they all;” he humbly adds, “yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” It is a sure sign of conversion when a man knows that he is saved by grace alone, and does not, attribute it to his own merit, or his own work, but praises and adores the sovereign mercy and grace of God. Have you that evidence, dear friend? Then are you born aright, even though “born out of due time.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2663.cfm

He Was Seen of Me

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

And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. – 1 Corinthians 15:8

Though Paul was, in a spiritual sense, “born out of due time,” he was truly born again; and those persons, who have been converted at singular times, and under strange circumstances, have been really converted. How do we know that Paul was born again, and that he was called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ?

I answer, because he had seen the Lord. After mentioning those who saw the risen Christ, he says, “Last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” The first, evidence that he was an apostle was that he had actually beheld the Lord. Now, in a spiritual sense, one of the marks of a true believer is that he has seen the Lord. My dear friend, if you have looked to Christ for forgiveness…if you have by faith seen Jesus on the cross, and truly trusted Him, you are as much saved as the man is who believed in Christ fifty years ago. Looking to Jesus is the evidence that we are born again; and happy is everyone who can truthfully say, concerning Christ.” He was seen of me also.” “I looked to Him; He looked on me; and we were one for ever. I trusted to Him, and therefore I am saved.” If you can say that from your heart and the Holy Spirit bears witness that what you say is true, you. need, not raise any question about your new birth. If thou art trusting in Jesus, it is well with thy soul in time and to eternity. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2663.cfm