promises

Safe Beyond All Hazard

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

…to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. – Ephesians 1:6

What unspeakable consolations arise from this truth, for, dear brethren, if we had to render to God something by which we should be accepted, we should be always in jeopardy; but now since we are “accepted in the Beloved,” we are safe beyond all hazard…and we rejoice as we receive the witness of the Spirit, saying, “By the which will ye are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,” for henceforth is it said, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more forever.”

There is a fullness in Christ Jesus which the seeking sinner should behold with joyfulness. What dost thou want, sinner? Thou wantest all things, but Christ is all. Thou wantest power to believe in Him-He giveth power to the faint. Thou wantest repentance-He was exalted on high to give repentance as well as remission of sin. Thou wantest a new heart: the covenant runs thus, “A new heart also will I give them, and a right spirit will I put within them.” Thou wantest pardon-behold His streaming wounds- wash thou and be clean. Thou wantest healing: He is “the Lord that healeth thee.” Thou wantest clothing-His righteousness shall become thy dress. Thou wantest preservation-thou shalt be preserved in Him. Thou wantest life, and He has said, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life.” He is come that we might have life. Thou wantest-but indeed, the catalogue were much too long for us to read it through at this present time yet be assured though thou pile up thy necessities till they rise like Alps before thee, yet the all-sufficient Savior can remove all thy needs. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0978.cfm

A Fullness Inconceivable and Inexhaustible

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

For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. – Colossians 2:9,10

When John saw the Son of Man in Patmos, the marks of Deity were on Him. “His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow”-here was His eternity; “His eyes were as a flame of fire”-here was His omniscience; “Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword”-here was the omnipotence of His word; “And His countenance was as the sun that shineth in his strength”-here was His unapproachable and infinite glory. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Hence nothing is too hard for Him. Power, wisdom, truth, immutability, and all the attributes of God are in Him, and constitute a fullness inconceivable and inexhaustible.

Fullness dwells in our Lord not only intrinsically from His nature, but as the result of His mediatorial world. He achieved by suffering as well as possessed by nature a wondrous fullness. He carried on His shoulders the load of our sin; He expiated by His death our guilt, and now He has merit with the Father, infinite, inconceivable, a fullness of desert. The Father has stored up in Christ Jesus, as in a reservoir, for the use of all His people, His eternal love and His unbounded grace, that it may come to us through Christ Jesus, and that we may glorify Him. All power is put into His hands, and life, and light, and grace, are to the full at His disposal. “He shutteth and no man openeth, He openeth and no man shutteth.” He has received gifts for men, yea, for the righteous also. Not only as the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, is He the possessor of heaven and earth, and therefore filled with all fullness, but seeing that, as the Mediator, He has finished our redemption, “He is made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Glory be to His name for this double fullness. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0978.cfm

All is Laid Up in Christ

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

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. – Colossians 1:19, 20

“All fullness” is a wide, far-reaching, all-comprehending term, and in its abundant store it offers another source of delight. What joy these words give to us when we remember that our vast necessities demand a fullness, yea, “all fullness,” before they can be supplied! A little help will be of no use to us, for we are altogether without strength. A limited measure of mercy will only mock our misery. A low degree of grace will never be enough to bring us to heaven, defiled as we are with sin, beset with dangers, encompassed with infirmities, assailed by temptations, molested with afflictions, and all the while bearing about with us “the body of this death.” But “all fullness,” ay, that will suit us. Here is exactly what our desperate estate demands for its recovery. Had the Savior only put out His finger to help our exertions, or had He only stretched out His hand to perform a measure of salvation’s work, while He left us to complete it, our soul had forever dwelt in darkness. In these words, “all fullness,” we hear the echo of His death-cry, “It is finished.” We are to bring nothing, but to find all in Him, yea, the fullness of all in Him: we are simply to receive out of His fullness grace for grace. We are not asked to contribute, nor required to make up deficiencies, for there are none to make up-all, all is laid up in Christ. All that we shall want between this place and heaven, all we could need between the gates of hell, where we lay in our blood, to the gates of heaven, where we shall find welcome admission, is treasured up for us in the Lord Christ Jesus. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0978.cfm

The Very Substance of Grace and Truth

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

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. – Hebrews 10:1

Christ is substance, and not shadow, fullness, and not foretaste. This is good news for us, for nothing but realities will meet our case. Types may instruct, but they cannot actually save. The patterns of the things in the heavens are too weak to serve our turn, we need the heavenly things themselves. No bleeding bird nor slaughtered bullock, nor running stream, nor scarlet wool and hyssop, can take away our sins.

“No outward forms can make me clean,
The leprosy lies deep within.”

Ceremonies under the old dispensation were precious because they set forth the realities yet to be revealed, but in Christ Jesus we deal with the realities themselves, and this is a happy circumstance for us; for both our sins and our sorrows are real, and only substantial mercies can counteract them. In Jesus, we have the substance of all that the symbols set forth. He is our sacrifice, our altar, our priest, our incense, our tabernacle, our all in all. The law had “the shadow of good things to come,” but in Christ we have “the very image of the things.” Hebrews 10:1. What transport is this to those who so much feel their emptiness that they could not be comforted by the mere representation of a truth, or the pattern of a truth, or the symbol of a truth, but must have the very substance itself! “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0978.cfm

All Fullness

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

For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell… – Colossians 1:19

“It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.” Two mighty words: “fullness”- a substantial, comprehensive, expressive word in itself, and “all”- a great little word including everything. When combined in the expression, “all fullness,” we have before us a superlative wealth of meaning.

Blessed be God for those two words. Our hearts rejoice to think that there is such a thing in the universe as “all fullness,” for in the most of mortal pursuits utter barrenness is found. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Blessed be the Lord forever that He has provided a fullness for us, for in us by nature there is all emptiness and utter vanity. “In me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.” In us there is a lack of all merit, an absence of all power to procure any, and even an absence of will to procure it if we could. In these respects, human nature is a desert, empty, and void, and waste, inhabited only by the dragon of sin, and the bittern of sorrow. Sinner, saint, to you both alike these words, “all fullness,” sound like a holy hymn. The accents are sweet as those of the angel-messenger when he sang, “Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy.” Are they not stray notes from celestial sonnets? “All fullness.” You, sinner, are all emptiness and death, you, saint, would be so if it were not for the “all fullness” of Christ of which you have received; therefore, both to saint and sinner the words are full of hope. There is joy in these words to every soul conscious of its sad estate and humbled before God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0978.cfm

Constantly Bring Forth Fruit unto God

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

There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; and one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches. – Proverbs 13:7

Give yourself to Christ, and when you have used yourself for His glory, you will be more able to serve Him than you are now; you shall find your little stock grow as you spend it. Remember Bunyan’s picture of the man who had a roll of cloth. He unrolled it, and he cut off so much for the poor. Then he unrolled it, and cut off some more, and the more he cut it, the longer it grew…It is certainly so with talent and ability, and with grace in the heart. The more you use it, the more there is of it. It is often so with gold and silver: the store of the liberal man increases, while the miser grows poor. We have an old proverb, which is as true as it is suggestive: “Drawn wells have the sweetest waters.” So, if you keep continually drawing on your mind, your thoughts will get sweeter; and if you continue to draw on your strength, your strength will get to be more mighty through God. The more you do, the more you may do, by the grace of the Ever-blessed One!

How is it that so many able-bodied and gifted Christians seem to be so slow in the Master’s service?…You go all the year round without caring even for the spiritual welfare of a little child. One of our friends gave a good answer to a brother who said to him, “I have been a member of a church now for forty years. I am a father in Israel.” He asked him, “How many children have you? How many have you brought to Christ?” “Well,” the man said, “I do not know that I ever brought anybody to Christ.” Upon which our friend retorted, “Call yourself a father in Israel, and yet you have no children! I think you had better wait until you have earned the title.” So do I. It would be better that we had no professors of that sort, but that all our members, even were they much fewer, should be men and women constantly bringing forth fruit unto God in the conversion of others. The Lord set you all to work with this object! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2216.cfm

Christ Magnified

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

The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear… – Deuteronomy 18:15

Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” – John 6:14

The miracle of the loaves carried them back to the wilderness, and to the miracle of the manna; they remembered that Moses had said, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me.” For this Deliverer they longed, and as the bread increased so grew their wonder, until in the swelling cakes they saw the finger of God, and said, “This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world.” That little lad became, by his loaves and fishes, the revealer of Christ to all the multitude; and who can tell, if you give your loaves to Christ, whether thousands may not recognize Him as the Savior because of it? Christ is still known in the breaking of bread. But the people went further with reference to Christ, after they had been fed by the loaves and fishes: they concluded that He was a prophet, and they began whispering among themselves, “Let us make Him a king.” Now, in a better sense than the text implies, I would to God that you and I, though humbly and feebly, might serve Christ till people said, “Christ is a Prophet. Let us make Him a King.” Oh, that He had a throne in the hearts of many whom He shall feed at this time with the bread of heaven! Brethren, I know that you wish to glorify Christ. Here is the way. Bring your loaves and fishes to Christ, that He may use them in His divine commissariat, and then He shall be magnified in the eyes of all the people. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2216.cfm