promises

One Calvary is Glorious

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

…but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself… So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many… – Hebrews 9:26,28

To suppose that our Lord should be made a sacrifice again is a supposition full of horror. When you study deeply the death of your Lord, unless your heart is like an adamant stone, you must be bowed down with grief. The visage of Him who was heaven’s glory was more marred than that of any man, and His form more than the sons of men. He whose brow was from the beginning surrounded with majesty, had His forehead and temples torn with a coronet of thorns. Those blessed cheeks that are as beds of spices were distained with spittle from the lips of menials. His face, which is the joy of heaven, was buffeted and bruised by mockers. His blessed shoulders, which upbear the world, they scourged with knotted whips until the blood ran down in crimson rivers as the ploughers made deep furrows. How could they flout Him so? Was it possible that my Beloved should be scorned and slandered, spit upon and condemned as a felon? Did they lay the shameful cross upon His blessed back, and lead Him through the streets amid the ribald mob? He who knew no sin was numbered with the transgressors. Found guilty of nothing save excess of love to man, He was led away to be crucified. They hurried Him off to die at the common place of the gibbet. The rough soldiers nailed Him to the cross and lifted up the rough tree for all to gaze thereon…the Christ hung on the tree of doom in a burning heat, through the fierce sun, and the inflammation of His wounds, and inward fever. He was so parched that His tongue was dried up like a potsherd and was made to cleave to the roof of His mouth. There He hung amid derision, His bones all dislocated, and His very flesh dissolved with faintness as though it were turning back to its native dust. Meanwhile His soul was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death”; and the Father’s face which has sustained thousands of martyrs was turned away from Him until He cried, “Lama sabachthani.” And is there heart so brutal as to suggest a repetition of this divine agony? Repeat this! Repeat this! O sirs, we rise at once, as one man, in mutiny against an idea so revolting.

(As to that invention of the Church of Rome-the continual offering of the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass-it is a dead thing, for the “blood is the life thereof”; and it is as gross an insult to the one great sacrifice as could well have been devised by His cruelest enemies. He has for ever put away the sin of His people by His one offering, and now there remains no more sacrifice for sin.) ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2194.cfm

The Sacrifice of Himself

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

The very best way to describe the death of our Lord is to call it “the sacrifice of Himself.” It may be well rightly to divide the sacrifice, as the priest cut up the bullock or the ram. You may speak of our Lord’s bodily sufferings, His mental griefs, and His spiritual anguish; but for the most part we are not able to go far in this detailed appreciation of the wondrous sacrifice. We are such poor folk in spiritual things, that instead of bringing a bullock which could be anatomized and its vital organs all laid bare, we are content to bring a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons; and these were not carefully divided asunder, but burned upon the altar. The most of us have to take our Lord Jesus Christ as a whole; since, from want of understanding, we cannot go into detail. What did He offer to God? He made a sacrifice of Himself. Truly He sacrificed His crown, His rest, His honor, His reputation, and His life; but the essence of the sacrifice was Himself: Himself took our iniquity, and bare our sorrows. “He His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” Thy sacrifice, O Christ, is not to be measured unless we could compute the infinity of Thy Godhead. It was not only Thy labor, Thy pain, Thy shame, Thy death; Thy sacrifice was Thyself; what more couldest even Thou offer? There, on the altar, the Son of God did place Himself, and there He bled and died that He might be the victim of punitive justice, the substitute for guilty men. There was He unto God a sweet-smelling savor, because He vindicated the law, and made it possible for the Lawgiver to be justly merciful. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2194.cfm

But One Sacrifice and No Other

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

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. – Hebrews 9:28

Jesus died to finish transgression and make an end of sin. Our Lord made atonement for sin when He died- the just for the unjust: He made peace for us when the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. When the LORD had laid upon Him the iniquity of us all, divine wrath fell upon Him on account of our sins, until He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Then sin was put away. There, but never anywhere else, was full atonement presented, and iniquity was blotted out. There is no other place of expiation for sin but the place of our Lord’s sacrifice of Himself. Believing in Him that died on the cross, our sins are put away; but without faith in Him there is no remission of sin. Beyond our Lord’s, other sacrifice there is none; other sacrifice there will never be. If any of you here are entertaining some “larger hope”, I would say to you, Hope what you please; but remember, that hope without truth at the bottom of it, is an anchor without a holdfast. A groundless hope is a mere delusion. Wish what you will; but wishes without promises from God to back them, are vain imaginings. Why should you imagine or wish for another method of salvation? Rest you assured that the Lord God thinks so highly of the one sacrifice for sin, that for you to desire another is evil in His sight. If you reject the one sacrifice of the Son of God, there remains no hope for you; nor ought there to be. Our Lord’s way of putting away sin is so just to God, so honoring to the law, and so safe for you, that if you reject it your blood must be on your own head…Blessed be the name of the Lord, the sin of the world, which kept God from dealing with men at all, was put away by our Lord’s death! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2194.cfm

Sin is Put Away

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

…but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. – Hebrews 9:26

By His coming and sacrifice He accomplished many things; but His first end and object was “to put away sin.” You know what the modern babblers say: they declare that He appeared to reveal to us the goodness and love of God. This is true; but it is only the fringe of the whole truth. The fact is, that He revealed God’s love in the provision of a sacrifice to put away sin. Then, they say that He appeared to exhibit perfect manhood, and to let us see what our nature ought to be. Here also is a truth; but it is only part of the sacred design. He appeared, say they, to manifest self-sacrifice, and to set us an example of love to others. By His self-denial He trampled on the selfish passions of man. We deny none of these things; and yet we are indignant at the way in which the less is made to hide the greater…The great object of our Lord’s coming here was not to live, but to die. He hath appeared, not so much to subdue sin by His teaching, as to put it away by the sacrifice of Himself. The master purpose which dominated all that our Lord did, was not to manifest goodness, nor to perfect an example, but to put away sin by sacrifice. That which the moderns would thrust into the background, our Lord placed in the forefront. He came to take away our sins, even as the scapegoat typically carried away the sin of Israel into the wilderness that the people might be clean before the living God. The Lord Jesus has come hither as a priest to remove sin from His people: “Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins.” Do not let us think of Jesus without remembering the design of His coming. I pray you, brethren, know not Christ without His cross, as some pretend to know Him. We preach Christ; so do a great many more: but, “we preach Christ crucified”; so do not so many more. We preach concerning our Lord, His cross, His blood, His death; and upon the blood of His cross we lay great stress, extolling much “the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” …The putting away of sin was a Godlike purpose; and it is a wellspring of hope to us that, for this reason, Jesus appeared among men. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2194.cfm

He Was Everywhere Accessible

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

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many… – Hebrews 9:28

Our Lord Jesus Christ has once appeared, and though He will appear again, it will not be for the same purpose. On His first appearing fix your thoughts; for the like of it will never be seen again. In the bosom of the Father He lay concealed as God; as the second person of the divine Trinity in Unity He could not be seen, for “no man hath seen God at any time.”…In the manger He might be seen with the eyes, and looked upon, and handled; for there the Word was made flesh, and God was incarnate. He whom the ages could not contain, the glorious One who dwelt with the Father for ever unseen, now appeared within the bounds of time and space, and humble shepherds saw Him, and adored Him. By Gentiles he was seen; for wise men from the East beheld and worshipped Him whose star had led them. As He grew up, the children of Nazareth beheld Him as a child obedient to His parents; and by-and-by He was made manifest to men by the witness of John and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Him at His baptism…He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory: He was the revelation of God to men, so that He could say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” He was made still more manifest by His death; for in His crucifixion He was lifted up from the earth, that all might behold Him. He was exalted upon the cross, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, on purpose that whosoever looked to Him might live…Thus we may look into His inmost heart. High on the cross the Saviour hung, without veil or curtain to conceal Him. “Once in the end of the world hath He appeared.” I know of no appearance that could have been more complete, more unreserved. He moved in the midst of crowds, He spake to men and women one by one. He was on the mountain, and by the sea; He was in the desert, and by the river; He was both in house and in temple; He was everywhere accessible; in the fullest sense “once in the end of the world hath He appeared.” Oh, the glory of this gracious epiphany! This is the greatest event in history: the invisible God has appeared in human form. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2194.cfm

Herein is the Life of Our Spirits

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

“Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”- Hebrew 9:26-28

The text says, “He hath appeared”; and again, “He shall appear.” Between these two lights-“He hath appeared” and “He shall appear”-we shall sail safely, if the Holy Spirit will direct our way. By faith we first look to Jesus, and then for Jesus; and herein is the life of our spirits. Christ on the cross of shame, and Christ on the throne of glory, we dwell between these two boundaries: these are our Dan and Beersheba, and all between is holy ground. As for our Lord’s first coming, there lies our rest: the once-offered Sacrifice hath put away our sin and made our peace with God. As for His second coming, there lies our hope, our joy; for we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. The glories of His sacred royalty shall be repeated in all the saints; for He hath made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign with Him for ever and ever. At His first advent we adore Him with gratitude rejoicing in “God with us”, as making Himself to be our near kinsman. We gather with grateful boldness around the infant in the manger and behold our God. But in the second advent we are struck with a solemn reverence, a trembling awe. We are not less grateful, but we are more prostrate as we bow before the majesty of the triumphant Christ. Jesus in His glory is an overpowering vision. John, the beloved disciple, writes, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.” We could have kissed His feet till He quitted us on Olivet; but at the sight of the returning Lord, when heaven and earth shall flee away, we bow in lowliest adoration. His first appearing has given us that life and holy confidence with which we press forward to His glorious appearing, which is the crown of all. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2194.cfm

Longing for that Heavenly Land

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

Therefore, they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. – Exodus 1:11

If you were put into the conservatory of a gracious providence, you might be content to dwell below always. We soon take root in this soil, for we are earthy by nature, and we cling to earth- like to its like. But when there comes the jeer, the unkind remark, the cruel innuendo, the bitter sarcasm, then we feel, “This is not my rest: I must seek better company than this, a better land, and a better portion than I shall find this side of Jordan.” And then we long for the home-bringing, when the King, the Husband, shall fetch home His spouse, and the marriage shall be consummated in the skies. Oh! how sometimes, when the world has been very cold you have longed for the warm bosom of your Savior! You would have nestled in the world’s bosom if you could, but when she would not receive you but thrust you forth, then you came to your true self, and exercised your right senses, and you said, “I will return unto my husband. It was better with me then than now.” O that our hearts were always set on heaven! There is our treasure: there let our hearts be also. There is our Lord and King: to Him should our hearts fly. There are the best ones of our families, our relations, who are everlastingly our associates, brethren and sisters whose brotherhood and sisterhood no death can bring to an end-

“There my best friends my kindred dwell,
There God my Savior reigns.”

We ought to long for that land: and I say the whip of persecution is helpful, because it makes us learn that this is the house of bondage, and moves us to long after and seek for the land of liberty-the land of joy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0997.cfm