promises

To Die Full of Life

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

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. – 1 Corinthians 15:22

You will fall asleep in Him one of these days, at the very hour that God has appointed; and when you open your eyes, it will not be in the narrow death-chamber, you will not be on the bed of sickness. Methinks you will be startled to find yourself amid such new surroundings. “What is this I hear?” you will say. “Such music as this has never charmed me before, and what is that I see?”. “But you will not need to enquire, for you will know that face at once. You knew, while on earth, that Jesus still lived; but you will know it better then, when you lay aside these heavy optics that do but dim our sight, and get into the pure spirit state, and then see HIM. Oh, the bliss of that first sight of Christ! It seems to me as if that would gather up an eternity of delight into a single moment; that first glimpse of Him will be enough to make us swoon away with excessive rapture. I do verily think that some saints whom I have known, have done just that, swooned away with the excess of joy that they have felt in their departing moments. I have, sounding in my ears just now, the voice of a dear brother (who) said to me, “I shall be home to-night, pastor. I wanted to see your face once more before I went; but I shall be home to-night and see the face of Jesus.” …I hope you will all be prepared to die after that fashion. That is the way to die, full of life. Because Jesus lives, we shall live also, and we may well die full of life because of our union to Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2909.cfm

O Blessed Truth!

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

For I know that my Redeemer lives… – Job 19:25

Job had a living Kinsman amid a dying family. All his children were dead. We cannot easily estimate the full force of that blow upon the patriarch’s heart. The loss of one child is a very painful event, even when the child is a very little one, and the parents have many others left; but it is a far worse bereavement when the children, who are taken away, are grown up, as Job’s were…Altogether, it was a fine family -seven sons and three daughters; -and now they were all gone at once! To lose all one’s family at once, like that, is a heavy stroke that none can measure but those who have felt it. All were gone! -the whole ten at once! That was sad for poor Job, but it was most blessed that he was able to say, “Though my children are all dead, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth.’ He, is not dead, and in Him I find more than all that I have lost.”

Rejoice that He lives in a dying world. If you walk through the cemetery, or stand by the open grave, how blessedly these words seem to fall upon your spirit, like the music of angels, “These are dead, but ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth,’-liveth on, liveth in power, liveth in happiness, liveth with a life which He communicates to all who trust Him. He lives, and therefore I shall live with Him. He lives, and therefore the dead, who are in Him, shall live for ever.” O blessed truth! ` C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2909.cfm

The Best of All Possessions

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

For I know that my Redeemer lives… – Job 19:25

Poor Job, he had lost everything else, but he had not lost his Redeemer. Notice, he does not say, “I know that my wife and my children live;” but he says, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Ah! “my Redeemer,”-he has not lost Him, so he has the best of all possessions still left. Looking up to Him, by faith, with the tears of joy standing in his eyes, he says, “Yes, He is my Redeemer, and He still lives; I accept Him as mine, and I will cling to Him for ever.” Can you, beloved friends, not merely rejoice in Christ as the Redeemer, but also as your Redeemer? Have you personally accepted Him as your Redeemer? Have you personally trusted Him with your soul, wholly and really; and do you already feel in your own heart, a kinship to this great Kinsman, a trust in this great Vindicator, a reliance upon His great redemption? Another man’s redemption is of no value to my soul; the sweetness lies in the little word “my”-“my Redeemer.” Luther used to say that the marrow of the gospel is found in the pronouns, and I believe it is: “my Redeemer.” We had lost everything. Father Adam had put everything under a heavy mortgage, and we could not even meet the interest on it; but the whole estate is unmortgaged now, even to paradise itself. Does someone ask, “Is there not any mortgage even upon paradise?” …Jesus Christ hath said, in the words of the psalmist, “I restored that which I took not away.” Bankrupt debtors, through the Lord’s sovereign grace, you are no longer under any liabilities because of your sin if Christ be accepted by you as your Goel and Redeemer. He hath restored to you the estates which your first father, Adam, had lost; and He hath made you heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, through the wondrous redemption which He wrought for you upon the cross of Calvary. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2909.cfm

His Glory Turned to Shame

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

“O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn My glory into shame?” – Psalm 4:2

An instructive writer has made a mournful list of the honours which the blinded people of Israel awarded to their long-expected King:

(1.) They gave Him a procession of honour, in which Roman legionaries, Jewish priests, men and women, took a part, He Himself bearing His cross. This is the triumph which the world awards to Him who comes to overthrow man’s direst foes. Derisive shouts are His only acclamations, and cruel taunts His only paeans of praise.

(2.) They presented Him with the wine of honour. Instead of a golden cup of generous wine they offered Him the criminal’s stupefying death-draught, which He refused because He would preserve an uninjured taste wherewith to taste of death; and afterwards when He cried, “I thirst,” they gave Him vinegar mixed with gall, thrust to His mouth upon a sponge. Oh! wretched, detestable inhospitality to the King’s Son.

(3.) He was provided with a guard of honour, who showed their esteem of Him by gambling over His garments, which they had seized as their booty. Such was the body-guard of the adored of heaven; a quaternion of brutal gamblers.

(4.) A throne of honour was found for Him upon the bloody tree; no easier place of rest would rebel men yield to their liege Lord. The cross was, in fact, the full expression of the world’s feeling towards Him; “There,” they seemed to say, “Thou Son of God, this is the manner in which God Himself should be treated, could we reach Him.”

(5.) The title of honour was nominally “King of the Jews,” but that the blinded nation distinctly repudiated, and really called Him “King of thieves,” by preferring Barabbas, and by placing Jesus in the place of highest shame between two thieves. His glory was thus in all things turned into shame by the sons of men, but it shall yet gladden the eyes of saints and angels, world without end.
https://www.vcyamerica.org/charles-spurgeons-daily-devoti

The Two Redemptions

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

For I know that my Redeemer lives… – Job 19:25

Let us think of how the Lord Jesus Christ hath redeemed us from bondage. Having broken the law of God, we were in bondage to that law; we had received the spirit of bondage again to fear. But we, who have believed in Jesus, our Kinsman, can say that He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, and that we are no longer in bondage. We were also in bondage under sin, as Paul wrote, “I am carnal, sold under sin;” but Christ has come, and broken the power of sin in us, so that its reigning power is subdued; and though it still striveth to get the mastery, and often maketh us to groan within ourselves, even as Paul did, yet do we, with Him, thank God, who giveth us the victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There are two redemptions,-redemption by price and redemption by power, and both of these Christ hath wrought for us;-by price, by His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary; and by power, by His Divine Spirit coming into our heart, and renewing our soul. Ought we not unceasingly to bless the Lord who hath redeemed us from under the law, having paid the penalty for the commands which we had broken, and who hath also redeemed us from the power of sin? “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” then I know that I am a free man; for if the Son makes us free, then are we free indeed. I know that He paid the price for my soul’s eternal redemption, then may my soul continually exult in Him, and rejoice in the liberty wherewith He hath made me free. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2909.cfm

Our Vindicator Liveth

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

For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. – Job 19:25

It was the kinsman’s duty to defend the rights of his needy relative, so Job intended here to say, “I know that my Vindicator liveth;” and the Lord Jesus Christ is the Vindicator of His people from all false charges. It is not easy for Christians to live in this world without being slandered and misrepresented; certainly, those of us who live in the full blaze of public life can hardly utter a word without having it twisted, and tortured, and misconstrued. We are often represented as saying what we loathe even to think; yet we must not be surprised at that. The world loves lying, -it always has done so, and it always will. Even in private life you may meet with similar cruel treatment; there are some of God’s best children who lie under reproach by the year together. The very things which they would not tolerate for a moment are laid to their charge, and they are thought to be guilty of them, and even good people hold up their hands in pious horror at them, though they are perfectly innocent all the while. Well, beloved, ever remember that your Vindicator liveth. Do not be too much concerned to clear your own character; above all, do not attempt to vindicate yours in a court of law, but say to yourself, “I know that my Vindicator liveth.” When He cometh, “then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” His people may be under a cloud now; but, when He appeareth, the cloud shall break, and their true glory shall be seen. The greater the obloquy under which any of us have unjustly lived on earth, the greater will be the joy and the honor which will be vouchsafed to us in the day when Christ shall clear our character from all the shameful aspersions that have been brought against us. All will be cleared up in that day, so leave the accusations alone, knowing that your Vindicator liveth. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2909.cfm

“They are My brethren.”

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

For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. – Hebrews 2:11

It is written concerning our great Kinsman, “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” He declares to the whole universe, concerning those persecuted ones, those who are ridiculed as being fools, “They are My brethren.” The Prince of glory, whose fingers are adorned with stars of light like rings of priceless value, calls the poor bedridden woman, who is a child of God, his sister, and calls the humble, toiling, laboring man, who walks with Him, His brother; and He is not ashamed to do so. Think, beloved, with intensest gratitude, of this great Kinsman of yours, who is so near of kin to you- voluntarily near of kin- and not ashamed to own the kinship.

Remember, too, that your Kinsman liveth in this respect, -that He will always be your Kinsman. The closest ties of an earthly relationship must, to a great extent, end in death, for there are no husbands and wives, as such, in heaven. There cannot be, “for in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” There are other ties, of a spiritual kind, that, will far outshine the best of bonds that linked us together here; but, when all other ties are broken, Jesus will always be our Kinsman, our Brother. We shall find the fraternal relationship better understood, more fully enjoyed, and more clearly manifested up there than it ever can be here… your great Kinsman intends that you should be betrothed unto Him for ever, and He will bring you to His heavenly home at the marriage supper of the Lamb. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2909.cfm