promises

He Died to Save Fallen Man

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. – Hebrews 2:16

The literal translation, according to the marginal reading, is, “He took not up angels, but He took up the seed of Abraham,” by which is meant, that Christ did not die to save angels, though many of them needed salvation, but He died to save fallen man…Which of those two beings is the most worth saving? Which is the most valuable creature? Which would serve his Maker most, if his Maker should spare him? And I defy any of you to hold, that a sinful man is a more valuable creature than an angel. Why, if God had looked at profit, speaking after the manner of men, it would be more profitable to Him to save the angel. Could not the restored angel serve Him better than restored man? If I serve God, day after day, yet at night I must rest; but the angels serve day without night in His temple. If my zeal be ever so intense, yet my body must flag; but angels know not weariness; and if saved, I shall make but a poor courtier to stand around His throne, but yon bright fallen seraph would, if he had been delivered, have made a very peer to grace the halls of the Almighty. If I shall ever be carried to heaven, I have no bright angelic honors, and my nature when ennobled, will not surpass what an angel might have been if God had so decreed; but if Satan had been saved, oh! how loudly would he have sung, and with what glory would he have marched through heaven, to the praise and glory of the grace which rescued him from hell! Therefore, if God had in that thought of His own profit, He would sooner have saved angels than have saved men. If Satan had entered heaven, it would have been like a restoration-an old king come back to his ancient throne; but when man goes there, it is like a king going to a new dynasty-a new kingdom; it is man entering into the angel’s place; and for that you know, there must be sanctifying grace and purchasing love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0090.cfm

I Am a Child of God Next to My Maker

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

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. – Hebrews 2:9

I consider that to be a Christian man is to be the greatest thing that God has made. Little as I am, I can say of myself, if I am a child of God, I am next to my Maker. Manhood is a noble thing, for God wore manhood once; manhood is a glorious thing, for it was the robe of the eternal; “God was made flesh and dwelt among us;” therefore, flesh is dignified and glorified. As I said, it would not be so comfortable to be a man, if Christ had not been a man. For I know that I must die; now, my comfort is, that I shall rise again; but I should not have had that comfort if Christ had not been a man, and if He had not died and risen again. Oh! death, I have often seen thy dungeon, and I have thought, how can it be that any should escape therefrom; the walls thereof are thick, and against the door is a ponderous stone; it is sealed fast, and watchers guard it. But I take comfort, for there was a Man who broke the bonds of death; there was one who snapped the fetter, cut the bars of brass, unlocked the gates, and made His way triumphant through the sky; in that Man I see an instance of what I, too, shall do; when the loud trump of the archangel shall startle my sleeping atoms, I, too, shall find it easy to rise, for as the Lord my Saviour rose, so all His followers must; and therefore, death, I look upon thy dungeon as one that must be opened again, for it has been opened once; I look upon thy worm as but a little thing that must yield up its prey, and give back the flesh whereon it fed; I look upon the stone of thy sepulchre as but some pebble of oceans’ shingly beach, which I shall cast away with eager hand, when I shall burst the cerements of the grave, and mount to immortality. It is a comfortable thing to be a man, because Christ died and rose again; but had He been an angel, the resurrection would not have had that great and glorious proof, nor should we have been so content to be human, seeing there would be death, but no immortality and life. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0090.cfm

His Love and His Wisdom Shown

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

For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. – Hebrews 2:16

Christ became a man, and not an angel, because He desired to be one with His dear Church. Christ was betrothed to His Church ere time began; and when He came into the world He virtually said, “I will go with thee, My Bride, and I will delight Myself in thy company. Angels’ garments were not a fitting wedding dress for Me to wear, if I am to be bone of thy bone, and flesh of thy flesh. I am allied to thee by a union firm and strong. I have called thee Hephzibah, my delight is in thee; and I have said, thy land shall be called Beulah, that is, married. Well, if I am married to thee, I will live in the same condition with thee; it were not fit that husband should live in palace, and that his wife would live in cottage; it were not meet that a husband should be arrayed in gorgeous robes, and his wife in meaner garments.” “No,” said He to His Church, “if thou dwellest upon earth, I will; if thou dwellest in a tabernacle of clay, I will do the same;

“Yea, said the Lord, with her I’ll go,
Through all the depths of care and woe,
And on the cross will even dare
The bitter pangs of death to bear.”

Christ cannot bear to be different from His Church. You know, He would not be in heaven without her, therefore, did He make that long, long journey, to redeem her and visit her, and when He came on this good errand, He would not that she should be made of clay, and He should not be made of clay too; He was the head, and it would have been out of order that the head should have been of gold, and the body of clay; it would have been like Nebuchadnezzar’s image, that must be broken. “Since the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He must also take part in the same,” for He became “perfect through suffering,” since He was “the captain of our salvation.” Thus, again, you see His love and His wisdom, that He “took not on Him the nature of angels, but took upon Him the seed of Abraham.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0090.cfm

“I must, I will, become a man”

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

“He took not on Him the nature of angels.” – Hebrews 2:16

The translation of our authorised version runs thus:-“He took not on Him the nature of angels.” Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when He came from heaven to die, did not take upon Himself the nature of angels…but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” Let us notice the wisdom and the love of this, and I think there will be something to cause us to glorify God for so doing.

If Christ had taken upon Himself the nature of angels, He could never have made an atonement for man. Setting aside the thought that if He came to save man it would have seemed improper if He had come in the garb of angels, you must allow, that if He had done so, He could not have seen death. How could angels die? We can suppose that their spirit may become extinct, if God should will it; we can suppose the entire annihilation of that to which God alone supplies immortality; but since angels have no bodies, we cannot suppose them capable of death, for death is the separation of the body and the soul; therefore, it behooved Christ that He should take upon Himself the form of a man, that He might become obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Had angels been standing by, they would have said, “Oh! mighty Master, take our radiant robes. Oh! take not the poor every-day garb of humanity, take our glittering garments all bedight with pearls.” And Gabriel would have said, “Come, take my wings, Thou mighty Maker, and I shall count myself too honoured to have lost them for Thy sake. There, take this crown and this mantle of azure, wherewith to clothe Thyself, Thou Son of God; put my silver sandals on Thy feet; become not man, but an angel, if Thou wilt stoop.” “But no,” He would have said, “Gabriel, if I were in thy dress I could not fight with death; I could not sleep in the tomb; I could not feel the pangs and agony of dissolution, therefore, I must, I will, become a man.” “He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0090.cfm

Men Chosen and Fallen Angels Rejected

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

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth… – 2 Thessalonians 2:13

Angels were the elder born. God created them, and it pleased Him to give unto them a free will to do as they pleased; to choose the good or to prefer the evil, even as He did to man: He gave them this stipulation-that if they should prefer the good, then their station in heaven should be for ever fixed and firm; but if they sinned, they should be punished for their guilt, and cast out from the presence of His glory into flames of fire. In an evil hour, Satan, one of the chiefs of the angels, rebelled; he tempted others, and he led astray a part of the stars of heaven. God, in His divine vengeance, smote those rebel angels, drove them from their heavenly seats, banished them from their abodes of happiness and glory, and sent them down to dwell for ever in the abyss of hell; the rest He confirmed, calling them the elect angels; He made their thrones eternally secure, and gave them an entail of those crowns which, sustained by His grace, they had preserved by the rectitude of their holy conduct. After that it pleased Him to make another race of beings, called men. He did not make them all at once; He made but two of them, Adam and Eve, and He committed to their keeping the safety of their entire progeny throughout all generations; He said to Adam, as He had said to the angels, “I give unto thee free-will; thou mayest obey or disobey, as thou pleasest. There is My law; thou art not to touch yon tree. The command is by no means irksome. To keep that command will not be difficult to thee, for I have given thee free-will to choose the good.” However, so it happened, much to the misery of man, that Adam broke the covenant of works; he touched the accursed fruit, and in that day he fell. Ah! what a fall was there! Then you, and I, and all of us fell down, while cursed sin did triumph over us; there were no men that stood; there were some angels that stood, but no men, for the fall of Adam was the fall of our entire race…Now, here you notice divine sovereignty; sovereignty, that God chose to put both men and angels on the footing of their free-will; sovereignty, in that He chose to punish all the fallen angels with utter destruction; sovereignty, in that He chose to reprieve the whole human race, and to grant an eternal pardon to a number, whom no man can number, selected out of men, who shall infallibly be found before His right hand above. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0090.cfm

God’s Sovereignty in His Creation

Sherry Attributes of God, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

He hath made every thing beautiful in His time: also He hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. – Ecclesiastes 3:11

The Almighty God, who dwelt alone, was pleased to manifest Himself by created works, which should display His wisdom and His power. When He came to create living creatures there are distinctions that we must note. From the worm up to the eagle, from the eagle to the man, from the man to the angel; such are the steps of creating goodness in the fashion of things that are animate. He hath not made all creatures eagles, neither hath He fashioned all beings worms, but having a right to do what He wills with His own, He has exercised the right in making one creature-the majestic lion-king of the forest, and another, the harmless lamb, which shall be devoured, without power to resist its enemy, or defend itself. He has made His creatures just as it seemed Him fit; He has given to one swiftness of foot, to another, speed of wing; to one, clearness of eye, to another, force of sinew. He hath not followed any fixed rule in His creation; but He hath done exactly as it pleased Him in the arrangement of the forms which He hath animated. So, also, we must observe a great difference in the rational beings which He has created. He has not made all men alike; they differ mightily; from the man of the smallest intellect to the man of majestic mind, there are no few steps. And then there is the higher order of rational creatures, more superior to unrenewed man than man ever can be to his fellows; namely-the order of angels. And in the fashioning of angels and men, God, again, has exercised His own right to create as He pleases; to do just as He wills with His own. Thence, all angels may not be alike in dignity, and all men are not alike in intellect. He hath made them to differ. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0090.cfm

The Table of Communion

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

And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. – John 2:10

The table of communion is one at which God’s children must sit. And the first thing they must drink of there, is the cup of communion with Christ in His sufferings. If thou wouldst come to the table of communion with Christ, thou must first of all drink of the wine of Calvary. Christian, thy head must be crowned with thorns. Thy hands must be pierced, I mean not with nails, but, spiritually thou must be crucified with Christ. We must suffer with Him, or else we cannot reign with Him; we must labour with Him first, we must sup of the wine which His Father gave Him to drink, or else we cannot expect to come to the better part of the feast. After drinking of the wine of His sufferings, and continuing to drink of it, we must drink of the cup of His labours, we must be baptized with His baptism, we must labour after souls, and sympathise with Him in that ambition of His heart-the salvation of sinners, and after that He will give us to drink of the cup of His anticipated honours. Here on earth we shall have good wine in communion with Christ in His resurrection, in His triumphs and His victories, but the best wine is to come at last. O chambers of communion, your gates have been opened to me; but I have only been able to glance within them; but the day is coming when on your diamond hinges ye shall turn, and stand wide open for ever and ever; and I shall enter into the King’s palace and go no more out. O Christian! thou shalt soon see the King in His beauty; thy head shall soon be on His bosom; thou shalt soon sit at His feet with Mary; thou shalt soon do as the spouse did, thou shalt kiss Him with the kisses of thy lips, and feel that His love is better than wine. When you begin to see Him face to face, when you enter into the closest fellowship, with nothing to disturb or to distract you, then shall you say “The best wine is kept until now.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0225.cfm