promises

Delight in Prayer to God

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Father 2 Comments

And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there alone. -Matthew 14:23

“Cold mountains and the midnight air
Witnessed the fervour of His prayer.”

If the perfect Christ could not live without prayer, how can such poor imperfect ones as we live without it? He had no sin within Him, and yet He had need to pray. He was pure and holy, and yet He must needs wait upon God all day long, and often speak with His Father; and then when the night came, and others went to their beds, He withdrew Himself into the wilderness and prayed. If the Lord Jesus be in you, you must walk as He walked in that matter.

And, then, think of His delight in God. How wonderful was Christ’s delight in His God! I can never think of His life as an unhappy one. He was, it is true, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”; but still there was a deep spring of wondrous happiness in the midst of His heart, which made Him always blessed; for He said to His Father, “I delight to do Thy will, 0 my God! Yea, Thy law is within My heart.” He delighted in God. Many a sweet night He spent in those prayer-times of His in fellowship with the Father. Why, it was that which prepared Him for the agony of His bloody sweat, and for the “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Those love-visits, those near and dear communings which His holy heart had with the Father were His secret meat and drink. And you and I also must delight in God…”Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” ! C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1732.cfm

The Holy Man

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

The oath which He sware to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life. -Luke 1:73-75

You know what wholeness is-a thing, without a crack, or flaw, or break; complete, entire, uninjured, whole. Well, that is the main meaning of holy. The character of God is perfectly holy; in it nothing is lacking; nothing is redundant. When a thing, is complete it is whole, and this applied to moral and spiritual things gives you the inner meaning of “holy.” When a man is healthy, perfectly healthy, in spirit, soul, and body, then he is perfectly holy; for sin is a moral disorder, and righteousness is the right state of every faculty. The man whose spiritual health is altogether right is right towards God, right towards himself, right towards men, right towards time, right towards eternity. He is right towards the first table of the law, and right towards the second table. He is an all-round man; he is a whole man, a holy man. Truth is within him; truth is spoken by him; truth is acted by him. Righteousness is in him; he thinks the right thing, and chooses that which is according to the law of uprightness. There is justice in him; he abhors that which is evil. There is goodness in him; he follows after that which will benefit his fellow-men. I cannot spare time to tell you all that the word “holy” means; but if you wish to see holiness, look at Christ. In Him you see a perfect character, an all-round character. He is the perfect one; be ye like Him in all holiness.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1732.cfm

Our Heavenly Burden

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

“Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” -Luke 14:27

“Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” -Matthew 11:29

When we took Christ’s cross to be our salvation we took it also to be our heavenly burden  . When we yielded ourselves up to Christ to be saved by Him, we in spirit renounced every sin. We felt that we had come out from under the yoke of Satan, and that we made no reserve for the lusts of the flesh that we might obey them, but bowed our necks to the yoke of the Lord Jesus. We put ourselves into Christ’s hands unreservedly, and we said, “Lord, sanctify me, and then use me. Take my body and all its members; take my mind and all its faculties; take my spirit and all the new powers which thou hast bestowed upon me with it; and let all these be Thine. Reign in me; rule me absolutely, sovereignly, always and alone. I do not ask to be my own, for I am not my own, I am bought with a price.” After we have learned the grand truth that, “if one died for all, then all died,” we infer that “Christ died for all, that we that live might not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him that died for us, and rose again.” Are we not, then, to be true to this blessed compact? “I do remember my faults this day,” says one. Ay, but remember also the vows that still engage you. Do not desire to escape from the sacred bond. ‘This day remember the Lord to whom you dedicated yourself in the days of your youth, perhaps long years ago, and again entreat Him to take full possession of the purchased possession, and hold it against all comers, for ever. So it ought to be. He that says, “I am in Him” ought also so to walk even as He walked. Obey the sacrifice of Jesus, yield yourselves as living sacrifices; by your hope of being saved by Him put your whole being into His hands to love and serve Him all your days.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1732.cfm

Conformity to Christ

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

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. -Romans 8:9

The Father anointed Christ of old with the same anointing, which rests on us in our measure. The Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and rested upon Him, and we have an unction from the same Holy One. The Spirit of God has anointed all the chosen of God who are regenerated, and He dwelleth with them and in them. Now, the Spirit of God in every case works to the same result. It cannot be supposed that the Spirit of God in any case produces unholiness: the thought were blasphemy. The fruit of the Spirit is everything that is delightful, right, and good towards God, and generous towards man. The Spirit of God, wherever He works, works according to the mind of God; and God is hymned as “Holy, holy, holy,” by those pure spirits who know Him best. He is altogether without spot or trace of sin, and so shall we be when the Spirit’s work is done. If, then, the Spirit of God dwell in you (and if He doth not, you are not in Christ), it must work in you conformity to Christ that you should walk even as He walked.

Perhaps further argument is not needed; but I would have true Christians remember that this is one article of the agreement which we make with Christ when we become His disciples. It is taken for granted that when we enter the service of Jesus we, by that act and deed, undertake by His help to follow His example. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1732.cfm

Imitators of Christ

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

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. -Ephesians 5:1

We cannot be Christians unless we are in Christ; and we are not truly in Christ unless in Him we live and move and have our being, and the life of Christ is lived over again by us according to our measure. “Be ye imitators of God, as dear children.” It is the nature of children to imitate their parents…Ought we not to be very grateful to Christ that He deigns to be our example? If He were not perfectly able to meet all our other wants, if He were an expiation and nothing else, we should glory in Him as our atoning sacrifice, for we always put that to the front, and magnify the virtue of His precious blood beyond everything, but at the same time we need an example and it is delightful to find it where we find our pardon and justification. They that are saved from the death of sin need to be guided in the life of holiness, and it is infinitely condescending on the part of Christ that He becomes an example to such poor creatures as we are… This certainly is one trait in the Good Shepherd’s character, “when He putteth forth His own sheep He goeth before them.” If Jesus bids us do anything, He first does it Himself. He would have us wash one another’s feet; and this is the argument-“Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well; for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.” Shall we not do as He does whom we profess to follow? He has left His footprints that we may set our feet in them.Will we not joyfully fix our feet upon this royal road? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1732.cfm

Our Vital Union with Christ

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

He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.- 1 John 2:6

“He that saith he abideth in Him…” -that is exactly what every Christian does say. He cannot be a Christian unless this be true of him, and he cannot fully enjoy his religion unless he assuredly knows that he is in Christ, and can boldly say as much. We must be in Christ, and abidingly in Christ, or else We are not saved in the Lord. It is our union with the Christ that makes us Christians: by union with Him as our life we truly live in the favour of God.-We are in Christ, dear brethren, as the manslayer was in the city of refuge, I hope that we can say we abide in Him as our sanctuary and shelter. We have fled for refuge to Him who is the hope set before us in the gospel. Even as David and his men sheltered themselves in the caves of En-gedi, so we hide ourselves in Christ. We each one sing, and our heart goes with the words-

“Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.”

We abide in Christ as our shelter, our home, and our life… “Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1732.cfm

 

Leaders in Right

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

…then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates. -Judges 5:11

To go down to the gates, however, means something else, for citizens went down to the gates to exercise authority and judgment. He that is in Christ discerneth spirits, and separateth between the excellent and the reprobate. “The spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” The saints, being led of the Spirit, discern between the precious and the vile; they know the voice of their Shepherd, but a stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers. The saints judge this world, and by their living testimony condemn its sin. “Know ye not that we shall judge angels” in the day of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ? Instead of being judged and following others, they who love God become the leaders in right, and are as God’s mouth rebuking iniquity.

To go down to the gates signified also to go forth to war. When a Christian man is saved, he is not content with his own safety, he longs to see others blessed. He can now go out of the gates to attack the foe who once held him in bondage, and therefore he girds on his weapon. When will the church of God be inflamed by the sacred desire of carrying the war for Christ into the enemy’s territory?… If you are saved, you must seek to save others; if you have received the light, carry it into the dark places. If you have escaped from the jaw of the lion, and the paw of the bear, now go forth to fight with the monster and tear others from his power. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0763.cfm