promises

“Lord, if it be Thy will, fulfill it in me”

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

Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father… – Galatians 1:4

I believe that there would be much more persecution than there is if there were more real Christians; but we have got to be so like the world, that therefore the world does not hate us as once it did. If we would but be more just, more upright, more true, more Christlike, more godly, we should soon hear all the dogs of hell baying with all their might against us; but what of that? It would just be the fulfillment of the divine purpose, and God would be well pleased with us. Come, then, and let us fall back upon the omnipotent strength which ever slumbers within the divine will. Lord, if it be Thy will, fulfill it in me; if this be Thy purpose, accomplish it in me. Oh, what brave men and women those early saints were! I do not wonder that our friend cried out just now when I depicted the martyr; but there were tens of thousands of such holy men and women in the days of persecution. Have you never heard of her whom they set in a red-hot iron chair because she would not turn away from Christ, or of that other poor feeble woman, who was tossed on the horns of bulls, but who, nevertheless, spoke up right bravely for her Master as she came to die? Yes, and there have been boys and girls, who, for Christ’s sake, sooner than sin, have braved the most fearful deaths. Remember John Bunyan when he refused to give up preaching. They put him in prison, and said to him, “Mr. Bunyan, you can come out of prison whenever you will promise to cease preaching the gospel.” He said, “If you let me out of prison to-day, I will preach again to-morrow, by the grace of God.” “Well,” said they, “then you must go back to prison:” and he answered, “I will go back and stay there if need be till the moss grows on my eyelids; but I will never deny my Master.” This was the stuff of which the godly were made then; may the Lord make many of us to be like them, men and women who cannot and will not do that which is evil, but will, in the name of God, stand to the right and the true, come what may! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2483.cfm

According to the Will of God

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

Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father… – Galatians 1:4

The text says, “According to the will of God and our Father.” Mr. Charles Simeon used to say that there were some, in his day, who thought that the very word “predestination” sounded almost like blasphemy; and I have no doubt that there are some left who cannot bear to hear of the will and the purpose of God, but to us these words sound like sweetest music. I do not believe that there ever would have been a man delivered from this present evil world if it had not been according to the will, the purpose, the predestination of God, even our Father. It needs a mighty tug to get a man away from the world. It is a miracle for a man to live in the world, and yet not to be of it; it is a continuous miracle of so vast a kind that I am sure it would never have been wrought if it had not been according to the will of God our Father. Yet so it stood in the divine decree, that there should be a people chosen from among men, a people who should be called out from among the mass of the ungodly, who should be drawn by supernatural power to follow after that which is right and good and holy, who should be washed in the blood of Jesus, and renewed by the Holy Spirit in the spirit of their minds, and henceforth should be a peculiar people, in the world but not of it, the people of God set apart unto Himself, to be His now, and His hereafter for ever and ever. I delight to remember that this is the will of God, even our sanctification, our separation from the world. “He gave Himself for our sins. “Why did Christ do this? Because our holiness was included in the purpose of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2483.cfm

Thus Has Christ Delivered Us

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

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. – 2 Corinthians 5:21

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. – Romans 8:1

Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world… – Galatians 1:4

How does the death of Christ deliver us from the world? It does this by removing from us the condemnation of our sin. Having borne our sins in His own body on the tree, Christ has for ever freed us from the penalty that was our due. Christ has delivered us from the world by making sin hateful to us. We say to ourselves, “Did sin kill Christ? Then we cannot play with that dagger that stabbed our Lord. How can we be friendly with the world that cast Him out, and hanged Him on a tree? O murderous sin, how can I give thee lodgment in my heart when thou didst kill the altogether lovely One?” Men speak hard things of regicides, but what shall I say of deicide? And sin is that deicide which slew the Christ of God; yet, marvel of marvels, by that death on the cross He hath crucified us to the world, and the world unto us, and so He has delivered us from this present evil world. I may add that Christ has also delivered us from the world by the splendor of His example in giving Himself to die for His enemies, and by the glory of His infinite merit, whereby He purchased back that image of God in Adam which sin had obliterated. He gave Himself, the very image of God, and more than that, God Himself, that He might give back to us that image of God which long ago we had lost. Thus has Christ delivered us from this present evil world; judge ye, sirs, whether He has thus delivered you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2483.cfm

Freed from Fear

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

The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe. – Proverbs 29:25

…that He might deliver us from this present evil world… – Galatians 1:4

There are multitudes of people still in the condition of abject slavery to those who are round about them; but when Christ came into the world, He gathered out of the world a people who were not afraid of anybody. After His good Spirit had renewed them, they walked about fearless of the greatest earthly potentates. There was the great Emperor of Rome, for instance, and who dared ever contradict what the Emperor of Rome said? The man who wrote our text did; and Paul before Nero is a vastly greater man than the cruel tyrant upon the throne. When they bring the saints before the judgment-seat, the Roman consul says, “Offer sacrifice to idols. You know the law; take that incense, and put it on the altar, this very moment.” One of the guards says, ” “Sir, this man is obstinate and rebellious; I have told him what he is to do, but he refuses.” The consul says, “Dost thou, impious wretch, refuse to worship Jupiter? Put that incense on the altar, this moment, or thou shalt be torn in pieces with hot irons.” The man before him replies, “I am a Christian.” “Is that your answer?” “Yes, sir, my only answer; I am a Christian.” “Then tear him with the pincers; let him learn what my hot irons can do.” They do it, and the brave saint bears it. Perhaps a groan escapes his lips, for flesh is frail; but when he is asked again, “Will you worship Jupiter?” he replies as before, “I am a Christian.” “To the lions with him, then, to the lions with him,” cries the enraged persecutor, and he is taken off to the amphitheatre; but as that poor simple peasant walks across the arena, the wild beasts themselves seem cowed before him, and, though he is soon torn in pieces, everybody goes home from the amphitheatre saying, “What a strange being that man was, he seemed utterly devoid of fear!” Yes, the early Christians were without fear and without reproach, for Christ came to set them free from fear of this present evil world. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2483.cfm

Delivered from the Spirit of the World

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

Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world… – Galatians 1:4

And He answering said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” – Luke 10:27

Jesus has come to deliver us from the spirit of the world. The spirit of the world is, “I can swim; so, if everybody else be drowned, there will then be the more room for me.” “I fight for my own hand,” says the worldling, “and if, in the process, I crush the widow and the fatherless, I cannot help that, they should not get in my way.” The rules of political economy do not permit of anything like mercy; they are as inflexible as the laws of nature. They are something after this fashion, -“Grind down the poor; get as much as ever you can out of them for as little money as possible. Care for nobody but yourself. Mind the main chance; make money, honestly if you can, but if not, make it anyhow; only keep clear of the law, for it would be a mistake to fall into its clutches.” Now, Christ has come to gather out of the world a people who will not be possessed with this detestable spirit, but who will resolve to live for others rather than for themselves. We are to consider those who are around us, and to think what influence our conduct will have upon them. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves; we are to love even our enemies; we are to do good to the unthankful and to the evil. We are in all ways, and according to the measure of our ability, to copy the example of our Father who is in heaven, who maketh His sun to shine and His rain to fall upon the evil as well as upon the good. O friends, see what Christ has come to do, even to separate unto Himself a people like unto Himself out of this present evil world! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2483.cfm

Jesus’ Great Aim

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

Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world… – Galatians 1:4

What did our Lord Jesus Christ aim at with regard to His people? To preserve them from going down into the pit? To rescue them from hell? To bring them to heaven? Yes, all that; but more than that. His great aim with regard to His people is to deliver them from this present evil world. We are living in this present evil world; and as Paul called it by that name, we need not alter the phrase, for we cannot help knowing that it is still an evil world, and in it are God’s redeemed and chosen people, by nature part and parcel of that world, equally fallen, equally estranged from God, equally set on mischief, equally certain to go down into the pit of destruction if left to themselves. The object of Christ is to carve out a people from this great brook of stone; it is His purpose to find His own people, who were given to Him before ever the earth was, and to deliver them from the bondage and the slavery in which they are found in this Egypt, of which they seem to form a part, though to the eye of Christ they are always as separate and distinct as the Israelites were when they dwelt in the land of Goshen.

Christ came that He might deliver His people from this common condemnation of this present evil world. This is the City of Destruction which is to be burned with fire, and Christ’s business is to fetch His people out of it. Therefore, He sends His evangelists to cry to them, “Flee from the wrath to come; tarry not in the city but escape for your lives; you are in a doomed world, which will certainly be destroyed, therefore, fly to the only shelter from the coming storm.” …The-Lord Jesus Christ came into the world that He might deliver us from that condemnation which now rests upon all the race of Adam except those who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them in the gospel. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2483.cfm

Pause a While and Praise Him

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

Who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. – Galatians 1:4-5.

I am quite sure that, when Paul was writing the Epistle to the Galatians, he was eager to get at his task. The Galatians had turned aside from the gospel of God’s grace, and Paul was in dead earnest to bring them back to the grand truth of the doctrine of salvation and justification by faith in Christ. He was burning to get at his work of trying to win them back to the old paths; but it seemed needful and courteous to begin with a salutation. In that salutation occurred the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, so off went the apostle directly. Earnest as he was to get to the special subject on which he was about to write, he felt that he must tarry a while and write a little to the honor of his Divine Master. So, we read, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Then he gets at the business he has in hand: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ,” and so on. He is red-hot upon that subject, yet he must stop a minute or two to pen some few words of praise to his glorious Lord and Savior. The old proverb says, “Prayer and provender hinder no man’s journey:” and to stop a little while, to praise and bless the name of Jesus Christ, hinders no man’s argument. Whatever it is that thou hast to do, if thy Master shall cross thy path, pause a while, and praise Him as best thou canst. When Mary sat at Christ’s feet, she was not wasting her time, she was employing it then to the highest possible profit; and when you and I get away even from the Master’s work, to think of our Lord Himself, and to praise Him, and commune with Him, we are by no means wasting our time; but we are gathering strength, and laying it out to the best possible purpose with regard to our future work and warfare. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2483.cfm