promises

Lovingly Remember the Church of God

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house… – Song of Songs 3:4

“I brought Him to my mother’s house.” We ought lovingly to remember the Church of God. By the Holy Spirit we were begotten unto newness of life, but it was in the church, and through the preaching of the word there that we were brought into the light of life. We owe our conversion, the most of us, to some earnest teacher of the truth in the Church of God, or to some of those godly works which were written by Christian men. Through the Church’s instrumentality the Bible itself has been preserved to us, and by her the gospel has been preached to every age. She is our mother and we love her. I know that many of you, dear friends, the members of this church, love the church, and you can say, “If I forget thee, let my right hand forget her cunning.” When you are away from this place, and cannot mix in our solemn assemblies, your heart mourns like one in banishment. Have not I heard you cry, “Ziona, Ziona, our holy and beautiful house, wherein we have worshipped our God, the house which is built of living stones, among whom Christ Himself is the corner-stone, even Thy church, O Jesus: would God I were in her midst again, and could once more unite my praises with those that dwell within her.” Yes, and because we love our mother’s house and the chamber of her that conceived us, we desire to bring Christ into the church more and more…The saints can bring Him in by their testimony. I hope that often Christ is here when I have borne testimony to you of His power to save, of His atoning blood, of His exaltation in heaven, of the perfection of His character, and of His willingness to save. Is there any subject that so delights you as that which touches upon Christ? Is not that the rarest string in all the harp of scriptural truth? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1035.cfm

A Sweet Perfume

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

“Let my prayer be set before You like incense, my uplifted hands like the evening offering.” – Psalm 141:2

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ… – 2 Corinthians 2:15

Be much in prayer. Prayer casts a chain about Him. He never leaves the heart that prays. There is a sweet perfume about prayer that always attracts the Lord; wherever He perceives it rising up to heaven there will He be. Hold Him, too, by your obedience to Him. Never quarrel with Him. Let Him have His way. He will stop in any house where He can be master; He will stay nowhere where some other will lords it over His. Watch His words; be careful to obey them all. Be very tender in your conduct, so that nothing grieves Him. Show to Him that you are ready to suffer for His sake. I believe that where there is a prayerful, careful, holy, loving, believing walk towards Jesus, the fellowship of the saint with his Lord will not be broken, but it may continue for months and years. There is no reason, except in ourselves, why fellowship with Jesus should not continue throughout an entire life and oh, if it did, it would make earth into heaven, and lift us up to the condition of angels, if not beyond them, and we should be the men who would bring Christ into the church, and through the church into the world. The church would be blest, and God would be glorified, and souls would be saved, if there were some among us who thus held Him and would not let Him go.

Ah, Lord, I may be mistaken about doctrine, but I am not mistaken about Thee. I may, perhaps, be staggered in my belief of some dogma which I thought was truth, but I am not staggered about Thee. Thou Son of God made flesh for me, Thou art all my salvation and all my desire: I rest on Thee only, without a shadow of mixture of any other hope, and I love thee supremely, desiring to honor Thee and to obey Thee in life and until death. I hold Thee, Thou Covenant Angel, and I will not let Thee go. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1035.cfm

Christ is Willing to be Held

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

…I held him, and would not let him go… – Song of Songs 3:4

Christ is willing to be held. Who could hold Him if He were not? He is the omnipotent Savior, and if He willed to withdraw, He could do so: let us hold Him as we might. But mark His condescension. When His spouse said, “I held Him, and I would not let Him go,” He did not go, He could not go, for His love held Him as well as her hands. He loves that sacred violence which takes Him by force, that holy diligence which leaves not a gap open by which He may escape, but shuts every door, bars every bolt, and saith, “I have Thee now and I will take care that if I lose Thee, it shall be through no fault of mine.” Jesus is willing enough to be retained by hearts which are full of His love. When He met with Jacob that night at the Jabbok, He said, “Let Me go.” He would not go without Jacob’s letting Him, but He would have gone if Jacob had loosed his hold. The patriarch replied, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” This is one of Christ’s ways and manners; it is one of the peculiarities of His character. When He walked to Emmaus with the two disciples, “He made as if He would have gone further:” they might have known it was none other than the Angel of the Covenant by that very habit. He would have gone further, but they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us for the day is far spent.” 

Brethren, whenever you have Christ, please to remember that you are able to hold Him. She who held Him in the Song was no stronger than you are; she was but a feeble woman, poorly fed under the Old Testament dispensation; you have drunk the new wine of the new covenant, and you are stronger than she. You can hold Him, and He will not be able to go from you. “How,” say you, “shall I be able to hold Him?” Oh, have you grasped Him? Is He with you? Now, then, hold Him fast by your faith; trust Him implicitly, rest in Him for every day’s cares, for every moment. Walk by faith and He will walk with you. Hold Him also with the grasp of love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1035.cfm

Oh, for more Enochs…

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

I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not…It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. – Song of Songs 3:2,4

We must search to the very utmost till we find our Beloved. The Christian must leave no stone unturned till he gets back his fellowship with Christ. If any sin obstructs the way, it must be rigorously given up; if there be any neglected duty, it must be earnestly discharged; if there be any higher walk of grace, which is necessary to continuous fellowship, we must ascend it, fearing no hill of difficulty. We must not say, “there is a lion in the way”-if there be lions we must slay them; if the way be rough, we must tread it; we must go on hands and knees if we cannot run; but we must reach to fellowship with Jesus; we must have Christ or pine till we do. Sacrifices we must make and penalties we must endure, but to Christ we must come, for we are feeble when we are absent from Him, and quite incapable of rendering any great service to the church, till once for all we can say, “I found Him, I held Him, and I would not let Him go.” O dear brethren and sisters, I know there are some of you who can enter into what I mean; but I would to God there were many more to whom the first thought of life was Christ Jesus. Oh, for more Enochs, men who walk with God, whose habitual spirit is that of close communion with Jesus, meditating upon Him, yea, more than that, sympathizing with Him, drinking into His spirit, changed into His likeness, living over again His life, because He is in them the monarch of their souls. O that we had a chosen band of elect spirits of this race, for surely the whole church would be revived through their influence; God, even our own God, would bless us; and we should see bright, halcyon days dawning for the Bride of Christ. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1035.cfm

We Thirst After Fellowship with Thee, Our Savior

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

The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? – Song of Songs 3:3

In seeking our Lord, we must use all ministries. The spouse enquired of the watchmen. We are not to despise God’s servants, for He is usually pleased to bless us through them, and it would be ungrateful both to Him and to them to pass them by as useless. But, while we use the ministries, we must go beyond them. The spouse did not find her Lord through the watchmen; but she says, “it was but a little that I passed from them, that I found him whom my soul loveth.” I charge you, my dear hearers, never rest content with listening to me. Do not imagine that hearing the truth preached simply and earnestly will of itself be a blessing to your souls. Far, far beyond the servant, pass to the Master. Be this the longing of each heart, each Sabbath-day, “Lord, give me fellowship with Thyself.” True, we are led to see Jesus sometimes, and I hope often, through listening to the truth proclaimed, but, O Lord, it is no outer court worship that will satisfy us we want to come into the Holy of Holies and stand at the mercy-seat itself. It is not seeing Thee afar off and hearing about Thee that will content our spirits, we must draw nigh unto Thee and behold Thee as the world cannot. Like Simeon, we must take Thee into our arms, or we cannot say that we have seen God’s salvation: like John, we must lean our heads upon the bosom, or we cannot rest. Thine apostles are well enough, Thy prophets well enough, Thy evangelists well enough; but oh, we feel constrained to go beyond them all, for we thirst after fellowship with Thee, our Savior. Those who feel thus will bless the church, but only such. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1035.cfm

Him Whom My Soul Loveth

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

…but I found him whom my soul loveth… – Song of Songs 3:4

The words are very strong, “Him whom my soul loveth;” as if though the spouse might love the daughters of Jerusalem, might love the watchmen of the city, might love them all in their place, yet her soul’s love, the essence of her love, her deepest, fondest, purest, and most real love, was all for Him. Are there not such hearts here, virgin minds in whom Christ is first, last, midst, chief, and all in all? Oh, if there be, ye are the men, ye are the women, who, finding your Beloved, can bring Him into the church. May God multiply your number and may each of you have compassion on the languishing church of this chill age, and labor to restore to her the glory which has faded from her brow. Pray ye for Laodicea in her lukewarmness, and Sardis in her spiritual death; but you will only prevail in proportion as your inmost soul loves the Redeemer and abides in His love.

These ardent lovers of Jesus must diligently seek Him...We must enjoy the perpetual fellowship of Jesus. We who love Him in our souls cannot rest until we know that He is with us. I fear that with some of us our sins have grieved Him, and He has betaken Himself to the far-off “mountains of myrrh and hills of frankincense.” It may be our lax living, our neglect of prayer, or some other fault, has taken from us the light of His countenance. Let us resolve that there shall be no rest unto our souls until once again He has returned unto us in the fullness of His manifested love, to abide in our hearts. Seek Him, brother, seek Him, sister. He is not far from any of you but do seek Him with an intense longing for Him, for until thou dost thou art not the man to bring Him into the assembly of the brethren. Labor to bring Jesus into the chambers of the church, but first be sure that thou hast Him thyself, or thy zeal will be hypocrisy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1035.cfm

It Must be Soul-Love

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

It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth… – Song 0f Songs 3:4

How can we bring into the chamber of the church Him whom we have not yet met with ourselves? How can we communicate grace to others instrumentally, unless first of all, we have received Him into our own hearts? I am not now about to speak of the need of conversion; we all know that no spiritual act can be performed until we become spiritual men; but I am now speaking about something higher than bare conversion. If we would bless the church, we must ourselves occupy a higher platform than that of being merely saved; we must be believers, walking in fellowship with Christ, and having, in that respect, found Him whom our soul loveth. There are many believers who have only just enough grace to enable us to hope that they are alive; they have no strength with which to work for God’s cause, they have not an arm to lend to the help of others, neither can they even see that which would comfort others, for they are blind, and cannot see afar off, they want all their sight, and all their strength, for themselves. Those who are to bring the Well-Beloved into our mother’s house, must be of another kind. They must get beyond the feebleness, which is full of doubting and fearing, into the assurance which grasps the Savior, and the fellowship which lives in daily communion with Him… “Brother, if thou wouldst bring Christ into the church which thou lovest, then, first of all, thine inmost soul must so love Christ, that thou canst not live without His company. This must be thy cry: “Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?” and this must be the goal of thine aspirations: “I have found Him whom my soul loveth.” It must not be talk, it must be soul-love; it must not be a profession of affection for Jesus, but the inmost bowels of our being must be moved by His name. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1035.cfm