promises

Our Love to Jesus

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

I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me. Come, my beloved, let us go forth to the field… – Song of Songs 7:10,11

If we have abounding love to Jesus we can prosper under disadvantages, but if we have it not, we have lost the great secret of success. Love to Jesus teaches our hands to war and our fingers to fight. It sets us side by side with the conquering Immanuel and makes us share His victories. It yokes us with the strong Son of God and so makes our infirmities to be but opportunities for the display of His power. This love leads the Church to hold all things in joint possession with Christ…Love will not stand to have divided properties. Such was the love of Jesus that He gave all that He had to us. He could not bear to have anything, not even His Throne itself, that should be altogether to Himself. He stripped Himself to His last rag to clothe us and then gave us His breath to be our life, His blood to be our health!

I like to think, in Church matters especially, that we are all Christ’s—that if we have any ability, it is Christ’s ability—to be laid at His feet. If we have any substance, it is Christ’s money—to be used in spreading His Church. Our Sunday school is Christ’s nursery, and the little ones are Christ’s lambs. Our work out of doors in preaching at the corners of the streets is Christ’s mission—it is His trumpet that is blown when the Gospel is preached! Every form of agency is not ours—it is Christ’s. Or if ours, it is only because it is His. Oh, to have more and more all things common with our Lord, and no longer to speak of mine or yours! Beloved, we are joint heirs with Him! All that we have is His and all that He has is ours! When the Church believes and acts upon this, the hour of her success is close at hand. We would not now and then look through the windows of agate and behold the King in His beauty, but we would continue “looking unto Jesus.” We would have His praise continually in our mouths and His love burning like the quenchless altar fire of the temple forever within our hearts. This is the one thing necessary to promote and sustain a revival in (the) Church. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1066.cfm

The Savior’s Love for You

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

I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me. – Song of Songs 7:10

…who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. – Titus 2:14

True love to Jesus grows stronger and stronger in proportion as it abides in Him. We are cold in our love because we live at a distance from Him. The angel who dwells in the sun has never to complain of an ice-bound heart, and he who lives in Christ and abides in Him will blaze and glow with a warmth of love comparable to that of Christ Himself. A Christian is never strong for service when he does not know whether Christ loves him or not. If that is a question, you have put out the fire by which alone the force can be generated which must work the machinery of your spirit. You must know beyond question that Jesus loves you and gave Himself for you! You must feel that He is loving you now, that His heart is looking out through those dear eyes which once wept over Jerusalem and that the meaning of His loving glance is, “Soul, I love you, I loved you so that I gave Myself for you and I have not repented of the gift. I love you still as much as I loved you upon Calvary’s bloody tree.” It is strength to feel that still “His desire is toward me.” Oh, when you feel, “Jesus loves me, Jesus desires me to show my love to Him. Jesus at this moment thinks of me and takes a delight in me”—this will make you strong as a giant in the cause of your Beloved! Between the very jaws of death a man would venture who felt that the love of Christ was set upon him! Love to Jesus is the fountain of courage, the mother of self-denial and the nurse of constancy. Strive, then, for a well-assured sense of the Savior’s love. Be not content till you possess it, for it will be health to your spirit and marrow to your bones—it will be a belt of strength to your loins and a chain of honor about your neck. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1066.cfm

Loved to Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. – John 3:16

“Venture on Him: venture wholly.
Let no other trust intrude.
None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.”

But, Sinner, it is not a venture! As surely as you cast yourself upon Him, He will be sure to save you! I will not multiply words, but I would, if I thought words would draw you. I pray the blessed and eternal Spirit to sweetly influence your minds, young people, and old people, too, and middle-aged people, too—that you may have done with trying to do anything, or to be anything in order to your own salvation, and know that it was all done when Jesus bled and died, all finished when He cried, “It is finished!” You have only to take believingly what He presents to you and accept Him as your All in All. God help you to do it!

Dear Brothers and Sisters, if you really feel yourselves to have been outcasts and yet have been received into the Divine family—and are now on the road to Heaven—I ask you to pay every attention to any whom you meet with who are now what you once were! If you meet with any in great despair of soul, say, “Ah, I must be a comforter here, for I have gone through this. I will never let this poor soul go till, by God’s help, I have cheered him.” If you meet with one who is an open sinner, perhaps you will have to say to yourself, “I was an open sinner, too.” But if not, say, “My sins were more secret, but still they were as bad as his and, therefore, I have hope of this poor soul and will try whether he cannot be loved to Christ by me.” Mark my expression— “loved to Christ,” for that is the power we must use—sinners are to be loved to Christ!  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

There is Life in a Look at Jesus Crucified

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

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:14,15

I believe there are some who really believe themselves to be out of the region of hope. My dear Friends, if God gathers together the outcasts, why should He not gather you? And if it is true that Jesus Christ does not look for goodness, but that He only considers our sin and misery, why should He not look upon you? May I urge you to try my Master? If you go to Him confessing your unworthiness and trusting yourself with Him, if He does not save you, I would like to know about it, because you will be the first person I have ever heard of that trusted himself with Jesus and was rejected! It will not be the case, whatever your condition may be, however desperate your state!

You think your condition to be worse than I have pictured it to be, and you fancy that I cannot know anything about how bad you are. Well, I do not know your special form of rebellion, but you are the very person I mean, for all that. I say, if you are as black as Hell, if you are as foul as the Stygian bog, if you have sinned till your sins cannot be counted and if your actions are so heinous that infinite wrath is their just desert—yet come and look to those five wounds and to that sacred head once wounded, and to that heart pierced with the spear! There is life in a look at Jesus crucified! Will you try it? As surely as God’s word is true, if you do but glance your eyes at Him who “died the just for the unjust,” you shall be brought to God and reconciled! For whoever believes in Him shall be saved! “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

Made to Wear a Crown and Sit at the Redeemer’s Feet

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

Therefore, the redeemed of the LORD shall return and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. – Isaiah 51:11

In due time the Lord gathers together the outcasts into His visible Church. As David enrolled a company of men that were in debt and discontented, so does Jesus Christ gather the indebted ones and the malcontents and makes them His soldiers. These are known as the Church militant. Surely as David did great exploits by those Pelethites, Cherethites, Gittites and strange men of foreign extraction whom he gathered to himself, so does Jesus of Nazareth do great things by those great sinners whom He greatly forgives—those hard-hearted ones whom He so strangely changes and makes to be the Old Guard of His army.

Yes, He gathers them into His Church and He gathers them into His work. The outcasts of Israel He uses for His own Glory. And when He has done that, He gathers them into Heaven. What a surprise it must be for any man to find himself in Heaven when he remembers where he once was! The outcast remembers the ale-bench on which he sat and soaked himself in liquor till he degraded himself below the brute beast. And now to be cleansed in the Redeemer’s blood and to sit among the angels—this will be surprising Grace, indeed! “Oh, to think,” one might well say, “that I, who was once in lewd company, polluted and defiled, am now made to wear a crown and sit at the Redeemer’s feet!” When we reach Heaven, Brothers and Sisters, I do not suppose that we shall forget all the past. And sometimes it must burst in upon us as a strangely Divine instance of love that Christ should have brought us there and set us among the peers of His realm! And yet He will do it! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

The Gatherings

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

The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. – Psalm 147:2

The Lord Jesus has several ways of gathering together the outcasts. He gathers them to hear the Gospel. Preach Jesus Christ and they will come! Both outcast saints and outcast sinners will come to hear the charming sound of His blessed name! They cannot help it. Nothing draws like Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ next gathers them to Himself. The parable of the wedding feast is repeated again, “Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled.” “Bring in here the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.” In this sort, the Lord Jesus Christ gathers multitudes where He is faithfully preached. He gathers all sorts of characters and especially the odds and ends of society—the despised of men and the despised of themselves. He gathers them to Himself.

And oh, what a blessed gathering place that is where there is cleansing for their filthiness, health for their disease, clothing for their nakedness and all-sufficient supplies for their abundant necessities! He gathers them to Himself—which is to gather them to God—to gather them to blessedness and peace through reconciliation with the Father. “To Him shall the gathering of the people be.”

When He has done that, He gathers them into the Divine family. He takes the outcasts and makes them children of God—heirs with Himself. From the dunghill He lifts them and sets them among princes! He takes them from the swine trough and puts the ring on their fingers and the shoes on their feet—and they sit down at the Father’s table to feast and to be glad! Jesus Christ, as the good Shepherd, gathers the lost sheep, the lame, the halt, the diseased and feeds them. He makes them to lie down and restores their souls and, finally, He leads them to the rich pastures of the Glory Land. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

Blessed Are the Outcasts for Christ

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

But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye… – 1 Peter 3:14

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:10

There are some who become outcasts through their love to Christ and of these the text is peculiarly true. I mean those who suffer for righteousness’ sake till they are regarded as the off-scouring of all things. Are there any that serve God faithfully, who have escaped the trial of cruel mockery? The names of those who are eminently useful are generally used as footballs for an ungodly world. The world is not worthy of them and yet their enemies think they are hardly worthy to live in the world. We do not hear much about persecution nowadays, but in private life there is a world of it! The cold shoulder is given where once friendship was sought—hard, cruel, cutting things are said where once admiration was expressed—and separations take place between good friends because of Christ.

It is still true, in the Christian’s case, that a man’s foes are they of his own household. But if you should become an outcast upon the face of the earth for Christ’s sake, there is this for your comfort— “The Lord does build up Jerusalem, He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.” Of the persecuted He makes pillars in His holy temple forever. Blessed are those who are outcasts for Christ! Rich are those who are so honored as to be permitted to become poor for Him! Happy are they who have had this grace given them—to be permitted to lay life, itself, down for Jesus Christ’s sake! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm