promises

In the World

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father 4 Comments

…having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

You are in the world, and, as you all too surely feel, temptations have shown you that you are not yet in Heaven; you have sighed for a lodge in some vast wilderness, that you might cease from the troublers of earth, for what with the evil language which you hear, the corrupt practices which come under your notice, the temptations that are thrust in your own way, and the persecutions and the cruel mockings with which you are tried, you feel that this is a wretched world to live in. Now mark, Jesus loves His own who are in the world. You men that have to work with so many bad fellows, you tradesmen who have to go in among many who shock you, you good work girls, who meet with so many tempters, if you are His, He loves His own which are in the world.

As the sparks fly upward, so were we born to trouble-why do we count it a strange thing? But Jesus loves His own which are in this dolorous world: this is the balm of our griefs, and I call upon you to hold to it, and not let the devil delude you into the idea that the Lord does not love you because affliction happens to you as it does to other men. Of course, it must so happen so long as you are in the world. How can you expect exemption? Would you have a glass case made for you to keep you snug away from all the frosts and winds of this world? Would you have your heavenly Father indulge you with all the sweet things of this life, and spoil you for the life to come? Would you strike the root in this world and never be transplanted to the heavenly Eden? Do you wish to have your rest and portion in this life? Oh! no; you could not wish for that. Well, then, take what God sends to you, receive evil as well as good from Jehovah’s hand, as Job aforetime did; but never let it be the thought of your heart that Jesus does not love you because you are subjected to evils which are necessary to the place in which, for wise reasons, He suffers you for a little to remain. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

He Stood Surety for Us

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

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

The love of Jesus Christ in the past has been attested by many deeds of love. That He loved us He proved by the fact that He stood surety for us when the covenant was made, and entered into stipulations on our behalf that He would fulfill the broken law, and that He would offer satisfaction to the justice of God, which had been provoked. In the fullness of time, He took upon Himself our nature. What higher proof of love than that? In that nature He lived a life of blameless service, in that nature He died a death in which all the weight of divine vengeance for sin was compressed into a few hours of bodily and spiritual anguish. Now that He lives exalted in the highest heaven, He is still His people’s servant, interceding for them, representing them at the right hand of God, preparing a place for them, and by His mighty Spirit fetching them out from the mass of mankind, and preparing them for the place which He has prepared for them in glory. All these proofs show indeed, my dear brethren and sisters, how in the past Jesus Christ has loved His people. Grasp it, I pray you, now, for a minute, grasp it! realize it by putting out the hand of individual faith, and saying, “He loved me in those hoary ages; He loved me ere time began to be counted, and days and years were first mapped out; He loved me ere He had made a star or given light to the sun; He loved me, yes, me in particular, me with a speciality, me as much as any of those on whom His heart is set.” …having loved His own, He loved you, even you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

Yet He Loves Us

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

Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. – Jeremiah 31:3

…having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

Jesus loved His people with a foresight of what they would be. Love is blind, they say, but not the Savior’s love. He knew that “His own” would fall in Adam; He knew that as they lived personally each one would become a sinner; He understood that they would be hard to reclaim and difficult to retain, even after they had been reclaimed; He saw every sin that they would commit in the glass of the future, for from His prescient eye nothing can be hidden. And yet He loved His own over the head of all their sins, and their revoltings, and their shortcomings. Hence, we see that He bears towards them an affection which cannot be changed, for nothing can occur which He has not foreseen, nothing therefore which has not already been taken into calculation in the matter of His choice. No new circumstance can shed unexpected light upon the case. No startling and unforeseen event can become an argument for a change. Hence Jesus’ love is full of immutability. There are no ups and downs in the love of Christ towards His people. On their highest Tabors He loves them, but equally as well in their Gethsemanes. When they wander like lost sheep His great love goes after them, and when they come back with broken hearts His great love restores them. By day, by night, in sickness, in sorrow, in poverty, in famine, in prison, in the hour of death, that silver stream of love ripples at their side, never stayed, never diminished. Forever is the sea of divine grace at its flood; this sun never sets; this fountain never pauses. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

Infinite Love

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

…having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

As to the past, let us with holy contemplation review it: Jesus has loved His own people from of old. A most blessed fact! He has loved them eternally. There never was a time when He did not love them. His love is positively dateless: before the heavens and earth were made, and the stars were first touched with the torch of flame, Jesus had received His people from His Father, and written their names on His heart. This everlasting love has a speciality about it. Our Lord has a general love of benevolence towards all His creatures, for “God is love;” but He has a special place in His heart for His own peculiar ones. There is a discriminating and distinguishing power about that love that is spoken of in the text, for it is not said, “Having loved all men,” but “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” Jesus, before all the world, set the crown of His peculiar love upon those whom He foreordained unto His glory.

This love of His is infinite. Jesus does not love His own with a little of His love, nor regard them with some small degree of affection, but He says, “As the Father hath loved Me, even so have I loved you,” and the Father’s love to the Son is inconceivably great, since they are one in essence, ineffably one. The Father cannot but love the Son infinitely, neither doth the Son ever love His people less than with all His heart. It is an affection which no angelic mind could measure; it is inconceivable, unknown. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

His Matchless Tenderness

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

…He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

The Master displayed His love to His disciples throughout His life by the way in which He sought to comfort them when He foresaw that they would be cast down; especially was this true at the period before His passion-when one would have thought He might have sought for comfort, He was busy distributing it. Those choice words which have flown like a dove into many a mourner’s window bearing the olive branch of peace, were the fond utterances of a thoughtful heart. “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions.” Many such bottles of oil and wine did He apply to the wounds of His disciples. He would not have them suffer any kind of spiritual turmoil. “In the world ye shall have tribulation” said He, “but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” His peace He distributed right liberally and left it as His last legacy: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you.” In the private life of every one of those chosen men, there must have been incidents of matchless tenderness; but they are not recorded, because if all were written which Jesus did, even the world itself would not contain the things, which should have been written. Enough is written to let us see that no tenderness of mothers, or care of friends, could match the ever, generous forethought of the Friend of man. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

His Faithful, Enduring Love

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

Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

Our Savior’s faithfulness towards the chosen band whom He had elected into His fellowship was most remarkable. He had selected persons who must have been but poor companions for one of so gigantic a mind and so large a heart. He must have been greatly shocked at their worldliness. They groveled in the dust when He mounted to the stars. He was thinking of the baptism wherewith He was to be baptized, and He was straitened until it was accomplished, but they were disputing which among them should be the greatest. He was ready to deny Himself that He might do His Father’s will, and meanwhile they were asking to sit on His right hand and on His left hand in His kingdom.

Worse than the fact of their natural worldliness perhaps, was the apparent impossibility of lifting them out of that low condition; for though never a man spake as He spake, how little did they understand! And though He took them aside and said to them, “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God,” yet after many plain teachings He was compelled to say to one of the best of them, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip?” They were dull scholars. There is no teacher here who could have had patience with such heavy intellects, but our Lord and Master’s love remained evermore at flood-tide, notwithstanding their incorrigible stupidity. His love was stronger than their unbelief and ignorance. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

He Loves His Own

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

“Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.”-John 13:1

“Having loved His own.” Those four words are a brief but complete summary of the Savior’s conduct towards His disciples. He always loved them. There was never a single action or word which was contrary to the rule of love. He loved them with a love of pity when He saw them in their lost estate, and He called them out of it to be His disciples; touched with a feeling of their infirmities He loved them with a tender and prudent affection, and sought to train and educate them, that after His departure they might be good soldiers of His cross. Even when He rebuked them, He loved them. He subjected them to many trials: for His sake they renounced all that they had; they shared His daily cross-bearing and hourly persecution but love reigned supreme and undiminished through it all. On Tabor or in Gethsemane He loved His own; alone or in the crowd His heart was true to them; in life and in death His affection failed not. He “loved His own which were in the world.” It is a multum in parvo, a condensed life of Christ, a miniature of Jesus the Lover of souls. As you read the wonderful story of the four evangelists, you see how true it is that Jesus loved His own. Let me cast in by way of interjection, this sentence, that when you come to read your own life’s story in the light of the New Jerusalem, you will find it to be true also concerning your Lord and yourself: if you are indeed the Lord’s own, He at all times deals lovingly with you, and never acts in unkindness or wrath. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm