prophecy

Our Heavenly Duty

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy 5 Comments

Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people. – Isaiah 65:17-19.

I hope and believe that the following verses will actually describe the condition of the redeemed during the reign of Christ upon the earth: “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old. They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith the Lord.”

There is to be a literal new creation, but that new creation has commenced already; and I think, therefore, that even now we ought to manifest a part of the joy. If we are called upon to be glad and rejoice in the completion of the work, let us rejoice even in the commencement of it. The Lord Himself will joy and rejoice, and we who are in sympathy with Him are exhorted and even commanded to be glad; let us not be slack in this heavenly duty. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2211.cfm

The Peerless Champion

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

Of the woman’s Seed it was henceforth said,

Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. -Psalm 45:7 

The Seed of the woman by promise is to champion the cause, and oppose the dragon. That seed is the Lord Jesus Christ…As soon as He publicly came forward upon the stage of action, thirty years after, Satan met Him foot to foot. You know the story of the temptation in the wilderness, and how there the woman’s Seed fought with him who was a liar from the beginning. The devil assailed Him thrice with all the artillery of flattery, malice, craft and falsehood, but the peerless champion stood unwounded, and chased His foeman from the field. Then our Lord set up His kingdom, and called one and another unto Him, and carried the war into the enemy’s country…Yea, and He made His own disciples mighty against the evil one, for in His name they cast out devils, till Jesus said, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.”

Then there came a second personal conflict, for I take it that Gethsemane’s sorrows were to a great degree caused by a personal assault of Satan, for our Master said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” He said also, “The Prince of this world cometh.” What a struggle it was. Though Satan had nothing in Christ, yet did he seek if possible to lead Him away from completing His great sacrifice, and there did our Master sweat as it were great drops of blood, falling to the ground, in the agony which it cost Him to contend with the fiend. Then it was that our Champion began the last fight of all and won it to the bruising of the serpent’s head. Nor did He end it till He had spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly.

“Lo, by the sons of hell He dies;
But as He hangs ‘twixt earth and skies,
He gives their prince a fatal blow,
And triumphs o’er the powers below” 

~C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1326.cfm

 

 

Your God is Your True Joy

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, Sovereignty of God 5 Comments

Do not wonder, brethren, that the world hates you. -1 John 3:13

Don’t wonder, don’t wonder if you have discomforts here. If you are what you profess to be, you are strangers. Don’t expect the men of this world to treat you as one of themselves-if they do, be afraid. Dogs don’t bark when a man goes by that they know-they bark at strangers. When people slander and persecute you no longer, be afraid. If you are a stranger, they naturally bark at you. Don’t expect to find comforts in this world that your flesh would long for. This is our inn, not our home. We tarry here a night, we are away in the morning. We may bear the discomforts of the eventide and the night, for the morning will break soon. Remember that your greatest joy while you are a pilgrim is your God… Do you want a greater source of consolation than you have got? Here is one that can never be diminished, much less exhausted. When the creature streams are dry, go to this eternal fountain, and you will find it ever springing up. Your God is your true joy: make your joy to be in your God.

(Now what shall be said to those who are not strangers and foreigners? Oh! you dwell in a land where you find some sort of repose, but I have heavy tidings for you. This land in which you dwell, and all the works thereof, must be burned up. The city of which you, who have never been converted to Christ, are citizens, is the City of Destruction, and as is its name such shall be its end.) ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3478.cfm

In This World We Have No Home

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

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city. -Hebrews 11:16

Abraham left his country at God’s command and he never went back again. The proof of faith lies in perseverance…The Apostle tells us, however, that the people of God were not forced to continue because they could not return…Frequent opportunities came in their way. There was communication kept up between them and the old family house at Padan-Aram. They had news concerning the family house. More than that, there were messages exchanged; servants were sometimes sent. There was also a natural relationship kept up. Did not Rebekah come from thence? And Jacob, one of the patriarchs, was driven to go down into the land; but he could not stay there; he was always unrestful, until at last he stole a march upon Laban and came back to the proper life, the life that he had chosen-the life that God had commanded him to live-of a pilgrim and stranger in the land of promise. .

Now our position is a very similar one. As many of us as have believed in Christ Jesus have been called out… I trust we know what it is to have gone without the camp bearing Christ’s reproach. Henceforth in this world we have no home…Our home is beyond the flood. We are looking for it among the unseen things. We are strangers and sojourners, as all our fathers were; dwellers in this wilderness, passing through it to reach the Canaan which is to be the land of our perpetual inheritance. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3478.cfm

Put No Faith in Man’s Word

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prophecy, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? -Jeremiah 5:31

There are some churches relying upon learning and erudition. The learning of their ministers seems to be a great fort, bastion, and castle. They say for instance “What do these uneducated and unrefined preachers? Of what use are they. We like men of sound argument, men who give a large amount of biblical criticism, who can decide this, that, and the other.” They rely upon their minister; he is their tower of strength; he is their all in all. He happens to be a learned man. They say, “What is the use for any one to oppose him? See the amount of his learning! Why his enemies would be cut in pieces, because he is so mighty and learned.” Never let it be said that I have despised learning or true knowledge. Let us have as much as we can. We thank God when men of learning are brought into the church, when God renders then useful. But the church now-a-days is beginning to trust too much to learning, relying too much on philosophy, and upon the understanding of man instead of the Word of God. I do believe a large proportion of professing Christians have their faith in the word of man, and not in the word of God. They say, “Such-and-such a divine said so; that so-and-so beautifully explained that passage, and it must be right.” But whatever church shall do this, God will say, “Go ye up upon her walls; make not a full end; take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord’s.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0038.cfm

Heaven’s Supreme Delight

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, salvation 7 Comments

…and so shall we ever be with the Lord. -1 Thessalonians 4:17

Up yonder, whither many of our beloved ones have already gone: up yonder, within that gate of pearl where eye cannot as yet see. What is it that makes heaven”, with all its supreme delights? Not harps of angels, nor blaze of seraphim; but this one fact, “the Lord is there.” What must it be to be with God? O soul that loves Him, what will your fullness of pleasure be when you shall dwell with Him for whom your soul is hungering and thirsting! What joy to be “for ever with the Lord”! This perfect bliss may be ours this very day. We little know how near we are to our glorification with our Lord. The veil is very thin that parts the sanctified from the glorified.

One gentle sigh, the soul awakes:
We scarce can say ‘He’s gone,’
Before the ransomed spirit takes
Its mansion near the throne.”

The joy and glory of those divine mansions is that “the Lord is there.” Heaven’s loftiest peak shines for ever in this clear light-The Lord God and the Lamb are the light thereof: “the Lord is there.”

“No beams of cedar or of fir
Can with Thy courts on earth compare;
And here we wait, until Thy love
Raise us to nobler seats above.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm

Himself the Reigning God is Our Savior

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, prophecy, salvation, The Father, The Holy Spirit 8 Comments

…for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful. – Revelation 17:14

He in whom you are asked to believe for salvation is Himself God. Then, in infinite mercy, He came and took upon Himself our nature, and dwelt among men. He voluntarily came, being God, but He was also sent of God, appointed and authorized to be God’s Ambassador to man. He was, in addition to being sent of God, anointed of God, for the Spirit of God rested upon Him without measure, qualifying Him for His work…Then He died, and by that death He forever put away the sin of His people. He took upon Himself the sin which He had never committed; He was numbered with the transgressors, and He suffered as if men’s transgressions had been His own; He died, “the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” And God has accepted those sufferings as a propitiation for all who believe in Him; and now, this is the witness of God concerning Him, that He has raised Him from the dead, and taken Him up to His throne, and made Him to sit there, at His Father’s right hand, where, at this moment, He is making intercession for all who come unto God by Him. And, now, our prayers are accepted through Him; and the infinite blessings, which are His, He distributes among us; and He is shortly coming again, with sound of trumpet, and attended by myriads of saints and angels. As He ascended from Olivet, in like manner also will He descend to earth again. King of kings and Lord of lords shall He be in that day…He is God, He still lives, it is the living, reigning Christ whom we preach unto you. He lives in glory, and He also lives here by the presence of His Holy Spirit, who is with us, and who is to abide with us evermore; and it is upon Him as God incarnate, as Savior, crucified, risen, and gone into the glory, that you are asked to place your soul’s confidence. If you would learn this truth more fully, read the four Gospels, and the Epistles, and ask the Spirit, who inspired the writers of them, to explain and apply them to you. That is the way to obtain faith. True faith is based upon knowledge of Christ…Take care, dear friends, that you always remember that simple but important truth.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2667.cfm