The Flame of His Ardent Love

He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. – Micah 7:19

Are ye asked what means the crucifixion of a perfect man upon a felon’s cross, ye may reply, “He was moved with compassion.” “He saved others; Himself He could not save.” He was so moved with compassion, that compassion, as it were, did eat Him up. He could save nothing from the general conflagration: He was utterly consumed with love, and died in the flame of ardent love towards the sons of men. And after He had died and slept a little while in the grave, He rose again. He has gone into His glory; He is living at the right hand of the Father; but this is just as true of Him, “He is moved with compassion.” Is proof wanted? Let faith pass within the veil, and let your spirits for a moment stand upon that sea of glass mingled with fire where stand the harpers tuning their never-ceasing melodies. What see you there conspicuous in the very midst of heaven but One who looks like a lamb that has been slain, and wears His priesthood still? What is His occupation there in heaven? He has no bloody sacrifice to offer, for He has perfected for ever those that were set apart. That work is done, but what is He doing now? He is pleading for His people; He is their perpetual Advocate, their continual Intercessor; He never rests until they come to their rest; He never holds His peace for them, but pleads the merit of His blood, and will do so till all whom the Father gave Him shall be with Him where He is.

His tender heart pities all the griefs of His dear people. There is not a pang they have but the Head feels it, feels it for all the members. Still doth He look upon their imperfections and their infirmities, yet not with anger, not with loss of patience, but with gentleness and sympathy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3438.cfm

He Was Moved with Compassion in His Terrible Death

And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him; and His own righteousness, it sustained Him. – Isaiah 59:16

While He tarried in the world, a man among men, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, He was constantly moved with compassion; for He felt all the griefs of mankind in Himself. He took our sicknesses and carried our sorrows: He proved Himself a true brother, with quick, human sensibilities. A tear brought a tear into His eye; a cry made Him pause to ask what help He could render. So generous was His soul, that He gave all He had for the help of those that had not. The fox had its hole, and the bird its nest, but He had no dwelling-place. Stripped even of His garments, He hung upon the cross to die. Never one so indigent in death as He, without a friend, without even a tomb, except such as a loan could find Him. He gave up all the comforts of life-He gave His life itself; He gave His very self to prove that He was moved with compassion. Most of all do we see how He was moved with compassion in His terrible death…Must the elect of God be condemned for their sins? No; Jesus is moved with compassion. He steps in, He takes upon Himself the uplifted lash, and His shoulders run with gore; He bares His bosom to the furbished sword, and it smites the Shepherd that the sheep may escape. “He looked, and there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore, His arm brought salvation.” He trod the wine- press alone, and “bore, that we might never bear, His Father’s righteous ire.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3438.cfm

The Incarnation: Matchless Pity Indeed

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. – Luke 2:11

It was purposed, in the eternal plan, ere the stream of time had commenced its course, or ages had began to accumulate their voluminous records, that there should be an interposer-one ordained to come and re-head the race, to be a second Adam, a federal Chief; to restore the breach, and repair the mischief of the first Adam; to be a Surety to answer for the sons of men on whom God’s love did light; that their sins should be laid upon Him, and that He should save them with an everlasting salvation… He it is of whom the Apostle John speaks as the Word who was God, and was in the beginning with God. Was He not moved with compassion when He entered into a covenant with His Father on our behalf, even on the behalf of all His chosen-a covenant in which He was to be the sufferer, and they the gainers-in which He was to bear the shame that He might bring them into His own glory? …He saw the fall of man; He marked the subtle serpent’s mortal sting; He watched the trail as the slime of the serpent passed over the fair glades of Eden; He observed man in his evil progress, adding sin to sin through generation after generation, fouling every page of history until God’s patience had been tried to the uttermost; and then, according as it was written in the volume of the Book that He must appear, Jesus Christ came Himself into this stricken world. Came how? O, be astonished, ye angels, that ye were witnesses of it, and ye men that ye beheld it. The Infinite came down to earth in the form of an infant; He who spans the heavens and holds the ocean in the hollow of His hand, condescended to hang upon a woman’s breast-the King eternal became a little child. Let Bethlehem tell that He had compassion. There was no way of saving us but by stooping to us. To bring earth up to heaven, He must bring heaven down to earth…Therefore, in the incarnation, He had compassion, for He took upon Himself our infirmities, and was made like unto ourselves. Matchless pity, indeed, was this! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3438.cfm

Kept by the Power of God

To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. – 1 Peter 1:4,5

“Reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation;” This perhaps will be one of the greatest cordials to a Christian in heaviness, that he is not kept by his own power, but by the power of God, and that he is not left in his own keeping, but he is kept by the Most High. Ah! what should you and I do in the day when darkness gathers round our faith, if we had to keep ourselves!…I know that He hath said, “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” What, Lord, but suppose they should grow faint-that they should begin to murmur in their affliction. Shall they not perish then? No, they shall never perish. But suppose the pain should grow so hot that their faith should fail: shall they not perish then? No, “they shall not perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” But suppose their sense should seem to wander, and some should try to pervert them from the faith: shall they not be perverted? No; “they shall never perish,” But suppose in some hour of their extremity hell and the world and their own fears should all beset them, and they should have no power to stand-no power whatever to resist the fierce onslaughts of the enemy, shall they not perish then? No, they are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed,” and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” Ah! this is the doctrine, the cheering assurance “wherein we greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if needs be, we are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0222.cfm

That Sweet Hope, an Inheritance Incorruptible

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ… – 1Peter 1:2

The apostle says that we are “elect through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,”-“wherein we greatly rejoice.” Is the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ girt about my loins, to be my beauty and my glorious dress; and its the blood of Jesus sprinkled upon me, to take away all my guilt and all my sin and shall I not in this greatly rejoice? What shall there be in all the depressions of spirits that can possibly come upon me that shall make me break my harp, even though I should for a moment hang it upon the willows? Do I not expect that yet again my songs shall mount to heaven; and even now through the thick darkness do not the sparks of my joy appear, when I remember that I have still upon me the blood of Jesus, and still about me the glorious righteousness of the Messiah?

But the great and cheering comfort of the apostle is, that we are elect unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. And here, brethren, is the grand comfort of the Christian. When the child of God is sore-stricken and much depressed, the sweet hope, that living or dying, there is an inheritance incorruptible, reserved in heaven for him, may indeed make him greatly rejoice. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0222.cfm

The Two Streams Within the Christian

…wherein ye greatly rejoice… 1 Peter 1:6

Mariners tell us that there are some parts of the sea where there is a strong current upon the surface going one way, but that down in the depths there is a strong current running the other way. Two seas do not meet and interfere with one another; but one stream of water on the surface is running in one direction, and another below in an opposite direction. Now, the Christian is like that. On the surface there is a stream of heaviness rolling with dark waves; but down in the depths there is a strong under-current of great rejoicing that is always flowing there. Do you ask me what is the cause of this great rejoicing? The apostle tells us, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice.” What does he mean? You must refer to his own writings, and then you will see. He is writing “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,” and so forth. The first thing that he say’s to them is, that they are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God;” “wherein we greatly rejoice.” Ah! even when the Christian is most “in heaviness through manifold temptations,” what a mercy it is that he can know that he is still elect of God! Any man who is assured that God has “chosen him from before the foundation of the world,” may well say, “Wherein we greatly rejoice.” Let me be lying upon a bed of sickness, and just revel in that one thought. Before God made the heavens and the earth, and laid the pillars of the firmament in their golden sockets, He set His love upon me; upon the breast of the great high priest He wrote my name, and in Hs everlasting book it stands, never to be erased-“elect according to the foreknowledge of God.” Why, this may make a man’s soul leap within him, and all the heaviness that the infirmities of the flesh may lay upon him shall be but as nothing; for this tremendous current of his overflowing joy shall sweep away the mill-dam of his grief. Bursting and overleaping every obstacle, it shall overflood all his sorrows till they are drowned and covered up and shall not be mentioned any more for ever. “Wherein we greatly rejoice.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0222.cfm

A Paradox

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.- 1Peter 1:6

This verse to a worldly man looks amazingly like a contradiction; and even to a Christian man, when he understands it best, it will still be a paradox. “Ye greatly rejoice,” and yet “ye are in heaviness.” Is that possible? Can there be in the same heart great rejoicing, and yet a temporary heaviness? Most assuredly. This paradox has been known and felt by many of the Lord’s children, and it is far from being the greatest paradox of the Christian life. Men who live within themselves, and mark their own feelings as Christians, will often stand and wonder at themselves. Of all riddles, the greatest riddle is a Christian man. As to his pedigree, what a riddle he is! He is a child of the first Adam, “an heir of wrath, even as others.” He is a child of the second Adam: he was born free; there is therefore now no condemnation unto him. He is a riddle in his own existence. “As dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed.” He is a riddle as to the component parts of his own spiritual frame. He finds that which makes him akin to the devil- depravity, corruption, binding him still to the earth, and causing him to cry out, “O wretched man that I am;” and yet he finds that he has within himself that which exalts him, not merely to the rank of an angel, but higher still-a something which raises him up together, and makes him “sit together with Christ Jesus in heavenly places.” He finds that he has that within him which must ripen into heaven, and yet that about him which would inevitably ripen into hell, if grace did not forbid. What wonder, then, beloved, if the Christian man be a paradox himself, that his condition should be a paradox too? Why marvel ye, when ye see a creature corrupt and yet purified, mortal and yet immortal, fallen but yet exalted far above principalities and powers-why marvel ye, that ye should find that creature also possessed of mingled experience, greatly rejoicing, and yet at the same time, “in heaviness through manifold temptations.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0222.cfm