salvation

His Whole Soul Was in All that He Did

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

For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me. -Psalm 69:9

Mark our Master when He goes about doing good. The task is not irksome to Him. There are some men who if they distribute to the poor, or if they comfort the fatherless, do it with such reserve with such coldness of spirit, that you can perceive that it is but the shell of the man that acts, and not the man’s whole soul. But see our divine Lord. Wherever He walks, you see His whole self in flame. His whole being at work. Not a single power slumbers, but the whole man is engaged. How much at ease He seems among His poor fishermen! You do not discover that His thoughts are away in the halls of kings; but He is a fellow with them, bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. He walks in the midst of publicans and harlots, and He is not ill at ease; not like one who is condescending to do a work which He feels to be beneath Him; He is pleased with it, His whole soul is in it. Mark how He takes the little children on His knee, and though His disciples would put them away, yet His whole spirit is set truly with the poor, with the sinful, whom He came to save, that He says, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Look up into that face, and there is a whole-soured man there; not one whose thoughts are set on dignity and power, and who is schooling Himself down, toning down His mind to the circle in which He moves, as a matter of constraint and duty. His vocation becomes His delight. His Father’s service is His element. He is never happy when He is out of it. He casts His whole being, His whole spirit, into the work of man’s redemption.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0302.cfm

The Father’s Work

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation, The Father, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.…And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. -Genesis 1:1-2; 3:15

We know that when this world was made, the Father did not make it without reference to the Spirit, for “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” brooded over chaos, and brought order out of confusion. Nor did He make it without the Son; for we are told by John the Apostle, “Without Him was not anything made that was made.” Yet, at the same time, creation was the Father’s work. So also is it in salvation; the Father does not save without the Spirit, for “the Spirit quickeneth whom He will.” He doth not save without the Son, for it is through the merit of the Redeemer’s death that we are delivered from the demerit of our iniquity. But, notwithstanding this, God the Father is the worker of salvation as much as He is the worker of creation. Let us look up then, with eyes of delight, to our reconciled God and Father. O Lord our GOD, Thou art not an angry one! Thou art not an austere ruler! “Thou art not merely the Judge but Thou art the grand patriarch of Thy people! Thou art their great friend! Thou lovest them better than Thou didst Thy Son! For Thou didst not spare Him-Thou didst send Him down to suffer and to die, that Thou mightest bring Thy children home. “Glory be unto the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0302.cfm

God’s Work

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation, The Father 3 Comments

Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.-John 4:34

It is peculiarly pleasing to the Christian to observe the interest which God the Father takes in the work of salvation. In our earlier days of childhood in grace, we conceived the idea that God the Father was only made propitious to us through the atonement of Christ that Jesus was the Savior, and that the Father was rather an austere Judge than a tender friend. But since then, we have learned the Father through the Son: for it was not possible we could come unto the Father except through Jesus Christ. But, now, having seen Christ, we have seen the Father also, and from henceforth, we both know the Father, and have seen Him, since we know the love of Christ, and have felt it shed abroad in our hearts. It is always refreshing then, to the enlightened Christian, to call to mind the intense interest which the Father takes in the work of salvation…Salvation-work is called the Father’s will. “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish;” but more, it is His will that His chosen, the blood-bought ones of Christ, should every one of them be redeemed from the ruins of the fall, and brought safely home to their Father’s house.

He gave up His only begotten Son; He withheld not the darling of His bosom, but sent away His well-beloved, and sent Him down with messages of love to man. Jesus Christ comes willingly, but still He comes by His Father’s appointment and sending…Salvation is here called God’s work: “It is my meat to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0302.cfm

He is Faithful that Promised

Sherry Christian Life, salvation 5 Comments

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised;) -Hebrews 10:23

By the memories of the day when you made that profession, be firm in it to the end. If you were not false then, if you were not deceivers then, hold fast the confession of your hope without wavering, for “He is faithful that promised.” Let us remember also the many times in which we have repeated that profession of faith, that confession of hope; for instead of retracting it, we have gone on to repeat it. We have been marked anew with the King’s name. If you ask how you have renewed your vows, I reply: you have done it many a time at the table of communion. You have repeated your profession in the shop, and in the market, and in the place of business, and among your friends, and in your family, and to the partner of your life. Those around you know you to be professedly an heir of heaven, a child of God: it is well that they should.

…Let us think for a minute what it has cost us. Religion has cost many of its disciples somewhat dear: but it has cost nothing compared with its worth. What bashfulness it cost you to make the first confession of your faith! What a struggle it then appeared! You cried to God about it and you obtained courage; and now you wonder how you could have been so foolishly timid. Do not in future fall into the same fears. But perhaps some of you lost the friendship of many by becoming disciples of the Lord Jesus. I know one who became a member of this Church: she had moved in high and fashionable circles, but she said to me, “They have left me — everyone of them.” I said, “I am very thankful; for it will save you the trouble of quitting them. They will do you no good if they profess to be your friends; and they will do you less harm by giving you the cold shoulder.” It is about the best thing that happens to a Christian man when worldlings cut his acquaintance. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/spurgeon/holding_fast_our_profession.htm

Hold Fast Your Profession

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

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience…Hebrews 10:22

If we read the text according to our present authorised translation, we have faith. We have made a public avowal of our faith. We have obtained what the apostle calls “like precious faith”: it is a rare jewel, and he is rich that possesseth it. But another reading — and a very good reading too — runs thus: “The confession of our hope.” If we have faith we have hope. We will take both renderings; for they are both correct in fact if not in the letter. We have a blessed hope, a hope most “sure and steadfast, which entereth into that which is within the veil.” The day of our Lord’s appearing will be the day of the redemption of the body from the dust with which it mingles. We have a joyful, glorious, blessed hope which purifies, and comforts, and strengthens, and sustains us, and this hope is in us now. Are we not enriched with the grace of God? Where faith and hope are found, love cannot be far off; for the three Divine sisters are seldom separated. Let us love the Lord who has given us the first two.

We are to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, because He is faithful that has promised. Have you found Him faithful? Has the Lord failed you? Has the Lord been untrue in His promises to you? If He has, then do not hold fast your profession. If, after all, it has been a mistake and a delusion, then give it up. But if He is faithful that has promised — if till this moment you have proved the power of prayer, the wisdom of providence, and the truth of the Sacred Word, then deal with my Lord as He has dealt with you. Be not faithless to the Crucified. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/spurgeon/holding_fast_our_profession.htm

How Did He Live?

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

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. -Philippians 1:21

(D)ying is not of one-half so much importance as living to Christ.“ I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world.” He does not make their dying an object of prayer, “but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” He prays that they should be preserved in life, knowing that their death would assuredly follow rightly, as a matter of course. Many say one to the other, “Have you heard that so-and-so is dead?” “How did he die?” They should rather say, “How did he live?” It may be an important question, how does a man die; but the most important question is, “How does a man live?” What a curious notion people get about death! The question they ask is not whether a man dies in the Lord Jesus, but, “Has he had a very easy death? Did he die gently?” If so, they conclude that all is well. If I ask, “Had he any affection to trust in Christ?” the reply probably will be, “Well, at all events, I thought he had; he had a very easy death.” People think so much of an easy death. If there are no pains in death, if they are not in trouble, and not plagued like others, they falsely conclude all to be well. But though like sheep they are laid in the grave, they may awaken to destruction in the morning. It is not a sign of grace that our dying is easy. It is natural for persons in the decay of strength to die easily. Many of the most vicious men, who have destroyed the power of their bodies, have an easy, painless death, from the fact that there is nothing to struggle against death; but, then, though they die like lambs, they wake up in sorrow. Do not put any confidence in death-beds, my dear friends; do not look on them as evidences of Christianity. The greatest evidence is not how a man dies, but how he lives. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0047.cfm

Christ Jesus, the Reaper

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 4 Comments

Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. -Revelation 14:14

Death is not an independent being, who comes at his own will, to carry us away when he pleases. In fact, it is not true that death does take away the Christian at all: God alone can remove His children from this world. Whether the humble peasant, or the reigning monarch, one hand lifts them to the sky. You will see this by referring to the Revelation where the vintage of the wicked is gathered by an angel, but the harvest of the righteous is reaped by Christ Himself. “And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over the fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” These were the wicked. But, if you go to the preceding passage, it says, “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.” Christ is the reaper who cuts His own corn. He will not trust an angel to do it. God alone has the issues of life in His hand.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0047.cfm