salvation

Yes, These Are Great Things

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

I have written to him the great things of My law, but they were counted as a strange thing. -Hosea 8:12

God says, “I have written to him the great things of My law.” Do you doubt their greatness? Do ye think they are not worth your attention? Reflect a moment, man. Where art thou standing now?

“Lo on a narrow neck of land,
‘Twixt two unbounded seas I stand;
An inch of time, a moment’s space,
May lodge me in yon heavenly place,
Or shut me up in hell.”

I recollect standing on a seashore once, upon a narrow neck of land, thoughtless that the tide might come up. The tide kept continually washing up on either side, and, wrapped in thoughts, I stood there, until at last there was the greatest difficulty in getting on shore. You and I stand each day on a narrow neck, and there is one wave coming up there; see, how near it is to your foot; and lo! another follows at every tick of the clock; “Our hearts, like muffled drums, are beating funeral marches to the tomb.” We are always tending downwards to the grave each moment that we live. This book tells me that if I am converted, when I die, there is a heaven of joy and love to receive me; it tells me that angels’ pinions shall be stretched, and I, borne by strong cherubic wings, shall out-soar the lightning, and mount beyond the stars, up to the throne of God, to dwell forever.

“Far from a world of grief and sin,
With God eternally shut in.”

Oh! it makes the hot tear start from my eye, it makes my heart too big for this my body, and my brain whirls at the thought of

“Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name ever dear to me.”

Oh! that sweet scene beyond the clouds; sweet fields arrayed in living green, and rivers of delight. Are not these great things?

But then, poor unregenerate soul, the Bible says if thou are lost, thou art lost forever; it tells thee that if thou diest without Christ, without God, there is no hope for thee; that there is no place without a gleam of hope, where thou shalt read, in burning letters, “Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not;” it tells you, that ye shall be driven from His presence with a “depart, ye cursed.” Are these not great things? Yes, sirs, as heaven is desirable, as hell is terrible, as time is short, as eternity is infinite, as the soul is precious, as pain is to be shunned, as heaven is to be sought, as God is eternal, and as His words are sure, these are great things, things ye ought to listen to.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0015.cfm

Our Last Sigh

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 3 Comments

All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. -Ecclesiastes 3:20

“Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”- Matthew 28:6

I know that I am made of dust, and not of iron; my bones are not brass, nor my sinews steel; in a little while my body must crumble back to its native elements. But do you ever try to picture to yourself the moment of your dissolution? My friends, there are some of you who seldom realize how old you are, how near you are to death. One way of remembering our age, is to see how much remains. Think how old eighty is, and then see how few years there are before you will get there. We should remember our frailty. Sometimes I have tried to think of the time of my departure. I do not know whether I shall die a violent death or not; but I would to God that I might die suddenly; for sudden death is sudden glory…But it is not mine to choose. O ye lips, be dumb, and profane not its solemnity. When death comes, how is the strong man bowed down! How doth the mighty man fall! …The man shuts his eyes and slumbers, then opens them again: and if he be a Christian, I can fancy that he will say:

“Hark! they whisper: angels say,
Sister spirit, come away.
What is this absorbs me quite-
Steals my senses-shuts my sight-
Drowns my spirit-draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?”

One gentle sigh, and the spirit breaks away. We can scarcely say, “he is gone,” before the ransomed spirit takes its mansion near the throne. Come to Christ’s tomb, then, for the silent vault must soon be your habitation. Come to Christ’s grave, for ye must slumber there. And even you, ye sinners, for one moment I will ask you to come also, because ye must die as well as the rest of us. Your sins cannot keep you from the jaws of death. I say, sinner, I want thee to look at Christ’s sepulchre too, for when thou diest it may have done thee great good to think of it.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0018.cfm

Rejoice, O Christian!

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

And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet went he not in.  Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw, and believed.
-John 20:5, 8

Oh come, my beloved brother, thy Jesus once lay there. He was a murdered man, my soul, and thou the murderer.

“Ah, you my sins, my cruel sins,
His chief tormentors were,
Each of my crimes became a nail,
And unbelief the spear.”

“Alas! and did my Saviour bleed?
And did my Sov’reign die?”

My deeds slew Christ. Alas! I slew my best beloved; I killed Him who loved me with an everlasting love. Ye eyes, why do you refuse to weep when ye see Jesus’ body mangled and torn? Oh! give vent to your sorrow, Christians, for ye have good reason to do so. I believe in what Hart says, that there was a time in his experience when he could so sympathize with Christ, that he felt more grief at the death of Christ than he did joy. It seemed so sad a thing that Christ should have to die; and to me it often appears too great a price for Jesus Christ to purchase worms with His own blood.

From heaven’s high portals He saw me sinking in the depths of hell; He plunged in:

“He sank beneath His heavy woes,
To raise me to a crown;
There’s ne’er a gift His hand bestows,
But cost His heart a groan.”

“Come, see the place where the Lord lay,” with joy and gladness. He does not lie there now. Weep, when ye see the tomb of Christ, but rejoice because it is empty. Thy sin slew Him, but His divinity raised Him up. Thy guilt hath murdered Him, but His righteousness hath restored Him. Oh! He hath burst the bonds of death, He hath ungirt the cerements of the tomb, and hath come out more than conqueror, crushing death beneath His feet. Rejoice, O Christian, for He is not there-He is risen! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0018.cfm

 

The New Tomb and the Folded Grave Clothes

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, salvation Leave a comment

Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. -John 19:41

Christopher Ness says, when Christ was born, He lay in a virgin’s womb, and when He died, He was placed in a virgin tomb; He slept where never man had slept before. The reason was that none might say that another person rose, for there never had been any other body there, thus a mistake of persons was impossible. Nor could it be said that some old prophet was interred in the place, and that Christ rose because He had touched his bones. You remember where Elisha was buried; and as they were burying a man, behold he touched the prophet’s bones and arose. Christ touched no prophet’s bones, for none had ever slept there; it was a new chamber where the monarch of the earth did take His rest for three days and three nights.

(L)et us stoop down once more before we leave the grave, and notice something else. We see the grave, but do you notice the grave-clothes, all wrapped and laid in their places, the napkin being folded up by itself? Wherefore are the grave-clothes wrapped up? The Jews said robbers had abstracted the body; but if so, surely they would have stolen the clothes; they would never have thought of wrapping them up and laying them down so carefully; they would be too much in haste to think of it. Why was it then? To manifest to us that Christ did not come out in a hurried manner. He slept till the last moment; then He awoke; He came not in haste. They shall not come out in haste, neither by flight, but at the appointed moment shall His people come to Him.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0018.cfm

The Borrowed Tomb

Sherry Character of Jesus, salvation Leave a comment

And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock -Matthew 27:59-60

Yes, He was buried in another’s sepulchre. He who had no house of His own, and rested in the habitation of other men; who had no table, but lived upon the hospitality of His disciples; who borrowed boats in which to preach, and had not anything in the wide world, was obliged to have a tomb from charity. Oh! should not the poor take courage? They dread to be buried at the expense of their neighbors, but if their poverty be unavoidable, wherefore should they blush, since Jesus Christ Himself was interred in another’s grave? Ah! I wish I might have had Joseph’s grave to let Jesus be buried in it. Good Joseph thought he had cut it out for himself, and that he should lay his bones there. He had it excavated as a family vault, and lo, the Son of David makes it one of the tombs of the kings. But he did not lose it by lending it to the Lord; rather, he had it back with precious interest. He only lent it three days; then Christ resigned it; He had not injured, but perfumed and sanctified it, and made it far more holy, so that it would be an honor in future to be buried there.

It was a borrowed tomb; and why? I take it, not to dishonor Christ, but in order to show that, as His sins were borrowed sins, so His burial was in a borrowed grave. Christ had no transgressions of His own; He took ours upon His head; He never committed a wrong, but He took all my sin, and all yours, if ye are believers; concerning all His people, it is true, He bore their griefs and carried their sorrows in His own body on the tree; therefore, as they were others’ sins, so He rested in another’s grave; as they were sins imputed, so that grave was only imputedly His. It was not His sepulchre; it was the tomb of Joseph.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0018.cfm

Come, for Angels Bid You

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

“Come, see the place where our Lord lay.” -Matthew 28:6

Angels said, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” The Syriac version reads, “Come, see the place where our Lord lay.” Yes, angels put themselves with those poor women, and used one common pronoun-our. Jesus is the Lord of angels as well as of men. Ye feeble women-ye have called Him Lord, ye have washed His feet, ye have provided for His wants, ye have hung upon His lips to catch His honeyed sentences, ye have sat entranced beneath His mighty eloquence; ye call Him Master and Lord, and ye do well; “But,” said the seraph, “He is my Lord too;” bowing his head, he sweetly said, “Come, see the place where our Lord lay.”

Come, for it is a pure and healthy place. Fear not to enter that tomb. I will admit that catacombs are not the places where we, who are full of joy, would love to go. There is something gloomy and noisome about a vault. there are noxious smells of corruption; oft-times pestilence is born where a dead body hath lain; but fear it not, Christian, for Christ was not left in hell-in Hades-neither did His body see corruption. Come, there is no scent, yea, rather a perfume. Step in here, and, if thou didst ever breathe the gales of Ceylon, or winds from the groves of Araby, thou shalt find them far excelled by that sweet, holy fragrance left by the blessed body of Jesus; that alabaster vase which once held divinity, and was rendered sweet and precious thereby…Come then, Christian, summon up thy thoughts, gather all thy powers; here is a sweet invitation, let me press it again. Let me lead thee by the hand of meditation, my brother; let me take thee by the arm of thy fancy, and let me again say to thee, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0018.cfm

Come to the Tomb of Jesus

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

“Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”- Matthew 28:6

Every circumstance connected with the life of Christ is deeply interesting to the Christian mind. Wherever we behold our Saviour, He is well worthy of our notice.

“His cross, His manger, and His crown,
Are big with glories yet unknown.”

All His weary pilgrimage, from Bethlehem’s manger to Calvary’s cross, is, in our eyes, paved with glory. Each spot upon which He trod is, to our souls, consecrated at once, simply because there the foot of earth’s Saviour and our own Redeemer once was placed. When He comes to Calvary, the interest thickens; then our best thoughts are centered on Him in the agonies of crucifixion, nor does our deep affection permit us to leave Him, even when, the struggle being over, He yields up the ghost… By faith we discern Joseph of Arimathea, and the timid Nicodemus, assisted by those holy women, drawing out the nails and taking down the mangled body; we behold them wrapping Him in clean, white linen, hastily girding Him round with belts of spices; then putting Him in His tomb, and departing for the Sabbath rest…Ask me the greatest man who ever lived-I tell you the Man Christ Jesus was “anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellow.” If ye seek a chamber honored as the resting-place of genius, turn in hither; if ye would worship at the grave of holiness, come ye here; if ye would see the hallowed spot where the choicest bones that e’er were fashioned lay for awhile, come with me, Christian, to that quiet garden, hard by the walls of Jerusalem.

Oh! in pensive sorrow come with me to this dark garden of our Saviour’s burial; come to the grave of your best friend-your brother, yea, one who “sticketh closer than a brother.” Come thou to the grave of thy dearest relative, O Christian, for Jesus is thy husband, “Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name.” Doth not affection draw you? Do not the sweet lips of love woo you? Is not the place sanctified where one so well-beloved slept, although but for a moment ? Surely ye need no eloquence; if it were needed I have none. I have but the power, in simple, but earnest accents, to repeat the words, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0018.cfm