salvation

Our Crowns in Heaven

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

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing. -2 Timothy 4:8

Have Christians a crown too? O yes; but they do not wear it every day. They have a crown, but their coronation day is not yet arrived. They have been anointed monarchs, they have some of the authority and dignity of monarchs; but they are not crowned monarchs yet. But the crown is made. God will not have to order heaven’s goldsmiths to fashion it in after-time; it is made already hanging up in glory. God hath “laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” Oh, saint, if thou didst just open some secret door in heaven, and go into the treasure chamber, thou wouldst see it filled with crowns. When Cortes entered the palace of Montezuma, he found a secret chamber bricked up, and he thought the wealth of all the world was there, so many different things were there stowed away. Could you enter God’s secret treasure-house, what wealth would you see!” ” Are there so many monarchs,” you would say, “so many crowns, so many princes?” Yes, and some bright angel would say, “Mark you that crown? It is yours;” and if you were to look within, you would read, “Made for a sinner saved by grace, whose name was____;” and then you would hardly believe your eyes, as you saw your own name engraved upon it. You are indeed a king before God; for you have a crown laid up in heaven. What ever other insignia belong to monarchs, saints shall have. They shall have robes of whiteness; they shall have harps of glory; they shall have all things that become their regal state; so that we are indeed monarchs, you see; not mock-monarchs, clothed in purple garments of derision, and scoffed at with “Hail, king of the Jews;” but we are real monarchs. “He hath made us kings and priests unto our God.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0010.cfm

Our Splendid Retinue

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

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? -Hebrews 1:14

Kings and monarchs cannot travel without a deal of state. In olden times, they had far more magnificence than they have now; but even in these days we see much of it when royalty is abroad. There must be a peculiar kind of horse, and a splendid chariot, and outriders; with all the etceteras of gorgeous pomp. Ay! and the kings of God, whom Jesus Christ has made kings and priests unto their God, have also a royal retinue. “Oh!” say you, “but I see some of them in rags; they are walking through the earth alone, sometimes without a helper or a friend.” Ah! but there is a fault in your eyes. If you had eyes to see, you would perceive a body-guard of angels always attending every one of the blood-bought family. You remember Elijah’s servant could not see anything around Elijah, till his master opened his eyes; then he could see that there were horses and chariots round about Elijah. Lo! there are horses and chariots about me. And thou, saint of the Lord: where’er thou art, there are horses and chariots. In that bed-chamber, where I was born, angels stood to announce my birth on high. In seas of trouble, when wave after wave seems to go over me, angels are there to lift up my head; when I come to die, when sorrowing friends shall, weeping, carry me to the grave, angels shall stand by my bier; and, when put into the grave, some mighty angel shall stand and guard my dust, and contend for its possession with the devil. Why should I fear? I have a company of angels about me; and whenever I walk abroad, the glorious cherubim march in front. Men see them not, but I see them; for “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We have a royal retinue: we are kings, not merely by ancestry, but by our retinue.~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0010.cfm

I Am Descended from the King of Kings

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

And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. -Revelation 1:6

What a fuss some people make about their grandfathers and grandmothers, and distant ancestors. I remember seeing in Trinity College, the pedigree of some great lord that went back just as far as Adam, and Adam was there digging the ground-the first man. It was traced all the way up. Of course I did not believe it. I have heard of some pedigrees that go back further. I leave that to your own common sense, to believe it or not. A pedigree in which shall be found dukes, marquises, and kings, and princes. Oh! what would some give for such a pedigree? I believe, however, that it is not what our ancestors were, but what we are, that will make us shine before God; that it is not so much in knowing that we have royal or priestly blood in our veins, as knowing that we are an honor to our race-that we are walking in the ways of the Lord, and reflecting credit upon the church, and upon the grace that makes us honorable. But since some men will glory in their descent, I will glory that the saints have the proudest ancestry in all the world. Talk of Caesars, or of Alexanders, or tell me even of our own good Queen: I say that I am of as high descent as her majesty, or the proudest monarch in the world. I am descended from the King of kings. The saint may well speak of his ancestry-he may exult in it, he may glory in it-for he is the son of God, positively and actually…he is a twice-born child of heaven: one of the blood royal of the universe. The poorest woman or man on earth, loving Christ, is of a royal line. Give a man the grace of God in his heart, and his ancestry is noble. I can turn back the roll of my pedigree, and I can tell you that it is so ancient, that it has no beginning; it is more ancient than all the rolls of mighty men put together; for, from all eternity my Father existed: and, therefore, I have indeed a right royal and ancient ancestry.~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0010.cfm

The Saints’ Honors

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

And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. -Revelation 5:10

The most honorable of all monarchs to have ever been esteemed are those who had a right not only to royalty, but to sacerdotal supremacy-those kings who could wear at one time the crown of loyalty, and at another the mitre of the priesthood, who could both use the censer and hold the sceptre-who could offer intercession for the people, and then govern the nations. Those who are kings and priests are great indeed; and here you behold the saint honored, not with one title, or one office, but with two. He is made not a king merely, but a king and a priest; not a priest merely, but a priest and a king. The saint has two offices conferred upon him at once, he is made a priestly monarch, and a regal priest.

They are kings. They are not merely to be kings in heaven, but they are also kings on earth; for if my text does not say so, the Bible declares it in another passage: “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.” We are kings even now… Every saint of the living God, not merely has the prospect of being a king in heaven, but positively, in the sight of God, he is a king now; and he must say, with regard to his brethren and himself, “And He hast made us,” even now, “unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign upon the earth.” A Christian is a king. He is not simply like a king, but he is a king, actually and truly. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0010.cfm

His Finished Covenant

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

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. -Romans 4:25

Beloved, our Saviour Jesus Christ finished the great work of making us what we are, by His ascension into heaven. If He had not risen up on high and led captivity captive, His death would have been insufficient. He “died for our sins,” but He “rose again for our justification.” The resurrection of our Saviour, in His majesty, when He burst the bonds of death, was to us the assurance that God had accepted His sacrifice; and His ascension up on high, was but as a type and a figure of the real and actual ascension of all His saints, when He shall come in the clouds of judgment, and shall call all His people to Him. Mark the man-God, as He goes upward towards heaven; behold His triumphal march through the skies, whilst stars sing His praises, and planets dance in solemn order; behold Him traverse the unknown fields of ether till He arrives at the throne of God in the seventh heaven, Then hear Him say to His Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do; behold Me and the children Thou hast given me; I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course; I have done all; I have accomplished every type; I have finished every part of the covenant; there is not one iota I have left unfulfilled, or one tittle that is left out; all is done.” And hark, how they sing before the throne of God when thus He speaks: “Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0010.cfm

Our Blood-Bought Treasure

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

I will celebrate my deliverance and call on the name of the LORD. – Psalm 116:13 

Jesus said, “I will take the cup of salvation;” and He did take it-the cup of our deliverance. Bitter were its drops; gall lay in its depths; there were groans, and sighs, and tears, within the red mixture but He took it all, and drank it to its dregs, and swallowed all the awful draught. All was gone. He drank the cup of salvation, and He ate the bread of affliction… Behold His brow covered with sweat; witness the agonies as they follow each other into the very depths of His soul. Speak, ye lost, and tell what hell’s torment means; but ye cannot tell what the torments of Gethsemane were… Ah! that wrestling man-God-that suffering man of Gethsemane! Weep o’er Him, saints-weep o’er Him; when ye see Him rising from that prayer in the garden, marching forth to His cross; when ye picture Him hanging on His cross four long hours in the scorching sun, overwhelmed by His Father’s passing wrath-when ye see His side streaming with gore-when ye hear His death-shriek, “It is finished,”-and see His lips all parched, and moistened by nothing save the vinegar and the gall,-ah! then prostrate yourselves before that cross, bow down before that sufferer, and say, “Thou hast made us-Thou hast made us what we are; we are nothing without Thee.” The cross of Jesus is the foundation of the glory of the saints; Calvary is the birth-place of heaven; heaven was born in Bethlehem’s manger; had it not been for the sufferings and agonies of Golgotha we should have had no blessing. Oh, saint! in every mercy see the Saviour’s blood; look on this Book-it is sprinkled with His blood; look on this house of prayer-it is sanctified by His sufferings; look on your daily food-it is purchased with His groans. Let every mercy come to you as a blood-bought treasure; value it because it comes from Him; and ever more say, “Thou hast made us what we are.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0010.cfm

By That Very Signature

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

And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.  -Revelation 5:10

When did Christ make His people kings and priests? When could it be said, “And hath made us kings and priests unto our God?”…He made us kings and priests, virtually, when He signed the covenant of grace. Far, far back in eternity, the Magna Charta of the saints was written by the hand of God, and it needed one signature to make it valid. There was a stipulation in that covenant that the Mediator should become incarnate should live a suffering life, and at last endure a death of ignominy; and it needed but one signature, the signature of the Son of God, to make that covenant valid, eternal, and “ordered in all things and sure.” Methinks I see Him now, as my imagination pictures the lofty Son of God grasping the pen. See how His fingers write the name; and there it stands in everlasting letters-” THE SON!” O sacred ratification of the treaty; it is stamped and sealed with the great seal of our Father in heaven. O glorious covenant, then for ever made secure! At the moment of the signature of this wondrous document, the spirits before the throne-I mean the angels-might have taken up the song, and said of the whole body of the elect, “And hast made you kings and priests unto your God;” and could all the chosen company have started into existence, they could have clapped their hands and sung, “Here we are by that very signature constituted kings and priests unto our God.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0010.cfm