salvation

Giving Joy to Christ

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

Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. – Song of Songs 4:16

When the Beloved comes into His garden, the heart’s humble but earnest entreaty is, “Let Him eat His pleasant fruits.” Would you keep back anything from Christ? I know you could not if He were to come into His garden. The best things that you have, you would first present to Him, and then everything that you have, you would bring to Him, and leave all at His dear feet. We do not ask Him to come to the garden that we may lay up our fruits, that we may put them by and store them up for ourselves; we ask Him to come and eat them. The greatest joy of a Christian is to give joy to Christ; I do not know whether heaven itself can overmatch this pearl of giving joy to the heart of Jesus Christ on earth. It can match it, but not overmatch it, for it is a superlative joy to give joy to Him, -the Man of sorrows, who was emptied of joy for our sakes, and who now is filled up again with joy as each one of us shall come and bring his share and cause the heart of Christ a new and fresh delight.

Often, persons come to me, and tell me of souls that were saved through my ministry twenty years ago. I heard, the other day, of one who was brought to Christ by a sermon of mine nearly thirty years ago, and I said to the friend who told me, “Thank you, thank you; you could not tell me anything that would give my heart such joy as this good news that God has made me the instrument of a soul’s conversion.” But what must be the joy of Christ who does all the work of salvation; who redeems us from sin, and death, and hell, when He sees such creatures as we are, made to be like Himself, and knows the divine possibilities of glory and immortality that lie within us? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2475.cfm

Our High Dignity

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

“Fellow citizens with the saints.”-Ephesians 2:19

What is meant by our being citizens in heaven? It means that we are under heaven’s government. Christ the king of heaven reigns in our hearts; our daily prayer is, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The proclamations issued from the throne of glory are freely received by us: the decrees of the Great King we cheerfully obey. Then as citizens of the New Jerusalem, we share heaven’s honours. The glory which belongs to beatified saints belongs to us, for we are already sons of God, already princes of the blood imperial; already we wear the spotless robe of Jesus’ righteousness; already we have angels for our servitors, saints for our companions, Christ for our Brother, God for our Father, and a crown of immortality for our reward. We share the honours of citizenship, for we have come to the general assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven. As citizens, we have common rights to all the property of heaven. Ours are its gates of pearl and walls of chrysolite; ours the azure light of the city that needs no candle nor light of the sun; ours the river of the water of life, and the twelve manner of fruits which grow on the trees planted on the banks thereof; there is nought in heaven that belongeth not to us. “Things present, or things to come,” all are ours. Also, as citizens of heaven we enjoy its delights. Do they there rejoice over sinners that repent-prodigals that have returned? So do we. Do they chant the glories of triumphant grace? We do the same. Do they cast their crowns at Jesus’ feet? Such honours as we have we cast there too. Are they charmed with His smile? It is not less sweet to us who dwell below. Do they look forward, waiting for His second advent? We also look and long for His appearing. If then, we are thus citizens of heaven, let our walk and actions be consistent with our high dignity. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Partakers of the Divine Nature

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

…they shall not depart from Me. – Jeremiah 32:40

The fear of God is kept alive in our hearts by the hearing of the Word, for faith cometh by hearing, and holy fear cometh through faith. Be diligent, then, in hearing the Word. That fear is kept alive in our hearts by reading the Scriptures; for as we feed on the Word, it breathes within us that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom. This fear of God is maintained in us by the belief of revealed truth, and meditation thereon. Study the doctrines of grace and be instructed in the analogy of the faith. Know the gospel well and thoroughly, and this will bring fuel to the fire of the fear of God in your hearts. Be much in private prayer; for that stirs up the fire, and makes it burn more brilliantly. Seek to live near to God, to abide in Him; for as you abide in Him, and His words abide in you, you shall bring forth much fruit, and so shall you be His disciples.

Does the gift of grace make us partakers of the divine nature and cause us to escape the corruption which is in the world through lust? then let us have it. I pray that some here may desire salvation because it secures a life of holiness. The sweetmeat which tempted me to Christ was this-I believed that salvation was an insurance of character. In what better way can a young man cleanse his life than by putting himself into the holy hands of the Lord Jesus, to be kept from falling? I said, “If I give myself to Christ, He will save me from my sins.” Therefore, I came to Him, and He keeps me. Oh, how musical these words, “They shall not depart from Me!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm

This Perseverance of the Saints

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

…they shall not depart from Me – Jeremiah 32:40

There moves in our hearts a deep sense of grateful obligation. God is so good to me; how can I sin? He loves me so, how can I vex Him? He favours me so greatly from day to day that I cannot do that which is contrary to His will. Did you ever receive a choice and special mercy? It has often fallen to my lot; and when the tears have been in my eyes at the sight of so great a favour, I have felt that if a temptation came to me, it would come at a time when I had neither heart, nor eye, nor ear for it. Gratitude bars the door against sin. Great love received overthrows great temptation to wander. Our cry is, “The Lord bathes me in His love, He indulges me with the nearest and dearest fellowship with Himself, and how can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Loved of Him so specially, and united to Him by an everlasting covenant, how can we fly in the face of love so wonderful? Surely, we can find no pleasure in offending so gracious a God; but it is our joy to do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word.

See, beloved, this perseverance of the saints, is perseverance in holiness: “They shall not depart from Me.” If the grace of God has really changed you, you are radically and lastingly changed…The work that is done in regeneration is not a temporary work, by which a man is, for a time, reformed; but it is an everlasting work, by which the man is born for heaven. There is a life implanted at the new birth, which cannot die, for it is a living and incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth for ever. Grace will go on working in a man until it leads him to glory. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm

What is this fear of God?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

…I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me. – Jeremiah 32:40

The Lord saith, “I will put My fear in their hearts.” It would never be found there if He did not put it there. It will never spring up naturally in any heart. “I will put My fear in their hearts”; that is, regeneration and conversion. He makes us tremble before His law. He makes us feel the smart and bitterness of sin. He causes us to remember the God we once forgot, and to obey the Lord whom once we defied. “I will put My fear in their hearts” is the first great act of conversion, and it is continued throughout life by the perpetual working of the Spirit upon the heart. The work which commences at conversion is duly carried on in the converted ones; for the Lord still puts His fear into their hearts. How the Spirit of God works we cannot tell: He has ways of acting directly upon our minds which are all His own and cannot be understood by us. But without violating the freedom of our nature, leaving us men as we were before, He knows how to make us continue in the fear of God. This is God’s great holdfast upon His people, “I will put My fear in their hearts.”

What is this fear of God? It is a holy awe and reverence of the great God. Taught of God, we come to see His infinite greatness, and the fact that He is everywhere present with us; and then, filled with a devout sense of His Godhead, we dare not sin. Since God is near, we cannot offend. God is our Father, and we feel the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father.” This child-like love kindles in us a fear to grieve Him whom we love, and therefore we have no desire to depart from Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm

Securely Kept

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

…I will not turn away from them, to do them good… – Jeremiah 32:40

He hath given meat unto them that fear Him: He will ever be mindful of His covenant. – Psalm 111:5

If the Lord’s chosen and redeemed are cast away, where is the glory of His redemption? Will not the enemy say of the Lord, “He had not the power to carry out His covenant, nor the constancy to continue blessing them”? Shall that ever be said of God? Will He thus lose the glory of His omnipotence and immutability? I cannot believe that any purpose of the Lord can fail; neither can I conceive that He can withdraw His declarations of love to those with whom He is in covenant. The God whom we adore and reverence, the God of Abraham, the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, fainteth not, neither is weary. “He is in one mind, and who can turn Him?” “He will ever be mindful of His covenant.” Of our Lord Jesus we truly sing-

“His honour is engaged to save
The meanest of His sheep;
All that His heavenly Father gave,
His hands securely keep.”

Whether my arguments seem good to you or not, is of small consequence; for the text is the inspired Word of God, and it cannot be misunderstood or questioned. Thus saith the Lord, “I will not turn away from them, to do them good.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm

His Sure Pledge

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

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. – Romans 5:6

When God gave His Son, He gave us a sure pledge that He meant to finish His work of love. They say of a man that does not finish his work, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish”; but that shall never be said of the Lord Jehovah. The Lord God has laid out His whole Deity to save His people, and given His whole self in the person of the Well-beloved for our redemption; and can you believe that He will fail in it? Surely, the idea is blasphemous. Some of us have known too much love already to believe that it will ever cease to flow towards us. We have been so favoured that we dare not fear that His favour toward us will cease. So heavenly, so divine is the sense of the love of God, when it is revealed to the soul, that we cannot believe that it has been given to mock us. We have been carried away with such torrents of love, that we will never believe that they can be dried up. The Lord has communed with us so closely, that the secret of the Lord is with us, and He will for ever recognize that mystic token by which our union has been sealed. Like Paul, each one of us may say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” The cost to which our Lord has gone assures us that He will complete His designs of grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2108.cfm