Sovereignty of God

Always and Ever Lovely

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

He is altogether lovely. – Songs 5:16

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. – Hebrews 13:8

No fairer flower ever bloomed in the garden of creation than the mind of that youth of Nazareth gradually unfolding, as He “grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him.” All the while He lived on earth, what moral perfections, what noble qualities, what spiritual charms were about His sacred person! His life among men is a succession of charming pictures. And He was lovely in His bitter passion, when as the thick darkness overshadowed His soul He prayed, in an agony of desire, “Not My will, but Thine, be done.” The bloody sweat did not disfigure, but adorned Him. And oh, was He not lovely when He died? Without resentment He interceded for His murderers. His patience, His self-possession, His piety, as “the faithful martyr,” have fixed as the meridian of time the hour when He said, “It is finished,” and “bowed His head,” and “cried with a loud voice, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” He is lovely in His resurrection from the dead; beyond description lovely. Not a word of accusation did He utter against His cruel persecutors, though He had risen clothed with all power in heaven and in earth. With such tender sympathy did He make Himself known to His sorrowing disciples, that despite the waywardness of their unbelief their hearts’ instinct told them it was “the same Jesus.” He is altogether lovely.

He will be lovely when He comes with solemn pomp, and sound of trumpet, and escort of mighty angels, and brings all His saints who have departed with Him, and calls up those that are alive and remain on the earth till His advent, to meet Him in the air. Oh, how lovely He will appear to the two throngs who will presently join in one company! How admirable will His appearance be! How eyes, ears, hearts and voices will greet Him! With what unanimity the host redeemed by blood will account their highest acclamations as a trivial tribute to His honour and glory! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1446.cfm

His Beauty

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

Yea, he is altogether lovely. – Songs 5:16

You find all virtues in Jesus, and each one of them at its best. If you would take the best quality of one saint, and the best quality of another-yea, the best out of each and all the myriads of His people, you would find no grace or goodness among them all which Jesus does not possess in the fullest degree and in the highest perfection. He combines all the virtues, and gives them all a sweetness over and beyond themselves. In flowers you have a separate beauty belonging to each; no one flower is just like another, but each one blushes with its own loveliness: but in our Lord these separate and distinct beauties are found united in one. Christ is the posy in which all the beauties of the garden of perfection are bound up. Each gem has its own radiance: the diamond is not like the ruby, nor the ruby like the emerald; but Christ is that ring in which you have sapphire, ruby, diamond, emerald, set in choice order, so that each one heightens the other’s brilliance. Look not for anything lovely out of Jesus, for He has all the loveliness. All perfections are in Him making up one consummate perfection; and all the loveliness which is to be seen elsewhere is but a reflection of His own unrivalled charms...In Him is nothing redundant, nothing overgrown. He is altogether lovely. You never need put the finger over the scar in His case, as Apelles did when he painted his hero. No; tell it all out: reveal the details of His private life and secret thoughts, they need no concealment. Lay bare the very heart of Christ, for that is the essence of love and loveliness. Speak of His death-wounds, for in His scars there is more beauty than in the uninjured comeliness of another: and even when He lies dead in the tomb He is more comely than the immortal angels of God at their best estate. Nothing about our Lord needs to be concealed; even His cross at which His enemies stumble, is to be daily proclaimed, and it will be seen to be one of His choicest beauties. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1446.cfm

This is Rare Praise

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father 5 Comments

My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. – Songs 5:16

There is no point in our Lord Jesus that you could improve. To paint the rose were to spoil its ruddy hue. To tint the lily (for He is lily as well as rose), were to mar its whiteness. Each virtue in our Lord is there in a state of absolute perfection: it could not be more fully developed. If you were able to conceive of each virtue at its ripest stage it would be found in Him. In the matter of transparent ingenuousness and sterling honesty, did ever man speak or act so truthfully as He? Ask, on the other hand, for sympathizing tenderness and love, was ever any so gentle as Jesus? Do you want reverence to God? See how He bows before the Father. Do you want boldness before men? See how He bears the Pharisees. You could not better anything which you find in Jesus. Wherever you shall cast your eye it may rest with satisfaction, for the best of the best of the best is to be seen in Him. He is altogether lovely at every separate point, so that the spouse, when she began with His head, descended to His feet, and then lifting her eyes upward again upon a return voyage of delight, she looked into His countenance and summed up all that she had seen in this one sentence, “He is altogether lovely.” This is rare praise. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1446.cfm

His All-Conquering Loveliness

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

His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. – Songs 5:16

“He is altogether lovely.” Not only is His teaching attractive, His doctrine persuasive, His life irreproachable, His character enchanting, and His work a self-denying labour for the common good of all His people, but He Himself is altogether lovely. I suppose at first we shall always begin to love Him because He first loved us, and even to the last His love to us will always be the strongest motive of our affection towards Him; still there ought to be added to this another reason less connected with ourselves, and more entirely arising out of His own superlative excellence; we ought to love Him because He is lovely and deserves to be loved. The time should come, and with some of us it has come, when we can heartily say “we love Him because we cannot help it, for His all-conquering loveliness has quite ravished our hearts.” Surely it is but an unripe fruit to love Him merely for the benefits which we have received at His hand. It is a fruit of grace, but it is not of the ripest flavour; at least, there are other fruits, both new and old, which we have laid up for Thee, O our Beloved, and some of them have a daintier taste. There is a sweet and mellow fruit which can only be brought forth by the summer sun of fellowship-love because of the Redeemer’s intrinsic goodness and personal sweetness. Oh that we might love our Lord for His own sake, love Him because He is so supremely beautiful that a glimpse of Him has won our hearts, and made Him dearer to our eyes than light. Oh that all true and faithful disciples of our beloved Lord would press forward towards that state of affection, and never rest till they reach it! If any of you have not reached it, you need not therefore doubt your own safety, for whatever the reason why you love Jesus, if you love Him at all, it is a sure pledge and token that He loves you, and that you are saved in Him with an everlasting salvation. Still covet earnestly the best gifts, and rise to the highest degree of devotion,. Love as the purest of the saints have loved; love as John the apostle loved, for still your Lord exceeds all the loving homage you can pay to Him. Love His person, love Himself; for He is better than all that He has done or given; and as from Himself all blessings flow, so back to Himself should all love return. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1446.cfm

Diamond Must Cut Diamond

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

It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. – Matthew 10: 25,26

I have known the day when perplexities pleased me, dilemmas afforded me delight, and instead of declining a difficult task I rather like it. Even now I enjoy puzzling over a problem, and attempting what others decline. Nothing good in this world can be effected without difficulty. The biggest diamonds lie under heavy stones which sluggards cannot turn over. That which is easy to do is hardly worth doing. In the face of difficulty the man of ardent, persevering spirit braces up his nerves, sharpens his wits, and brings all his powers into play to achieve an object that will reward his efforts. Have you great difficulties dear friend? You are not the first worker for God who has had difficulties to encounter…Any good thing, I say, especially any good thing done for God, must be surrounded with difficulties, and resisted by adversaries. Look at Nehemiah, and Ezra, and Zerubbabel, and those that built Jerusalem, the second time. These good men wrought zealously, but Sanballat and Tobiah were jeering and jesting, and trying to throw down the wall. If you build a city without difficulty, it is not Jerusalem. Be sure of that. As soon as ever you begin working for God you will find a great power working against you. If you encounter opposition, take it as a good sign…When you, my dear brother, meet with opposition, encounter it with prayer. Exercise more faith. Antagonists ought never to hinder your going forward in the cause of Christ. Diamond must cut diamond. There is nothing so hard in this world but you can cut it with something harder. If you ask God to steel your soul up to the conquering point, and to make your resolution like an adamant stone, you can cut your way through an alp of diamond in the service of your Lord and Master.

Let me inspirit you in the face of assailants. The forces ranged against you might be stumbling-blocks to fools, but they shall only prove a stimulus to men. One day your honour shall be the greater and your reward shall be the higher because of these adverse elements. Therefore, be brave and fear not, but advance in the strength of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

He Girds the Weak with Strength

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. – Zechariah 4:6

“I wish I could serve Jesus Christ like Paul, or like Whitefield-that I could range the country through proclaiming His dear name and winning thousands of converts. But I am slow of speech and dull of thought, and what I attempt produces little or no effect.” Well, brother, mind that you do what you can. Do you not recollect the parable of the men who had talents entrusted to them? I do not want to lay undue stress upon the fact that it was the man who had one talent who buried it. Yet why is he represented as doing so? I think it was not because the men of two and five talents do not sometimes bury theirs, but because the temptation lies most with the one talent people. They say, “What can I do? What is the use of me? I may be excused.” That is the temptation. Brother, do not be entangled in that snare. If your Lord has only given you one talent He does not expect you to make the same interest upon it as the man does with five; but still He does expect His interest, and therefore do not wrap your talent in a napkin. It is but with strength imparted that any of us can serve Him. We have nothing to consecrate to Him but the gift we have first received from Him. You are weak. You feel it; but what says your God to you? “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” He can make you useful though you have no extraordinary endowments. Grape-shot may do great execution, though it cannot compare with grenade or bomb-shell. A sinner may be brought to Christ by the simple earnestness of a peasant or an artisan, without calling in the aid of a professor’s learning or a preacher’s eloquence. God can bless you far above what you think to be your capacity, for it is not a question of your ability but of His aid. You have no self-reliance, you tell me. Then take refuge in God, I entreat you, for you evidently want more of the divine succor. Go and get it; it is to be had. He girds the weak with strength. “The young men shall faint and be weary, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Why, I think you are more likely to do good than if you had five talents, for now you will pray more and you will depend more upon God than you would have done if you had possessed strength of your own. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

Laid Aside Yet Serving Still

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God 4 Comments

But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian…And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. – Exodus 2:15,21

These times need so much Christian effort that when a man asks me, “How shall I do work for Christ”? I am accustomed to say, “Go and do it.” “But what is the way to do it”? Start at once. Get at it, my brother. Do not be out of harness a minute. But suppose that you are obliged to desist awhile, do not let your interest in the cause of our Lord and Master decline…If you are put away on the shelf, do not rust there, but pray the Master to brighten you up so that when He comes to use you again you may be fully fitted for the work which He has in hand for you.

Spend your time in prayer that you may be fit for the Master’s use, and, meanwhile, be prompt in helping others. You remember that, at the siege of Gibraltar, when the fleet surrounded it and determined to storm the old rock, the governor fired red-hot shot down upon the men of war. The enemy did not at all admire the governor’s warm reception. Think how it was done. Here were gunners on the ramparts firing away, and every man in the garrison would have liked to do the same. What did those do who could not serve a gun? Why, they heated the shot; and that is what you must do. I am master gunner here generally: heat my shot for me, if you will. Keep the furnace going, so that when we do fire off a sermon it may be red-hot, through your earnest prayers. When you see your friends sitting in the Sunday-school, or standing out in the street working for God, if you cannot join them yet say, “Never mind: I will heat the shot for them. My prayers shall not be wanting, if I can contribute nothing else.” That is counsel for you who are for awhile laid on the shelf. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm