The Father

Sorrow at His Cross but Worship at His Throne

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father 2 Comments

“And He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God; and they shall abide: for now shall He be great unto the ends of the earth.”-Micah 5:4.

You have a very vivid idea of the sufferings of Christ. Your faith has seen Him sweating great drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane. You have looked on with amazement while He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them who plucked off the hair, and hid not His face from shame and spitting. With sorrowful sympathy you have followed Him through the streets of Jerusalem, weeping and bewailing Him with the women. You have sat down to watch Him when He was fastened to the tree; yon have wept at His bitter complaint-“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” and you have rejoiced in His shout of victory-“It is finished!” With Magdalene and Nicodemus, you have followed His dead body to the tomb, and seen it wrapped about with spices, and left to its lonely sleep. Are your perceptions quite as keen concerning the glory which did follow and is following? Can you see Him quite as distinctly when on the third morn the Conqueror rises, bursting the bonds of death with which He could not be holden? Can yon as clearly view Him ascending up on high, leading captivity captive? Can you hear the ring of angelic clarions, as with dyed garments from Bozrah the Victor returns from the battle, dragging death and hell at His chariot wheels? Do you plainly perceive Him as He takes His seat at the right hand of the Father, henceforth expecting until His enemies be made His footstool? And can you be as clear about the reigning Christ as you have been about the suffering Christ? Behold Him, my brethren, in His present plenitude of glory, and endeavor to get as clear a perception of it as you have had of His shame. Not only weep at His burial, but rejoice at His resurrection; not only sorrow at His cross, but worship at His throne. Do not merely think of the nails and of the spear but behold the imperial purple which hangs so nobly upon His royal shoulders, and of the divine crown which He wears upon His majestic brow. “He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0560.cfm

A Rest for the People of God.

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

There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. – Hebrews 4:9

Oh! happy truth, there remaineth a rest for the people of God. ” They rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.” Others of you are always in the field of battle; you are so tempted within, and so molested by foes without, that you have little or no peace. I know where your hope lies. It lies in the victory, when the banner shall be waved aloft, and the sword shall be sheathed, and you shall hear your Captain say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast fought a good fight; thou hast finished thy course: henceforth wear thou the crown of life which fadeth not away.” Some of you are tossed about with many troubles; you go from care to care, from loss to loss: it seems to you as if all God’s waves and billows had gone over you; but you shall soon arrive at the land of happiness, where you shall bathe your weary soul in seas of heavenly rest, You shall have no poverty soon; no mud-hovel, no rags, nor hunger. “In My Father’s house are many mansions,” and there shall you dwell, satisfied with favor, and full of every blessing. You have had bereavement after bereavement; the wife has been carried to the tomb, the children have followed, father and mother are gone, and you have few left to love you here; but you are going to the land where graves are unknown things, where they never see a shroud, and the sound of the mattock and the spade are never heard; you are going to your Father’s house in the land of the immortal, in the country of the hereafter, in the home of the blessed, in the habitation of God Most High, in the Jerusalem which is above, the mother of us all. Is not this your best joy, that you are not to be here for ever, that you are not to dwell eternally in this wilderness, but shall soon inherit Canaan? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0562.cfm

Heavenly Blessings in Him

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

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. – 1 Corinthians 15:19

He who shall affirm that Christianity makes men miserable, is himself an utter stranger to it, and has never partaken of its joyful influences. It were a very strange thing indeed, if it did make us wretched, for see to what a position it exalts us! It makes us sons of God. Suppose you that God will give all the happiness to His enemies, and reserve all the mourning for His sons? Shall His foes have mirth and joy, and shall His own home-born children inherit sorrow and wretchedness? Are the kisses for the wicked and the frowns for us? Are we condemned to hang our harps upon the willows, and sing nothing but doleful dirges, while the children of Satan are to laugh for joy of heart? We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus. Shall the sinner, who has no part nor lot in Christ, call himself happy, and shall we go mourning as if we were penniless beggars? No, we will rejoice in the Lord always, and glory in our inheritance, for we “have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” The rod of chastisement must rest upon us in our measure, but it worketh for us the comfortable fruits of righteousness; and therefore, by the aid of the divine Comforter, we will rejoice in the Lord at all times. We are, my brethren, married unto Christ; and shall our great Bridegroom permit His spouse to linger in constant grief? Our hearts are knit unto Him: we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones, and though for a while we may suffer as our Head once suffered, yet we are even now blessed with heavenly blessings in Him. Shall our Head reign in heaven, and shall we have a hell upon earth? God forbid: the joyful triumph of our exalted Head is in a measure shared by us, even in this vale of tears. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0562.cfm

In the World

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father 4 Comments

…having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

You are in the world, and, as you all too surely feel, temptations have shown you that you are not yet in Heaven; you have sighed for a lodge in some vast wilderness, that you might cease from the troublers of earth, for what with the evil language which you hear, the corrupt practices which come under your notice, the temptations that are thrust in your own way, and the persecutions and the cruel mockings with which you are tried, you feel that this is a wretched world to live in. Now mark, Jesus loves His own who are in the world. You men that have to work with so many bad fellows, you tradesmen who have to go in among many who shock you, you good work girls, who meet with so many tempters, if you are His, He loves His own which are in the world.

As the sparks fly upward, so were we born to trouble-why do we count it a strange thing? But Jesus loves His own which are in this dolorous world: this is the balm of our griefs, and I call upon you to hold to it, and not let the devil delude you into the idea that the Lord does not love you because affliction happens to you as it does to other men. Of course, it must so happen so long as you are in the world. How can you expect exemption? Would you have a glass case made for you to keep you snug away from all the frosts and winds of this world? Would you have your heavenly Father indulge you with all the sweet things of this life, and spoil you for the life to come? Would you strike the root in this world and never be transplanted to the heavenly Eden? Do you wish to have your rest and portion in this life? Oh! no; you could not wish for that. Well, then, take what God sends to you, receive evil as well as good from Jehovah’s hand, as Job aforetime did; but never let it be the thought of your heart that Jesus does not love you because you are subjected to evils which are necessary to the place in which, for wise reasons, He suffers you for a little to remain. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

Infinite Love

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

…having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

As to the past, let us with holy contemplation review it: Jesus has loved His own people from of old. A most blessed fact! He has loved them eternally. There never was a time when He did not love them. His love is positively dateless: before the heavens and earth were made, and the stars were first touched with the torch of flame, Jesus had received His people from His Father, and written their names on His heart. This everlasting love has a speciality about it. Our Lord has a general love of benevolence towards all His creatures, for “God is love;” but He has a special place in His heart for His own peculiar ones. There is a discriminating and distinguishing power about that love that is spoken of in the text, for it is not said, “Having loved all men,” but “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” Jesus, before all the world, set the crown of His peculiar love upon those whom He foreordained unto His glory.

This love of His is infinite. Jesus does not love His own with a little of His love, nor regard them with some small degree of affection, but He says, “As the Father hath loved Me, even so have I loved you,” and the Father’s love to the Son is inconceivably great, since they are one in essence, ineffably one. The Father cannot but love the Son infinitely, neither doth the Son ever love His people less than with all His heart. It is an affection which no angelic mind could measure; it is inconceivable, unknown. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

Truth: the Infinite God Loves Me

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

…because He first loved us. – 1 John 4:19

Get the thought into your head a minute: “God loves me-not merely bears with me, thinks of me, feeds me, but loves me. Oh, it is a very sweet thing to feel that we have the love of a dear wife, or a kind husband; and there is much sweetness in the love of a fond child, or a tender mother; but to think that God loves me, this is infinitely better! Who is it that loves you? God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Almighty, All in all, does He love me? Even He? If all men, and all angels, and all the living creatures that are before the throne loved me, it were nothing to this-the Infinite loves me! And who is it that He loves? Me. The text saith, “us.” “We love Him because He first loved us.” But this is the personal point-He loves me, an insignificant nobody, full of sin-who deserved to be in hell; who loves Him so little in return-God loves me. Beloved believer, does not this melt you? Does not this fire your soul? I know it does if it is really believed. It must. And how did He love me? He loved me so that He gave up His only begotten Son for me, to be nailed to the tree, and made to bleed and die. And what will come of it? Why, because He loved me and forgave me, I am on the way to heaven…He loved me before I was born; before a star begun to shine, He loved me, and He has never ceased to do so all these years. When I have sinned He has loved me; when I have forgotten Him He has loved me; and when in the days of my sin I cursed Him, yet still He loved me; and He will love me when my knees tremble, and my hair is grey with age, “even to hoar hairs” He will bear and carry His servant; and He will love me when the world is on a blaze, and love me for ever, and for ever. Oh, chew the cud of this blessed thought; roll it under your tongue as a dainty morsel; sit down this afternoon, if you have leisure, and think of nothing but this-His great love wherewith He loves you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1008.cfm

Prodigal, God Loves You Still

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

 “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” – 1 John 2:1

The motive power which draws back the backslider is the cord of love, the band of a man, which makes him feel he must go back to God with weeping and repentance, because God loves him still. What man among you hath a son who has disobeyed him and gone from him, and is living in drunkenness, and in all manner of lust? If you have in anger told him, so that he doubts it not, that you have struck his name out of your family, and will not regard him as a child any longer, do you think that your severity will induce him to return to you in love? Far from it. But suppose instead thereof, you still assure him that you love him; that there is always a place at your table for him, and a bed in your house for him, ay, and better still, a warm place in your heart for him; suppose he sees your tears and hears your prayers for him, will not this draw him? Yes, indeed, if he be a son. It is even thus between thy God and thee, O backslider…Surely, if anything will draw you back, this will. “Ah !’ saith the wandering son, “my dear Father loves me still. I will arise and go to Him. I will not vex so tender a heart. I will be His loving son again.” God does not say to you prodigals, who once professed His name, “I have unchilded you, I have cast you away,” but He says, “I love you still; and for My name’s sake will I restrain My wrath that I cut you not off.” Come to your offended Father, and you shall find that He has not repented of His love but will embrace you still. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1008.cfm