The Father

Much Love and Much Forgiveness

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, The Father 4 Comments

…and covered him with kisses. – Luke 15:20

There stood the prodigal, overwhelmed by his father’s goodness, yet remembering his past life. As he looked on himself, and thought, “I have these old rags on still, and I have just come from feeding the swine,” I can imagine that his father would give him another kiss, as much as to say, “My boy, I do not recollect the past; I am so glad to see you that I do not see any filth on you, or any rags on you either. I am so delighted to have you with me once more that, as I would pick up a diamond out of the mire, and be glad to get the diamond again, so do I pick you up, you are so precious to me.” This is the gracious and glorious way in which God treats those who return to Him. As for their sin, He has put it away so that He will not remember it. Well may we adore and magnify His matchless mercy as we sing-

“In wonder lost, with trembling joy
We take the pardon of our God;
Pardon for crimes of deepest dye;
A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood;
Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?”

“Well,” says one, “can such a wonderful change ever take place with me?” By the grace of God it may be experienced by every man who is willing to return to God. I pray God that it may happen now, and that you may get such assurance of it from the Word of God, by the power of His Holy Spirit, and from a sight of the precious blood of Christ shed for your redemption, that you may be able to say, “I understand it now; I see how He kisses all my sin away; and when it rises, He kisses it away again; and when I think of it with shame, He gives me another kiss; and when I blush all over at the remembrance of my evil deeds, He kisses me again and again, to assure me that I am fully and freely forgiven.” Thus the many kisses from the prodigal’s father combined to make his wayward son feel that his sin was indeed all gone. They revealed much love and much forgiveness. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/luk/15/20/s_988020

Acknowledge Your Sin to God

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

And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. – Luke 15:21-24

The prodigal had many sins to confess; but before he came to the details of them, his father had forgiven him. I love confession of sin after forgiveness. Some suppose that after we are forgiven we are never to confess; but, oh, beloved, it is then that we confess most truly, because we know the guilt of sin most really! Then do we plaintively sing-

“My sins, my sins, my Saviour,
How sad on Thee they fall!
Seen through Thy gentle patience,
I tenfold feel them all,
I know they are forgiven,
But still their pain to me
Is all the grief and anguish
They laid, my Lord, on Thee.”

To think that Christ should have washed me from my sins in His own blood, makes me feel my sin the more keenly, and confess it the more humbly before God. The picture of this prodigal is marvelously true to the experience of those who return to God. His father kissed him with the kiss of forgiveness; and yet, after that, the young man went on to say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” Do not hesitate, then, to acknowledge your sin to God, even though you know that in Christ it is all put away. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2236.cfm

Torrents of Love

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father 3 Comments

…his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses. – Luke 15:20 (DBY)

In the Revised Version, if you will kindly look at the margin, you will find that the text there reads, “And kissed him much.” This is a very good translation of the Greek, which might bear the meaning, “Kissed him earnestly,” or “Kissed him eagerly,” or “Kissed him often.”…God never gives an expression of love without feeling it in His infinite heart. God will never give a Judas-kiss, and betray those whom He embraces. There is no hypocrisy with God; He never kisses those for whom He has no love. Oh, how God loves the sinner! You who repent, and come to Him, will discover how greatly He loves you. There is no measuring the love He bears towards you. He has loved you before the foundation of the world, and He will love you when time shall be no more. Oh, the immeasurable love of God to sinners who come and cast themselves upon His mercy!

This much kissing also means much love manifested. God’s people do not always know the greatness of His love to them. Sometimes, however, it is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Some of us know at times what it is to be almost too happy to live! …Beloved, God has wondrous ways of opening His people’s hearts to the manifestation of His grace. He can pour in, not now and then a drop of His love, but great and mighty streams. Madame Guyon used to speak of the torrents of love that come sweeping through the spirit, bearing all before them. The poor prodigal in the parable had so much love manifested to him, that he might have sung of the torrents of his father’s affection. That is the way God receives those whom He saves, giving them not a meager measure of grace, but manifesting an overflowing love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2236.cfm

When He Comes, He Comes to Kiss

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

…his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him. – Luke 15:20

The compassion of God is followed by swift movements. He is slow to anger, but He is quick to bless. He does not take any time to consider how He shall show His love to penitent prodigals; that was all done long ago in the eternal covenant. He has no need to prepare for their return to Him; that was done on Calvary. God comes flying in the greatness of His compassion to help every poor penitent soul.

“On cherub and on cherubim,
Full royalty He rode;
And on the wings of mighty winds
Came flying all abroad.”

And when He comes, He comes to kiss. Master Trapp says that, if we had read that the father had kicked his prodigal son, we should not have been very much astonished. Well, I should have been very greatly astonished, seeing that the father in the parable was to represent God. But still, his son deserved all the rough treatment that some heartless men might have given; and had the story been that of a selfish human father only, it might have been written that “as he was coming near, his father ran at him, and kicked him.” There are such fathers in the world, who seem as if they cannot forgive. If he had kicked him, it would have been no more than he had deserved. But no, what is written in the Book stands true for all time, and for every sinner,-“He fell on his neck, and kissed him”; kissed him eagerly, kissed him much. ` C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2236.cfm

God’s Condescending Love

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, The Father Leave a comment

But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. – Luke 15:20

The condescension of God towards penitent sinners is very great. He seems to stoop from His throne of glory to fall upon the neck of a repentant sinner. God on the neck of a sinner! What a wonderful picture! Can you conceive it? I do not think you can; but if you cannot imagine it, I hope that you will realize it. When God’s arm is about our neck, and His lips are on our cheek, kissing us much, then we understand more than preachers or books can ever tell us of His condescending love.

The father “saw” his son. There is a great deal in that word, “saw.” He saw who it was; saw where he had come from; saw the swineherd’s dress; saw the filth upon his hands and feet; saw his rags; saw his penitent look; saw what he had been; saw what he was; and saw what he would soon be. “His father saw him.” God has a way of seeing men and women that you and I cannot understand. He sees right through us at a glance, as if we were made of glass; He sees all our past, present and future… God has compassion on the woes and miseries of men. They may have brought their troubles on themselves, and they have indeed done so; but nevertheless God has compassion upon them. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2236.cfm

Swift are the Feet of Forgiveness

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, The Father 1 Comment

“And kissed him.”- Luke 15:20

Before the prodigal son received these kisses of love, he had said in the far country, “I will arise and go to my father.” He had, however, done more than that, else his father’s kiss would never have been upon his cheek. The resolve had become a deed: “He arose, and came to his father.” A bushelful of resolutions is of small value; a single grain of practice is worth the whole. The determination to return home is good; but it is when the wandering boy begins the business of really carrying out the good resolve, that he draws near the blessing.

Before the kisses of love were given, this young man was on his way to his father; but he would not have reached him unless his father had come the major part of the way… If you come a little way to Him, when you are “yet a great way off” He will run to meet you. I do not know that the prodigal saw his father, but his father saw him. The eyes of mercy are quicker than the eyes of repentance. Even the eyes of our faith is dim compared with the eye of God’s love. He sees a sinner long before a sinner sees Him.

I do not suppose that the prodigal travelled very fast. I should imagine that he came very slowly-

“With heavy heart and downcast eye,
With many a sob and many a sigh.”

He was resolved to come, yet he was half afraid. But we read that his father ran. Slow are the steps of repentance, but swift are the feet of forgiveness. God can run where we scarcely limp, and if we are limping towards Him, He will run towards us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2236.cfm

The Lord’s Delights

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

Then said He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. – Hebrews 10:9

Our Lord delighted to carry out all the purposes and desires of the Most High God. He so delighted in the will of God that He came to do it, and to bear it, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He also delighted in God. He took an intense delight in glorifying the Father. He came to reveal the Father, and make Him to be beloved of men. He did all things to please God. Moreover, He took a delight in us; and here, though the object of His love is less, the love itself is heightened by the conspicuous condescension. The Lord Jesus took a deep delight in His people, whose names were written on His heart, and graven on the palms of His hands. His heart was fixed on their redemption, and therefore He would present Himself as a sacrifice on their behalf. The people whom the Father gave Him from before the foundation of the world lay on His very soul; for them He had a baptism to be baptized with, and He was straitened till it was accomplished. He gave Himself no rest till He had left both joy and rest to ransom His own.

When our Lord was here, He was the most blessed of men. Do you start? Do you remind me that He was “a man of sorrows”? I grant you that none was more afflicted; but I still stand to it, that within Him dwelt a joy of the highest order. To Him it was joy to be in sorrow, and honor to be put to shame…You shall never go too far in your estimate of His unfathomable griefs; but going with you to the full in it all, I shall take liberty still to say that He had within Himself a fountain of joy, which enabled Him to endure the cross, and even to despise the shame. Blessed among men was He, even when He was made a curse for us! With delight He gave Himself for us, and made a cheerful surrender of Himself, that He might be the ransom for many. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2202.cfm