The Father

Our Glorious Samson

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

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, “I thirst.” Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, “It is finished” and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost. – John 19:28-30

It seems to me very wonderful that this “I thirst” should be, as it were, the clearance of it all. He had no sooner said “I thirst,” and sipped the vinegar, than He shouted, “It is finished”; and all was over: the battle was fought and the victory won for ever, and our great Deliverer’s thirst was the sign of His having smitten the last foe. The flood of His grief has passed the high-water mark and began to be assuaged. The “I thirst” was the bearing of the last pang; what if I say it was the expression of the fact that His pangs had at last begun to cease, and their fury had spent itself, and left Him able to note His lesser pains? The excitement of a great struggle makes men forget thirst and faintness; it is only when all is over that they come back to themselves and note the spending of their strength. The great agony of being forsaken by God was over, and He felt faint when the strain was withdrawn. I like to think of our Lord’s saying, “It is finished,” directly after He had exclaimed, “I thirst”; for these two voices come so naturally together. Our glorious Samson had been fighting our foes; heaps upon heaps He had slain His thousands, and now like Samson He was sore athirst. He sipped of the vinegar, and He was refreshed, and no sooner has He thrown off the thirst than He shouted like a conqueror, “It is finished,” and quitted the field, covered with renown. Let us exult as we see our Substitute going through with His work even to the bitter end, and then with a “Consummatum est” returning to His Father, God. O souls, burdened with sin, rest ye here, and in resting, live. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1409.cfm

The Blood of Sprinkling

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

But ye are come unto mount Sion…and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling… – Hebrews 12:22,24

What is this “blood of sprinkling?” In a few words, “the blood of sprinkling” represents the pains, the sufferings, the humiliation, and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He endured on the behalf of guilty man. When we speak of the blood, we wish not to be understood as referring solely or mainly to the literal material blood which flowed from the wounds of Jesus. We believe in the literal fact of His shedding His blood, but when we speak of His cross and blood we mean those sufferings and that death of our Lord Jesus Christ by which He magnified the law of God; we mean what Isaiah intended when he said, “He shall make His soul an offering for sin;” we mean all the griefs which Jesus vicariously endured on our behalf at Gethsemane, and Gabbatha, and Golgotha, and especially His yielding up His life upon the tree of scorn and doom. “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.” “Without shedding of blood there is no remission;” and the shedding of blood intended is the death of Jesus, the Son of God.

Remember that His sufferings and death were not apparent only, but true and real, and that they involved an incalculable degree of pain and anguish. To redeem our souls cost our Lord an exceedingly sorrowfulness “even unto death;” it cost Him the bloody sweat, the heart broken with reproach, and especially the agony of being forsaken of His Father till He cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Our Mediator endured death under the worst possible aspects, bereft of those supports which are in all other cases of godly men afforded by the goodness and faithfulness of God. His was not merely a natural death, but a death aggravated by supernatural circumstance, which infinitely intensified its woe. This is what we mean by the blood of Christ, His sufferings, and His death. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1888.cfm

Covenanted Fellowship

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

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. – Hebrews 12:22-24

Brethren, our fellowship is with the Father, our God. To Him we have come through our Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, in the power of the Spirit of God we realize the oneness of the Church both in heaven and earth, and the spirits of just men made perfect are in union with us. No gulf divides the militant from the triumphant; we are one army of the living God. We sometimes speak of the holy dead, but there are none such, they live unto God, they are perfected as to their spirits even now, and they are waiting for the moment when their bodies also shall be raised from the tomb to be again inhabited by their immortal souls. We no longer shudder at the sepulcher but sing of resurrection. Our condition of heart, from day to day, is that of men who are in fellowship with God, fellowship with angels, fellowship with perfect spirits.

We have come to Jesus, our Savior, who is all and in all. In Him we live, we are joined unto Him in one spirit; He is the Bridegroom of our souls, the delight of our hearts. We are come to Him as the Mediator of the new covenant. What a blessed thing it is to know that covenant of which He is the Mediator! Some in these days despise the covenant, but saints delight in it. To them the everlasting covenant, “ordered in all things, and sure,” is all their salvation and all their desire. We are covenanted ones through our Lord Jesus. God has pledged Himself to bless us. By two immutable things wherein it is impossible for Him to lie, He has given us strong consolation, and good hope through grace, even to all of us who have fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus. We are happy to live under the covenant of grace, the covenant of promise, the covenant symbolized by Jerusalem above, which is free, and the mother of us all. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1888.cfm

From Mount Sinai to Mount Sion

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

For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest…But ye are come unto mount Sion… – Hebrews 12:18, 22

We are joyfully reminded by the apostle that we have not come to Mount Sinai and its overwhelming manifestations…We have not come to the dread and terror of the old covenant, of which our apostle says in another place, “The covenant from the Mount Sinai genders to bondage” (Galatians 4:24). Upon the believer’s spirit there rests not the slavish fear, the abject terror, the fainting alarm, which swayed the tribes of Israel, for the manifestation of God which he beholds, though not less majestic, is far fuller of hope and joy. Over us there rests not the impenetrable cloud of apprehension, we are not buried in a present darkness of despair, we are not tossed about with a tempest of horror, and therefore, we do not exceedingly fear and quake. How thankful we should be for this! We are come to a more joyous sight than Sinai, and the mountain burning with fire…The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ lives in quite another atmosphere. He has not come to a barren crag, but to an inhabited city, Jerusalem above, the metropolis of God. He has left the wilderness for the land which flows with milk and honey, and the material mount which might be touched for the spiritual and heavenly Jerusalem. He has entered into fellowship with an innumerable company of angels, who are to him, not cherubim with flaming swords to keep men back from the tree of life, but ministering spirits sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation. He is come to the joyous assembly of all pure intelligences who have met, not in trembling, but in joyous liberty, to keep the feast with their great Lord and King. He thinks of all who love God throughout all worlds, and he feels that he is one of them, for he has come to “the general assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven.” God is not to them a dreadful person who speaks from a distance, but He is their Father and their Friend, in whom they delight themselves, in whose presence there is fullness of joy for them. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1888.cfm

Be Very Watchful

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

Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. – 1 Peter 1:16

Let us be very watchful against all impurity. Anything like uncleanness in a Christian will soon send the Master away from the church. You know what it was that brought the evil upon the house of Eli. It was because his sons made themselves vile even at the tabernacle door. The young people in that case were the immediate cause of the mischief, but it was the fault of the elder ones that they restrained them not. Watch against all evil passions and corrupt desires. Be ye holy even as your Father which is in heaven is holy.

And then, again, a want of prayer will send Him away. There are members of some churches who never come to the prayer-meetings, and I should be afraid that their private prayers cannot be any too earnest. Of course we speak not of those who have good excuse; but there are some who habitually and wilfully neglect the assembling of themselves together; these are worthy of condemnation. Oh, let us continue a prayerful church as we have hitherto been, otherwise the Master may say, “They do not value the blessing, for they will not even ask for it; they evidently do not care about My Spirit, for they will not meet together and cry for Him.” Do not grieve Him by any such negligence of prayer.

So, too, we may grieve the Spirit by worldliness. If any of you who are rich get to imitate the fashions of the world and act as worldlings do, you cannot expect the Lord to bless us. You are Achans in the camp, if such is the case. And if you who are poor get to be envious of others and speak harshly of others to whom God has given more substance than to you, that again will grieve the Lord…Let me ask you to be more in prayer; let me pray you to live nearer to Him; let me entreat you for the church’s sake, and for the world’s sake, to be more thoroughly Christ’s than you ever have been and may the power of the Holy Spirit enable you in this. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1035.cfm

The Representative of Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Father, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever. – John 14:16

Christ Jesus, the Lord, is present in His Church by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is this day the representative of Christ in the midst of the Church, and it is in the power and the energy of the Holy Ghost that Christ is with us always and will be even to the end of the world. As God, Jesus is everywhere; as Man, He is only in heaven; as God and Man in one person, Mediator and Head of the Church, He is present with us by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, whom the Father has sent in His name. It is by the working of the Spirit of God that Christ’s presence in the Church is manifested; and we are to expect no other presence than that: we have the spiritual divine presence of the second person of the blessed Trinity, and the presence of Christ Jesus also in the power of His representative on earth, the Holy Ghost. This presence, not a bodily but a spiritual presence, is the glory of the Church of God. When she is without Him, she is shorn of her strength; when she possesses Him all good things ensue. Brethren, if a church be without the Spirit of God in it, it may have a name to live, but it is dead, and, you know, that after death there follows corruption, corruption which breeds foulness and disease. Hence, those churches which have turned aside unto error, have not only lost all power to do good, but they have become obnoxious and the causes of great evil in the midst of the world. If any professing church abides not in Christ, it is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and while it is decaying, it is injurious, and there is need for the world’s welfare that it be utterly destroyed. We must have Christ in the church, or the body which was meant to be the medium of the greatest good becomes the source of the grossest evil. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1035.cfm

The Common Jesus, the Christ of Everyday

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

“And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.”- Matthew 17:8

When Peter saw our Lord with Moses and Elijah, he exclaimed, “Master, it is good to be here,” as if he implied that it was better to be with Jesus, and Moses, and Elijah, than to be with Jesus only. Now it was certainly good that for once in his life he should see Christ transfigured with the representatives of the law and the prophets; it might be for that particular occasion the best sight that he could see, but as an ordinary thing an ecstasy so sublime would not have been good for the disciples; and Peter himself very soon found this out, for when the luminous cloud overshadowed him, and the Voice was heard out of heaven, we find that he with the rest became very afraid. The best thing after all for Peter, was not the excessive strain of the transfiguration, nor the delectable company of the two great spirits who appeared with Jesus, but the equally glorious, but less exciting society of “Jesus only.” Depend on it, brothers and sisters, that ravishing and exciting experiences and transporting enjoyments, though they may be useful as occasional refreshments, would not be so good for every day as that quiet but delightful ordinary fellowship with “Jesus only,” which ought to be the distinguishing mark of all Christian life! As the disciples ascended the mountain side with Jesus only, and as they went back again to the multitude with Jesus only, they were in as good company as when they were on the mountain summit, Moses and Elijah being there also; and although Jesus Christ in His common habiliments and in His ordinary attire might not so dazzle their eyes as when they saw His raiment bright as the light, and His face shining as the sun—yet He really was quite as glorious, and His company quite as beneficial! When they saw Him in His everyday attire, His presence was quite as useful to them as when He robed Himself in splendor. “Jesus only,” is after all upon the whole a better thing than Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. “Jesus only,” as the common Jesus, the Christ of every day, the Man walking among men, communing in secret with His disciples, is a better thing for a continuance while we are in this body, than the sight even of Jesus Himself in the excellence of His majesty. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0924.cfm