The Father

Our Lord’s Last Prayer

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Father, The Holy Spirit 4 Comments

“I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”- John 17:26

This text is taken out of our Lord’s last prayer with His disciples. He did as good as say, “I am about to leave you, I am about to die for you; and for a while you will not see Me; but now, before we separate, let us pray.” …Now, a prayer from such a one as Jesus, our Lord and Master; a prayer in such a company, with the eleven whom He had chosen, and who had consorted with Him from the beginning; a prayer under such circumstances, when He was just on the brink of the brook of Cedron, and was about to cross that gloomy stream and go up to Calvary, and there lay down His life-such a prayer as this, so living, earnest, loving and divine, deserves the most studious meditations of all believers.

You will observe that the last word of our Lord’s prayer is concerning love. This is the last petition which He offers, “That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” He reaches no greater height than this, namely, that His people be filled with the Father’s love. How could He rise higher? For this is to be filled with all the fulness of God, since God is love, and He that loveth dwelleth in God and God in him. What importance ought you and I to attach to the grace of love! How highly we should esteem that which Jesus makes the crown jewel of all. If we have faith, let us not be satisfied unless our faith worketh by love and purifieth the soul. Let us not be content indeed until the love of Christ is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1667.cfm

Think on Thee

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Father 3 Comments

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.”-Mark 9:24.

When a man first lays hold upon Jesus he is very apt to be in distress, if his joy be not always at its full height (or) he is untrained in spiritual conflict, and easily dismayed (or) the tremor of his former conviction is upon him, and he is prone to relapse into it. The light which he has received fills him with intense delight, but it is not very clear and abiding; he sees men as trees walking, and is ready to conjure up a thousand fears. The weakness of newborn faith, therefore, calls for the compassion of all who love the souls of men.

This man did well in looking for the help against his unbelief to the right quarter. He did not say, “Lord, I believe; and now I will try to overcome my unbelief.” No; but “Lord help,” as if he felt that the Lord alone could do it. No physician can cure unbelief but Christ. He is the physic for it, and He is the physician too. If thou hast any unbelief, take thou the blood of Christ to cure it with. Think of Him, God in the glory of His person, tabernacling among men, working out a perfect righteousness, dying a felon’s death upon the cross in the sinner’s stead; think of Him as rising from the dead, no more to die: think of Him as ascending into heaven amidst the shouts of angels: think of Him as standing at the right hand of God with the keys of death and hell at His girdle: think of Him as always pleading the merit of His blood before the Father’s throne; and, as thou considerest concerning Him, in the power of the Spirit, thine unbelief will die, for thou wilt say, “Lord, the thought of Thee has helped mine unbelief; while I have been studying Thee, and feeding my soul on Thee, and making Thee to be as bread and wine to my soul, my unbelief has gone. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

 

 

Is Not That Good News?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Father 11 Comments

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.  -John 14:3

He is coming here again,-coming here for you,-coming to be admired by you and the rest of His redeemed family when He comes to take His people up to their eternal home. The message which He has sent is, “Behold, I come quickly.” What is your answer to that? I think I hear you say, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” It will not be very long before you will be with Him, or else He will be with you. In a short time, you will have ended your pilgrimage here; the days of your banishment from home will be over. Wait a little longer; only a few more tears, and, then,-

“Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast.”

Is not that good news?

There is another piece of news, which you have often heard before,-that is, that a great many of the saints have got home already. There is good news from the Fair Havens. Many have entered there,-thousands, millions,-who have had as stormy a sea to traverse as you yourself have had; but their Pilot has brought them to their desired haven. Many, whom we loved on earth, have gone home to be “forever with the Lord.” They are all right; all is well with them. The sheep are getting home to the fold; the children are going home to their Father’s house above. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

Our Holy Relationship with God

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

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. – Genesis 5:24

Still do godly men walk with God as Enoch did. Do not imagine that God has gone away, and that no longer may we speak to Him as a man speaketh with his friend. No, for truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Still does Jesus lay bare His heart to His beloved.

And, dear friends, it should be our earnest aim to keep unbroken our intercourse with heaven, for it is the most refreshing thing beneath the sun, This world is like an arid desert where there is no water except as we maintain our intercourse with Christ. So long as I can say that the Lord is mine, all things here below are of small account; but if I once get a doubt about that matter, and if I cease to walk with God, then what is there here below that can content my immortal spirit? Without Christ, this world is to us as thorns without the roses, and as bitters without the sweets of life. But Thou, O Lord, makest earth to be a heaven to Thy saints even when they lie in dungeons, when Thy presence cheers them. But were, they translated to the palaces of kings, and thereby lost Thy blessed company, those palaces would be worse than prison-houses to them. It is most important that you, who are obliged to mingle with the world, should maintain your intercourse with Christ; for that is the only way to keep yourself clear from its corruptions. And you, who have much to do in the church, must keep up your intercourse with Christ; for that is the only way of preserving your service from becoming mechanical, and of preventing you from doing good works as a mere matter of routine. You, too, who have much to suffer, or even much to enjoy, must keep up this holy intercourse, or else your soul will soon be like a thirsty land where there is no water. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

He Has Prepared the Way for You, Sinner

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, repentance, salvation, The Father 1 Comment

God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them…For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:19,21

Do you ask, “How can I ever get to God? Surely, the justice of God, on account of my sin, raises an impassable barrier between us.” That is quite true, yet listen to this, poor, guilty sinner. God must be just, that is certain; and, being just, He must punish thy sin. But hast thou not heard that He has given His only-begotten Son that He might stand in the sinner’s stead, and bear the punishment that was due on account of the sinner’s guilt? That middle wall of partition Christ has broken down, even as the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. Oh, what a mighty rent was that! Not a little slit, part of the way down; but from the top to the bottom. So has Jesus Christ demolished the barrier which stood between a justly angry God and a guilty but repenting sinner, and now there is a way of approach, for the very worst of men and women, right up to the throne of the Most High. By the blood of Jesus, once shed for many, for the remission of sins, the guiltiest foot of man may come. Ay, by that blood-besprinkled way, the most condemned sinner may come without fear of being repulsed. The chasm has been filled, the gulf bridged over, and if thou truly believest in Jesus Christ, thou mayest, in His name, and for His sake, come back to thy Heavenly Father. That wise resolve within thy heart, which says, “I will arise and go to my Father,” should be at once carried into effect, for thy Father hath prepared the way by which thou mayest come back to Him, and, to encourage thee, He has sprinkled it with the blood of His dear Son,-the surest sign and token of His love to sinners that even God Himself could give. Here, then, is good news from a far country. Your Father thinks of you, poor prodigal; and He has paved the way for you to come back to His own house and heart.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

Beholding Him

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

…and they shall call His name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. -Matthew 1:23

I almost tremble while I remind you of the truest temple of God-the body of our Lord. The nearest approach of Godhead to our manhood was when there was found, wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a manger, that child who was born, that Son who was given whose name was called “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” As for thee, O Bethlehem favored above all the towns of earth, out of thee He came, who is Immanuel, God with us! Verily Thy name is Jehovah-shammah. All along, through thirty years and more of holy labor, ending in a shameful death, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. In the gloom of Gethsemane, among those sombre olives, when Jesus bowed, and in His prayer sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground, He was “seen of angels” as the Son of God bearing human sin. Speak of Gethsemane, and we tell you God was there. Before Herod, and Pilate, and Caiaphas, and on the cross-the Lord was there. Though in a sense there was the hiding of God, and Jesus cried, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” yet in the deepest sense Jehovah was there, bruising the great sacrifice. The thick darkness made a veil for the Lord of glory, and behind it He that made all things bowed His head and said, “It is finished.” God was in Christ Jesus on the cross, and we, beholding Him, feel that we have seen the Father. O Calvary, we say of thee, “The Lord is there.”

“Oh, come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm

 

Lord, Be Among Us!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Father, The Holy Spirit 9 Comments

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. -John 1:14

If the Lord be among us the consequences will be, first, the conservation of true doctrine. The true God is not with a lie: He will not give His countenance to falsehood. Those who preach other than according to His word abide not under His blessing; but are in great danger of His curse. If any man speak another gospel (which is not another, but there be some that trouble us), God is not with him, and any transient prosperity which he may enjoy, will be blown away as the chaff. God is with those who speak the truth faithfully, hold it devoutly, believe it firmly, and live upon it as their daily bread. May it always, be said of this church, “the Lord is there,” and therefore they are sound in the faith, reverent towards Holy Scripture, and zealous for the honor of Christ! Trust-deeds and confessions of faith are useful in their way, even as laws are useful to society; but as laws cannot secure obedience to themselves, so articles of belief cannot create faith, or secure honesty; and to men without conscience, they are not worth the paper they are written upon…Truth must be written on the heart as well as in the book. If the Lord be among His people, they will cling to the eternal verities, and love the doctrine of the cross, not by force of law, but because divine truth is the life of their souls.

If the Lord should depart from us, as He has gone from churches which are now apostate, what an abyss opens before us! If He should take His Holy Spirit from us, even as the glory departed from the temple at Jerusalem, then our ruin would become a thing to mention with dread, a case to be quoted for a warning to future generations. O Lord, our God, take not Thy flight! Abide with us, we pray Thee! Our only hope lies in Thy making the place of Thy feet glorious among us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm