The Father

And This is Eternal Life…

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

And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. -John 17:3

What shall I say to those who do not know the Lord, and do not care for Him? O friend, the day will come in which Jesus Christ will say to you, “I never knew you: depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity.” Do not let Him say that; but to-night commence an acquaintance with Him. May His Holy Spirit help you so to do!

I am sure the Lord Jesus Christ could not say to me, “I never knew you.” It is impossible, because I could reply to Him, “Never knew me, Lord? Why, I have been to Thee with so many burdens, I have run to Thee with so many troubles, that I am sure Thou knowest me as one knows a beggar whom he has relieved many times a day…Thou rememberest me, for in my despair I cried to Thee, and Thou didst relieve me of my burden. Thou knowest me, for in my sorrow my broken heart found no comfort but in Thee. Thou hast known me all these years in which I have had to cry to Thee for something to preach about, and for help while preaching. Thou knowest how I have had to come to Thee and confess my failures, and mourn my shortcomings, and lament my sins, and trust in Thy blood for cleansing.” My Lord cannot say that He does not know me, for He has known my soul in adversity. Blessed be His name, I know Him, and lean all my weight upon Him. They that know Him shall be with Him, and He will receive them unto Himself for ever, and this shall be their glory…With Him shall they dwell, world without end. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Jehovah Is At My Side

Sherry Christian Life, prayer, promises, The Father 6 Comments

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him. -Psalm 28:7

Here is a Christian who lives alone, apart altogether from family life. All his dear ones are dead, or far away. In his lone chamber, when he bows his knee in secret prayer, or whenever he takes his walk abroad to meditate, if he be indeed a true lover of the Lord Jesus, “the Lord is there.” Wherever the believer’s lot is cast, if he lives in fellowship with Christ, he may say of his quiet room, or of the garden-walk, or even of the stable or the loft, “Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is there.” Many a humble garret is a right royal residence! for “the Lord is there.” Better Paul’s inner dungeon at Philippi, with his feet fast in the stocks, and the presence of the Lord, than the grandest apartments of Caesar’s palace and an unknown God. The Lord is very gracious to His lonely ones. They can say, “And yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” Put you in a hospital, or in a workhouse: what matters it, if Jehovah is at your side to cheer you?

Some of us can bear witness that we have had the nearest approaches of God to our souls in times of intolerable pain, and even in seasons of intense depression of spirit as to earthly things. “I was brought low, and the Lord helped me,” said David; and we can say the same. The Lord has said, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee”; as much as to say, “If I am not with thee anywhere else, I will be with thee then.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Immanuel Shall Come to Thee, O Israel!

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

After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!…‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” -Revelation 19:1,9

Flying forward, as with a dove’s wing, to the future that is drawing near, we bethink us of the truth that there is to be a millennial age-a time of glory, and peace, and joy, and truth, and righteousness. But what is to be the glory of it? Why this, “Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is there!” The Lord Jesus Christ will come, and begin His personal reign on earth among His ancients. In like manner as He went up into heaven, and the disciples saw Him, so will He descend a second time, to be seen here among men; and His glorious presence shall fashion the golden age, the thousand years of peace. Then shall the nations shout “The Lord is come.” What hallelujahs will then rise to heaven! Welcome, welcome, son of God! How will all His faithful ones rejoice with joy unspeakable, and sing and sing again; for now the day of their reward has come, and they shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father! In all the glory of the latter days everything is wrapped up in this one word, “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

 

Jehovah Shammah and Immanuel

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

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,”which is translated, “God with us.”- Matthew 1:23

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, Counselor, 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.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

With God, Anywhere

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, The Father 3 Comments

The name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there [or in the Hebrew Jehovah-shammah].- Ezekiel 48:35

Doubtless many would be greatly pleased if there were no God at all; for in their hearts they say, “No God.” God is not to them a father, a friend, a trust, a treasure. If they were to speak from their hearts, and could hope for a satisfactory answer, they would ask, “Whither can I flee from His presence?” If a spot could be found wherein there would be no God, what a fine building speculation might be made there! Millions would emigrate to “No God’s land,” and would feel at ease as soon as they trod its godless shore…I know that there is a company who can truly say that they feel only happy when they are conscious that God is with them. The place where they meet with the Lord is very dear and precious to them, because of His unveilings. The memory of holy convocations is sweet, because the Lord was among them. They would not care to go where God is not…Where we cannot enjoy God’s company we will not go. Our motto is: “With God, anywhere. Without God, nowhere.” In Him we live, and move, and have our being; and, therefore, it would be death to us to be apart from God. Without God we should be without hope. Ah, my dear friend! whatever your difficulties, and trials, and sorrows, all is well with you if God is your delight, and His presence your joy. But, however high your temporal enjoyments may rise, it is all wrong with you if you can rest away from the God of grace. The child must be in a sad state of heart when he does not care to have his Father’s approving smile. Things must be terribly wrong with any creature when it can be content to walk contrary to its Creator. Nothing but the corruption of the heart could permit any man to be at ease away from God.~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Turn Unto Me and Live

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Father 10 Comments

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. -Matthew 11:28

Come, poor sinner, come and put thy trust in my Master! Thou canst not think Him hard-hearted. If He were, why did He die? Dost thou think Him unkind? Then why did He bleed? Thou art inclined to think so hardly of Him! Thou art making great cuts at His heart when thou thinkest Him to be untender and ungenerous. “As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but rather that he would turn unto Me and live.” This is the voice of the God whom you look upon as so sternly just!..You working men, you labouring men, Christ bids you come to Him “all ye that labour.” And you who are unhappy, you who know you have done wrong, and cannot sleep at night because of it; you who are troubled about sin, and would fain go and hide your heads, and get- “Anywhere, anywhere out of the world,”-your Father says to you one and all, “Run not from Me, but come to Me, My child!” Jesus, who died, says, “Flee not from Me, but come to Me, for I will accept you; I will receive you; I cast out none that come unto Me. “Sinner, Jesus never did reject a coming soul yet, and He never will. Oh! try Him! Try Him! Now come, with thy sins about thee just as thou art, to the bleeding, dying Saviour, and He will say to thee, “I have blotted out thy sins; go and sin no more; I have forgiven thee.” May God grant thee grace to put thy trust in Him “who gave Himself for us”! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3513.cfm

This Unfathomed Sea

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

Who gave Himself for us…Titus 2:14

Mark, brethren, what a richness there is here! It is not that He gave His righteousness, though that has become our dress. It is not even that He gave His blood, though that is the fount in which we wash. It is that He gave Himself-His Godhead and manhood both combined. All that that word “Christ” means He came to us and for us. He gave Himself. Oh! that we could dive and plunge into this unfathomed sea Himself! Omnipotence, Omniscience, Infinity-Himself. He gave Himself-purity, love, kindness, meekness, gentleness-that wonderful compound of all perfections, to make up one perfection-Himself. You do not come to Christ’s house and say, “He gives me this house, His church, to dwell in.” You do not come to His table and merely say, “He gives me this table to feast at,” but you go farther, and you take Him by faith into your arms, and you say, “Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Oh! that you could get hold of that sweet word-Himself! It is the love of a husband to his wife, who not only gives her all that she can wish, daily food and raiment, and all the comforts that can nourish and cherish her, and make her life glad, but who gives himself to her. So does Jesus. The body and soul of Jesus, the deity of Jesus, and all that that means, He has been pleased to give to and for His people.

“So strange, so boundless was the love,
Which pitied dying man;
The Father sent His equal Son
To give them life again.”

‘Twas all of love and of grace! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3513.cfm