My Goel, My Kinsman Lives

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

For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth… – Job 19:25

“I know,” said he, “that my Redeemer lives.” The word “Redeemer” here used is in the original “goel“—kinsman. The duty of the kinsman, or goel, was this—suppose an Israelite had alienated his estate, as in the case of Naomi and Ruth. Suppose an inheritance which had belonged to a family, had passed away through poverty. It was the goel’s business, the redeemer’s business, to pay the price as the next of kin, and to buy back the heritage. Boaz stood in that relation to Ruth. Now, the body may be looked upon as the heritage of the soul—the soul’s small farm—that little plot of earth in which the soul has been accustomed to walk and delight, as a man walks in his garden or dwells in his house. Now, it becomes alienated. Death, like Ahab, takes away the vineyard from us who are as Naboth. We lose our patrimonial estate. Death sends his troops to take our vineyard, and to spoil its vines, and ruin it. But we turn round to Death and say, “I know that my Goel liveth, and He will redeem this heritage; I have lost it; you take it from me lawfully, O Death, because my sin has forfeited my right; I have lost my heritage through my own offences, and through that of my first parent Adam; but there lives one who will buy this back.” Brothers and sisters, Job could say this of Christ long before He had descended upon earth! “I know that He lives;” and now that He has ascended up on high, and led captivity captive, surely we may with double emphasis say, “I know that my Goel, my Kinsman lives, and that He has paid the price so that I should have back my inheritance, so that in my flesh I shall see God.” Yes, my hands, you are redeemed with blood—bought not with corruptible things, as with silver and gold—but with the precious blood of Christ! Yes, heaving lungs and palpitating heart, you have been redeemed! He that redeemed the soul to be His altar, has also redeemed the body, that it may be a temple for the Holy Spirit. Not even the bones of Joseph can remain in the house of bondage. No smell of the fire of death may pass upon the garments which His holy children have worn in the furnace! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0504.cfm

By That Same Divine Energy

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

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God… – Job 19:26

The body has just been divorced from the soul. Believers who loved most tenderly have said—”Bury my dead out of my sight.” The body is borne upon the bier and consigned to the silent earth; it is surrounded by the earthworks of death…

I think very much of the essence of Job’s faith lay in this, that he had a clear view that the worms would, after his skin, destroy his body—and yet, that in his flesh he should see God! You know we might regard it as a small miracle if we could preserve the bodies of the departed. If, by some process, with spices and gums, we could preserve the particles for the Lord to make those dry bones live and to quicken that skin and flesh, while it is certainly a miracle, but not tangibly and plainly so great a marvel as when the worms have destroyed the body. When the fabric has been absolutely broken up, the tenement all pulled down, ground to pieces, and flung in handfuls to the wind, so that no relic of it is left—and yet when Christ stands in the latter days upon the earth, all the structure shall be brought together, bone to his bone—then shall the might of Omnipotence be seen! This, then, is the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Happy is he who finds no difficulty here—who looks at it as being an impossibility with man but a possibility with God—and lays hold upon the omnipotence of the Most High and says, “You say it, and it shall be done!” I comprehend You not, great God; I marvel at Your purpose to raise my moldering bones; but I know that You do great wonders, and I am not surprised that You should conclude the great drama of Your creating works here on earth by recreating the human frame by the same power by which You did bring from the dead the body of Your Son Jesus Christ, and by that same divine energy which has regenerated human souls in Your own image. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0504.cfm

The Miracle of Our Resurrection

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

For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. – Job 19:25-27

Dear friends, why should we wish to have it otherwise? Why should we desire to preserve the body when the soul has gone? What vain attempts men have made with coffins of lead, and wrappings of myrrh and frankincense!…No, let the dust go, the sooner it dissolves the better. And does it matter how it goes? What if it is devoured of beasts, if it is swallowed up in the sea and become food for fishes? What if plants with their roots suck up the particles? What if the fabric passes into the animal and from the animal into the earth and from the earth into the plants and from the plant into the animal again? What if the winds blow it along the highway? What if the rivers carry it to the ocean waves? It is ordained that somehow or other it must be all separated—”dust to dust, ashes to ashes.” …Do not seek to avoid what God has purposed; do not look upon it as a gloomy thing; regard it as a necessity—no, more—view it as the platform of a miracle, the lofty stage of resurrection, since Jesus shall surely raise again from the dead the particles of this body, however divided from one another! We have heard of miracles, but what a miracle is the resurrection! All the miracles of Scripture, yes, even those wrought by Christ, are small compared with this! The philosopher says, “How is it possible that God shall hunt out every particle of the human frame?” He can do it! He has but to speak the word, and every single atom, though it may have traveled thousands of leagues, though it may have been blown as dust across the desert, and later have fallen upon the bosom of the sea, and then have descended into the depths thereof to be cast up on a desolate shore, sucked up by plants, fed on again by beasts, or passed into the fabric of another man—I say that individual atom shall find its fellows—and the whole company of particles at the trumpet of the archangel shall travel to their appointed place, and the body, the very body which was laid in the ground, shall rise again. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0504.cfm

Might This Be Our Epitaph, too?

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

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me” – Job 19:25-27

Our text deserves our profound attention; its preface would hardly have been written had not the matter been of the utmost importance in the judgment of the patriarch who uttered it. Listen to Job’s remarkable desire—”Oh that my words were now written! Oh, that they were printed in a book! That they were engraved with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!” Perhaps, hardly aware of the full meaning of the words he was uttering, yet his holy soul was impressed with a sense of some weighty revelation concealed within his words; he therefore desired that it might be recorded in a book! His desire, by God’s grace, was granted, the Book of books embalms the words of Job! He wished to have them engraved on a rock—cut deep into it with an iron pen—and then the lines inlaid with lead; or he would have them engraved, according to the custom of the ancients, upon a sheet of metal, so that time might not be able to eat out the inscription. He has not had his desire in that respect, except only that upon many and many a sepulchre, those words of Job stand recorded, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” It is the opinion of some commentators that Job, in speaking of the rock here, intended his own rock-hewn sepulchre, and desired that this might be his epitaph; that it might be cut deep, so that ages should not wear it out—that when any asked, “Where does Job sleep?” as soon as they saw the sepulchre of the patriarch of Uz, they might learn that he died in hope of resurrection, resting upon a living Redeemer. Whether such a sentence adorned the portal of Job’s last sleeping-place we know not, but certainly no words could have been more fitly chosen. Should not the man of patience, the mirror of endurance, the pattern of trust, bear as his memorial this golden line—which is as full of all the patience of hope, and hope of patience—as mortal language can be? Who among us could select a more glorious motto for his last escutcheon? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0504.cfm

Begin Life Again

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

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works… – Revelation 2:4,5

When the door to heaven seems shut to me as a saint, I will get through it as a sinner, trusting in the precious blood of Jesus. Come and stand again, as though all your sins were on you still, at the cross’s foot, where still may be seen the dropping blood of the infinitely precious atonement. Savior, I trust Thee again: guilty, more guilty than I was before, a sinful child of God, I trust Thee: “wash me thoroughly from mine iniquities and purge me from my sin.” You will never have your graces revived, unless you go to the cross. Begin life again. The best air for a man to breathe when he is sickly is said to be that of his birthplace: it was at Calvary we were born; it is only at Calvary we can be restored when we are declining. Do the first works. As a sinner, repair to the Savior, and ask to be restored. Then, as a further means of health, search out the cause of your declension. Probably it was a neglect of private prayer. Where the disease began, there must the remedy be applied. Pray more earnestly, more frequently, more importunately. Or was it a neglect of hearing the word? Were you enticed by novelty or cleverness away from a really searching and instructive ministry? Go back, and feed on wholesome food again perhaps that may cure the disease. Or have you been too grasping after the world?

Where the mischief began, there apply the remedy. And oh, I urge upon you, and most of all upon myself, do not make excuses for yourselves; do not palliate your faults; do not say it must be so; do not compare yourselves among yourselves, or you will be unwise; but to the perfect image of Christ let your hearts aspire, to the ardor of your divine Redeemer, who loved not Himself, but loved you; to the intense fervor of His apostles, who laid themselves upon the altar of God for His sake, for Christ’s sake, and for yours. Aspire to this and may we as a church live near to God, and grow in grace, then shall the Lord add to us daily of such as shall be saved. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1011.cfm

Our Heavenly Father’s Pity

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You who are King of kings and Lord of lords, we worship You. Before Jehovah’s awful throne we bow with sacred joy.

Sermon Text

Be Determined to Serve Christ Better than Ever Before

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

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. – Revelation 2:5

What a marvel it is that God has borne with our ill manners, when He might justly have laid the reins on our necks, and suffered us to rush on in the road which we so often hankered after. See you not, dear brethren, what a body of death we carry with us, and what a terrible power it possesses? When you see the mischief that corruption has already done, never trust yourself, but look for new grace every day.

If you have such bitter regrets for what you have lost, hold fast what is still yours. Slip back no further, for if these slips have cost you so much, take heed that they do not ruin you. To continue presumptuous may be a proof that our profession is rotten throughout: only a holy jealousy can remove the suspicion of insincerity. Let your previous failings teach you to walk cautiously for the future. Be jealous, for you serve a jealous God. Since grey hairs may come upon you, here and there, and you may not know it, search, watch, try yourself day by day, lest you relapse yet more.

This should teach us to live by faith, since our best attainments fail us. We rejoice to-day, but we may mourn to-morrow. What a mercy it is that our salvation does not depend on what we are or what we feel. Christ has finished our salvation; no man can destroy what He has completed. Our life is hid with Christ in God and is safe there; none can pluck us out of Jehovah’s hands. Since we so frequently run aground, it is clear that we should be wrecked altogether, if we went to sea in a legal vessel with self for our pilot; let us keep to the good ship of free grace, steered by immutable faithfulness, for none other can bring us to the desired haven. But oh, let that free grace fill us with ardent gratitude. Since Christ has kept us, though we could not keep ourselves, let us bless His name, and, overwhelmed with obligations, let us rise with a solemn determination that we will serve Him better than we have ever done before; and may His blessed Spirit help us to make the determination a fact. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1011.cfm