For the Joy That Was Set Before Him

September 11, 2021September 11, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises Leave a comment

“How much better is thy love than wine!” – Song of Songs 4:10

“How much better is thy love than wine!” Now wine when used in Scripture, frequently signifies two things, a great luxury, and a great refreshment. Jesus Christ looks upon His people’s love as being a luxury to Him. When He sat at the feast of Simon the Pharisee, I have no doubt there were sparkling wine cups on the table, and many rich dainties were there, but Jesus Christ did not care for the wine, nor for the banquet. That poor woman’s love was much better to Him than wine…Now, our Saviour has often been refreshed by His people’s love. You remember once He was weary and thirsty, and sat upon the well of Samaria. He needed wine then indeed to refresh Him, but He could not get so much as a drop of water. He spoke to a woman whom He had loved from before all worlds; He put new life into her, and she at once desired to give Him drink; but she ran away first to tell to the Samaritans what she had heard. Now the Saviour was so delighted at her wishing to do good, that when His disciples came, they expected to find Him fainting, for He had walked many a weary mile that day, so they said, “Whence hath He meat?” and He said, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” It was that woman’s love that had fed Him. He had broken her heart, He had won her to Himself, and when He saw the tear roll from her eye, and knew that her heart was set upon Him, His spirits all revived, and His poor flagging strength grew strong. It was this that encouraged Him. Nay, I will go farther. When Christ went to His cross there was one thing that cheered Him even in the agonies of death, it was the thought of His people’s love. Are we not told by the apostle Paul in the Hebrews, that our blessed and divine Husband, the Lord Jesus, “for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame?” Jesus was cheered, even in His death agonies, by the thought of the love of His people. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0282.cfm

How Fair! How Precious!

September 10, 2021September 10, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! – Song of Songs 4:10

Thy love, poor, feeble, and cold though it be, is very precious unto the Lord Jesus, in fact it is so precious, that He Himself cannot tell how precious it is. He does not say how precious, but He says, “how fair.” This is an expression that men use when they do not know how to describe anything. They lift up their hands, they put in a note of exclamation, and they say, “How fair! how precious! how much better is thy love than wine!” The fact is, that Jesus values our love at such a price, that the Holy Spirit when He dictated this Song of Solomon, could not see any word in all human language that was large enough to set forth Christ’s estimation of our love. Have you never thought of Christ’s love to you, till your heart has been melted, while your Beloved spoke to you, till the tears have run down your eyes, and you have believed you could do as Mary Magdalene did, could kiss His feet, and wash them with your tears, and wipe them with the hairs of your head? Now can you believe it? Just what you think of Christ’s love, Christ thinks of yours. You value His love, and you are right in so doing; but I am afraid that still you undervalue it. He even values your love, if I may so speak, He sets a far higher estimate upon it than you do; He thinks very much of little, He estimates it not by its strength, but by its sincerity. “Ah,” He says, “he does love Me, he does love Me, I know he does; he sins, he disobeys Me, but still I know he loves Me and his heart is true; he does not love Me as I deserve, but still he loves Me.” Jesus Christ is delighted with the thought that His people love Him; this cheers and gladdens Him. Just as the thought of His love gladdens us, so the thought of our love gladdens Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0282.cfm

The Love of the Believer is Sweet to Christ

September 9, 2021September 8, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

“How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.”- Song of Songs 4:10-11

This is Jesus speaking to His Church. How when the Church praises Jesus, you do not wonder, for He deserves all she can say of Him, and ten thousand times more. When she uses such large expressions concerning His loveliness, you feel that she falls far short of her mighty theme; that she does but demean Him by her comparisons, for she can but compare the greater with the less, and the beautiful and the eternal, with that which is mutable and transient. But to hear Christ turn round upon His Church, and seem to say to her “Thou hast praised Me, I will praise thee; thou thinkest much of Me, I think quite as much of thee; thou usest great expressions to Me, I will use just the same to thee. Thou sayest My love is better than wine, so is thine to Me; thou tellest Me all My garments smell of myrrh, so do thine; thou sayest My word is sweeter than honey to thy lips, so is thine to Mine. All that thou canst say of Me, I say it to thee; I see Myself in thy eyes, I can see My own beauty in thee; and whatever belongs to Me, belongs to thee. Therefore, O My love, I will sing back the song: thou hast sung it to thy Beloved, and I will sing it to My beloved, thou hast sung it to thy Ishi, I will sing it to My Hephzibah, thou hast sung it to thy Husband, I will sing it to My sister, My spouse.” Note how sweetly the Lord Jesus sings to His spouse…Dost thou love God, my hearer? Dost thou love Jesus? The love of the believer is sweet to Christ. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0282.cfm

The Battle is Already Won

September 8, 2021September 8, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. – Isaiah 53:11

Considering how great this Man is do not be afraid, nor troubled, nor tumbled up and down in your thoughts about anything that is happening, or is yet to happen. “Consider how great this Man was.” Our wise men are going to do away with the old faith; modern culture means to stamp out old- fashioned orthodoxy. Christianity itself is getting to be effete, and something better is to supersede it. Listen! “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed. He that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Yet have I set my King upon My holy hill of Zion.” One said to me the other day, “The current of thought does not seem to run in the direction of evangelical religion.” Well, I said I should not believe in evangelical religion an atom the more if the current of thought did run that way. We do not believe according to the counting of heads. The currents of men’s thoughts are so uncertain that you can better tell the flight of birds, or the changing of English weather. The gospel is perhaps the surer to be true because there are so few who believe it. It is according to our expectation that God’s revealed truth should be abhorred and hated by the wise men of every generation. I shall not believe the gospel any the less if I am left alone, nor shall I believe it any the more if the whole world shall cry it up. Let God be true and every man a liar.

Be of good cheer, dear friends! Let no man’s heart fail him because of modern doubt. Let no man be troubled because of the fierceness of the fight. I can hear already the sounding of the trumpets of the Lord’s coming. He is not far away; even if thousands of years intervene before His feet touch the Mount of Olivet the victory will never be doubtful. All is done that is required for winning the battle; His blood has been shed, His life has been accepted as a ransom. The eternal decree has settled it, nothing can change it! Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm

My Saviour to Praise!

September 7, 2021August 29, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. – Hebrews 7:25

Consider how great this Man was, and as you consider, believe in His infinite power to bless men. He is full of blessing as the sun is full of light, that He may shine upon His needy creatures. Christ is full of blessing that He may bless poor, needy, empty sinners. Dost thou say, poor sinner, “I am so great a sinner that He cannot save me”? Consider what this Man did when He was here on earth; He went about and laid His hands on the diseased, and they were cured; He looked at devils, and they fled; He spoke to fevers and they disappeared. And He in heaven is, and if I may so say, greater than when He was here below, for here on earth He was veiled in humiliation, but now He is enthroned in infinite majesty, “able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Believe in the infinite blessedness treasured up in Christ for every believing soul, and come and take your share of it. All that you want, and all that wish-come and receive freely, for He doth graciously dispense it, and it is a part of His glory that He delights to enrich the children of men. Let faith in Jesus be one lesson-may God write it on each heart.

“Let Him be crowned with majesty
That bowed His head to death;
And be His honour sounded high
By all things that have breath.”

“Oh what shall I do
My Saviour to praise!”

Do something; and having done it do more, and yet more. Give up your whole being to the showing forth of how great this Man is! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm

Hallelujah, Hallelujah! HALLELUJAH!

September 6, 2021September 6, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them. – Psalm 68:18

He has gone up on high, and has led captivity captive. Think of the gifts which were showered down from heaven in consequence of this Man’s ascent into the highest. For the Holy Spirit descended never to return till the close of this dispensation, and now all the gifts that rest in the Church of God, and all the works of regeneration, illumination, sanctification, and the like, which are wrought by the blessed Paraclete, are the effects of the entrance of this Man into the secret place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Every soul regenerated, every heart comforted, every mind quickened, every eye illuminated, every creature spiritually blessed, reflects glory upon this Man. How great is He!

HALLELUJAH. For He shall reign for ever and ever. HALLELUJAH! Break forth with your loud hosannas, oh, ye waiting spirits of believing men, for the time is at hand when He shall be admired in all them that believe! Consider how great this Man is. I have but reached the fringe of my subject. We see but the skirts of our Lord’s garments; His actual glory is unspeakable, unsearchable. Oh, the depths! Oh, the depths! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1835.cfm