You are Witnesses, not Prophets

March 6, 2021March 4, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prophecy, Sovereignty of God, The Father 2 Comments

Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. – Acts 1:6, 7

You are not sent into the world to be prophets; you are sent into the world to be witnesses. You do not come here to be prognosticators of the events of tomorrow about yourself, or about your children, or about your friends, or about the nations of the earth. A veil hangs between you and the future. Your prayer is to be, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” You are told to look for the coming of your Lord, and to stand in perpetual expectation of His return; but to know the time when He will come, is no part of your office. You are servants who are to look for your Lord, who may come at cock-crowing, or at midday, or at midnight. Keep you always on the tiptoe of expectation.

As it is not proper for you, so it is not profitable for you. What would you be the better if you could make a map of all that is yet to be? Suppose it were revealed to you tonight, by an angel, in what respect would it alter your conduct for tomorrow? In what way would it help you to perform the duties which your Master has enjoined upon you? …For my part, I would rather not know any more than my Lord pleases to reveal to me; and if He did reveal all the future to me, I should feel like the prophets who spake of “the burden of the Lord.” Neither would it ensure your salvation to be able to foretell the future, for Balaam was a great prophet, but he was a great sinner; he was an arch-rebel although he was an arch-divine. Nor do I know that, by foretelling the future, you would convince your fellow-men; for Noah told them that the world would be destroyed by the flood, he could give them a very accurate account of the time when the rain would descend, and yet they were not converted by his preaching, neither did they come into the ark. Those truths which God has revealed, you must accept for yourselves and proclaim to others; they are profitable for all purposes, and sufficient for your work; but the future is known only to God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2330.cfm

It is Not for Us to Know the Times or the Seasons

March 5, 2021March 5, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

“When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. “-Acts 1:6, 7

It is not for us to know the times and the seasons, and to be able to make a map of the future. There are some great events of the future very clearly revealed. The prophecy is not at all indistinct about the facts that will occur; but as to when they will occur, we have no data. Some think that they have; but our Lord here seems to say that we do not know the times and the seasons, and that it is not for us to know them. I pass no censure upon brethren who think that, by elaborate calculations, they find out what is to be in the future; I say that I pass no censure, but time has passed censure of the strongest kind upon all their predecessors. I forget how many miles of books interpreting prophecy there are in the British Museum; but I believe it amounts to miles, all of which have been disproved by the lapse of time. Some of the writers were wonderfully definite; they knew within half-an-hour when the Lord would come. Some of them were very distinct about all the events; they had mapped them all within a few years. The men who wrote the books, happily for themselves, had mostly died before the time appointed came. It is always wise to pitch on a long period of prophecy, that you may be out of the way if the thing does not come off; and they mostly did so. There were very few of them who lived to suffer the disappointment which would certainly have come to them through having fixed the wrong date. I let time censure their mistake. God forgave it, for they did it with a desire for His glory. The bulk of them were most sincere students of the Word, and herein are a lesson to us, even though they were mistaken in their calculations; but, beloved, it is not for you to know the times and the seasons. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2330.cfm

Jesus is Coming as a Matter of Fact

March 4, 2021February 22, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

(He) which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. – Acts 1:11

Certain of the commentators do not seem to understand English at all. “He which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven,”-this, they say, relates to His spiritual coming at Pentecost. Give anybody a grain of sense, and do they not see that a spiritual coming is not a coming in the same manner in which He went up into heaven? There is an analogy, but certainly not a likeness between the two things. Our Lord was taken up; they could see Him rise: He will come again, and “every eye shall see Him.” He went up not in spirit, but in person: He will come down in person. “This same Jesus shall so come in like manner.” He went up as a matter of fact: not in poetic figure and spiritual symbol, but as a matter of fact,-“This same Jesus” literally went up. “This same Jesus” will literally come again. He will descend in clouds even as He went up in clouds; and “He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” even as He stood aforetime… Jesus is coming as a matter of fact, therefore go down to your sphere of service as a matter of fact. Get to work and teach the ignorant, win the wayward, instruct the children, and everywhere tell out the sweet name of Jesus. As a matter of fact, give of your substance and don’t talk about it. As a matter of fact, consecrate your daily life to the glory of God. As a matter of fact, live wholly for your Redeemer. Jesus is not coming in a sort of mythical, misty, hazy way, He is literally and actually coming, and He will literally and actually call upon you to give an account of your stewardship. Therefore, now, today, literally not symbolically, personally and not by deputy, go out through that portion of the world which you can reach, and preach the gospel to every creature according as you have opportunity. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1817.cfm

This Great Practical Truth

March 3, 2021May 1, 2023Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

…this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. – Acts 1:11

Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. – Matthew 28:19- 20

I see every reason for going down into the world and getting to work, for He is gone up into heaven and “all power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth.” Is not that a good argument-“Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”?

Our great Captain is still heading the conflict; He has ridden into another part of the field, but He will be back again, perhaps in the twinkling of an eye. You do not say that a commander has given up the campaign because it is expedient that he should withdraw from your part of the field. Our Lord is doing the best thing for His kingdom in going away. It was in the highest degree expedient that He should go, and that we should each one receive the Spirit. There is a blessed unity between Christ the King and the commonest soldier in the ranks. He has not taken His heart from us, nor His care from us, nor His interest from us: He is bound up heart and soul with His people, and their holy warfare, and this is the evidence of it, “Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” …Do what Jesus has given you the power to do, and then you will not stand gazing up into heaven, but you will wait upon the Lord in prayer, and you will receive the Spirit of God, and you will publish to all around the doctrine of “Believe and live.” Then when He comes He will say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” So may His grace enable us to do. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1817.cfm

The Victory is not Questionable

March 2, 2021March 2, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. – Acts 1:11

“This same Jesus.” Why, that must have meant that He who is in heaven is the same Christ who was on earth, but it must also mean that He who is to come will be the same Jesus that went up into heaven... He will possess the same tenderness when He comes to judge, the same gentleness of heart when all the glories of heaven and earth shall gird His brow. Our eye shall see Him in that day, and we shall recognize Him not only by the nail-prints, but by the very look of His countenance, by the character that gleams from that marvellous face; and we shall say, “‘Tis He! ’tis He! the self-same Christ that went up from the top of Olivet from the midst of His disciples.”

Despisers tell us nowadays, “Your cause is done for! Christianity is spun out! Your divine Christ is gone; we have not seen a trace of His miracle-working hand, nor of that voice which no man could rival.” Here is our answer: We are not standing gazing up into heaven, we are not paralyzed because Jesus is away. He lives, the great Redeemer lives; and though it is our delight to lift up our eyes because we expect His coming, it is equally our delight to turn our heavenly gazing into an earthward watching, and to go down into the city, and there to tell that Jesus is risen, that men are to be saved by faith in Him, and that whosoever believeth in Him shall have everlasting life. We are not defeated; far from it: His ascension is not a retreat, but an advance. His tarrying is not for want of power, but because of the abundance of His long-suffering. The victory is not questionable. All things work for it; all the hosts of God are mustering for the final charge. This same Jesus is mounting His white horse to lead forth the armies of heaven, conquering and to conquer. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1817.cfm

Jesus Lives

March 1, 2021March 1, 2021Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

…this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. – Acts 1:11

Jesus is gone but He still exists. He has left us, but He is not dead; He has not dissolved into nothing like the mist of the morning. “This same Jesus” is gone up unto His Father’s throne, and He is there to-day as certainly as He once stood at Pilate’s bar. As surely as He did hang upon the cross, so surely does He, the self-same man, sit upon the throne of God and reign over creation. I like to think of the positive identity of the Christ in the seventh heaven with the Christ in the lowest deeps of agony. The Christ they spat upon is now the Christ whose name the cherubim and seraphim are hymning day without night. The Christ they scourged is He before whom principalities and powers delight to cast their crowns. Think of it and be glad this morning; and do not stand gazing up into heaven after a myth or a dream. Jesus lives; mind that you live also. Do not loiter as if you had nothing at all to do, or as if the kingdom of God had come to an end because Jesus is gone from the earth as to His bodily presence. It is not all over; He still lives, and He has given you a work to do till He comes. Therefore, go and do it.

“This same Jesus”-I love that word, for “Jesus” means a Savior. Oh, ye anxious sinners here present, the name of Him who has gone up into His glory is full of invitation to you! Will you not come to “this same Jesus”? This is He who opened the eyes of the blind and brought forth the prisoners out of the prison-house. He is doing the same thing today. Oh that your eyes may see His light! He that touched the lepers, and that raised the dead, is the same Jesus still, able to save to the uttermost. Oh that you may look and live! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1817.cfm