Amazed At My Great High Priest

The Son of man on earth pleading for sinners is very gracious, but I am overwhelmed when I think of His interceding for sinners now that He reigns yonder, where harps unnumbered tune His praise and cherubim and seraphim count it their glory to be less than nothing at His feet, where all the glory of His Father is resplendent in Himself, and He sitteth at the right hand of God in divine favor and majesty unspeakable. How can we hear without amazement that the King of kings and Lord of lords occupies Himself with caring for transgressors - caring indeed for you and me. It is condescension that he should commune with the bloodwashed before His throne, and allow the perfect spirits to be His companions, but that His heart should steal away from all heaven’s felicities to remember such poor creatures as we are and make incessant prayer on our behalf, this is like His own loving Self-it is Christlike, Godlike.

Methinks I see at this moment our great high Priest pleading before the throne, wearing His jeweled breastplate and His garments of glory and beauty, wearing our names upon His breast and His shoulders in the most holy place. What a vision of incomparable love! It is a fact, and no mere dream. He is within the Holy of Holies, presenting the one sacrifice. His prayers are always heard, and heard for us, but the marvel is that the Son of God should condescend to exercise such an office and make intercession for transgressors. This matchless grace well nigh seals my lips, but it opens the floodgates of my soul, and I would fain pause to worship Him whom my words fail to set forth.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Jesus Interceding For Transgressors," delivered November 18, 1877. Image by Paul Bica on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

You Shall Dwell In The King's Palace

Oh, how loftily is he lifted up to sit upon a glorious high throne for ever! But you shall sit upon his throne with him and share his exaltation as you have shared his humiliation. Oh, the delight of thus being joint heirs with Christ, and with him in the possession of all that he possesses. What is heaven? It is the place which his love suggested, which his genius invented, which his bounty provided, which his royalty has adorned, which his wisdom has prepared, which he himself glorifies; in that heaven you are to be with him for ever. You shall dwell in the King’s own palace. Its gates of pearl and streets of gold shall not be too good for you. You who love him are to abide for ever with him, not near him in a secondary place, as a servant lives at the lodge gate of his master’s mansion, but with him in the self-same palace in the metropolis of the universe.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Forever With The Lord," delivered September 16, 1877.  Image by Peggy2012CREATIVELENZ on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Who is fit to live on earth?

Heaven at any price is well secured. A good hope through grace is worth a thousand worlds. But it is a mistake to suppose that melancholy attends upon fitness to die. Why should it? To be unprepared for death, and to know that it may come at any moment, is a fair reason for sadness, but to have that great matter secure must surely be a source of joy. To be prepared to die is to be prepared to live; to be ready for eternity is in the best sense to be ready for time. Who so fit to live on earth as the man who is fit to live in heaven? Who hath brightness of the eye? Is it not the man who has looked within the gate of pearl, and seen his place prepared among the blessed? Who hath lightness of heart? Is it not the man who is unloaded of his sin, and has found mercy through the blood of Christ?

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Our Last Journey," delivered September 9, 1877. Image by Jeff Pang on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Greatest Joy Of Heaven

Some think of heaven as this and some as that. Fellowship with believers of all ages is the great desire of some; others long for paradise as a place of increased knowledge, to know even as they are known; and a third rejoice in it chiefly as a haven of rest. There are are grounds for each of these forms of desire, but concerning heaven this is the believer’s chief thought, that he will be with God, and that God will be for ever his joy and bliss.

No sins will hide the brightness of Jehovah’s glory from our eyes, no doubts disturb the deep calm of our enjoyment of Jehovah’s love when once we fully enter upon our portion. We shall be for ever with the Lord, and nothing more or better can be imagined. God is our heaven. Whom have I in heaven but thee? Draw, then, ever a clear distinction between the things that are seen, which are not your portion, and the things which are not seen, which are your true heritage; between the temporal and fleeting joys which amuse us by the way, and the abiding and eternal felicity which will satisfy us at the end. Allow nothing to rival the chief good in your judgment or your affections, but cry evermore, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "God Our Portion And His Word Our Treasure," delivered September 2, 1877. Image by Misserion on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The True Wealth

Let us be careful to place our chief treasure in heaven, for, as old Swinnock says, “A worldling’s wealth lieth in the earth, therefore, like wares laid in low damp cellars, it corrupts and moulders; but the godly man’s treasure is in heaven, and, like commodities laid up in high rooms, it continues sound and safe.” Treasure in the skies is treasure indeed. Where moth and rust and thief can reach is no fit place for us to store our treasures in. Let us commit our all to the custody of God, who is our all in all. Such a blessed thing is faith in God that if the believer should lose everything he possesses here below he would have small cause for sorrow so long as he kept his faith. If a great landed proprietor in walking down the street were robbed of his handkerchief, he would not lie down in despair, nor even make a great noise over his loss. “Ah,” says he, “they could only steal a mere trifle, they could not rob me of. my parks and farms, and yearly incomings.”

Believers invest their true wealth in a bank which never breaks, and as for their earthly substance it is not theirs at all, but their Lord’s, and they desire only to employ it for his cause; so that if he takes it away they are bound to look upon themselves as no losers, but as in some measure released from responsibility, and they may thank their Lord for such relief. Be sure thou use this world as not abusing it, and fix all thy joy and love and hope and trust in the eternal God, and then, happen what may, thou wilt be safe. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Sudden Sorrow," delivered July 8, 1877. Image by mendhak on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Knowledge Of God

The most of the subjects which mortals study here will be forgotten in the world to come; the profoundest of them will be too trifling to be pursued amid angelic thrones. The honors of classical and mathematical attainments will shine but dimly amidst the glories of heaven, but the knowledge of Christ Jesus will still be priceless, and it will cause those who possess it to shine as the sun. He that knoweth Christ shall go on to sit at his feet and still to learn, and as he learns he will tell to principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God in the person of Jesus Christ. See ye, then, beloved, that the apostle for the sake of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord still counted all the things that he had once gloried in to be but loss.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Business-Like Account," delivered June 3, 1877. Image by Bert Kaufmann on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

We Shall Be Without Spot Or Wrinkle

We believe according to God’s promise that we shall one day be “without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.” I do believe that this head shall wear a crown of glory, and that this hand shall wave a palm branch. I am fully assured that he will one day sweetly say to me

“Close thine eyes that thou mays’t see 
What I have in store for thee. 
Lay thine arms of warfare down, 
Fall that thou mays’t win a crown.”

We, all, who are believers in Jesus, shall one day be without fault before the throne of God; but how is this to be? Surely our confidence is that he who has promised it is able to perform it. This is the faith which finds its way to glory - the faith which expects to enter into the Redeemer’s joy, because of the Redeemer’s love and life. Brethren, in this matter we see the difficulties, but we do not consider them: we count them as less than nothing since omnipotence has come into the field. “Thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We know that our Redeemer liveth, and that because he lives we shall also live, and be with him where he is.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "How Is Salvation Received?," delivered April 1, 1877. Image by Paul Bica on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Rejoice that your name is written above!

Gifts, attainments, labors, successes, all heaped together, cannot support a soul on the verge of eternity. There is ever present the fact that such things are no sure sign of regeneration. Did not the sons of the Pharisees cast out devils? Did not the people say of Simon Magus, “This man is the great power of God”? Yet these were graceless deceivers. We must have sure evidence of the new birth, we must know that our citizenship is in heaven, we must know that we belong to Jesus, in one word, we must know that our names are written in heaven, or else we shall find ourselves utterly undone in our dying hours. For all these reasons, then, be not too elated, because of devils conquered, crowds gathered, or souls saved; but hearken to your Lord’s voice while he points you to other reasons for rejoicing.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Why May I Rejoice?," delivered October 29, 1876. Image by Diego Torres Silvestre on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The White Robes We Shall Wear

Here a saint has an evident excess of the red of courage, or the blue of constancy, or the violet of tenderness, and we have to admire the varied excellencies and lament the multiform defects of the children of God; but up yonder each saint shall combine in his character all things which are lovely and of good repute, and his garments shall be always white to indicate completeness, as well as spotlessness, of character. We ought to note that the white here meant is bright and shining, to indicate that their characters shall be lustrous and attractive. They shall be the admiration of principalities and powers as they see in them the manifold wisdom of God.

In these white garments they shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Our Lord’s garments in the transfiguration are not only said to have been “whiter than any fuller could make them,” but they are said to have been glistering and “white as the light.” The redeemed before the throne shine like stars before the eyes of all who are favored to gaze upon their assembly. What a glory there will be about the character of a child of God! Even those who have seen it long shall still be filled with wonder at what grace has done. God himself shall take delight in his people when he has made them “white in the blood of the Lamb.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Why The Heavenly Robes Are White," delivered September 24, 1876. Image by Paul Bica on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Faith will be exchanged for sight

We walk here by faith, not by sight. You believe in God, but you have not beheld his glory as the blessed dead have done. You believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, but it is in one “whom having not seen you love.” You believe in the Holy Spirit, and you have been conscious of his presence by faith, but there is a something better yet; a clearer sight is yet to be had, which we cannot enjoy while we tarry here. At present we take everything on the testimony of God’s word and the witness of his Spirit: but we have not yet seen the celestial city, nor heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps, nor eaten at the banquets of the glorified. We enjoy a foretaste of all these, and anticipate them by faith, but actual enjoyments are not for this world. What a man seeth why doth he yet hope for? As this is the realm of hope we cannot expect to see, but we are going to the place where we shall not so much believe as behold, where we shall not so much credit as enjoy. We are nearing the country where we shall

“See, and hear, and know, 
All we desired or wished below.” 

And faith shall be exchanged for the clearest sight.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Believer In The Body And Out Of The Body," delivered July 2, 1876. Image by Nana B Agyei on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

When We All Arrive

Where will some of the vessels I see before me go? It is a fine fleet I am looking upon. Brothers and sisters, I hope all of us will be found in that great harbour in heaven which can accommodate all his Majesty’s fleet. Oh, it will be a great day when we all arrive. Will you give me a hail when you get into port? Will you know me? I shall look out for some of you. I cannot help believing that we shall know each other. We have been in rough waters together these twenty years, and we have had some glorious weather too, have we not? We have seen the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep: I hope we shall keep together till we reach that blessed haven, where our fellowship will be eternal. How we will glorify him who gets us there, even Jesus, the Lord High Admiral of the seas. Christ shall never hear the last of it if I get to heaven. I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto his name.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "There Go The Ships." Image by nosha on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

What a meeting it will be!

We shall be quite at home in heaven, when we get there. Some of you have more friends in heaven than on earth. How few are left of your former friends, compared with the many who have gone above. In the day when you enter into heaven, you will perceive that the church is one family, for they will welcome you heartily, and recognize in you a brother, and a friend, and so, together with them, you shall adore your Lord.

Remember there is coming another day in which the family union of the church will be seen, and that is when the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised. It may be that we shall all be of the company of those who sleep, and if so, when the trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we shall have our share in the first resurrection. Or, if our Lord should come before we die, we shall be “alive and remain;” but we shall undergo a change at the same moment as the dead are raised, so that this corruptible shall put on incorruption. What a family we shall be when we all rise together, and all the changed ones stand with us, all of one race, all regenerate, all clothed in the white robe of Jesus’ righteousness! What a family! What a meeting it will be!

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Saints In Heaven And Earth One Family," delivered August 8, 1875. Image by Satoru Kikuchi on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Take Christ as your remedy at once!

May God grant us grace to shake these vipers into the fire; for, oh my brothers, though I have spoken sternly, just now, even as John the Baptist might have done, I also am a man, and would plead with you tenderly. What sin can be worth indulging at the expense of your soul? Young soldier, over yonder, is there any sin which prevents your being a Christian in your regiment? Can any sin repay you for losing your soul? Young woman, over there, tempted by pleasure, can any gaiety be worth losing heaven for?

Whether young or old, I ask you, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” I have spoken roughly to you in love — love to your souls. If the whole host of pleasurable sins could be put together, and gold piled upon them high as the moon, the whole mass would not repay a man for being cast into the fires of hell. Do not run such risks, I pray you. May great grace enable you to cast your sins away and take Christ at once.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Why Men Cannot Believe in Christ." Image by Keven Law on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

True God from True God

When John fell down to worship one of the angels he received an earnest protest, “See thou do it not.” Now, if the worship given to Christ had been wrong, the thrice holy Savior would have exclaimed most earnestly, “See thou do it not”; but he intimates no objection to the worship, although it is freely rendered by all the intelligent beings before the throne. Depend upon it, my hearer, you never will go to heaven unless you are prepared to worship Jesus Christ as God.

They are all doing it there: you will have to come to it, and if you entertain the notion that he is a mere man, or that he is anything less than God, I am afraid you will have to begin at the beginning and learn what true religion means. You have a poor foundation to rest upon. I could not trust my soul with a mere man, or believe in an atonement made by a mere man: I must see God himself putting his hand to so gigantic a work. I cannot imagine a mere man being thus praised as the Lamb is praised. Jesus is “God over all, blessed for ever.” When we ever speak at all severely of Socinians and Unitarians you must not be surprised at it, because if we are right they are blasphemers, and if they are right we are idolaters, there is no choice between the two. We never could agree, and never shall while the world standeth.

We preach Christ the Son of God as very God of very God, and if they reject him it is not for us to pretend that it makes no difference, when in fact it makes all the difference in the world. We would not wish them to say more than they believe to be true, and they must not expect us to say less than we believe to be true. If Jesus be God, they must believe it, and must worship him as such, or else they cannot participate in the salvation which he has provided. I love the deity of Christ! I preach his humanity with all my might, and I rejoice that he is the son of man; but oh, he must be the Son of God too, or there is no peace for me.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Jesus, The Delight Of Heaven." Image by Randi Hausken on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

We are coming to a jubilee

It was a glad day for Israel when the trumpets rang out the morning of the Jubilee, for every slave was free, and every debtor found his liabilities discharged. Back came each man’s lost inheritance, and the whole nation was glad. With sound of trumpet and of cornet they saluted the rising of the sun on the first day of that Jubilee year; but the jubilee year went by, and lands were mortgaged and forfeited, and slaves fell again into slavery, and bankrupts were again seized by their creditors. Ah, beloved, we are coming to a jubilee, of which the trumpets shall sound on for ever. We shall regain our once forfeited inheritance never to have it encumbered any more; we shall snap the fetters which have bound us, never to feel them again. “If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Eternal Day," delivered May 31, 1874. Image by Luis Argerich on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

A future state for believers

...Paul... was convinced that there is a future state for believers, he was quite sure about it, and he believed it to be a future conscious state, which commenced the moment they died, and was beyond measure full of blessedness.

He did not believe in purgatorial fires through which believers’ souls must pass; much less did he believe the modern and detestable heresy which some have broached, that like the body the soul of the saint dies until the resurrection; but he was wont to speak of being “absent from the body and present with the Lord,” and here he speaks about departing not to sleep or to lie in the cold shade of oblivion till the trumpet should arouse him, but to depart and immediately to be with Christ, which is far better.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "For Ever With The Lord," delivered October 12, 1873. Image by mike138 on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

It will all hinge on this!

There is a spot of earth that must be shovelled out for you to be laid into to fill up the vacuum. And your soul shall live: your soul shall never die. Let not those who tell you of annihilation be believed for a moment. It must exist.

Put it to yourself whether it shall be with the worm that never dieth and the fire that never shall be quenched, or with Christ who liveth in his glory, and who shall come a second time to give glory to his people and raise their bodies like his own.

Oh, it will all hinge on this — “Dost thou believe in Jesus?”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Visit To The Tomb." Image by Kevin Dooley on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

The Most Important Question

The most important question concerning any man living is this, is he a saved soul or no? It is of comparatively little consequence whether he be rich or poor, educated or uneducated, compared with this. Is he among the living before God or is he dead in sins? Is he pardoned or unpardoned? Is he a child of God or an heir of wrath? Is he walking in the darkness or has he passed into the light? Hence of all the days of a man’s history the most important is the day in which he is born again.

If the man be indeed saved, and a new man in Christ Jesus, he will look back upon the day of his regeneration as his chief birthday. His new birth is second in order of time, but he will always put it first in importance. His birth gave him his being, but his new birth secured his well being. Being born first we might have descended into hell; but, being born a second time we are secured for heaven.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Testimony and Experience," delivered June 2, 1872. Image by SF Brit under Creative Commons License.

Then shall I know

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. Surely, no creature will ever be able, even when exalted to heaven, to comprehend all the thoughts of the Creator. We shall never be omniscient — we cannot be. God alone knoweth everything, and understandeth everything. But how much more of authentic truth shall we discern when the mists and shadows have dissolved; and how much more shall we understand when raised to that higher sphere and endowed with brighter faculties, none of us can tell.

Probably, things that puzzle us here will be as plain as possible there. We shall perhaps smile at our own ignorance. I have fancied sometimes that the elucidations of learned doctors of divinity, if they could be submitted to the very least in the kingdom of heaven, would only cause them to smile at the learned ignorance of the sons of earth. Oh! how little we do know, but how much we shall know! I am sure we shall know, for it is written, “Then shall I know even as also I have known.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Now, And Then." Image by truds09 under Creative Commons License.

Sailing into Glory

Suppose, dear friend, the thought of departing from this world to the glory-world should ever startle you, let me remind you that you are not the first that ever went that way. Your vessel is in the pool, as it were, or in the dock; she is going out on her voyage; oh, but you will not go alone, nor have to track your course through paths unnavigated or unknown before!

When the Portuguese captain first went by the Cape of Storms it was a venturous voyage, and he called it the Cape of Good Hope when he had rounded it. When Columbus first went in search of the New World, his was a brave spirit that dared cross the unnavigated Atlantic. But oh, there are tens of thousands that have gone whither you go. The Atlantic that severs us from Canaan is white with the sails of the vessels that are on voyage thither. Fear not, they have not been wrecked; we hear good news of their arrival - there is good hope for you. There are no icebergs on the road, no mists, no counter currents, and no sunken vessels or quicksands; you have but to cut your moorings, and with Christ on board you shall be at your desired haven at once.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Last Look-Out." Image by Hans Kylberg under Creative Commons License.