As Plain as a Pikestaff and Sure

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. – Romans 10:13

What an easy word we have here! “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord.” Anybody can call upon the name of the Lord. Everybody understands what it is to call, “Hi, there!” Have you not often used such a call as that? And if you have been in distress or danger, have you never called, “Help, help, help?”

Very well, he who can thus call, let him call upon God, invoke His help, clamor for His mercy, crave His pity. If he does that in a believing way—as we shall have to show you, trusting that God will hear him—he shall be saved. So, there is no difficulty here that wants a Doctor of Divinity to explain—the truth is put mainly in monosyllabic words—”Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It is as plain as a pikestaff. Oh, that you might see it, and begin to call upon the name of the Lord by earnest prayer!

But here is a sure word—”Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” There is no “if” here; no “maybe” here; but a glorious “shall.” Our shalls and wills are poor, puny things; but God’s “shall” is firm as the eternal mountains. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” as surely as there is a God.

The Lord has made no mistake; He will not revoke His declaration by changing His mind. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Oh, that many would call upon His name and find immediate salvation, which will last them throughout life, and throughout eternity, for “shall be saved” reaches a very long way, even throughout the eternal ages that are yet to come. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2327.cfm

This It Is That Saves the Soul

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. – Romans 10:13

Notice, dear friends, that we have the way of salvation set before us in the plainest terms: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” I remember well when I lived on that verse for many months. I longed for salvation; I could not see that there was any way of hope for me; I thought that I must be left out, that I was too sinful, or too hard, or too something or other, so that others might be saved, but I should not be.

But when I read this verse, I did what I ask you to do, I caught at it; it seemed like a life-line thrown to a sinking man. I clung to it, and it became a life-buoy to me: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” “Ah!” thought I, “I do call on that blessed name, I will call on that glorious name; if I perish, I will never cease to invoke that sacred name.” An invocation of the name of God, a trusting in God, and a consequent calling upon God and acknowledgment of God, this it is that saves the soul.

 “Whosoever.” If I call upon the name of the Lord, if you call upon the name of the Lord, if the man who lies upstairs dying calls upon the name of the Lord, we shall be saved. What a wide word that “whosoever” is! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2327.cfm

Sinner, Fly to Jesus!

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” – 1 Corinthians 6:9

The unjust, the oppressive, cheats, rogues, “the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” I will read these words. I need not explain them but let every one here who comes under their lash submit to God’s Word. “Be not deceived: neither fornicators,”-plenty of them in London-“nor idolaters,”-and ye need not worship a God of wood and stone to be idolaters, worship anything but God, you are an idolater-“nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,”-alas, some of these come to this house regularly,-“nor revilers,” that is, backbiters!, cavillers, tale-bearers, swearers, and such like, “nor extortioners,”-you fine twenty percent gentlemen! You who grind poor borrowers with usurious interest. “But the fearful,”-that means the cowardly, those that are ashamed of Christ, those that dare not suffer for Christ’s sake, those who believe everything, and nothing, and so deny the truth, because they cannot endure to be persecuted; “the fearful and unbelieving,”-that is, those who do not trust a Savior-“and the abominable,”…and “murderers,”-“he that hateth his brother is a murderer;” and “whoremongers and sorcerers;” “those who have or pretend to have dealings with devils and spirits, your spirit rappers, the whole batch of them; “and idolaters, and all liars,” and these swarm everywhere, they lie in print, and they lie with the voice; “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” None of you shall inherit the kingdom of God, not one of you. If you come within this list, except God renew your hearts and change you, the holy gates of heaven are shut in your face.

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son…” – Revelation 21:7

Now, these are no words of mine, but the words of God; and if they condemn you, you are condemned; but, if you be condemned, fly to Jesus! Repent and be converted, as saith the gospel, and forgiveness shall be yours, through Jesus Christ. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1014.cfm

When Our Work is Done

Then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace…For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation– Luke 2:28-30

Saints are willing to depart when their work is almost done. This will not be the case with many here present, perhaps, but it was so with Simeon. Good old man! He had been very constant in his devotions, but on this occasion, he came into the temple, and there, it is said, he took the Child in his arms and blessed God. Once more he delivered his soul of its adoration-once more he blended his praise with the songs of angels. When he had done that, he openly confessed his faith: another important work of every believer-for he said, “Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” He bore public testimony to the Child Jesus and declared that He should be “a light to lighten the Gentiles.” Having done that, he bestowed his fatherly benediction upon the Child’s parents, Joseph and His mother; he blessed them, and said unto Mary “Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel.” Now, we read that David, after he had served his generation, fell on sleep; it is time for man to sleep when his life’s work is finished. Simeon felt he had done all: he had blessed God; he had declared his faith; he had borne testimony to Christ; he had bestowed his benediction upon godly people; and so, he said, “Now, Lord, lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace.” …When a man feels, without claiming any merit, that he has fought a good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith, then will he rejoice in the crown which is laid up for him in heaven, and he will long to wear it. Throw your strength into the Lord’s work, dear brethren-all your strength; spare none of your powers: let body, soul, and spirit be entirely consecrated to God, and used at their utmost stretch. Get through your day’s work, for the sooner you complete it, and have fulfilled like an hireling your day, the more near and sweet shall be the time when the shadows lengthen, and God shall say to you, as a faithful servant, “Depart in peace!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1014.cfm

Weaned from This World

Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace… – Luke 2:29

Beloved, saints have drawn their anchor up and spread their sails, when they have been made to hold loose by all there is in this world; and that is generally when they hold fastest by the world to come. To many this world is very sweet, very fair, but God puts bitters into the cup of His children; when their nest is soft, He fills it with thorns to make them long to fly. Alas, that it should be so, but some of God’s servants seem as if they had made up their minds to find a rest beneath the moon. They are moon-struck who hope to do so. All the houses in this plague-stricken land are worm-eaten and let in the rain and wind: my soul longeth to find a rest among the ivory palaces of Thy land, O Immanuel.

Brethren, it often happens that the loss of dear friends, or the treachery of those we trusted, or bodily sickness, or depression of spirit, may help to unloose the holdfasts which enchain us to this life; and then we are enabled to say with David in one of the most precious little Psalms in the whole Book, the 131st, “I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother, my soul is even as a weaned child.” I have often thought that if David had said, “my soul is even as a weaning child,” it would have been far more like most of God’s people. But to be weaned, quite weaned from the world, to turn away from her consolations altogether, this it is which makes us cry, “Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace.” Even as the psalmist when he said, “And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1014.cfm

Most Ready to Go

Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace… – Luke 2:29

Saints feel most their readiness to go when their communion with Christ is near and sweet; when Christ hides Himself we are afraid to talk of dying, or of heaven; but, when He only shows Himself through the lattice, and we can see those eyes which are “as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk and fitly set;” when our own soul melteth even at that hazy sight of Him, as through a glass darkly. Oh, then we fain would be at home, and our soul crieth out for the day when her eyes shall see the King in His beauty, in the land that is very far off. Have you never felt the heavenly homesickness? Have you never pined for the home-bringing? Surely, when your heart has been full of the Bridegroom’s beauty, and your soul has been ravished with His dear and ever precious love, you have said: “When shall the day break, and the shadows flee away? Why are His chariots so long in coming?” You have swooned, as it were, with love-sickness for your precious Savior, thirsting to see Him as He is, and to be like Him. The world is black when Christ is fair; it is a poor heap of ashes when He is altogether lovely to us. When a precious Christ is manifested to our spirits, we feel that we could see Jesus and die. Put out these eyes, there is nothing more for them to see when they have seen Him. “Black sun,” said Rutherford, “black moon, black stars, but inconceivably bright and glorious Lord Jesus.” How often did that devout man write words of this sort: “Oh if I had to swim through seven hells to reach Him, if He would but say to me, like Peter, ‘Come unto Me,’ I would go unto Him not only on the sea, but on the boiling floods of hell, if I might but reach Him, and come to Him…Oh, how long is it to the dawning of the marriage day? O sweet Lord Jesus, take wide steps; O my Lord, come over the mountains at one stride!” …When these strong throes, these ardent pangs of insatiable desire come upon a soul that is fully saturated with Christ’s love, through having been made to lean its head upon His bosom, and to receive the kisses of His mouth, then is the time when the soul saith, “Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1014.cfm