By Grace

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace… – Romans 4:16

God has chosen to make salvation by faith, “that it might be by Grace.” Now, dear Friends, the Lord might have willed to make the condition of salvation a mitigated form of works. If He had done so, it would not have been of Grace, for it is a principle which I need not explain now, but a fixed principle, that if the blessing is of Grace, it is no more of works, otherwise Grace is no more Grace. As water and oil will not mix, and as fire and water will not lie down side by side in quiet, so neither will the principle of merit and the principle of free favor. You cannot make a legal work to be a condition of a gracious blessing without at once introducing an alien element and really bringing the soul under the Covenant of Works and so spoiling the whole plan of mercy…His work is all of one piece and that one piece is all Grace!

When we read of Abraham’s life, we see that God called him by an act of Sovereign Grace, made a Covenant with him as an act of Grace and that the promised child was born—not of the power of the flesh, but entirely according to promise. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life in the life of the Patriarch and it is illustrated in a thousand ways whenever we see his faith receiving the promises! The holiness of Abraham, since it arose out of his faith, never leads us to ascribe his blessedness to anything but the Grace of God…I never heard anybody hint that the great Patriarch had reason to glory before God. His name is not “the father of the innocent,” but “the father of the faithful.”

Now, inasmuch as we are saved by faith, every Believer is made to see in himself that, in his own instance, it is by Grace. Believing is such a self-renounciating act that no man who looks for eternal life thereby ever talked about his own merits except to count them but dross and dung…. Those who believe in Justification by Faith are the only persons who can believe in salvation by Grace.

How Is Salvation Received? by C. H. Spurgeon

Our Firm Confidence

Sherry Christian Life, Character of Jesus, Attributes of God, promises, Sovereignty of God

Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. – Romans 4:23-25

“Thanks be unto God which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We know that our Redeemer lives and that because He lives, we shall, also live and be with Him where He is! At the end of the chapter, we are told that this saving faith rests in the power of God as manifested in Jesus— “If we believe in Him who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.” Beloved, we believe that Jesus died, as certainly died as ever any man died—and yet on the morning of the third day He rose again from the dead by Divine power.

It is not, to us, an incredible thing that God should raise the dead! We, therefore, believe that because God has raised the dead, He has raised us, also, from our death in sin and that He will raise our bodies from the tomb after they shall have slept, awhile, in the earth. We believe, also, that our Lord Jesus died for our offenses and put them away. Our faith builds upon the substitution of the Lord Jesus on our behalf, and it rests there with firm confidence. We believe, also, that He rose again because His substitution was accepted and because our offenses were forever put away—rose again to prove that we are justified in Him! This is where we stand! I expect to be saved, not at all because of what I am, nor of what I can do, nor because of anything I ever shall be able to be or to do—but only because God has promised to save those who believe in Jesus Christ through what the Lord Jesus has suffered in their place.

Because Jesus has risen to prove that His suffering was accepted on the behalf of Believers, there do we rest and trust, and that is the way in which every Believer is saved—that way and no way else. Even as Abraham believed, so do we! Here is the fact—it is of faith.

How Is Salvation Received? by C. H. Spurgeon

The Faith Which Finds Its Way to Glory

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. – Romans 4:20,21

We know that we must persevere to the end, for only he that endures to the end shall be saved. Does it not seem incredible that such feeble, fickle, foolish creatures as we are should continue in faith and the fear of God all our lives? Yet this we must do! The faith which saves, enables us to believe that we shall persevere, for it is persuaded that the Redeemer is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him, that He will perfect that which concerns us, that He will suffer none to pluck us out of His hands and that having begun the good work in us He will carry it on!

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 your eyes that you may see
What I have in store for thee.
Lay your arms of warfare down,
Fall that you may 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!

How Is Salvation Received? by C. H. Spurgeon

Faith that Saves the Soul

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father, the unbelieving life

…even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. – Romans 4:17

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. – Matthew 19:26

(Regeneration) seems to me to be quite as great an act of faith as for Abraham to believe in the birth of a child by two parents who were both advanced in years. The case stands thus—here am I, dead by nature—dead in trespasses and sins. The deadness of Abraham and Sarah, according to nature, was not greater than the deadness of my soul to every good thing. Is it possible, then, that I should live unto God? That within this stony heart there should yet throb eternal life and Divine Love? That I should come to delight in God? Can it be that with such a depraved and deceitful heart as mine should yet rise to fellowship with the holy God and should call Him my Father and feel the spirit of adoption within my heart?

Can I, who now dread the Lord, yet come to rejoice in Him? “Oh,” says the poor troubled sinner, “can I, that have fought against the Throne of God. I that even tried to doubt His existence—can I ever come to be at perfect peace with Him so that He shall call me His friend and reveal His secrets to me and listen to my voice in prayer? Is it possible?” The faith which saves the soul believes in the possibility of regeneration and sanctification—no, more—it believes in Jesus and obtains for us power to become children of God and strength to conquer sin! This is believing God, indeed!

How Is Salvation Received? by C. H. Spurgeon

A Blessed Chain

Sherry sermon

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

Dictum! Factum! Spoken! Done!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform. – Romans 4:20,21

Is any thing too hard for the LORD?  – Genesis 18:14

True faith ridicules impossibility and pours contempt upon improbability, knowing that Omnipotence and Immutability cannot be thwarted or hindered. Has God said it? Then so it is! Dictum! Factum! Spoken! Done! These two are one with the Most High! Well, now, the faith of every man who is saved must be of this character. Every man who receives salvation receives it by a faith like that of Abraham, for, my Brothers and Sisters, when we are saved we, too, take the promise of God and depend upon it! To one Believer, one Word of God is applied. To another, some sweet Word, most sure and steadfast, is discovered upon which we fix our hope and find an anchor for our spirit. Yes, and as we search the Word by faith—we take each promise as we find it and we say, “this is true,” and “this is true,” and so we rest upon all of them!

Is it not so with all of you who have peace with God? Did you not gain it by resting upon the promises of God as you found it in the Word and as it was opened up to you by the Holy Spirit? Have you any other ground of confidence but God’s promise? I know you have not, my Brethren, nor do you desire any! And we, also, believe in God over the head of great difficulties. If it were difficult for Abraham to believe that a son should be born to him, I think it is harder for a poor burdened sinner, conscious of his great guilt—conscious that God must punish him, also, for that guilt—to believe, nevertheless, in the hopeful things which the Gospel prophesies unto him!…Despite the trepidation of the awakened spirit, the Holy Spirit enables it to accept the great Father’s promise, to rest upon the propitiation which He has set forth and to quiet itself with the firm persuasion that God, for Christ’s sake, does put away its sin.

How Is Salvation Received? by C. H. Spurgeon

Faith that Glorifies God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform. – Romans 4:20,21

Abraham’s own advanced years and the age of his wife were of no consequence. He did not take them into the reckoning but saw only a faithful Almighty God and felt content. O noble faith! Faith such as God deserves! Faith such as none render to Him but those whom He calls by Irresistible Grace! This it was which justified Abraham and made him the father of Believers! Abraham’s faith, also, gave glory to God. I stopped in the middle of the 20th verse just now, but we must now complete the reading of it. “But was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” God had promised and he treated the Lord’s promise with becoming reverence. He did not impiously suspect the Lord of falsehood, or of mocking His servant, or of uttering today what He might take back tomorrow.

Abraham knew that Jehovah is not a man, that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent. Abraham glorified the Truth of God and, at the same time, he glorified His power! He was quite certain that the Lord had not spoken beyond His line, but that what He had promised He was able to perform. It belongs to puny man to speak more than he can do—full often his tongue is longer than his arm—but with the Lord it is never so. Has He said, and shall He not do it? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Abraham adoringly believed in the immutability, truth and power of the living God—and looked for the fulfillment of His words!

There were no signs, marks, tokens, or indications to substantiate the confidence of Abraham! He rested solely upon the unlimited power of God! And this, dear Brothers and Sisters, is the kind of faith which God loves and honors—which needs no signs, marks, evidences, helps, or other buttresses to support the plain and sure Word of the Lord—but simply knows that Jehovah has said it and that He will make it good!

How Is Salvation Received? by C. H. Spurgeon