Openly Avow Your Faith

August 22, 2026August 8, 2026Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

And stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. – Luke 7:38

And he cried, saying, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. – Luke 18:38

The faith of the woman and the beggar was alike in being openly avowed. I will not say that the avowal took the same form in both, for it did not; but still it was equally open. There is the Saviour, and there comes the weeping penitent. She loves Him. Is she ashamed to say so? It may bring her reproach; it will certainly rake up the old reproaches against her, for she has been a sinner. Never mind what she has been, nor who may be present to see her. She loves her Lord, and she will show it…She avowed her faith.

And so did the blind man. He did not sit there and say, “I know He is the Son of David, but I must not say it.” They said, some of them contemptuously, and others indifferently, “It is Jesus of Nazareth.” But he will not have it so. “Thou Son of David,” saith he; and loud above their noise I hear him cry, like a herald proclaiming the King, “Son of David.” Why, sirs, it seems to me he was exalted to a high office: he became the herald of the King and proclaimed Him…The blind beggar showed great decision and courage. He cried in effect, “Son of David Thou art; Son of David I proclaim Thee; Son of David Thou shalt be proclaimed, whoever may gainsay it…

Are there any of you who have a faith in Christ which you are ashamed of? …so also, will Christ be ashamed of you when He cometh in the glory of His Father and all His holy angels with Him… If you love Him, say it. Put on your Master’s regimentals, enlist in His army, and come forward and declare, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Saving Faith by C. H. Spurgeon

All True Faith is Opposed

August 21, 2026August 8, 2026Sherry Christian Life, salvation, prayer, Character of Jesus, Attributes of God, promises, repentance

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden Him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. – Luke 7:39

And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace… – Luke 18:39

The woman’s faith, and the blind man’s faith, was alike in defying and conquering opposition. Little do we know the inward struggles of the penitent as she crossed the threshold of Simon’s house. “He will repel thee,” the stern, cold Pharisee will say, “Get thee gone, thou strumpet; how darest thou defile the doors of honest men.” But whatever may happen she passes through the door, she comes to where the feet of the Saviour are stretched out towards the entrance as He is reclining at the table, and there she stands. Simon glanced at her: he thought the glance would wither her, but her love to Christ was too well rooted to be withered by him…Her Lord was there, and she felt safe. Timid as a dove, she trembled not while He was near; but she returned no defiant glances for Simon’s haughty looks; her eyes were occupied with weeping…Her Lord, her Lord, was all to her. She overcame through faith in Him, and held her ground, and did not leave the house till He dismissed her with “Go in peace.”

It was the same with the blind man. He said, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” They cried, “Hush! Why these clamours, blind beggar? His eloquence is music; do not interrupt Him. Never man spake as He is speaking. Every tone rings like the harps of the angels. Hush! How darest thou spoil His discourse?” But over and above them all went up the importunate prayer, “Son of David, have mercy upon me,” and he prevailed. All true faith is opposed…faith must wage war for its existence.

Saving Faith by C. H. Spurgeon

Unworthy

August 20, 2026August 8, 2026Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God

And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. – Luke 7:37-38

And it came to pass, that as He was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging…And he cried, saying, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. – Luke 18:35,38-39

The faith of these two was alike in its confession of unworthiness. What meant her standing behind? What meant her tears, her ever flowing tears, but that she felt unworthy to draw near to Jesus? And what meant the beggar’s cry, “Have mercy on me?” Note the stress he lays upon it. “Have mercy on me.” He does not claim the cure by merit, nor ask it as a reward. To mercy he appealed. Now I care not whose faith it is, whether it be that of David in his bitter cries of the fifty-first Psalm, or whether it be that of Paul in his highest exaltation upon being without condemnation through Christ, there is always in connection with true faith a thorough and deep sense that it is mercy, mercy alone, which saves us from the wrath to come. Dear hearer, do not deceive yourself. Faith and boasting are as opposite to one another as the two poles. If you come before Christ with your righteousness in your hand, you come without faith; but if you come with faith, you must also come with confession of sin, for true faith always walks hand in hand with a deep sense of guiltiness before the Most High. This is so in every case.

Saving Faith by C. H. Spurgeon

Unmixed Faith in Him

August 19, 2026August 8, 2026Sherry Christian Life, salvation, Character of Jesus, Attributes of God, promises, repentance

“Thy faith hath saved thee.”—‍Luke 7:50 and Luke 18:42

In the instances of the penitent woman and the blind beggar, their faith was fixed alone in Jesus. You cannot discover anything floating in their faith in Jesus which adulterated it; it was unmixed faith in Him. the woman pressed forward to Him, her tears fell on Him; her ointment was for Him; her unloosed tresses were a towel for His; feet she cared for no one else, not even for the disciples whom she respected for His sake; her whole spirit and soul were absorbed in Him. He could save her; He could blot out her sins. She believed Him; she did it unto Him. The same was the case with that blind man. He had no thought of any ceremonies to be performed by priests; he had no idea of any medicine which might be given him by physicians. His cry was, “Son of David, Son of David.” The only notice he took of others was to disregard them, and still to cry, “Son of David, Son of David.” “What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?” was the Lord’s question, and it answered to the desire of his soul, for he knew that if anything were done it must be done by the Son of David. It is essential that our faith must rest alone on Jesus. Mix anything with Christ, and you are undone. If your faith shall stand with one foot upon the rock of His merits, and the other foot upon the sand of your own duties, it will fall, and great will be the fall thereof. Build wholly on the rock, for if so much as a corner of the edifice shall rest on anything beside, it will ensure the ruin of the whole:

“None but Jesus, none but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.”

All true faith is alike in this respect.

Saving Faith by C. H. Spurgeon

Faith Works by Love

August 18, 2026August 8, 2026Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God… – Ephesians 2:8

Faith operates upon the entire nature and becomes the instrument in the hand of the regenerating Spirit by which all the faculties of the soul are put into the right condition. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he, but his thinkings come out of his believings; if he be put right in his believing, then his understanding will operate upon his affections, and all the other powers of his manhood, and old things will pass away, all things will become new through the wonderful effect of the faith, which is of the operation of God. Faith works by love, and through love it purifies the soul, and the man becomes a new creature. See ye then the wisdom of God? He may choose what way He will, but He chooses a way which at once guards His grace from our felonious boastings, and on the other hand produces in us a holiness which otherwise never would have been there.

Faith saves us just as the mouth saves from hunger. If we be hungry, bread is the real cure for hunger, but still it would be right to say that eating removes hunger, seeing that the bread itself could not benefit us, unless the mouth should eat it. Faith is the soul’s mouth, whereby the hunger of the heart is removed. Christ also is the brazen serpent lifted up; all the healing virtue is in Him; yet no healing virtue comes out of the brazen serpent to any who will not look; so that the looking is rightly considered to be the act which saves. True, in the deepest sense it is Christ uplifted who saves, to Him be all the glory.

Saving Faith by C. H. Spurgeon

God’s Sovereign Determination

August 17, 2026August 8, 2026Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit

“Thy faith hath saved thee.”—‍Luke 7:50 and Luke 18:42

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

If thou wouldst have salvation, “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”; but if not, salvation is utterly impossible to thee. This is the appointed way; follow it, and it leads to heaven; refuse it, and thou must perish. This is God’s sovereign determination, “He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the Son of God.” Jehovah’s will be done. If this be His method of grace, let us not kick against it.

While I attribute this to the sovereign choice of God, I do see, for Scripture plainly indicates it, a reason in the nature of things why faith should thus have been selected. The apostle tells us it is of faith that it might be of grace. If the condition of salvation had been either feeling or working, then, such is the depravity of our nature, that we should inevitably have attributed the merit of salvation to the working or the feeling. We should have claimed something whereof to glory…”Wherefore dost thou boast in the fact of having believed, and especially when this believing would never have been thine if it had not been for the force of the truth which convinced thee, and the working of the Spirit of God which constrained thee to believe?”…It was Christ that saved the penitent woman, it was Christ that saved that blind beggar, but He takes the crown from off His own head, so dear is faith to Him, and He puts the diadem upon the head of faith and says, “Thy faith hath saved thee,” because He is absolutely certain that faith will never take the glory to herself, but will again lay the crown at the pierced feet, and say, “Not unto myself be glory, for Thou hast done it; Thou art the Saviour, and Thou alone.” In order, then, to illustrate and to protect the interests of sovereign grace, and to shut out all vain glorying, God has been pleased to make the way of salvation to be by faith, and by no other means.

Saving Faith by C. H. Spurgeon