Attributes of God

Christ’s Power to Speak the Word of Absolution

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, The Father, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

And when He saw their faith, He said unto Him, Man, thy sins be forgiven thee. Luke 5:20

It was the business of the four bearers to bring the man to Christ; but there their power ended. It is our part to bring the guilty sinner to the Savior: there our power ends. Thank God, when we end, Christ begins, and works right gloriously. Observe that He began by saying: “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” He laid the axe at the root; He did not desire that the man’s sins might be forgiven, or express a good wish in that direction, but He pronounced an absolution by virtue of that authority with which He was clothed as the Savior. The poor man’s sins there and then ceased to be, and he was justified in the sight of God. Believest thou this, my hearer, that Christ did thus for the paralytic man? Then I charge you believe something more, that if on earth Christ had power to forgive sins before He had offered an atonement, much more hath He power to do this, now that He hath poured out His blood, and hath said, “It is finished,” and hath gone into His glory, and is at the right hand of the Father. He is exalted on high, to give repentance and remission of sin. Should He send His Spirit into thy soul to reveal Himself in thee, thou wouldst in an instant be entirely absolved. Does blasphemy blacken thee? Does a long life of infidelity pollute thee? Hast thou been licentious? Hast thou been abominably wicked? A word can absolve thee-a word from those dear lips which said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I charge thee ask for that absolving word. No earthly priest can give it thee; but the great High Priest, the Lord Jesus, can utter it at once. Ye twos and fours who are seeking the salvation of men, here is encouragement for you. Pray for them now, while the gospel is being preached in their hearing; pray for them day and night, and bring the glad tidings constantly before them, for Jesus is still able “to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

Help These Spiritual Paralytics

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

And when He saw their faith, He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. – Luke 5:20

Jesus intended to heal the paralysed man, but He did so by first of all saying, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” There are some in this house of prayer this morning who are spiritually paralysed; they have eyes and they see the gospel; they have ears and they have heard it, and heard it attentively too; but they are so paralysed that they will honestly tell you that they cannot lay hold upon the promise of God; they cannot believe in Jesus to the saving of their souls. If you urge them to pray, they say: “We try to pray, but it is not acceptable prayer.” If you bid them have confidence, they will tell you, though not in so many words perhaps, that they are given up to despair. The bottom of this paralysis is sin upon the conscience, working death in them. They are sensible of their guilt, but powerless to believe that the crimson fountain can remove it: they are alive only to sorrow, despondency, and agony. Sin paralyses them with despair. I grant you that into this despair there enters largely the element of unbelief, which is sinful; but I hope there is also in it a measure of sincere repentance, which bears in it the hope of something better. Our poor, awakened paralytics sometimes hope that they may be forgiven, but they cannot believe it; they cannot rejoice; they cannot cast themselves on Jesus; they are utterly without strength…Lend us your help, ye earnest brethren; form your parties of four; grasp the couches of these who wish to be saved, but who feel they cannot believe. The Lord, the Holy Spirit, make you the means of leading them into forgiveness and eternal salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

Our Hearts Full of Zeal for God and Love for Sinners

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises 1 Comment

And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. Luke 5:19

In the case before us there was no need to plead “Jesus, thou son of David, look up, for a man is coming down who needs thee.” There was no need to urge that the patient had been so many years sick. We do not know that the man himself uttered a word. Helpless and paralysed, he had not the vigor to become a suppliant. They placed his almost lifeless form before the Savior’s eye, and that was appeal enough; his sad condition was more eloquent than words. O hearts that love sinners, lay their lost estate before Jesus; bring their cases as they are before the Savior; if your tongues stammer, your hearts will prevail; if you cannot speak even to Christ Himself, as you would desire, because you have not the gift of prayer, yet if your strong desires spring from the spirit of prayer you cannot fail. God help us to make use of such means as are within our power, and not to sit down idly to regret the powers we do not possess. Perhaps it would be dangerous for us to possess the abilities we covet; it is always safe to consecrate those we have.

It was a very singular action which the bearers performed. Who would have thought of breaking up a roof? Nobody but those who loved much, and much desired to benefit the sick. O that God would make us attempt singular things to save souls. May a holy ingenuity be excited in the church; a sacred inventiveness set at work for winning men’s hearts. Let us but feel our hearts full of zeal for God, and love for souls, and we shall soon be led to adopt means which others may criticise, but which Jesus Christ will accept. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

A Holy Company for the One Lost Soul

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

And behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before Him. – Luke 5:18

The great mass of persons who are brought into the kingdom of Christ are converted through the general prayers of the church by the means of her ministry. Probably three out of four of the members of any church will owe their conversion to the church’s regular teaching in some form or other; her school, her pulpit, her press has been the nets in which they were taken. Private personal prayer has, of course, in many instances been mingled with all this; but still the most of cases could not be so distinctly traced out as to be attributable mainly to individual prayers or exertions…There are some, again, who are led to Jesus by the individual efforts of one person; just as Andrew found his own brother Simon, so one believer by his private communication of the truth with another person becomes instrumental, by the power of God’s Spirit, in his conversion. One convert will bring another, and that other a third. But this narrative seems to show that there are cases which will neither be brought by the general preaching of the word, nor yet by the instrumentality of one; they require that there should be two, or three, or four in holy combination, who, with one consent, feeling one common agony of soul, shall resolve to band themselves together as a company for this one object, and never to cease from their holy confederation until this object is gained and their friend is saved. This man could not be brought to Christ by one, he must have four to lend their strength for his carrying, or he cannot reach the place of healing…Let brotherly quaternions look after these by God’s help.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

Longing for Pardon and Receiving It

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy…they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when He saw their faith, He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. – Luke 5:18-20

The case which the narrative brings before us, is that of a man stricken down with paralysis…and, as I look at the case, I think I perceive with equal clearness that this paralysis was in some way or other, at least in the man’s own judgment, connected with his sin. He was evidently penitent, as well as paralytic. His mind was as much oppressed as his bodily frame. It is most probable that being burdened with a sense of sin he had a feeble hope in divine mercy…The affliction for which his friends pitied him was in his body, but he himself felt a far severer trouble in his soul, and probably it was not so much with the view of being healed bodily, as in the hope of spiritual blessing, that he was willing to be subjected to any process by which he might come under the Savior’s eye. I gather that from the fact that our Savior addressed him in these words, “Be of good cheer;” intimating that he was desponding, that his spirit sunk within him, and, therefore, instead of saying to him at once, “Rise, take up thy bed,” our tender-hearted Lord said, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” He gave him at the outset a blessing for which the patient’s friends had not asked, but which the man, though speechless, was seeking for in the silence of his soul. He was a “son,” though an afflicted one: he was ready to obey the Lord’s bidding when power was given, though as yet he could neither lift hand nor foot. He was longing for the pardon of sin yet could not stretch out his hand to lay hold upon the Savior.

Shall I need to appeal to my brethren who love their Lord, and say, band yourselves together to win souls? Your humanity to the paralytic soul claims it, but your desire to bring glory to God compels it. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

Sinner, Pray to Escape the Wrath to Come!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, salvation, the unbelieving life 7 Comments

“Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” – Matthew 25:41

In reference to the world to come, the terrible doom of the ungodly is a most solemn warning to us. My heart fails me to speak concerning the destiny of the ungodly in another world. Dying without hope, without a Savior, they go before the throne uncleansed, unforgiven, to hear that awful sentence, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Pursue them for a moment in your thoughts, down to the deeps of wrath, whither God’s judgment shall pursue them. My Lord, I pray Thee of Thy grace, save me from the sin which brings such a result at the end of it. If the wages of sin be such a death as this, Lord save me from so accursed a service. Will not the sight of their destruction drive us to watchfulness, and cause us to make our calling and election sure? Will it not make us anxious lest we also come into this place of torment? O the wrath to come!

Dear friends, if you are not in Christ, much of what I have said bears upon you. Bethink yourself and pray to escape from the wrath to come. I would not have you be made a mere washpot to be used and broken as a potter’s vessel. Neither should you wish to be a vessel without honor, a thing of no esteem; but may you have faith in Jesus; life in Him, and then you shall be a royal diadem, a crown of glory in the hand of our God. May you have a heritage among those who fear the Lord and are reconciled to Him by faith in the total sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0983.cfm

Tried by the World

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises Leave a comment

I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. – John 17:15

The world often tries us as with fire, and the things which we reckoned to be gold and silver perish in the ordeal since they are but counterfeit, but we are gainers by such a loss. In the world our temper is tried, and too often we become irritated. What then? Why just this; if sanctification has regulated our emotions, patience will have her perfect work, and charity will suffer long; but if we are soon angry and find it hard to forgive, let us not so much find fault with those who try us as with ourselves, because we cannot bear the ordeal. Our pride must go down, we must become slow to wrath, we must be content to be as our Lord, the meek and lowly Savior. These irritations show us how far we are from the model and should excite in us a desire for progress towards His complete image.

Do not worldly men in some cases frighten professors out of their testimony for Christ? I mean, has it never happened that our cheek has blanched, and our tongue failed us in the presence of cavilers, and blasphemers, and sceptics, and have we not been silent when we ought to have avowed our Lord? That also shows how cowardly we are at heart, and how cold is our love. We are to blame for not having more courage; for if we were strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, as we ought to be, we should be ready to go with Christ to prison and to death, and never think of shunning His service…God over-rules for good the evilness of men against the truth. Besides, do not ungodly men drive us from loving the world! We might think of finding our rest here below, but when we hear their tongues cruelly and unkindly slandering us, there we are sick of their company. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0983.cfm