Character of Jesus

So Safe a Salvation

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

Let such as love Thy salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified.” – Psalm 70:4

We love God’s salvation because, in addition to the display of wondrous love, it is so safe a salvation, so real, so true: we have not given heed to cunningly devised fables; we have not chanced our souls upon a fiction. We run no risk when we trust the Savior.

Did God lay on Christ my sin? Was it really punished in Him? Then there cannot exist a reason why I should be condemned, but there are ten thousand arguments why I should for ever be “accepted in the Beloved.” “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Substitution is a basis for intelligent confidence; it satisfies both the demand of the law and the fears of conscience; and gives to believers a deep, settled, substantial peace, which cannot be broken. We love this salvation because we feel that it places a foundation of granite beneath our feet instead of the quicksand of human merit. Justice being satisfied is as much our friend as even mercy herself; in fact, all the attributes unite to guarantee our safety.

We love God’s salvation because it is so complete. Nothing remains unfinished which is necessary to remove sin from the believer and give him righteousness before God. As far as atonement for sin is concerned, the expiation is most gloriously complete…when our Divine Lord went up to Calvary, and on the cross gave up His body, His soul, His spirit, a sacrifice for sin, He finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness. Herein, my brethren, we have strong consolation, the immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lie, His word and oath, are our immovable security. By the atonement we are infallibly, effectually, eternally saved, for He has become the “author of eternal salvation, unto all of them that obey Him.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1013.cfm

We Love the Salvation of God

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

Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: let such as love Thy salvation say continually, “The LORD be magnified.” – Psalm 40:16

The object of (God’s salvation) towards us was to redeem unto Christ a people who should be zealous for good works. The sinner loves a salvation from hell; the saint loves a salvation from sin. Anybody would desire to be saved from the pit, but it is only a child of God who pants to be saved from every false way. We love the salvation of God because it saves us from selfishness, from pride, from lust, from worldliness, bitterness, malice, sloth, and uncleanness. When that salvation is completed in us, we shall be “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” and shall be renewed in holiness after the image of Christ Jesus our Lord. That its great aim is our perfection in holiness is the main beauty of salvation. We would be content to be poor, but we cannot be content to be sinful; we could be resigned to sickness, but we could not be satisfied to remain in alienation from God. We long for perfection and nothing short of it will content us, and, because this is guaranteed to the believer in the gospel of Christ, we love His salvation, and we would say continually, “Let God be magnified.”

We love His salvation because of one or two characteristics in it which especially excite our delight. Foremost is the matchless love displayed in it. Why should the Lord have loved men, such insignificant creatures as they are, compared with the universe? Why should He set His heart upon such nothings? But more, how could He love rebellious men who have wantonly and arrogantly broken His laws? Why should He love them so much as to give up His only begotten? These are things we freely speak of, but who among us knows what is their weight; “God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” I believe that even in heaven, with enlarged faculties, it will be a subject of perpetual wonder to us that ever God could love and save us. And shall we not love the salvation which wells up from the deep fount of the Father’s everlasting affection? O brethren, our hearts must be harder than adamant, and made of hell-hardened steel, if we can at once believe that we are saved and yet not love, intensely love the salvation which was devised by Jehovah’s heart. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1013.cfm

The Life-Blood of a Gospel Ministry

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

Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: and let such as love Thy salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified.” – Psalm 70:4

Sin was not pardoned absolutely; else justice had been dishonored; but sin was transferred from the guilty to the innocent One. “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” When our iniquity was found upon the innocent Lamb of God, He was “smitten of God and afflicted,” as if He had been a sinner; He was made to suffer for transgressions not His own, as if they had been His own; and thus, mercy and justice met together, righteousness and grace kissed each other. Alas! there are many who fight against this plan, but I rejoice that I am surrounded by warm hearts who love it and would die for it. As for me, I know no other gospel and let this tongue be dumb rather than it should ever preach any other. Substitution is the very marrow of the whole Bible, the soul of salvation, the essence of the gospel, we ought to saturate all our sermons with it, for it is the life-blood of a gospel ministry. We must daily show how God the Judge can be “just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth.” We must declare that God has made the Redeemer’s soul a sacrifice for sin, making Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Our plain testimony must be, that “He was made a curse for us;” that “His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree;” that “He was once offered to bear the sins of many;” and that “He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many.” About this we must never speak with bated breath, lest we be found unfaithful to our charge. And why, brethren, should we not joyfully proclaim this doctrine? for is it not the grandest, noblest, most divine, under heaven? The plan so adorns all the attributes of the Godhead and furnishes such a safe footing for a trembling conscience to rest upon, such a fortress, castle, and high tower for faith to rejoice in, that we cannot do otherwise than love it. The very way and plan of it is dearer to our souls than life itself. Oh, then let us always say, “Let God be magnified,” since He devised, arranged, and carried out this Godlike method of blending justice with mercy. C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1013.cfm

He is Salvation

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

Let such as love Thy salvation say continually, “The LORD be magnified.” – Psalm 40:16; 70:4

Let me show you, beloved, what it is in salvation that the thoughtful believer loves; and I may begin by saying that he loves, best of all, the Savior Himself. Often our Lord is called Salvation, because He is the great worker of it, the author and finisher, the Alpha and the Omega of it. He who has Christ has salvation; and, as He is the essence of salvation, He is the center of the saved ones’ affection. Have you, beloved, carefully considered that Jesus is divine, that He counts it not robbery to be equal with God, being our Creator and Preserver, as well as our Redeemer? Do you fully understand that our Lord is infinite, eternal, nothing less than God; and yet for our sakes He took upon Himself our nature, was clothed in that nature with all its infirmities, sin alone excepted, and in that nature agonized, bled, and died, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Oh, marvel of marvels, miracle of miracles! The immortal Lord stoops to death; the Prince of glory bows to be spit upon. Shame and dishonor could not make Him start back from His blessed purpose, but to the death of the cross He surrendered Himself. O, you who are saved, do you not love Christ, who is your salvation? Do you not feel a burning desire to behold Him as He is? Is not His presence, even now, a nether heaven to you? Will not a face-to-face view of His glory be all the heaven that your utmost stretch of imagination can conceive? I know it is so. Your heart is bound to Jesus, His name is set as a seal upon it; therefore, I charge you to say continually, “Let God be magnified.” Glory be to the Father who gave His Son, to the Son who gave Himself, to the Spirit who revealed all this to us. Triune God, be Thou extolled for ever and ever.

“He bore, that we might never bear,
His Father’s righteous ire.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1013.cfm

Blessed is He Who Studies the Gospel

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

Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: let such as love Thy salvation say continually, “The LORD be magnified.” – Psalm 40:16

To sustain and bring to perfection in the renewed heart an ardent affection towards the divine salvation of a sort that will continue, and become practically fruitful, there must be an intelligent consideration, and an instructed apprehension as to the character of this salvation. It is a great pity that so many professors have only a religion of feeling and are quite unable to explain and justify their faith. They live by passion, rather than by principle. Religion is in them a series of paroxysms, a succession of emotions. They were stirred up at a certain meeting, excited, and carried away, and let us hope they were really and sincerely converted: but they have failed to become to the fullest extent disciples or learners. They do not sit at Jesus’ feet, they are not Bereans who search the Scriptures daily to see whether these things be so: they are content with the mere rudiments, the simple elements: they are still little children and have need to be fed with milk, for they cannot digest the strong meat of the kingdom. Such persons do not discern so many reasons for admiring and loving the salvation of God, as the intelligent enlightened Spirit-taught believer. I would to God that all of us, after we have received Christ, meditated much upon His blessed person, and the details of His work, and the various streams of blessings which leap forth from the central fount of Calvary’s sacrifice. All Scripture is profitable, but especially those Scriptures which concern our salvation. Some things lose by observation, they are most wondered at when least understood; but the gospel gains by study: no man is ever wearied in meditating upon it, nor does he find his admiration diminished, but abundantly increased. both day and night and finds his heart’s delight in it. Such a man will have a steadier and intenser affection for it, in proportion as he perceives its excellence and surpassing glory. The man who receives the gospel superficially and holds it as a matter of impression and little more, being quite unable to give a reason for the hope that is in him, lacks that which would confirm and intensify his love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1013.cfm

Let God Be Magnified!

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

Let such as love Thy salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified.”-Psalm 70:4.

Before we can love God’s salvation, we must be seekers of it; hence we read, “Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee.” There is a duty peculiar to seekers, let them see to it; and then there follows a further obligation peculiar to those who have found what they sought for. Let joy and rejoicing be first realised by the seeker through his receiving personally the grace of God and then let us go on to a stage further. The fresh convert has his business mainly within; it will be well for him if his heart can, in sincerity, be glad in the Lord. When believers are young and feeble they are not fit for the battle; therefore, let them tarry at home awhile, and under their vine and fig-tree eat the sweet fruits of the gospel, none making them afraid. We do not send our children to hard service; we wait till their limbs are developed and then appoint them their share in life’s labors. Let the newly called be carried like lambs in the Savior’s bosom and borne as on eagles’ wings. “Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee.” But when men have advanced beyond the earliest stage, when they are persuaded that Christ is theirs, and that they have been adopted into the family of God, then let them cheerfully accept active service…Strong men have strength given them that they may bear burdens and perform labors; light is this burden and blessed is this labor. Let them say continually, “Let God be magnified.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1013.cfm

Glorying in the Lord

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

But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 1:30,31

So glorious is God that all the angels’ harps cannot sound forth half His glory. So blessed is Christ that the orchestra of the countless multitudes of the redeemed, though it continues for ever and for ever its pealing music, can never reach to the majesty of His name or the glory of His work. “Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name.” Let time and space become great mouths for song; let the infinite roll up its waves; let all creatures lift up their voices in praise of Him that liveth and was dead; but chiefly, O my soul, since to Him thou owest in a double sense thine existence, give thy praise to Him from whom all blessing comes. Give thou the homage of thine intellect to Him who is thy wisdom. Let thy conscience and love of rectitude adore Him who has made thee righteous. Give the tribute of thy soul to Him who sanctifies thee; let thy sanctified nature consecrate itself continually; and to Him that hath redeemed thee give thou never-ceasing praise. I wish it were possible for me to rise to the height of my text, but my wings flag; I cannot ascend as the eagle and face the full blaze of the sun; I can but mount a little as the lark, and sing my song, and then return to my nest. God grant you to know the Lord Jesus in His fullness in your personal experience. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0991.cfm