Its His Word

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life… – John 3:36

“I should believe it,” says one, “if Jesus Christ spoke to me, and said so.” My dear friend, He has said it in His Word. Is that Word a lie, or is it true? If it is true, then what more do you want? Christ has written it in His Word; and I like a thing that is written even better than that which is spoken. You know how a man says, when he wants a guarantee about a bargain, “Give it to me in writing; for some people will swear that they never said what we ourselves heard them say, so give it me in black and white.” Well, here it is in black and white: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life;” and again, “There is therefore now”-“now,” mark,-“no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus;” and yet again, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

If all the men in the world were to come, one after another, after I had read something in the Bible, and were all to say, in their different languages, “That is a lie,” I should not believe it an atom the less; and suppose they were all to stand up, and say, “It is true,” I should reply, “Of course it is, but I do not need your word to confirm what Christ has said.” I am perfectly satisfied if He has said it; and there it stands, and all the powers of hell cannot prevail to overthrow it. Here is the solid rock for a soul to rest upon. Christ says, at this moment, to everyone who believes in Him, and trusts in His blood and righteousness, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2770.cfm

Faith’s Works and Rewards

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

“Thy faith hath saved thee.” – Luke 7:50

Jesus is so fond of faith that He takes the crown from His own head, and puts it on the head of faith, as He says to the woman, “Thy faith hath saved thee.” Is that a safe thing for Christ to do? Oh, yes! because faith at once removes the crown from her own head, and puts it back upon Christ’s, saying, “Not unto me, not unto me, but unto Thy name be all the glory.” Christ loves to crown faith because faith loves to crown Christ. As for boasting, faith cannot tolerate that for a moment; she hurls it out of the window, and will have nothing further to do with it. Our Saviour speaks thus, “Thy faith hath saved thee,” because He knows that it will be understood that faith is only the connecting link with Himself, that He really works the salvation, but that the faith of the believer is the means of obtaining it.

This woman’s faith was a personal faith. O dear friends, I implore you to give up all idea, of being saved by anybody else’s faith! Thou must believe in Jesus for thyself, or thou wilt be a lost man for ever. What a dreadful falsehood it is when men stand up, as sponsors for a child, and promise and vow various things, none of which are within their power to perform! Notice, next, that this woman’s faith was a practical faith. She was saved by faith, and not by works; but, she was not saved by a faith which did not produce works. Think of her works,-she washes the Master’s feet with her tears, and wipes them with the hairs of her head; she kisses them repeatedly, and anoints them with her precious ointment. I may truly say of her, “She hath done what she could.” The faith which saves is not a barren faith; it produces the good fruit of love and service for Christ, ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2770.cfm

The Pledge of Heaven

The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands. – Psalm 138:8

There is given to us, when we are regenerated, the very same life which we are to live forever in heaven. We have now the root, the bulb, the seed, out of which immortality and perfection will most surely grow; we may not yet be perfect, but we have that which will come to perfection. We have within us a new nature, which cannot sin, because it is born of God; and this will gradually overcome the old nature, as the Israelites drove out the Canaanites, and we shall be perfect before the throne of the Most High. A man may have, in a very small room, a whole field of wheat lying in embryo, in the seed which is to be sown in the springtime, and reaped in the autumn; and we have, in the gift of God’s grace, all heaven in embryo, in the seeds of faith and love, and the work of the Holy Spirit within our souls… So, the Holy Spirit is the Divine Person who virtually puts heaven into us, and makes us fit to be in the heaven which Christ has gone to prepare for us. What a mercy it is to have the witness of the Holy Spirit, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God our Heavenly Father, to have aspirations after holiness which we never had in our unregenerate state! All this is the pledge of heaven; and in having the pledge, we have practically the salvation itself. The Holy Spirit would not have come into our hearts, and given us all these blessings, if He had not meant to “perfect that which concerneth us,” and to save us in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2770.cfm

 

Salvation is a Present Thing

“Thy faith hath saved thee.” – Luke 7:48

“Thy faith hath saved thee.” This is something that is already accomplished. You are saved; not, you shall be saved; but you are even now in possession of the priceless boon of salvation: “Thy faith hath saved thee.” All through the Scriptures, and especially in the New Testament, it is plainly asserted that believers in Christ are already in possession of salvation… All that was necessary to save them from the result of sin has been endured by the Lord Jesus Christ. He has ransomed them by His death upon the cross. He has stood in their stead, and borne their sin in His own body on the tree, and suffered the full penalty for it. He has finished the transgression, and made an end of sin, and made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in for them everlasting righteousness; so that they are saved. The great work of their salvation was completed by Christ upon the cross when He laid down His life for them, and now they are “bought with a price,” even “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ, who cannot lie, hath declared “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” … we accept God’s promise of salvation as being just as sure as the salvation itself. Paul tells us that God’s promise has been confirmed by an oath, “that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2770.cfm

Thy Faith Hath Saved Thee, Go in Peace

And He said unto her, “Thy sins are forgiven.” “Go in peace.”- Luke 7:48,50

He spoke to the woman these gracious words, “Thy sins are forgiven.” Oh, how they must have dropped like dew into her poor soul! How she must have been refreshed by them! She, who was a sinner, a great sinner, a public sinner–ay, a professional sinner! hears her Saviour say to her, “Thy sins are forgiven.” The absolution pronounced by the man who calls himself a priest is utterly worthless; but it would be worth while to give a thousand worlds, if we had them, for absolution from our great High Priest! Yes, He who knew all about the woman’s sin, He who had power on earth to forgive sins, had said to her, “Thy sins are forgiven.” Was not that enough for her? Would not that short sentence set all the bells of her heart ringing as long as ever she lived?

Ay, but there was still more to follow, for the Lord spoke to her a second time, and said, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” So she was not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but she was also delivered from the power of sin. Her faith had saved her; she was a saved woman, so she might go in peace. Now she is enjoying the sunlight of full assurance, the bright clear noontide of acknowledged acceptance: “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” Some of us have this great blessing, and we rejoice in it; but if others of you have not come quite so far on the heavenly road, do not begin murmuring, or doubting. Bless the Lord Jesus Christ for any favour that He has shown to you, a poor unworthy sinner; and if you have even the faintest ray of light, pray Him to make your path like that of the just, which “shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” If you have received any token for good from your Lord, be thankful for it, and expect ere long to hear in your soul the sweet music of this gracious word, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2770.cfm

Accepted by Jesus

“Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”- Luke 7:50

There had, doubtless, been a work of the Spirit of God upon that woman’s heart, turning her from her sin to her Saviour… When the copious tears from her eyes fell upon His feet, He did not withdraw them. When those feet were wiped with the luxuriant tresses of her hair, still He did not withdraw them; and when she ventured upon a yet closer familiarity, and not only kissed His feet, but did not cease to kiss them, He still did not withdraw them, but quietly accepted all that she did. And when the precious ointment was poured in lavish abundance upon those precious feet of His, He did not upbraid her, He did not refuse her gifts, but tacitly accepted them, though without a word of acknowledgment just then. And I think it is a very blessed thing for any one of you to be accepted before God, even though no word has come from His lips assuring you that it is so. When your tears, and cries, and secret love, and earnest seeking,–when your confession of sin, your struggle after faith, and the dawnings of your faith are just accepted by the Lord, though as yet He has not said to you, “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” it is a very blessed stage for you to have reached, for the Lord does not begin to accept anyone, even by a silence which means consent, and then draw back. He accepted this woman’s love and gifts, though, for a time, He gave her no assurance of that acceptance, and that fact must have greatly cheered her. When Simon’s evil thoughts had condemned her, and her Lord also, Jesus spoke that wonderful parable which set forth the greatness of this woman’s love, and justified the extraordinary way in which she manifested it. Christ did not speak to her, but He spoke up for her; and such action as that should be quite sufficient to stay the soul of a believer in Him. What though my Lord has not revealed Himself to me, He has revealed Himself to the Father for me. What if He has not spoken to me? Yet, if He has spoken to God on my behalf -if He has spoken in the Scriptures in defence of poor sinners, and advocated their cause in the High Court of Heaven, then how thankful I may be, and how thankful they may be! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2770.cfm

God is Bound to Love and His Covenant

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you… – Matthew 7:7

On the throne of grace sovereignty has placed itself under bonds of love. God will do as He wills; but, on the mercy seat, He is under bonds-bonds of His own making, for He has entered into covenant with Christ, and so into covenant with His chosen. When I come to God in Christ, to God on the mercy seat, I need not imagine that by any act of sovereignty God will set aside His covenant. That cannot be: it is impossible… The covenant contains in it many gracious promises, exceeding great and precious. “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.” Until God had said that word or a word to that effect, it was at His own option to hear prayer or not, but it is not so now; for now, if it be true prayer offered through Jesus Christ, His truth binds Him to hear it. A man may be perfectly free, but the moment he makes a promise, he is not free to break it; and the everlasting God wants not to break His promise. He delights to fulfill it. He hath declared that all His promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus; but, for our consolation when we survey God under the high and terrible aspect of a sovereign, we have this to reflect on, that He is under covenant bonds of promise to be faithful to the souls that seek Him. His throne must be a throne of grace to His people. And sweetest thought of all, every covenant promise has been endorsed and sealed with blood, and far be it from the everlasting God to pour scorn upon the blood of His dear Son… It is not possible that we can plead in vain with God when we plead the blood-sealed covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the power of the blood of Jesus with God can never fail. It speaks when we are silent, and it prevails when we are defeated. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1024.cfm