Christian Life

Man’s Duty and the Spirit’s Work

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

And when He comes, He will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. – John 16:8

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out… – Acts 3:19

The apostle Peter, addressing the crowd, said to them, “Change your minds; be sorry for what you have done; forsake your old ways; be turned; become new men.” “And yet,” say you, “and yet the apostle Peter actually says to us, ‘Repent, and be converted!’ That is, you tell us with one breath that these things are the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then with the next breath you read the text, ‘Repent, and be converted.'” Ay, I do, I do, and thank God I have learned to do so. But you will say, “How reconcile you these two things?” I answer, it is no part of my commission to reconcile my Master’s words: my commission is to preach the truth as I find it-to deliver it to you fresh from His hand. I hold as firmly as any man living, that repentance and conversion are the work of the Holy Spirit, (and) that it is the duty of men to repent and to believe. “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” If men will not receive truth till they understand it, there are many things which they never will receive. Ay, there are many facts, common facts in nature, which nobody would deny but a fool, which yet must be denied if we will not believe them till we understand them. The power lies not in the sinner, not in the preacher, but in the Holy Spirit, which works effectually with the gospel by divine decree, so that where the truth is preached the elect of God are quickened by it, souls are saved, and God is glorified. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0804.cfm

Repent and Convert

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, repentance, salvation Leave a comment

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”- Act 3:19

Repent signifies, in its literal meaning, to change one’s mind. It has been translated, “after-wit,” or “after-wisdom;” it is the man’s finding out that he was wrong and rectifying his judgment…Repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it. It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character, which makes the man love what once he hated, and hate what once he loved. Conversion, if translated, means a turning round, a turning from, and a turning to-a turning from sin, a turning to holiness-a turning from carelessness to thought, from the world to heaven, from self to Jesus-a complete turning. The word here used, though translated in the English, “Repent and be converted,” is not so in the Greek; it is really, “Repent and convert,” or, rather, “Repent and turn.” It is an active verb, just as the other was. “Repent and turn.” When the demoniac had the devils cast out of him-I may compare that to repentance; but when he put on his garments, and was no longer naked and filthy, but was said to be clothed and in his right mind, I may compare that to conversion. When the prodigal was feeding his swine, and on a sudden began to consider and to come to himself, that was repentance. When he set out and left the far country, and went to his father’s house, that was conversion. Repentance is a part of conversion. It is, perhaps, I may say, the gate or door of it. It is that Jordan through which we pass when we turn from the desert of sin to seek the Canaan of conversion. Regeneration is the implanting of a new nature, and one of the earliest signs of that is a faith in Christ, and a repentance of sin, and a consequent conversion from that which is evil to that which is good. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0804.cfm

Our Unfailing Friend

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

…He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

If these things be so, that Christ loves His own to the end, let us not indulge the wicked thought that He will forsake us. It is impossible that Jesus should leave a soul that hangs upon Him. You may be brought very low, but still underneath you shall be the everlasting arms. You may feel as if you were crushed by the wheels of providence, your spirit may sink nearly into despair, but neither “things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus your Lord.” Give not way to the fainting-fit of unbelief; believe in Christ, and not in your own feelings; believe in His promise and not in your own frames. What matters it whether it is day or night with you, whether it is winter or summer? Christ Jesus is the same, and He has said, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Resort to your unfailing Friend; lean on the arm whose sinews cannot crack; cast your weight on the shoulders, which cannot grow weary. Play the man, and be of good courage, for the honor of the gospel; for if the gospel does not cheer us in time of trouble, what is the good of it? If it will not buoy us up when the floods are out, where is the service of it? But, my brethren and sisters, it will. We are not of those who have to deal with a vacillating Redeemer, who casts away His people for their sins, and rejects them for their backslidings, who loves His own to-day and hates them to-morrow-a Christ in whom I have no confidence, and in whose existence I do not believe; but we have to deal with one who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; one who never did flinch from His purpose, nor turn from His decree; and having to deal with such a one, let us not dishonor His name by wavering, and doubting, and fearing. Cast yourselves on the Lord, ye mourners, and rejoice in Him; lean yourselves upon Him, ye burdened ones, and take up your psalm of praise and go on your way rejoicing. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

The Perfect Love of Jesus Christ

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

For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. – Psalm 84:11

He will love His own to the end, that is, to the end of all their needs. Deep as their helpless miseries are, shall be the extent of His grace. If their need of pardon abounds, the blood shall be more able to pardon than their sins shall be able to defile. They may need more than this world can hold, and all that Heaven can give, but Jesus will go to the end of all their necessities, and even beyond them, for He is “able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.” He will love them to the end of their lives; so long as they live here His love shall be with them; and as there shall be no end of their existence hereafter, He will continue still the same fondness to them…If you go ever so far, still it is evident that when you are there you are not beyond the end, and Jesus’ love will and must go up to the end, and that is as far as either the sin or the sorrow, the needs or the difficulties of His people can possibly go. The word “end” translated in the Greek frequently signifies to perfection-He loved them to perfection. Oh, the perfectness of the love of Jesus Christ. All that His love can do He will do for His people. None shall be able to say that He has omitted anything, which was good for them. “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Out of all their wants and necessities there shall not be one left unsupplied, but from the first dawn of grace in them, even to the last, the perfection of Jesus’ love shall be manifested. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

In the World

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, Sovereignty of God, The Father 4 Comments

…having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

You are in the world, and, as you all too surely feel, temptations have shown you that you are not yet in Heaven; you have sighed for a lodge in some vast wilderness, that you might cease from the troublers of earth, for what with the evil language which you hear, the corrupt practices which come under your notice, the temptations that are thrust in your own way, and the persecutions and the cruel mockings with which you are tried, you feel that this is a wretched world to live in. Now mark, Jesus loves His own who are in the world. You men that have to work with so many bad fellows, you tradesmen who have to go in among many who shock you, you good work girls, who meet with so many tempters, if you are His, He loves His own which are in the world.

As the sparks fly upward, so were we born to trouble-why do we count it a strange thing? But Jesus loves His own which are in this dolorous world: this is the balm of our griefs, and I call upon you to hold to it, and not let the devil delude you into the idea that the Lord does not love you because affliction happens to you as it does to other men. Of course, it must so happen so long as you are in the world. How can you expect exemption? Would you have a glass case made for you to keep you snug away from all the frosts and winds of this world? Would you have your heavenly Father indulge you with all the sweet things of this life, and spoil you for the life to come? Would you strike the root in this world and never be transplanted to the heavenly Eden? Do you wish to have your rest and portion in this life? Oh! no; you could not wish for that. Well, then, take what God sends to you, receive evil as well as good from Jehovah’s hand, as Job aforetime did; but never let it be the thought of your heart that Jesus does not love you because you are subjected to evils which are necessary to the place in which, for wise reasons, He suffers you for a little to remain. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

He Stood Surety for Us

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

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

The love of Jesus Christ in the past has been attested by many deeds of love. That He loved us He proved by the fact that He stood surety for us when the covenant was made, and entered into stipulations on our behalf that He would fulfill the broken law, and that He would offer satisfaction to the justice of God, which had been provoked. In the fullness of time, He took upon Himself our nature. What higher proof of love than that? In that nature He lived a life of blameless service, in that nature He died a death in which all the weight of divine vengeance for sin was compressed into a few hours of bodily and spiritual anguish. Now that He lives exalted in the highest heaven, He is still His people’s servant, interceding for them, representing them at the right hand of God, preparing a place for them, and by His mighty Spirit fetching them out from the mass of mankind, and preparing them for the place which He has prepared for them in glory. All these proofs show indeed, my dear brethren and sisters, how in the past Jesus Christ has loved His people. Grasp it, I pray you, now, for a minute, grasp it! realize it by putting out the hand of individual faith, and saying, “He loved me in those hoary ages; He loved me ere time began to be counted, and days and years were first mapped out; He loved me ere He had made a star or given light to the sun; He loved me, yes, me in particular, me with a speciality, me as much as any of those on whom His heart is set.” …having loved His own, He loved you, even you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm

Yet He Loves Us

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

Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. – Jeremiah 31:3

…having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. – John 13:1

Jesus loved His people with a foresight of what they would be. Love is blind, they say, but not the Savior’s love. He knew that “His own” would fall in Adam; He knew that as they lived personally each one would become a sinner; He understood that they would be hard to reclaim and difficult to retain, even after they had been reclaimed; He saw every sin that they would commit in the glass of the future, for from His prescient eye nothing can be hidden. And yet He loved His own over the head of all their sins, and their revoltings, and their shortcomings. Hence, we see that He bears towards them an affection which cannot be changed, for nothing can occur which He has not foreseen, nothing therefore which has not already been taken into calculation in the matter of His choice. No new circumstance can shed unexpected light upon the case. No startling and unforeseen event can become an argument for a change. Hence Jesus’ love is full of immutability. There are no ups and downs in the love of Christ towards His people. On their highest Tabors He loves them, but equally as well in their Gethsemanes. When they wander like lost sheep His great love goes after them, and when they come back with broken hearts His great love restores them. By day, by night, in sickness, in sorrow, in poverty, in famine, in prison, in the hour of death, that silver stream of love ripples at their side, never stayed, never diminished. Forever is the sea of divine grace at its flood; this sun never sets; this fountain never pauses. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0810.cfm