Christian Life

The Amazing Love of God to Sinners

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

Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. – Acts 16:31

One of the best ways of bringing sinners to Christ is to explain the gospel to them. If we dwell upon its preparations, if we speak of its richness and freeness, some may be attracted whom the short message which merely tells the plan of salvation might not attract. To some it is enough to say, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” for they are asking, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” but others need to be attracted to the wedding feast by the description of the sumptuousness of the repast. We must try to preach the gospel more fully to you, but we shall never tell you of all the richness of the grace of God. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His thoughts above your thoughts, and His ways above your ways. Forsake your sins and your thoughts and turn to the Lord, for He will abundantly pardon you. He will receive you to His heart of love and give you the kiss of His affection at this hour, if, like prodigal children, you come back and seek your Father’s face. The gospel is a river of love, it is a sea of love, it is a heaven of love, it is a universe of love, it is all love. Words there are none, fully to set forth the amazing love of God to sinners, no sin too big or too black, no crime too crimson or too cursed for pardon. If you do but look to His dear crucified Son, all manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven you. There is forgiveness. Jesus gives repentance and remission. And then the happiness which will be brought to you here and hereafter are equally beyond description. You shall have heaven on earth and heaven in heaven… Here is God to be our helper, His Son to be our Shepherd, the Spirit to be our instructor. Here is the love of the Father to be our delight, the blood of the Son to be our cleansing, the energy of the Holy Spirit to be life from the dead to us…God shall be your God, Christ shall be your friend, and eternal bliss shall be your portion. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0975.cfm

Another Gospel Invitation Sent

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

Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden… all things are ready: come unto the marriage. – Matthew 22:4

Observe that they had been bidden, and then called; after the Oriental custom, the call intimated that the festival was now approaching, so that they were not taken unawares, but knew what they did. The second invitation they rejected in cold blood, deliberately, and with intent. What did the monarch do? …He said in himself, “Peradventure they mistook my servants, peradventure they did not understand that the hour was come. Perhaps the message that was delivered to them was too brief, and they missed its meaning. Or, if perchance, they have fallen into some temporary enmity against me, on reconsideration, they will wish that they had not been so rude, and ungenerous to me. What have I done that they should refuse my dinner? What has my son done that they should not be willing to honor him by feasting at my table. Men love feasting, my son deserves their honor-why should they not come? I will pass over the past and begin again.” My hearers, there are many of you who have rejected Christ after many invitations, and my Lord forgets your former unkindnesses, and sends me again with the same message, again to bid you “come to the wedding.” It is no small patience which overlooks the past and perseveres in kindness, honestly desiring your good.

Brethren and sisters since Christ finds many loath to honor Him, my exhortation is to you who love Him, honor Him the more since the world will not…Intercede for those who will not come, that the Lord will enlighten their understandings, and change their wills, that they may be yet constrained to believe in Jesus. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0975.cfm

An Honorable Invitation

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

Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast. – Matthew 22:4

How honorable is the gospel to those who receive it. An invitation to a regal marriage was a high honor to those who were bidden. A king’s son is not married every day, and it is not everybody that is bidden to the monarch’s entertainment. All their lives long they would say, “I was at his wedding, and saw all the splendor of the marriage festival.” Probably some of them had never before enjoyed such a feast as the luxurious potentate had prepared for that day and had never before been in such good company. My brethren nothing so honors a man as for him to accept the gospel. While his faith honors Christ, Christ honors him. It is no mean thing to be a king’s son, but those who come to the marriage feast of God’s own Son shall become King’s sons themselves-themselves participators in the glory of the great heir of all things. While I am speaking of this generous method my heart glows with sacred ardor, and my wonder rises that men do not come to the banquet of love which honors all its guests. When the banquet is so costly to the host, so free to the guests, and so honorable to all concerned, how is it that there should be found any so unwise as to refuse the favor. Surely here is an illustration of the folly of the unrenewed heart, and a proof of the deep depravity which sin has caused…Come, guilty sinner, as you are, and take the mercy Jesus freely presents to you, and accept the pardon which His blood secures to those who believe in Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

 https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0975.cfm

The Heavenly Banqueting House

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father 1 Comment

And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. – Matthew 22:10

The gospel fills the whole capacity of our manhood. There is not a faculty of our nature which is not made to feel its need supplied when the soul accepts the provisions of mercy; our whole manhood is satisfied with good things and our youth is renewed like the eagles. “For I have satisfied the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.” To crown all, the gospel brings us into fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. In Christ Jesus we commune with the sacred Trinity. God becomes our Father and reveals His paternal heart. Jesus manifests Himself unto us as He doth not unto the world, and the communion of the Holy Ghost abides with us. Our fellowship is like that of Jonathan with David, or Jesus with John. We feast on the bread of heaven, and drink wines on the lees well refined. We are brought into the heavenly banqueting house where the secret of the Lord is revealed to us, and our heart pours itself out before the Lord Very near is our communion with God; most intimate love and condescension does He show to us. What say you to this? Is there not here a rich repast worthy of Him who prepares it. Here all your capacious powers can wish, O sinner, shall be given to you; all you want for time and for eternity God prepares in the person of His dear Son, and bids you receive it without money and without price…all the expense lies with Him…The gospel is an expensive business; the very heart of Christ was drained to find the price for this great festival; but it costs the sinner nothing, nothing of money, nothing of merit, nothing of preparation. You may come as you are to the gospel feast, for the only wedding dress required is freely provided for you. Just as you are, you are bidden to believe in Jesus. – C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0975.cfm

A Feast for Love

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

And the wedding hall was filled with guests. – Matthew 22:10

A king’s son is to be honored on the day of his marriage, in what way shall it be done? Barbarous nations have their great festivals, and alas, that men should have sunk so low; on such occasions rivers of human blood are made to flow. To this very day, on the borders of civilisation, there is found a wretched tyrant whose infernal customs, for I dare not call them by a less severe term, command the murder of hundreds of his fellow creatures in cold blood, on certain high days and festivals. Thus, would the monster honor his son by acting like a fiend. No blood is poured forth to honor the Son of heaven’s great King…Jesus the Savior, on His wedding-day with manhood, is glorified by mercy, not by wrath. If blood be mentioned on such a day, it is His own by which He is glorified…It has been the custom of most kings to signalise a princely wedding by levying a fresh tax or demanding an increased subsidy from their subjects…but the King of kings deals with us not after the manner of man. He asks no dowry for His Son; He makes the marriage memorable not by demands but by gifts. Nothing is sought for from the people, but much is prepared for them, gifts are lavishly bestowed, and all that is requested of the subjects is, that they for a while merge the subject in the more honorable character of the guest, and willingly come to the palace, not to labor or serve at the table, but to feast and to rejoice. Matthew Henry says, “A feast is for love and for laughter, for fullness and for fellowship.” It is even so with the gospel. It is for love; in the gospel, sinner, you are invited to be reconciled to God, you are assured that God forgives your sins, ceases to be angry, and would have you reconciled to Him through His Son. Thus, love is established between God and the soul. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0975.cfm

The Hero of Heaven

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

Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready. – Revelation 19:7

We take into reckoning whenever we do honor to a prince all that he may have done for the nation over which he rules. What, then, has Jesus done for us? Rather let me say what has He not done? Upon His shoulders were laid our sins; He carried them into the wilderness, and they are gone for ever. Against Him came forth our foes; He met them in shock of battle, and where are they now? They are cast into the depths of the sea. As for death itself, that last of foes, He has virtually overcome it, and ere long the weakest of us through Him shall say “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” He is the hero of heaven. He returned to His Father’s throne amidst the acclamations of the universe. Do we not, for whom He fought, for whom He conquered, do we not desire to honor Him? I feel I speak with bated breath upon a theme where all our powers of speech should be let loose. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him! Is it not the universal verdict of all who know Him? Ought it not to be the cry of all the sons of men? East and west, and north and south, ought they not to ring the joy bells and hang out streamers on His marriage day, for joy of Him? Is the King’s Son to be married, is there a festival in His honor? O then let Him be great, let Him be glorious! Long live the King! Let the maidens go forth with their timbrels, and the sons of music make sweet melody-yea, let all creatures that have breath break forth with His praises. “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0975.cfm

We Must Praise Him!

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

Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready. – Revelation 19:7

This glorious Son, whose fame is to be spread abroad, is most certainly God-of that we have spoken, but He is also most assuredly man, our brother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. Do we not delight to believe that He, tempted in all points as we are, has never yet submitted to be stained by sin? Never such a man as He, head of the race, the second Adam, the everlasting Father-who among us would not do Him reverence? Will we not seek His honor, seeing that now He lifts our race to be next to the throne of God.

Was there ever such a life as His? O beloved, what tenderness, what compassion, yet what holy boldness; what love for sinners, and yet what love for truth! Men who have not loved Him have nevertheless admired Him, and hearts in which we least expected to see such recognition of His excellence have nevertheless been deeply affected as they have studied His life. We must praise Him, for He is “chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.” It were treason to be silent when the hour has come to speak of Him who is peerless among men and matchless among angels. Clap, clap your hands at the thought of the marriage of the King’s Son, for whom His bride hath made herself ready. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0975.cfm