Christian Life

The Sinner’s Business

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

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. – John 3:16

Christians have to trust the Spirit after conversion, but the sinner’s business, if he would be saved, is not with trusting the Spirit nor with looking to the Spirit, but looking to Christ Jesus, and to Him alone…When thou hast thus believed, believe in Him as man. Believe the wondrous story of his incarnation; rely upon the testimony of the evangelists, who declare that the Infinite was robed in the infant, that the Eternal was concealed within the mortal; that He who was King of heaven became a servant of servants and the Son of man…Then, specially, if thou wouldst be saved, let thy faith behold Christ in His perfect righteousness. See Him keeping the law without blemish, obeying His Father without error; preserving His integrity without flaw. All this thou are to consider as being done on thy behalf. Thou couldst not keep the law; He kept it for thee. Thou couldst not obey God perfectly-lo! His obedience standeth in the stead of thy obedience-by it, thou art saved…Believe on Him, then, who on yonder tree with nailed hands and feet pours out His life for sinners. There is the object of thy faith for justification; not in thyself, nor in anything which the Holy Spirit has done in thee, or anything He has promised to do for thee; but thou art to look to Christ and to Christ alone. Then let thy faith behold Christ as rising from the dead. See Him-He has borne the curse, and now He receives the justification. He dies to pay the debt; He rises that He may nail the handwriting of that discharged debt to the cross. See Him ascending up on high, and behold Him this day pleading before the Father’s throne. He is there pleading for His people, offering up today His authoritative petition for all that come to God by Him. And He, as God, as man, as living, as dying, as rising, and as reigning above,-He, and He alone, is to be the object of thy faith for the pardon of sin.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0361.cfm

The Object of Faith

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Father, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

“He that believeth on Him is not condemned” – John 3:18

I am told in the Word of God to believe-What am I to believe? I am bidden to look-to what am I to look? What is to be the object of my hope, belief, and confidence? The reply is simple. The object of Faith to a sinner is Christ Jesus. How many make a mistake about this and think that they are to believe on God the Father! Now belief in God is an after-result of faith in Jesus. We come to believe in the eternal love of the Father as the result of trusting the precious blood of the Son. Many men say, “I would believe in Christ if I knew that I were elect.” This is coming to the Father, and no man can come to the Father except by Christ. It is the Father’s work to elect; you cannot come directly to Him, therefore you cannot know your election until first you have believed on Christ the Redeemer, and then through redemption you can approach to the Father and know your election. Some, too, make the mistake of looking to the work of God the Holy Spirit. They look within to see if they have certain feelings, and if they find them their faith is strong, but if their feelings have departed from them, then their faith is weak, so that they look to the work of the Spirit which is not the object of a sinner’s faith. Both the Father and the Spirit must be trusted in order to complete redemption, but for the particular mercy of justification and pardon the blood of the Mediator is the only plea.~  C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0361.cfm

 

Say, “This is my sin.”

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation 3 Comments

And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” -Mark 9:24

With tears he said, “Lord, I believe,” and then acknowledged his unbelief. Learn then, dear hearer, always to look at unbelief in Christ in the light of a fault. Never say, “This is my infirmity,” but say, “This is my sin.” There has been too much in the Church of God of regarding unbelief as though it were a calamity commanding sympathy, rather than a fault demanding censure as well. I am not to say to myself, “I am unbelieving, and therefore I am to be pitied.” No, “I am unbelieving, and therefore I must blame myself for it.” Why should I disbelieve my God? How dare I doubt Him who cannot lie? How can I mistrust the faithful promiser who has added to His promise His oath, and over and above His promise and His oath has given His own blood as a seal, that by two immutable things, wherein it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation. Chide yourselves, ye doubters. Doubts are among the worst enemies of your souls. Do not entertain them. Do not treat them as though they were poor forlorn travelers to be hospitably entertained, but as rogues and vagabonds to be chased from thy door. Fight them, slay them, and pray God to help thee to kill them, and bury them, and not even to leave a bone or a piece of a bone of a doubt above ground. Doubting and unbelief are to be abhorred, and to be confessed with tears as sins before God. We need pardon for doubting as much as for blasphemy. We ought no more to excuse doubting than lying, for doubting slanders God and makes Him a liar.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

It Ought Not So to Be

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

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. -1 John 3:2

I have known unbelief arise in some souls through a most proper reverence for Christ, and a high esteem for all that belongs to Him...You remember…John, who when he saw his Master in all His glory fell at His feet as dead. Ah, when the soul gets near to Jesus it perceives His perfection, and becomes conscious of its own imperfection; it sees His glory, and becomes aware of its own nothingness; it sees His love, and blushes at its own unloveliness; and then it is very, very apt to be tortured with mistrust, though it ought not so to be.

And I have even known when children of God just converted have come into the church, they have had such a high esteem for their brethren and sisters, that they have feared to be numbered with them. When they have heard some earnest brother pray they have said, “Oh, what a prayer, I shall never be like that man;” and, perhaps, they have listened to the preachings of some servant of God and said, “Ah, I cannot come up to that standard; the very existence of such a man as that condemns me.” It is beautiful to see the little children loving the elder sons of the family, and admiring what they see of the Father in them; but even this holy modesty may be turned into unbelief, though it ought not so to be; for, O child of God, if Christ be so lovely, thou art on the way to be made like Him; and if there be anything beautiful in any of His people, that same shall be given unto thee, for they also are as thou art, men of like passions with thyself; and God who has done great things for them will do the like for thee, for He loves thee with the self-same love.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Faith is God’s Due

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

(Abraham) staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God…Now it was not written for his sake alone, that (righteousness) was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead _Romans 4:20, 23-24

I ought to be afraid of presumption, but it cannot be presumptuous to believe God’s word. I ought to be afraid of saying, “Peace, peace, where there is no peace;” but if peace comes to me through the word of Christ, I need never be suspicious of it, let it be as profound as it may. I may doubt myself; I may go further, I may despair of self, but I must not doubt the Lord. If He has said, “Trust in Me, believe in Me, and thou shalt be saved;” if I believe in Him, it is no presumption to know that I am saved. If He has declared that he that believeth in Him is justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses; if I have believed in Him, I am justified from all my sins. There is far more presumption in doubting the Lord than there ever can be in trusting Him. Faith is no more than God’s due, it ought never to be looked at as too daring. If I believe in Jesus I have no right to say, “I hope I am saved,” for that implies a doubt of God’s declaration that the believer is saved. I have no right to say, “I sometimes think I am safe.” I am so undoubtedly if I believe in Jesus. It is no matter of opinion, but a matter of certainty. There is nothing in this world about which a man may be so sure as about his own salvation, because other things come to us by the evidence of our own fallible senses, or by the testimony of men who may be mistaken; but the fact that the believer is saved is sealed to us by the testimony of God Himself, who cannot lie. When the Scripture says plainly, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” I, having believed, and having been baptized, ought not to question the divine declaration, but should be as sure that, if I have believed, I am saved, as I am sure that I exist. This assurance is attainable, and should be the common condition of the believer. Yet has it often happened, I say, that an anxiety, which was commendable in its outset, has ended in a censurable unbelief.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Unbelief Due to Fears

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 2 Comments

Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ -Philippians 1:6

I have known not a few whose unbelief has arisen through a sacred anxiety to be right-a most proper anxiety if not pushed beyond its sphere. The idea has been suggested to them: “Suppose I should be after all presumptuous, and should deceive myself, by thinking I am saved, whereas I am not? What if I should film the wound, when it ought to be lanced, before there can be effectual healing.” How I wish that all hypocrites would be troubled with this sort of fear. It would be a great mercy for many boastful professors if they had grace enough to doubt.

Some others have been made to shiver with unbelief on account of fears for the future. “I am afraid I shall not hold on,” says one. “Why, to be a Christian you must persevere to the end. With such a heart as mine, how can I hope to be steadfast: and in such a position as mine, surrounded by so many ungodly associates, how can I hope to persevere? I see so-and-so made a profession, and he is gone back; and I know such an one who said he was a Christian, and he is a worse man than he used to be. Suppose the last end of me should be worse than the first; suppose I should put my hand to the plough and should look back and prove unworthy of the kingdom.” Poor heart, it forgets that word, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;” and remembers not that other word, “I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” Rightly filled with a holy anxiety to hold on to the end, it gives way to improper unbelief, for it ought to rest confident that Jesus changeth not; and, where He has begun the good work, He will carry it on and perfect it unto the day of Christ.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

Tried with Unbelief

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation 3 Comments

We have transgressed and have rebelled: Thou hast not pardoned. -Lamentations 3:42

..help Thou mine unbelief -Mark 9:24

There are many true believers who at the first are tried with unbelief, because they have now, more than ever they had before, a sense of their past sins. Many a man receives a far deeper sense of sin after he is forgiven than he ever had before. The light of the law is but moonlight compared with the light of the gospel, which is the light of the sun. Love makes sin to become exceeding sinful.

“My Sins, my Sins, my Savior!
How sad on Thee they fall;
Seen through Thy gentle patience,
I tenfold feel them all.

I know they are forgiven,
But still their pain to me
Is all the grief and anguish
They laid, my Lord, on Thee.”

The light of the promise gleaming in the soul reveals the infinite abyss of horror which lies in indwelling sin. In the light of God’s countenance we discover the filthiness, the abomination, the detestable ingratitude of our past conduct. We loathe ourselves in our own sight. While we bless God that sin is pardoned, we are staggered to think it should have been such sin as it is, and the natural feeling resulting from our discovery is a fear that we cannot be pardoned. We ask ourselves: can it be that such sins are forgiven? Thus, under a sense of sin, though there is the belief that we are pardoned, there may also arise the unbelief against which we need the Lord to help us. “Lord, help Thou mine unbelief!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm