promises

Our Sins Blotted Out

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

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

Many Oriental merchants kept their accounts on little tablets of wax. On these tablets of wax, they indented marks which recorded the debts, and when these debts were paid, they took the blunt end of the stylus or pencil, and just flattened down the wax, and the account entirely disappeared. That was the form of “blotting out” in those days. Now, he that repents and is pardoned, is, through the precious blood of Christ, so entirely forgiven, that there is no record of his sin left. It is as though the stylus had levelled the marks in the wax, and there was no record left. What a beautiful picture of the forgiveness of sin! It is all gone, not a trace left. If we blot out an account from our books, there is the blot: the record is gone, but there is the blot; but on the wax tablet there was no blot-it was all gone, and the wax was smooth. So is it with the sin of God’s people when removed by Jesus’ blood, it is all gone and gone for ever. But rest assured it cannot be removed except there be repentance and conversion as the result of faith in Jesus. This must be so, for this is most seemly. Would you expect a great king to forgive an erring courtier unless the offender first confessed his fault? Where is the honour and dignity of the throne of God, if men are to be pardoned while as yet they will not confess their sin? In the next place, it would not be moral; it would be pulling up the very sluices of immorality to tell men that they could be pardoned while they went on in their sins and loved them. What, a thief pardoned and continue to thieve! A harlot forgiven and remain unchaste! The drunkard forgiven and yet delight in his tankards! Truly, then, the gospel would be the servant of unrighteousness, and against us who preach it. But it is not so, impenitent sinners shall be damned, let them boast what they will about grace. My hearer, thou must hate thy sin, or God will hate thee. Thou must turn or burn. Thou canst not have thy sins and go to heaven. Which shall it be? Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or hold thy sins and go to hell? Which shall it be, for it must be one or the other; there must be a divorce between us and sin, or there cannot be a marriage between us and Christ. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

By Faith In Christ

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

And His name through faith in His name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all…Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out…. – Acts 3:16,19

Christ, by faith in Him, is able to do for you all that you want. If you will trust Jesus today, all your iniquities shall be blotted out; the past shall not be remembered; the present shall be rendered safe, and the future blessed. If thou trust in Christ, there is no sin which He will not forgive thee, no evil habit the power of which He will not break, no foul propensity the weight of which He cannot remove. Believing in Him, He can make thee blessed beyond a dream. And is not this cause for repentance, that thou shouldst have slighted one who can do thee so much good? With hands loaded with love He stands outside the door of your heart. Is not this good reason for opening the door and letting the heavenly stranger in, when He can bless you to such a vast extent of benediction? What, will you reject your own mercies? Will you despise the heaven which shall be yours if you will have my Master? Will you choose the doom from which none but He can rescue you, and let go the glory to which none but He can admit you? When I think of the usefulness of Christ to perishing sinners, there is indeed abundant cause for repentance that you should not have closed with Him long ago and accepted Him to be your all in all…I say as Peter did, “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

Prince of Life and Glory Despised of Men

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, repentance, salvation, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

(God) hath glorified His Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. – Acts 3:13

Jesus Christ came not into this world with any selfish motive, but entirely out of philanthropy, full of love to men; and yet men put Him to death! Now, every sin is an insult against the good and kind God. God does not deserve that we should rebel against Him. If He were a great tyrant domineering over us, putting us to misery, there might be some excuse for our sin, but when He acts like a tender father to us, supplying our wants day by day, and forgiving our offenses, it is a shame, a cruel shame, that we should live in daily revolt against Him. You who have not believed in Christ, have mighty cause for repenting that you have not believed in Him, seeing He is so good and kind. What hurt has He ever done you that you should curse at Him? What injury has Jesus done to any one of you that you should despise Him? You deny His Deity, perhaps; or, at any rate, you despise the great salvation which He came into this world to work out. Does He deserve this of you? Prince of life and glory, King of angels, the adored of seraphs, art Thou despised of men for whom Thy blood was shed? Oh, what an accursed thing, then, sin must be, since it treats so badly so kind and blessed a person!

Sinner, thou hast despised Christ, and what is it thou hast chosen? Has it been the drunkard’s cup? Oh, what a bestial thing to prefer to Christ! Or has it been thy lust? What a devilish thing to set in the place of Christ! Man, what have thy sins done to thee that thou shouldst prefer them to Jesus? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

A Soul-Saving Repentance

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

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

Some of our Hyper-Calvinist friends have said that the repentance to which men are here exhorted is but an outward repentance. Does a merely outward repentance bring with it the blotting out of sin? Assuredly not. The repentance to which men are here exhorted is a repentance which brings with it complete pardon-“that your sins may be blotted out.” And, moreover, it seems to me to be a shocking thing to suppose that Peter and John went about preaching up a hollow, outward repentance, which would not save men…Brethren, it was a soul-saving repentance, and nothing less than that, which Peter commanded of these men. We tell men to repent and believe, not because we rely on any power in them to do so, for we know them to be dead in trespasses and sins; not because we depend upon any power in our earnestness or in our speech to make them do so, for we understand that our preaching is less than nothing apart from God; but because the gospel is the mysterious engine by which God converts the hearts of men, and we find that, if we speak in faith, God the Holy Ghost operates with us, and while we bid the dry bones live, the Spirit makes them live; while we tell the lame man to stand on his feet, the mysterious energy makes his ankle-bones to receive strength; while we tell the impotent man to stretch out his hand, a divine power goes with the command, and the hand is stretched out and the man is restored. 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. God has promised to make His gospel the power to save, and so it shall be down to the world’s end. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

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

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