promises

“I Give Unto My Sheep Eternal Life”

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

Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: and let such as love Thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified. -Psalm 70:4

When the Lord pardoned our sins, He did not pardon half of them, and leave some of them on the book, but with one stroke of the pen He gave a full receipt for all our debts. When we went down into the fountain filled with blood, and washed, we did not come up half-clean, but there was no spot nor wrinkle upon us-we were white as driven snow. Glory be to God for such a rich salvation as this. And He did not in that day save us with a perhaps and a chance salvation that set us on a rock, and say, “Keep yourself there-you must depend upon yourselves”, but this was the covenant He made with us, “A new heart also will I give thee, and a right spirit will I put within thee.” It was a complete salvation, which would not permit a failure. The salvation, which is given to the soul that believes is on this wise, “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand.” “The water that I shall give him shall be a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.” I believe the perseverance of the saints to be the very gem of the gospel. I could not hold the truth of Scripture if this could be disproved to me, for every page seems to have this upon it, if nothing else, that “the righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.” In this my soul rejoices, that I have a salvation to preach to you which, if you receive it, will effectually save you if your hearts are given to Christ, and will keep you, and preserve you, and bring you into the eternal kingdom of His glory. I will rejoice in the certain and abiding character of that salvation. Oh! there is enough in the salvation of Christ to make heaven full of bliss; there is enough to make us full of praise. Let us take up the theme; let us talk by the way to one another about it; let us talk to sinners about it; let us recommend religion by our cheerfulness. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3503.cfm

All Joy and All Rejoicing

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

And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in His salvation. -Psalm 35:9

It is an unfortunate thing that Christianity gets associated with melancholy…It is a good thing for the melancholy to become a Christian; it is an unfortunate thing for the Christian to become melancholy. If there is any man in the world that has a right to have a bright, clear face and a flashing eye, it is the man whose sins are forgiven him, and who is saved with God’s salvation. In order for any man, however, to rejoice in God’s salvation, he must, first of all, know it. There must be an intelligent apprehension of what it is. Next, he must grasp it by an act of faith as his own. Then, having grasped it, he must study it to know the price at which it was bought, and all the qualities-the divine qualities- that follow from it. Then he must hold it fast, and seek to get out the sweetness from it. What is there in God’s salvation that should make us rejoice? I do not know what to select, for it is all joy and all rejoicing. It is enough to make our heart to ring with joy to think that there should be a salvation at all for such poor souls as we are. We may well hang out all the streamers of our spirits, and strew the streets of our soul with flowers, for King Jesus has come to dwell there. Ring every bell; give Him a glorious welcome. Let all the souls be glad when Jesus enters and brings salvation with Him, for the salvation of Christ is so suitable that we may well rejoice in it. Dear brother, if you are saved, I know the salvation of Christ suited you. It did me-exactly-it was made on purpose for me. I am as sure of it as if there were no other sinner to be saved. It was the gospel that brought power to the weak, nay, it brought life to the dead; it brought everything to those that had nothing; it is just the sort of gospel for a penniless, bankrupt sinner like myself. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3503.cfm

Beware of a Sunny-Weather Religion

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit 4 Comments

But I have trusted in Thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation. -Psalm 13:5

“If on my face for Thy dear name,
Shame and reproach may be;
I’ll hail reproach and welcome shame,
For Thou (shalt) remember me.”

It takes some pluck, but we ought to have it in the cause of Christ. Your mean, miserable wretches that will only go out to follow Christ in sunny weather, and get them gone again when a cloud darkens the sky, deserve well the wrath that comes upon them. They are like the Nautilus, very well on the placid sea, but the first billow that arises they furl their sails and drop into the deep, and are seen no more. Oh! beware, beware, beware of a sunny-weather religion; beware of a religion that will not stand the fire; but be you such that, if all the world forsook Christ, you would say, “I will rejoice in His salvation”; and if you were turned out of doors, if you were turned out of the world itself, and thought not fit to live, you would yet be content to have it so, if you might be numbered with the people of God, and be permitted to rejoice in His salvation.

I cannot forget, when I sat as a young lad under the gallery of a little place of worship, hearing the gospel simply preached-the blessed moment when I was led to resolve to follow Christ. I have never been ashamed of having done so. I have never had to regret it. He is a blessed Master. He has handled me roughly lately, but He is a blessed Master. I would follow at His heels if only like a dog, for it is better to be His dog than to be the devil’s darling. He is a blessed Master…O eternal Spirit, come and touch some heart, and make this, their spiritual birthright, that they may say, “I will rejoice in Thy salvation.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3503.cfm

True Salvation

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Father 3 Comments

“I will rejoice in Thy salvation.”- Psalm 9:4

Salvation is of God because it draws toward God. If thou hast God’s salvation, thou art being drawn towards thy heavenly Father, nearer and nearer every day. The ungodly forget God; the awakened seek God; but the saved rejoice in God. Ask thyself this question, Couldst thou live without God? The ungodly man would be happier without God than he is with. It would be the best piece of news in the newspaper to thousands, if we could publish it to-morrow, that God was dead. To ungodly men it would be like ringing the bells of universal Joy; they would run riot after their own will. And where would the believer be? He would be an orphan. His sun would be blotted out; his hopes would be dead and buried. Judge by this whether thou art saved. If thou art saved, thou art drawn to God, thou seekest to be like God, thou desirest to honour God. If there be none of these things in thee, then I charge thee see to it, for thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity. God have mercy upon thee! I need not further say that the salvation is of God, and God must have all the glory of it. All on earth who are saved, and all in heaven who are saved, will ascribe their salvation entirely to the ever blessed God, and join with Jonah, who in the very depths of the sea made this, his confession of faith, “Salvation is of the Lord.”

“I will rejoice in Thy salvation.” If I were righteous, I would not say so. Had I a perfect holiness, I would not mention it in comparison with the righteousness of Christ; but being an unworthy sinner, without a single merit of my own, I will not be so foolish as to patch up a fictitious righteousness, but I will rejoice in Thy salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3503.cfm

Come Out of Your Iron Cage

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, The Holy Spirit 3 Comments

Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly…-Jonah 2:1

One is saying, “Oh! I shall never be in a more unhappy state than I now am in, I have lost the light of His countenance; He hath clean gone away from me, and I shall perish.” You remember in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” the description of the man shut up in the iron cage. One says to him, “Wilt thou never come out of this cage?” “No, never.” “Art thou condemned for ever?” “Yes, I am.” “Why was this?” “Why I grieved the Spirit, and He is gone; I once thought I loved Him, but I have treated Him lightly and He has departed. I went from the paths of righteousness, and now I am locked up here, and cannot get out.” Yes, but John Bunyan does not tell you that the man never did get out. There have been some in that iron cage that have come out. There may be one here who has been for a long while sitting in that iron cage, rattling the bars, trying to break them, trying to file them through with his own little might and strength. Oh! dear friend, you will never file through the iron bars of that terrible cage; you will never escape by yourself. What must you do? You must begin to sing like the bird in the cage does; then the kind Master will come and let you out. Cry to Him to deliver you; and though you cry and shout, and He shutteth out your prayer, He will hear you by-and-bye; and like Jonah you shall exclaim in days to come, “Out of the belly of hell I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me.”

“Return, O wanderer, return,
And seek an injured Father’s face;
Those warm desires that in thee burn
Were kindled by reclaiming grace.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0051.cfm

Only Christ’s, Solely Christ’s!

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

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me. –  Job 29:2

Frequently this complaint arises from idolatry. Many have given their hearts to something else save God, and have set their affections upon the things of earth, instead of the things in heaven. It is hard to love the world and love Christ, it is impossible: that is more; but it is hard not to love the creature; it is hard not to give yourself to earth; I had almost said, it is impossible not to do that; it is difficult, and only God can enable us; He alone can keep us with our hearts fully set on Him; but mark whenever we make a golden calf to worship sooner or latter it will come to this; we shall get our golden calf ground up and put into our water for us to drink, and then we shall have to say, “He hath made me drunken with wormwood.” Never a man makes an idol for himself to worship but it tumbles down on him and breaks some of his bones. There was ne’er a man yet who departed to broken cisterns to find water, but instead thereof he found loathsome creatures therein, and was bitterly deceived. God will have His people live on Him, and on none else, and if they live on anything else but Him He will take care to give them of the waters of Mara, to embitter their drink, and drive them to the Rock of purest streams. Oh, beloved, let us take care that our hearts are wholly His, only Christ’s, solely Christ’s! If they are so, we shall not have to cry out, “Oh that I were as in months past!”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0051.cfm

The Remedy for Your Grief

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, prayer, promises 5 Comments

O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come. – Psalm 65:2

It is said that fat men may for a time live on the flesh they have acquired; but there is not a Christian so full of flesh that he can live on old grace. If he waxes fat he kicks, but he cannot live upon his fat. Those who are strong and mighty in themselves cannot exist without prayer. If a man should have the spiritual might of fifty of God’s choicest Christians in himself, he must die, if he did not continue to plow. My brother, cannot you look back and say, “Three or four months ago my prayers were more regular, more constant, more earnest than they are now; but now they are feeble, they are not sincere, they are not fervent, they are not earnest? “O brother, do not ask anybody what is the cause of your grief; it is as plain as possible; you need not ask a question about it. There is the cause; and where is the remedy? Why, in more prayer, beloved. It was little prayer that brought you down; it is great prayer that will lift you up. It was lack of prayer that brought you into poverty, it must be increase of prayer that will bring you into riches again.

A certain merchant wishes that he were as rich as he used to be; he was wont to send his ships over to the gold country, to bring him home cargoes of gold, but ne’er a ship has been out of port lately, and therefore can he wonder that he has had no cargo of gold? So when a man prayeth he sends a ship to heaven, and it comes back laden with gold; but if he leaves off supplication, then his ship is weather-bound and stays at home, and no wonder he cometh to be a poor man.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0051.cfm