promises

“If I must die, I will die here.”

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

And it was told king Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD; and, behold, he is by the altar… And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay; but I will die here. – 1 Kings 2:29, 30 

Joab came within the tabernacle. So, poor soul, come and hide yourself in Christ. Joab took hold of the horns, the projecting corners of the altar, and he would not let go. Come, trembling sinners, and take hold on Christ Jesus. Lean with your hand of faith upon your Lord, and say, “This Christ is mine. I accept Him as the gift of God to me, unworthy though I be.” When that is done, a fierce demand may be made upon you. The enemy will probably cry, “Come forth! Come forth!” The self-righteous will say, “What right has a sinner as you to trust Christ? Come forth!” Mind you say to them, “Nay, but I will die here.” Your sins and your guilty conscience will cry to you, “Come forth! Come forth! You must not lay hold of Christ. See what you have been, and what you are, and what you are likely to be.” Answer to these voices, “Nay, but I will die here. I will never give up my hold of Christ.” Satan will come, and he will howl out, “Come forth! What right have you with the Lord Jesus Christ? You cannot think that He came to save such a lost one as you are.” Do not listen to him. As often as he howls at you, only say to yourself, “Nay, but I will die here.” I pray God that every sinner here may be brought to this desperate resolve, “If I perish, I will perish trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. If I must die, I will die here.” For certain, we shall die anywhere else. If we trust in any but Jesus, we must perish. “Other foundation can no man lay than that that is laid.” “Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” “He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not,”-whatever else he trusts to, -“is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1826.cfm

Away with Them!

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

And he said, Nay; but I will die here…And the king said unto him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him… – 1 Kings 2:30,31

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. – Acts 4:12

You may be a member of a church fifty years, but you will be damned at last unless you are a member of Christ. It matters not though you are a church-officer, a deacon, an elder, a pastor, a bishop, or even Archbishop of Canterbury, or an apostle, you will perish as surely as Judas, who betrayed his Master with a kiss, unless your heart is right with God. I pray you, put no confidence in your profession. Unless you have Christ in your heart, a profession is but a painted pageantry for a soul to go to hell in. As a corpse is drawn to the grave by horses adorned with nodding plumes, so may you find in an outward profession a pompous way of being lost. God save us from that!.. “My confidence is in my sound doctrine.” That is not mine, friend, and I hope that it will not be yours long, for many lost souls have firmly believed orthodox doctrine…Put no confidence in the mere fact that you hold to an orthodox faith, for a dead orthodoxy soon corrupts. You must have faith in Christ, or else this altar-horn of a correct creed, on which you lay your hand, will bring you no salvation.

Whatever you depend upon apart from the blood and righteousness of Christ, away with it! Away with it! If you are even depending upon your own repentance, and your faith, away with them! If you are looking to your own prayers or alms, I can only cry again, -Away with them! Nothing but the blood of Jesus; nothing but the atoning sacrifice; but, if you come and lay your hand upon that, blessed shall you be. Before the living God, who is greater and wiser than Solomon, it will be of no avail to any man to lay hold upon the horns of the altar. But, there is an altar-a spiritual altar-whereof if a man do but lay hold upon the horns, and say, “Nay; but I will die here,” he shall never die; but he shall be safe against the sword of justice for ever; for the Lord has appointed an altar in the person of His own dear Son, Jesus Christ, where there shall be shelter for the very vilest of sinners if they do but come and lay hold thereon. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1826.cfm

Go You to Christ Only

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

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus… – 1 Timothy 2:5

There is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, and he who sets up another is an enemy of souls. There is but One who can be trusted with our soul affairs, even the Lord Jesus Christ; and woe to us if we put our confidence in men! Ordained or unordained, shaven or unshorn, they cannot help us. Yet I know that people do trust in ministers most foolishly. I remember years ago being at three o’clock in the morning in a house now pulled down, which stood not far from the London Bridge railway-station. A gentleman of considerable means had spent the Sunday at Brighton, had come home, and had been taken with cholera on a sudden, and nothing would do him, when he was in the pangs of death, but he must send for me. I went, not knowing what was required of me. But when I got there what could I do? There was a little consciousness left to the man, and I spoke to him of Jesus. I asked if he had a Bible. The people of the house searched high and low, but there was no such thing to be found. The mind was soon too beclouded for further comprehension, and as I came away, I asked, “Has he ever gone to a place of worship?” No, never-never cared for such a thing; but as soon as he was ill, then, “Oh, send for Mr. Spurgeon!” He must come, and nobody else: and there I stood, and what could I do?

What can we do for you, dear hearts, if you will not have our Saviour? We can stand and weep over you, and break our hearts to think that you reject Him; but what can we do? Oh, if we could let you into heaven, if we could renew your hearts, how joyfully would we perform the miracle; but we claim no such power, no such influence! Go you to Christ, and lay hold upon the true altar-horn; but do not be so foolish as to put confidence in us or in any other ministers. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1826.cfm

Dead Things

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

Ye must be born again. – John 3:7

There are, doubtless, some who think that they are all right because they frequent sermons. They delight to be found hearing the gospel. Now, in this you do well, for, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”; but, if you suppose that the mere hearing of a sermon with the outward ear can save you, you suppose what is untrue, and you build the house of your hope on sand…”Oh, but,” says another, “I attend prayer meetings.” Your being found in the place where prayer is wont to be made may be no true sign of grace. “Ay, but I do more than that, for I have prayers in my own house.” Yes, and very proper, too. I would that all did the same; I am grieved that any should neglect the ordinance of family prayer. But yet, if you think that the reading of a form of prayer in your household, or even the use of extempore prayer, is a thing to be relied upon for salvation, you do greatly err…”But I regularly read a chapter,” says one. I am extremely glad you do, and God bless that chapter to you! I would that all were in the habit of reading the Bible regularly, and endeavouring to understand it; but, if you trust in your Bible-readings as a ground of salvation, you are resting upon a mere soap-bubble which will burst under your weight. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, producing in the soul a change of heart, a new birth unto God, this is what is wanted; and, apart from that, all the Bible reading you ever practice can do you no good whatsoever. 

“Ye must be born again. Ye must be born again”; and if there be not this inward change, then vain is all outward observance. You may wash a corpse, you may clothe that corpse in the purest white shroud that was ever woven, but when all is done it does not live; and what are all the outward devotions of a carnal man but dead things which bring no life with them to men dead in sin? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1826.cfm

The Useless Horns of the Sacraments

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

And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. And the king said unto him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father. – 1 Kings 2:30,31

There are many-oh, how many still! -that are hoping to be saved, because they lay hold, as they think, upon the horns of the sacraments. Men of unhallowed life, nevertheless, come to the sacramental table, looking for a blessing. Do they not know that they pollute it? Do they not know that they are committing a high sin, and a great misdemeanour against God, by coming amongst His people, where they have no right to be? And yet they think that by committing this atrocity they are securing to themselves safety. How common it is to find in this city, when an irreligious man is dying, that someone will say, “Oh, he is all right; for a clergyman has given him the sacrament.” I often marvel how men calling themselves the servants of God can dare thus to profane the ordinance of the Lord. Did he ever intend the blessed memorial of the Lord’s supper to be a kind of superstitious vialicum, a something upon which ungodly men may depend in their last hour, as if it could put away sin…Do they conceive that grace comes to men by bits of bread and drops of wine? These things are meant to put us in memory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, as far as they do that, and quicken our thoughts of Him, they are useful to us; but there is no wizardry or witchcraft linked with these two emblems…I charge you, as before the Lord, cleanse yourselves of this superstition. There is no salvation apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and you might as well trust in your sins as in sacraments…Without faith in Christ, even the ordinances of God become things to condemn you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1826.cfm

 

Thou Art Indeed My Lord and My God

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

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. – John 1:14

We bear our testimony that He is “the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Brothers and sisters, instead of preaching let me bear my testimony; my testimony of what I have seen, what my own ears have heard, and my own heart has tasted-that Christ is the only begotten of the Father. He is divine to me, if He be human to all the world besides. He has done that for me which none but a God could do. He has turned my stubborn will, melted a heart of adamant, broken a chain of steel, opened the gates of brass, and snapped the bars of iron. He hath turned for me my mourning into laughter, and my desolation into joy; He hath led my captivity captive, made my heart rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Let others think as they will of Him, to me He must be the only begotten of the Father: blessed be His name.

“O that I could now adore Him,
Like the heavenly host above,
Who for ever bow before Him,
And unceasing sing His love. Happy songsters!
When shall I your chorus join?”

Thy name is precious even as ointment poured forth. Thou art indeed my Lord and my God, as certainly as ever Thou wast the God of Thomas. Like Paul, my soul shall say, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” – C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0414.cfm

The Glory of His Final Triumph

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

…and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father… – John 1:14

We have beheld His glory in His final triumph. Yes, brethren, by faith we have seen in the very moment when the sun was darkened, and when the earth was shaken, and the rocks rent asunder; we have seen Christ darkening the world’s glories; we have seen Him rending rocky hearts, and bidding the dead arise. We have seen Him in the very instant when He gave up the ghost leaping from the cross, pursuing with thunderbolts the prince of hell, and driving him to darker shades below; we have seen Him grasping at last the tyrant in His hands, and chaining him to His chariot wheel. Our faith has beheld Him riding up the everlasting hills, leading captivity captive; we have seen the gates wide open flung while angels said, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” We have joined by faith the triumph and have swelled the train, we have heard the acclamation of the spirits of the just made perfect; we have heard above all the voice of God, “Well done, Thou hast finished Thy Father’s will.” We have seen Him ascend in august majesty the throne which is His resting place, and we have seen Him sit down on the right hand of the Father, while from heaven and earth, and even hell, there went up one prolonged note of praise, “Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Nay, our faith has gone beyond the mere matters of the past. We have beheld His glory; we have seen Him as one by one His sheep are brought, and His prayer is heard, “Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.” We have seen Him going forth day after day in the chariot of Salvation scattering with both His hands His mercies among the poverty-stricken sons of men, and we have cried unto Him, “Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Thou most mighty.” …We have beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0414.cfm