repentance

God’s Wrath Spent on Christ

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

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee. – Isaiah 44:22

Oh, the blackness of the darkness above; oh, the horror of the tempest within, in the dreadful hour of conviction of sin, when my weary soul longed for nothingness, that it might escape from its own hell. Oh, the dread of the wrath to come. I saw all of God’s indignation gathering up to spend itself upon me, but glory be to God, it spent itself elsewhere!

“The tempest’s awful voice was heard;
O Christ, it broke on Thee!
Thy open bosom was my ward,
It braved the storm for me.
Thy form was scarr’d, Thy visage marr’d,
Now cloudless peace for me.”

Well do I remember the day in which I looked to the Jews and was lightened in a moment; the rain was over and gone, and all was peace and joy. Oh, that blessed day! I went forth with joy and was led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills brake forth before me into singing, and all the trees of the field did clap their hands. Nor has the joy departed: for me the mountains still are singing, and the trees still clap their hands; for still my heart is glad within me at every mention of the precious name of Jesus; His blood still speaketh peace within my conscience, and His finished sacrifice is still my joy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm

Beneath the Cleared Sky

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

“Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel.”-Isaiah 44:23.

No doubt this prophecy had a fulfillment in the restoration of the captive Jews from Babylon, in the rebuilding of the temple, and the completion of the walls of Jerusalem. This made the nation rejoice with unspeakable joy, and made them cry, “Sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted His people; He hath redeemed Jerusalem.”…A cloud, even a thick cloud of sin shut out the light of God’s countenance from His people and turned its dark side on their upward gazing eyes. Sins and transgressions interposed like a curtain, nay, rather like a wall of brass, between the sinful people and their God, so that their prayers could not pass through to Him, nor could His favor shine down on them. They cowered down in terror, as they heard the voice of God threatening judgment, and they expected every moment that He would overthrow them in His wrath. Lo instead thereof, the Lord hung out the covenant rainbow, gospel promises were seen, Jesus was set forth as the great atoning sacrifice; and as men looked upon Him gleams from the light of God’s countenance filled them with hope. Nor did they hope in vain, for anon the Lord fulfilled, as in a moment, the word wherein it is written, “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.” So, going forth and returning to their God beneath that clear sky, from which the Sun of Righteousness shone down with beams of love, the forgiven people were filled with rejoicing, and by the mouth of the prophet they cried aloud, “Sing, O heaven, clouds veil thee no longer; shout, ye lower parts of the earth, which have been refreshed with fertilising showers; shout, O ye forest trees, whose every bough has been hung with diamond drops; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1240.cfm

In the Infinite Mercy of God

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

…as of one born out of due time. – 1 Corinthians 15:8

There have been some dear friends who may be said to have been “born out of due time,” for they have been converted to God after it seemed impossible that they ever should be. I recollect reading of one who imbibed sceptical notions and became exceedingly furious against the preaching of the Word. One day, in Edinburgh, he heard it said that a certain eminent minister of the gospel intended, if he met him, to speak with him about his soul; whereupon the man uttered some very strong expressions, and, amongst other wicked things, he said, “I shall never be converted unless I lose my senses.” All who were acquainted with him, and who knew how desperately he was set against the gospel, thought that his was indeed a hopeless case; but, in the infinite mercy of God, it turned out to be quite the opposite. He began to suffer from great incoherence of thought, his mind gradually wandered, when he was trying to speak, he often spoke utter nonsense. He became unfit for business and had to be put into the custody of someone who watched him as his keeper. Reason was not actually gone, but it was reeling upon its throne; and while he was in that sad state, the case of Nebuchadnezzar came to his mind, and he wondered whether God had given him up, altogether, on account of what he had said, -that he would never be converted while he was in his senses. He turned his mind, all shipwrecked and battered as it was, towards God and out of the depths of his half-bewildered spirit, he cried unto the Lord as Nebuchadnezzar did, and his mind returned to him, and he became a humble, gentle, holy believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you not think, dear friends, that he also was “one born out of due time”? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2663.cfm

Grace’s Almighty Power

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

…as of one born out of due time. – 1 Corinthians 15:8

When Puritanism seemed to be trodden under foot in the reign of James I, the king issued the Book of Sports, and gave commandment that every clergyman was to read from the pulpit, on Sunday, that, it was the royal will and pleasure that the young people should play at football, cricket, and other games and pastimes on the Lord’s-day afternoon. One of the ministers thought it would be well to do as the king ordered, and to say something beside, so, when the Sunday came for reading the Book of Sports to the people, he said, “I am commanded by the king and the authorities to read to you the following document, but it grieves my heart and conscience to have to read it. I know it is wicked, and wrong, and shameful, and abominable to desecrate the Sabbath as you are invited to do, and I wonder what will become of my country when even from the church itself Sabbath-breaking is recommended.” It happened that there was in the congregation, that day, a young man who had always been a ringleader in the Sabbath sports; he was no sooner out of church than he was on the village green…but, when he heard that Book of Sports read, he said to himself, “well, I acted in that way on my own account, and it, was wrong enough for me to do so; but now I say with the minister, “What is to become of all the country if everybody is to be as bad as I have been? What will happen to the nation if this kind of thing is to go on?” The thought struck him so forcibly that he became first a serious character, and then a true seeker after God, and afterwards a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ…Very often, where sin has abounded, grace does much more abound; and when the Word of God seems to grow scarce, and the candle of the gospel burns but dimly, we may pray and expect that even then, some may be “born out of due time” to the praise of the glory of that grace which saves as it wills, and often selects the very chief of sinners to be the subjects of its almighty power. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2663.cfm

Never Despair Over a Lost Soul

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

…I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished... suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. – Acts 22:5,6

I remember being in Dr. John Campbell’s house, one day, when he told me that a minister was preaching at Whitefield’s old Tabernacle in Moorfields. One evening, when there were present, under very strange circumstances, two young men who had fallen into dissipated habits, and who had made an appointment with each other for the commission of some gross sin that very night…They were passing by the Moorfields Tabernacle and as they wanted to know the time at which they were to meet for this unholy purpose, one of them said to the other, “Go in, and see the time; there is sure to be a clock in there.” But the clock was not fixed as it is here, at the back of the preacher, but the other way; so, the young man had to go some little distance further in than he intended, in order to see the clock. If I remember rightly, the preacher that night was Matthew Wilks, and he was just uttering some quaint remark, something that arrested the young man’s attention, and held him fast in the aisle. His companion waited, outside for a time, but it was cold, so he thought he had better go in, and look at the clock himself, and fetch his friend out. He went in; the arrows of the Lord pierced the heart of both of them, and the second of those young men was John Williams, the famous missionary, and at last the martyr of Erromanga…You would not have thought it possible that those men should become, as they did, preachers of the gospel, when they were, at that very time, desperately set on the commission of a great sin against God, and their hearts were wholly given up to the pleasures and follies of this world; but so it happened, and our Lord still knows how to stop men as he stopped Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus…After such a triumph of divine grace, let us never despair of any sinner, however far he may have gone, into, sin. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2663.cfm

Prayer for Fruitfulness

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, repentance, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 1 Comment

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. – Mark 5:16

“I’m not ashamed to own my Lord,
Or to defend His cause;
Maintain the honour of His word,
The glory of His cross.”

“Lord, I do not want to be set away in a corner; I am satisfied to stand where men may see my good works and glorify my Father who is in heaven. I do not ask to be observed; but I am not ashamed to be observed; only, Lord, make me fit for observation…I pray Thee, help me to make my calling and election sure. I beseech Thee, help me to bring forth the expected fruit. Thy grace can do it.”

I would suggest to everyone here to cry to the Lord to make us conscious of our natural barrenness. Gracious ones, may the Lord make us mourn our comparative barrenness, even if we do bear some fruit. “Lord, I do serve Thee, and I am no deceiver. I do love Thee; Thou hast wrought the works of the Spirit in me. But alas! I am not what I want to be, I am not what I ought to be. I aspire to holiness: help me to attain it…My cry is, ‘God be merciful to me.’ If I had done all, I should still have been an unprofitable servant; but having done so little, Lord, where shall I hide my guilty head?”

Come Holy Spirit, produce fruit in us this day, through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen, and Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2107.cfm

Be True to Your Profession

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, confession of sin, prayer, repentance, salvation Leave a comment

He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. – Mark 11:13,14,20

I have seen the fair professor undergo a blight. He has looked like a thing that has felt the breath of a furnace and has had its moisture dried up. The man is no longer himself: his glory and his beauty are hopelessly gone. No axe was lifted; no fire was kindled; a word did it, and the tree withered from the root. So, without thunderbolt or pestilence, the once brave professor is stricken as with the judgment of Cain. It is an awful fate. Better far to have the vinedresser come to you with the axe in his hand, and strike you with the head of it, and say to you, “Tree, thou must bear fruit, or be hewn down.” Such a warning would be terrible, but it would be infinitely better than to be left in one’s place untouched, quietly to wither to destruction.

Let no man say, “This is very hard.” Brother, it is not hard, is it, that if we profess a thing, we should be expected to be true to it? Besides, I pray you not to think that anything my Lord can do is hard…He is all love and tenderness: He does not want to wither you, nor will He, if you be but true. The very least He may expect is that you be true to what you profess…Come and bow humbly at His feet, and say, “Lord, if anything in this solemn truth bears upon me, I beseech Thee so to apply it to my conscience that I may feel its power and flee to Thee for salvation.” Many men are converted in this way-these hard but honest things drive them from false refuges and brings them to be true to Christ and to their own souls. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2107.cfm