repentance

His Perfect Salvation

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, prophecy, repentance, salvation 1 Comment

Then said I, Lo, I come. – Psalm 40:7

Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. – Isaiah 28:16

Have you not seen people engaged in urgent work who did not understand their business Apprentices, and other unskillful people, are muddling time away. They are making bad worse, and running great risk. Perhaps a great calamity will occur if the work is not done well and quickly. A first-rate worker is sent for. See, the man has come who understands the business. He cries, “Let me come! Stand out of my way! You are on the wrong track: let me do it myself!” You have not blamed him for egotism, for the thing needed to be done, and he could do it, and the others could not. Everybody recognized the master workman, and gave place to him. The announcement of his coming was the end of the muddle, and the signal of hope. Even so Jesus comes to you sinners, and His presence is your salvation. He says, “Lo, I come.” What does He mean? He means, the setting of all else on one side. There is the priest-he has not helped you much; he may go, for Jesus says, “Lo, I come.” There are your own efforts and doings; there are your feelings and thinkings; there are your ceremonies and austerities; there are your prayers and tears; there are your hearings and readings-all these must be laid aside as grounds of confidence, and Jesus alone must be your trust. He can do for you what none of these can. You are trying to work yourself up to repentance and faith, and you cannot succeed. Let Him come, and He will bring every good thing with Him. It is glorious to see our Lord throwing down all our bowing walls and tottering fences, and to hear Him cry, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation.” Everything else vanishes before His perfect salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm

Worthless Cobwebs

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

Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come. – Psalm 40:6,7

Sacrifices and offerings had ceased to be of any value: God had put them away as a weariness to Him. The scribes and the Pharisees, with all their phylacteries and wide-bordered garments, were a mere sham. There seemed to be no true religion left upon the earth. Then said Christ, “Lo, I come.” There was never a darker thirty years than when Herod slew the innocents, and the chief priests and scribes pursued the Son of God, and at last nailed Him to the tree. It was then that Jesus came to us to redeem us by His death. Do I speak to any man here whose religion has broken down? You have observed a host of rites and ceremonies: you were christened in your infancy, you were duly confirmed, you have taken what you call “the blessed sacrament”; or it may be you have sat always in the most plain of meeting-houses, and listened to the most orthodox of preachers, and you have been amongst the most religious of religious people; but now, at length, the Spirit of God has shown you that all these performances and attendances are worthless cobwebs which avail you nothing. You see now that-

“Not all the outward forms on earth,
Nor rites that God has given,
Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth,
Can raise a soul to heaven.”

But now the Spirit of God has told it you, and you feel its force: He is great at convincing of sin. When the Spirit of truth comes to deal with the religiousness of the flesh, He withers it in a moment. All religion which is not spiritual is worthless. All religion which is not the supernatural product of the Holy Ghost is a fiction. One breath from the Spirit of God withers all the beauty of our pride, and destroys the comeliness of our conceit; and then, when our own religion is dashed to shivers, the Lord Jesus comes in, saying, “Lo, I come.” …When you part with self you meet with Christ. When no shred of hope remains, then Jesus says, “Lo, I come.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm

Man’s First, and Last, and Best Hope

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

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel. – Genesis 3:15

That first news of the coming Champion came at a time when all man’s pleas were failures. Adam had thrown the blame on Eve-“The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” Eve had also thrown the blame on the serpent; but the Lord God had silenced all such excuses, and driven them from their refuges. He had made them feel their guilt, and had pronounced upon them the inevitable sentence; and then it was that He spake of the “Seed of the woman.” Here was man’s first, and last, and best hope. So too, my friend, when you dare no longer plead your innocence, nor mention extenuations and excuses, then Jesus comes in. If conscience oppresses you so sorely that you cannot escape from it; if it be so that all you can say is “Guilty; willfully guilty,” then Jesus comes. If you neither blame your surroundings, nor your companions, nor the providence of God, nor our physical weakness, nor anything else, but just take all the blame to yourself because you cannot help doing so, then Jesus comes in. Verily you have sinned against God, against your parents, against your fellowmen, against light, against knowledge, against conscience, and against the Holy Ghost; no wonder, therefore, that you stand speechless, unable to offer any plea by way of self-justification. It is in that moment of shame and confusion that the Savior says, “Lo, I come.” For such as you are He is an Advocate. When a sinner cannot plead for himself, Christ pleads for him; when his excuses have come to an end, then will the Lord put away his sin through His own great sacrifice. Is not this a precious gospel word? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm

To you, O Naked Sinner He Comes

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

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. – Genesis 3:7

When we find the first promise of our Lord’s coming, “in the volume of the Book,” we find that man’s covering was a failure. The guilty pair had gathered the leaves of the fig tree, and had made themselves aprons, for they knew that they were naked. This was the first fruit of that boasted tree of knowledge, and it is the principal one to this day. Their scant coverlet contented them for a little while; but when the voice of the Lord God was heard in the garden they confessed that their aprons were good for nothing; for Adam owned that he was afraid because he was naked, and that therefore he had hidden himself in the thick groves of the garden. It is easy to make a covering which pleases us for a season; but self-righteousness, presumption, pretended fidelity, and fancied natural excellence- all those things are like green fig-leaves, which shrivel up before long, lose their freshness, and are rather an exposure than a covering. It may be that my hearer has found his imaginary virtues failing him. It was when our first parents knew that they were naked that the Savior said, “Lo, I come.” My downcast hearer, if you are no longer in your own esteem as good as you used to be; if you can no longer hide the fact that you have broken God’s law, and deserve His wrath; if you no longer believe the devil’s lie that you shall suffer no penalty, but may even be the better for sin, then the Lord the Savior says to you, “Lo, I come.” To you, O naked sinner, shivering in your own shame, blushing scarlet with conviction- to you He comes. When you have nothing left of your own, He comes to be your robe of righteousness, wherein you may stand accepted with God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2203.cfm

Oh, The Joy of Triumphant Love!

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

I delight to do Thy will, O my God, yea, Thy law is within my heart.. – Psalm 40:8

Our Lord is most thorough in all that He does. His work is never slovenly, nor in a half-hearted way. He does not even sit on the well and talk to a poor woman, but what His heart is there. He does not go into a fisherman’s hut, but what His heart is there, and He heals the sick one. He does not sit down to supper with His followers, but what His heart is there, and He reveals His love. I wish we were always at home when the Lord calls for us! Sometimes we are all abroad, and our heart is away from the service of our Father; but He loved the LORD with all His heart, and mind, and strength. For us He gave His whole being, rejoicing to redeem us. He was always intense. Whether He preached or practiced, Jesus was all there and always there. Hence His delight; for what a man does with his heart he delights to do. These two sentences are melodious of joy to my ear. “I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.”

The Bible says, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” What means the presence of the angels? Why, that the angels see the joy of Christ when sinners repent. Hear them say to one another, “Behold the Father’s face! How He rejoices! Gaze on the countenance of the Son! What a heaven of delight shines in those eyes of His! Jesus wept for these sinners, but now He rejoices over them. How resplendent are the nail-prints to-day, for the redeemed of the Lord’s death are believing and repenting! That blessed countenance which is always as a sun, shineth in the fullness of its strength, now that He sees of the travail of His soul.” He who suffered feels a joy unsearchable…Oh, the joy of triumphant love! The joy of the crucified, whose prepared body is the body of His glory as once it was the body of His humiliation! In that manhood He still rejoices, and delights to do the will of the Father. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2202.cfm

Lo, I Come

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

Then I said, “Behold, I have come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God.” – Hebrews 10:7

“Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire. Then said I, Lo, I come.” Observe when He says this. It is in the time of failure. All the sacrifices had failed. The candle flickered, and was dying out, and then the great light arose, even the eternal light, and like a trumpet the words rung out, “Lo, I come. All this has been of no avail; now I come.” It is in the time of failure that Christ always does appear. The last of man is the first of God; and when we have come to the end of all our power and hope, then the eternal power and Godhead appears with “Lo, I come.”

When He appears, it is as the personal Lord. Lay the stress upon the pronoun, “Lo, I come.” The infinite Ego appears. “Lo, I come.” No mere man could talk thus, and be sane. No servant or prophet of God would ever say, “Lo, I come.” Saintly men talk not so. God’s prophets and apostles have a modest sense of their true position: they never magnify themselves, though they magnify their office. It is for God to say, “Lo, I come.” He who says it takes the body prepared for Him, and comes in His own proper personality as the I AM. “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” He comes forth from the ivory palaces to inhabit the tents of manhood. He takes upon Himself the body prepared for Him of the Lord God, and He stands forth in His matchless personality ready to do the will of God…”Lo, I come.” This is no dirge: I think I hear a silver trumpet ring out-“Lo, I come.” Here is a joyful alacrity and intense eagerness. The coming of the Savior was to Him a thing of exceeding willingness. “For the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross, despising the shame.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2202.cfm

 

Jehovah’s Rod

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

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” – Hebrews 12:7; Revelation 3:19

There is not a more profitable instrument in all God’s house than the rod. No honey was sweeter than that which dropped from the end of Jonathan’s rod; but that is nothing to the sweetness of the consolation which comes through Jehovah’s rod. Our brightest joys are the birth of our bitterest griefs. When the woman has her travail pangs, joy comes to the house because the man-child is born; and sorrow is to us also, full often, the moment of the birth of our graces. A chastened spirit is a gracious spirit; and how shall we obtain it except we are chastened? Like our Lord Jesus, we learn obedience by the things which we suffer. God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without sorrow, and He never will have while the world stands. Let us, therefore, bless God for all His dealings, and in a filial spirit confess, “Thou, Lord, hast chastened me.”

“If God appoints the number ten,
There ne’er can be eleven.”

Whenever the Lord mixes a potion for His people, He weighs each ingredient, measures the bitters, grain by grain, and allows not even a particle in excess to mingle in the draught. Like a careful dispenser, He will not pour out a drop too little or too much.

“To His Church, His joy, and treasure,
Every trial works for good:
They are dealt in weight and measure,
Yet how little understood;
Not in anger,
But from His dear covenant love.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2237.cfm