repentance

Wilt Thou be Saved or Not?

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life 10 Comments

“…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9

Yes or no. Wilt thou be damned or not? Wilt thou be saved or not? I will not have thee say, “When I have a more convenient season I will send for thee.” Sinner, it cannot be a more convenient one than this… Now, sinner, wilt thou be reconciled, restored, forgiven? “Wilt thou be made whole?” said Jesus, and I say the same to thee, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Do you say, “No”? Must I take that for an answer? Mark you, sinner, I have to tell my Master. I must tell Him when I seek the closet of the King to-night; I must tell Him your reply that you would not. What then remains for an ambassador to do when he has spoken to you in the name of the Sovereign? If you will not turn, we must shake off the dust of our feet against you. I am clear, I am clear, of the blood of you all, I am clear. If you perish, being warned, you perish wantonly. The wrath cometh upon you, not on him who, to the best of his power, has told his Master’s message. Yet again, I beg you to accept it. Do you still say no?

Mercy is still held out to you…  Oh! turn ye, turn ye, turn ye! Come and welcome, sinner, come now while you are welcome. ‘Tis love invites you… Now, even now, may sovereign grace constrain, and irresistible love draw you. May you believe with your heart; may you record your profession at once. Before you close your eyes in sleep, just as you would wish before your eyes are closed in death, may you be at peace with God. I pray God, as I entreat you, that this may come to pass, for His Son, Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3497.cfm

Think of Dying Without Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 14 Comments

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God…That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” – John 3:3, 5, 15

Remember, man, thou art soon to die. It matters not how strong thou art; death is stronger than thou, and he will pull thee down, even as the stag-hound drags down his victim, and then “how wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan,” without Christ? How wilt thou do when the eyes begin to close, without Christ? How wilt thou do, sinner, when the death-rattle is in thy throat, without Christ? When they prop thee up with pillows, when they stand weeping round thine expiring form, when the pulse grows faint and few, when thou hast to lift the veil, and stand disembodied before the dreadful eyes of an angry God, how wilt thou do without Christ? And when the judgment-trump shall wake thee from thy slumber in the tomb, and body and soul shall stand together at that last and dread assize, in the midst of that tremendous crowd, sinner, how wilt thou do without Christ? When the reapers come forth to gather in the harvest of God, and the sickles are red with blood, and the vintage is cast into the wine-press of His wrath, and it is trodden until the blood runs forth up to the horse’s girdles-how wilt thou do then, I conjure thee, without Christ? Oh! sinner, I pray thee let these words sound in thine ears till they ring into thy heart.

Christ is to be had for the asking. Christ is to be had for the receiving. Stretch out thy withered hand and take Him; trust Him, and He will be thine evermore; and thou shalt be with Him where He is, in an eternity of joy. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3472.cfm

We Do Beseech You to Be Reconciled to God!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 4 Comments

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. – 2 Corinthians 5:20

We need such an one as Richard Baxter to dilate upon this last part of the text. Perhaps we could handle the former part better than he, but he could handle this last far better than we can. Oh! how he would have summoned you by the terrible reality of things to come! With what glaring eyes and seething words he would say, “Oh! men, turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? By the need of a Saviour you will feel in the pangs of parting life, when the pulsings shall be few and feeble, till with a gasp you shall expire; by the resurrection when you will wake up, if not in His likeness, to everlasting shame and contempt; by the judgment-seat, where your sins shall be published, and you shall be called to account for the deeds done in the body; by the dread decree which casteth into the pit for ever those that repent not; by the heaven you will lose:, and by the hell into which you will fall; by eternity, that dread eternity whose years never waste; by the wrath to come, the burning indignation of which shall never cool; by the immortality of your own souls, by the perils you now run, by the promises you despise, by the provocations you multiply, by the penalties you accumulate, we do beseech you to be reconciled to God.” Fly to Jesus. Call upon His name. Trust Him, His word, His work, His goodness and His grace. This is the way of reconciliation. Bow the knee and kiss the Son. We do conjure you to do so. Acquaint yourselves now with God, and be at peace with Him. My text hangs like a crushing weight upon my soul at this moment. It is awful in its grandeur, and it is majestically full of divine love… Oh! that the sense might break in on your understanding! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3497.cfm

All Sins Blotted Out

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

Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.  – Hebrews 7:25

There is no exception made in my commission to any form of sin-unless it be the sin against the Holy Ghost-which carries its own evidence as well as its consequence. Those to whom I now speak, if they feel any drawings of heart towards God have not committed that mortal crime. Murder, theft, forgery, felony, fornication, adultery, and covetousness, which is idolatry-black and hideous as is the catalogue-here is pardon for the whole. Ransack the kennels, however filthy; rake the slums, however odious; drag out the abominations of the age, however degrading; here is pardon not only possible, probable, but positive. Bring a man here who has stained himself crimson all over with every sort of infamy, though it be not the lapse of an hour, but the habit of a life, yet God is still able to forgive. Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him…  Thus saith the Lord, I have blotted out like a cloud thine iniquities, and like a thick cloud thy sins. Return unto Me, for I am married unto thee. I have given my blood to redeem thee. Return, O wandering child of man; return, return, and I will have mercy upon thee, for I am God, and not man.”

“If your ears refuse
The language of His grace,
And hearts grow hard like stubborn Jews,
That unbelieving race,
The Lord in anger drest,
Shall lift His trend and swear
Ye that despised My promised rest
Shall have no portion there.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3497.cfm

The Universal Proclamation

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

That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. – John 3:15

Our message goes on to announce that whosoever in the wide world will come to Jesus Christ, and commit his cause to Him as Redeemer, Saviour, and Friend, shall forthwith be at peace with God, receive full pardon for all offences, and be welcomed as a favourite of the Most High. He shall know that for him Jesus Christ did die in his stead, and as surety did stand for him when He appeared before God… This proclamation, I say, is to be made universally… The same message, that God has accepted Christ as a substitute for every man that will believe in Christ, and that whosoever trusts Christ to save him is in that moment saved, will suffice for all. Yea, we would tell them that before the sinner does trust Christ he is reconciled unto God by His death, because the atonement which He offered had been accepted, and there was peace forestalled between God and that sinner.

What a message I have to present! What a proclamation I have to make! Nothing is necessary on your part. God expects nothing of you to merit His esteem, or to enhance the value of His gift. If repentance be indispensable, He is prepared to give it to you. If a tender heart be needed, He is ready to give you a heart of flesh. If you feel that you have a heart of stone, He has engaged to take it away. Does your guilt oppress you, He says, “I will sprinkle clean water, water of pure fountains, upon them, and they shall be cleansed from all their filthiness, and from all their uncleanness will I save them.” Know, all men, that there is no exception made…I have to proclaim an indemnity of such universal import that it is indiscriminate, “Whosoever believeth on Him shall never perish, but shall have everlasting life.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3497.cfm

Thou Cannot Stand Against Him

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, repentance 15 Comments

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men – 2 Corinthians 5:11

Ambassadors are always specially welcome to a people who are engaged in a war which is beyond their strength, when their resources are exhausted, and the peril of defeat is imminent. If some tiny little principality has ventured to rebel against a great empire, when it is absolutely certain that its villages will be consumed, its provinces, ravaged, and that all its power will be crushed, ambassadors are pretty sure to receive a cordial welcome. Ah! man, thou best bid defiance to the King of Heaven, whose power is irresistible; by whom rocks are thrown down; whose voice breaketh the cedars of Lebanon; whose hand controlleth the great deep sea. He it, is who bindeth the clouds with a cord, and girdleth the earth with a belt! Angels that excel in strength cannot stand against Him. From the lofty battlements of heaven He hurled down Satan, the great archangel, and the mighty host of rebellious morning stars! How canst thou stand against Him; shall the stubble contend with the fire? Shall the potter’s vessel resist the rod of iron? What art thou but a moth, easily crushed beneath His finger! The breath is in thy nostrils, and that is not thine own; how then canst thou, poor mortal, contend with Him who only hath immortality? Thy breath broken more rapidly than a sear leaf by the wind! How canst thou venture to be at war with the One who has heaven and earth at His command, who holds the keys of hell and of death, and who has Tophet as His source of ammunition against thee? Listen to His thunders, and let thy blood curdle! Let His lightning flash, and how art thou amazed! How, then, canst thou stand against the greatness of His power, or endure the terror of His wrath? Happy for thee that terms of peace are proclaimed in your ears. God is willing to cease the warfare; He would not have thee be His adversary. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3497.cfm

Ambassadors for Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”- 2 Corinthians 5:20

There has long been war between man and his Maker. Our federal head, Adam, threw down the gauntlet in the garden of Eden. The trumpet was heard to ring through the glades of Paradise, the trumpet which broke the silence of peace and disturbed the song of praise. From that day forward until now there has been no truce, no treaty between God and man by nature… Never in the heart of any natural man, unless divine grace has put it there, has a desire to re-establish peace been felt or entertained. If any of you long to be at peace with your Maker, it is because His Spirit has made you long for it. Left to yourselves, you would go from conflict to conflict, from struggle to struggle, and perpetuate the encounter, until it ended in your eternal destruction… That He anxiously desires man to be reconciled unto Him, He proves by taking the first step. He, himself, sends His ambassadors… and He commands those ambassadors to be very earnest, and to plead with men, to pray them, to beseech them that they would be reconciled to God. I take this to be a sure pledge that there is love in the heart of God. Why, at the very announcement of these tidings, the rebellious sinner’s ears should be opened! It were enough to make him say, “I will hearken diligently; I will hear what God the Lord shall speak, for if it be true that He takes the first step towards me, and that He is willing to take up this deadly quarrel, God forbid that I should turn away; I will even now hear and attend to all that God shall speak to my soul.” May He bless the message to you, that you may be reconciled to Him without a moment’s delay. ~ C.H, Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3497.cfm