salvation

The Riches of Redeeming Love!

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

And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. – Luke 7:42

There is forgiveness with God! Why should it not be so, since Jesus is exalted on high to give repentance and remission of sins? He delights in mercy! He can cast all our sins into the depths of the sea that they may not be mentioned against us any more forever! While we are compelled to go together two‐thirds of the road, what a pity it would be that we should be divided in the third portion of it! That first two‐thirds of the road is a very muddy, boggy piece of way and we sorrowfully wade along it in company—all in debt and all of us unable to pay! But that next part of the road is well‐made, smooth and good for travelers—and it leads into the gardens of happiness! Oh that we may traverse it and find the free pardon of God! Oh, for free remission for all of us without exception! Why not? May God send it of His great mercy at this good hour!

As long as a man can scrape the meal barrel and find a little in it; as long as he can hold up the oil cruse and it drips, if it only yields a drop in a week, he will never come to Christ for heavenly provision! As long as he has one rusty counterfeit farthing hidden away in the corner of his till, the sinner will never accept the riches of redeeming love! But when it is all up over him—when he has nothing in the parlor, nothing in the kitchen, nothing in the cellar—when there is neither stick nor stock left, then he prizes Jesus and His salvation! We break to make! We are emptied to be filled! When we cannot give, God can forgive! If any of you have any goodness of your own, you will perish forever! If you have anything you can trust to of your own, you will be lost as sure as you are living men and women!

Bankrupt Debtors Discharged by C. H. Spurgeon

Bankrupt Debtors Forgiven

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

“There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.” – Luke 7:41,42

There are distinctions among unconverted men, very great distinctions. One of them, a young man, came to Jesus, and he had so many fine traits in his character that the Lord, looking upon him, loved him. But when the Pharisees gathered about Him, our Lord looked round upon them with indignation! The soil, which was none of it yet sown with the good Seed, yet varied greatly, and some of it was honest and good ground before the power of the Holy Spirit came to it. Sinners differ from each other.

But I call your particular notice to the fact that though there was one point of difference in the two debtors, there were three points of similarity, for they were both debtors—and so all men have sinned, be it little or be it much! And, secondly, they were both alike, bankrupt, neither of them could meet his debt. The man who owed 50 pence could no more pay than he who owed 500 pence, so that they were both insolvent debtors. But what a mercy it is that they were alike in a third point, for, “when they had nothing to pay,” their creditor “frankly forgave them both”! Oh, my dear Hearers, we are all alike in the first two things! Oh that we might be, all of us, alike in this last point, that the Lord our God may grant to every one of us the free remission of sins according to the riches of His Grace through Christ Jesus!

Bankrupt Debtors Discharged by C. H. Spurgeon

God’s Wise Way of Deliverance

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

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. – Matthew 27:50

…to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering…Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. – Acts 1:3,9

God’s way of delivering those who trust in Him is always the best way. If the Father had taken His Son down from the cross, what would have been the result? Redemption unaccomplished, salvation work undone, and Jesus returning with His life-work unfinished. This would not have been deliverance, but defeat. It was much better for our Lord Jesus to die. Now He has paid the ransom for His elect, and having accomplished the great purpose of atonement, He has slept a while in the heart of the earth and now has ascended to His throne in the endless glories of heaven. It was deliverance of the fullest kind; for from the pangs of His death has come the joy of life to His redeemed. It is not God’s will that every mountain should be levelled, but that we should be the stronger for climbing the Hill Difficulty. God will deliver; He must deliver, but He will do it in our cases, as in the case of our Lord, in the best possible manner.

He will deliver His chosen: the taunt of the adversary shall not cause our God to forget or forego His people. I know that the Lord will no more fail me than any other of His servants. He will not leave a faithful witness to His adversaries. “I know that my Avenger liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” Is this also your confidence? Then do not sit down in sorrow, and act as though you despaired. Quit yourselves like men. Be strong, fear not. Cast yourselves on the love that never changeth and never fainteth, and the Lord will answer all the revilings of Rabshakeh, and the blusterings of Sennacherib. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

 This Practical Faith

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

He trusted on the LORD that He would deliver (Him): let Him deliver (Him), seeing He delighted in (Him). – Psalm 22:8

David, in the twenty-second Psalm, represents the enemies as saying of our Lord-“He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him.” This practical faith is sure to be known wherever it is in operation, because it is exceedingly rare. Multitudes of people have a kind of faith in God, but it does not come to the practical point of trusting that God will deliver them. I see upon the newspaper placards, “Startling New! People in the Planets!” Not a very practical discovery. For many a day there has been a tendency to refer God’s promises and our faith to the planets, or somewhere beyond this present every-day life. We say to ourselves, “Oh yes, God delivers His people.” We mean that He did so in the days of Moses, and possibly He may be doing so now in some obscure island of the sea. Ah me! The glory of faith lies it its being fit for every-day wear. Can it be said of you, “He trusted in God, that He would deliver him”? Have you faith of the kind which will make you lean upon the Lord in poverty, in sickness, in bereavement, in persecution, in slander, in contempt? Have you a trust in God to bear you up in holy living at all costs, and in active service even beyond your strength? Can you trust in God definitely about this and that? Can you trust about food, and raiment, and home? Can you trust God even about your shoes, that they shall be iron and brass, and about the hairs of your head that they are all numbered? What we need is less theory and more actual trust it God.

Come, beloved, have you such a faith in the living God? Do you trust in God through Christ Jesus that He will save you? Yes, you poor, unworthy one, the Lord will deliver you if you trust Him. Yes, poor woman, or unknown man, the Lord can help you in your present trouble, and in every other, and He will do so if you trust Him to that end. May the Holy Spirit lead you to first trust the Lord Jesus for the pardon of sin, and then to trust in God for all things. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

The Treatment of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross

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

“He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” – Matthew 27:43 (see also: Psalm 22:7,8)

It is very painful to the heart to picture our blessed Master in His death-agonies, surrounded by a ribald multitude, who watched Him and mocked Him, made sport of His prayer and insulted His faith. Nothing was sacred to them: they invaded the Holy of Holies of His confidence in God and taunted Him concerning that faith in Jehovah which they were compelled to admit. See, dear friends, what an evil thing is sin, since the Sin-bearer suffers so bitterly to make atonement for it! See, also, the shame of sin, since even the Prince of Glory, when bearing the consequences of it, is covered with contempt! Behold, also, how He loved us! For our sake He “endured the cross, despising the shame.” He loved us so much that even scorn of the most cruel sort He deigned to bear, that He might take away our shame and enable us to look up unto God.

Beloved, the treatment of our Lord Jesus Christ by men is the clearest proof of total depravity which can possibly be required or discovered. Those must be stony hearts indeed which can laugh at a dying Saviour, and mock even at His faith in God! Compassion would seem to have deserted humanity, while malice sat supreme on the throne. Painful as the picture is, it will do you good to paint it. You will need neither canvas, nor brush, nor palette, nor colours. Let your thoughts draw the outline, and your love fill in the detail; I shall not complain if imagination heightens the colouring. The Son of God, whom angels adore with veiled faces, is pointed at with scornful fingers by men who thrust out the tongue and mockingly exclaim, “He trusted on the LORD that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him.” May the Holy Spirit help us in our meditation, so that we may more ardently love our Lord, who suffered for us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Let Him Deliver Him Now

Christ, the Dread Division

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And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. – Revelation 20:15

The hour is coming when our wills and wishes shall have no force. God will divide the righteous from the wicked then, and Christ shall be the dread division. I say, are we prepared to be separated eternally? There the righteous clad in white, in songs triumphant glorified with Him, and there the lost, the unbelieving, the fearful, the abominable. What divides them from yon bright host? Nothing but the person of the Son of Man, on whom they look, and weep, and mourn, and wail because of Him. That is the impenetrable barrier that shall shut out the damned from eternal bliss. The gate which may let you in now will be the fiery gate which shall shut you out hereafter. Christ is the door of heaven, oh, dreadful day when that door shall be shut, when that door shall stand before you, and prevent you entering into the felicity which you shall then long for, when you cannot enter into it.

Oh! on which side shall I be, when all these transitory things are done away with, when the dead have risen from their graves, when the great congregation shall stand upon the land, and upon the sea, when every valley, and every mountain, and every river, and every sea, shall be crowded with multitudes standing in thick array? Oh! when He shall say, “Separate My people, thrust in the sickle, for the harvest of the world is ripe,” my soul, where shall you be? Shall you be found among the lost? Shall the dread trumpet send you down to hell, while a voice that rends your ear, shall call after you, “Depart from Me, depart from Me, you workers of iniquity into everlasting fire in hell, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Oh that now the grace of God were poured upon you, that you might come unto Jesus. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

The High Priest Standing Between the Dead and the Living

The Great Divider

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And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed. – Numbers 16:48

Aaron the anointed one stands here, on that side is death, on this side life, the boundary between life and death is that one man. Where his incense smokes the air is purified, where it smokes not the plague reigns with unmitigated fury. There are two sorts of people here, and these are the living and the dead, the pardoned, and the unpardoned, the saved and the lost. The one division, the one great division between those who are God’s people and those who are not, is Christ. A man in Christ is a Christian, a man out of Christ is dead in trespasses and sins. “He that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ is saved, he that believeth not is lost.” Christ is the only divider between His people and the world.

What divides the true Christian from the unbeliever? Some think it is that the Christian takes the sacrament, the other not. That is no division, there be men who have gone to hell with sacramental bread in their mouths; others may imagine that baptism makes the difference, and indeed it is the outward token, the baptismal pool is the means by which we show to the world that we are buried in Christ’s grave, in type that we are dead to the world and buried in Christ, we rise up from it in testimony that we desire to live in newness of life by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

On which side then, are you today, my hearer? Please remember, brothers and sisters, that as Christ is the great divider now, so will He be in the day of judgment. Do you never think of that, He shall divide them the one from the other, as the shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. It is the Shepherd’s person that divides the sheep from the goats. He stands between them, and in that last day of days for which all other days were made, Christ shall be the great divider. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

The High Priest Standing Between the Dead and the Living