salvation

He Convicts the Lost Man

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

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. – John 16:8

The Spirit teaches us the total ruin, depravity, and helplessness of self. Men pretend to know this by nature, but they do not know it; they can only speak the words of experience as parrots speak like men. But to know myself utterly lost and ruined; to know myself so lost, “that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing,” is a knowledge so distasteful, so hateful, so abominable to the carnal intellect, that man would not learn it if he could, and if he hath learnt it, it is a clear proof that God the Holy Spirit has made him willing to see the truth, and willing to receive it. When we sometimes hear great preachers telling us that there is something grand left in man yet, that when Adam fell he might have broken his little finger, but did not ruin himself entirely, that man is a grand being, in fact a noble creature and that we are all wrong in telling men they are depraved, and thundering out the law of God at them-am I astonished that they should speak thus? Nay, my brethren, it is the language of the carnal mind the whole world over, and in every age. No wonder that a man is eloquent upon this point, every man needs to be eloquent when he has to defend a lie. No wonder that glorious sentences have been uttered, and flowery periods poured forth from a cornucopia of eloquence upon this subject. A man need exhaust all logic and all rhetoric to defend a-falsehood; and it is not a wonder that he seeks to do it, for man believes himself to be rich, and increased in goods, and to have need of nothing, till the Holy Ghost teaches him that he is naked, and poor, and miserable.

Your destiny hangs there now; and will you rebel against the God in whose hand your soul’s eternal fate now rests? Will you lift the puny hand of your rebellion against him who alone can quicken you-without whose gracious energy you are dead, and must be destroyed? Will you go this day and sin against light and against knowledge? …Obey the divine command, believe on Christ and live! Hear thou the voice of Jehovah, who cries, “This is the commandment, that ye believe in Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Ye Shall Be Witnesses Unto Me

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit 5 Comments

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me. – Acts 1:8

“Holy Spirit, dwell in me;
I, myself, would holy be.”

There are many who would have been in the asylum, in their time of trial, if it had not been that they could carry their grief to Christ. There are some of us who are not strangers to very acute pain, and to a long continuance of it, too; and we have found no comfort in the world like going to our Lord when racked with anguish, and torn with pain. There is a power about Him to charm us into joy; when everything would drive us to distress, and almost to despair.

I have been at many death-beds; I have seen many Christians just about to die. There it is that the power of our holy religion comes in. How calm, how resigned, sometimes how triumphant, how ecstatic, is the frame of mind of the departing believer! I never heard one of them regret that he was a Christian. In times when men sift what they have done and believed, and when they tell no lies, for the naked truth comes up before them, I have heard them glory in belonging to Christ, and in resting in Him; but I have never heard them regret that they did so. Our religion is not all of the future; it is not a thing that dreams concerning the world to come. It gives us present joy, present strength, present comfort, and we commend it to you most heartily, for this is our duty, to be witnesses for Christ.

May the Spirit of God rest upon you, beloved in the Lord, and may you hear your Master say to you, Ye shall be witnesses unto Me”! Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2330.cfm

Serve the Lord in Some Way or Other

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

Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? – Acts 1:11

“Why gaze ye still? He told you ‘I go unto My Father.’ Why stand and gaze?” We may under the influence of great love, act unwisely. I remember well seeing the action of a woman whose only son was emigrating to a distant colony. I stood in the station, and I noticed her many tears and her frequent embraces of her boy; but the train came up and he entered the carriage. After the train had passed beyond the station, she was foolish enough to break away from friends who sought to detain her; she ran along the platform, leaped down upon the railroad and pursued the flying train. It was natural, but it had been better left undone. What was the use of it? We had better abstain from acts which serve no practical purpose; for in this life we have neither time nor strength to waste in fruitless action. The disciples would be wise to cease gazing, for nobody would be benefitted by it, and they would not themselves be blessed. What is the use of gazing when there is nothing to see. Well, then, did the angels ask, “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?”

Serve the Lord in some way or other; serve Him always; serve Him intensely; serve Him more and more. Go tomorrow and serve the Lord at the counter, or in the workshop, or in the field. Go and serve the Lord by helping the poor and the needy, the widow and the fatherless; serve Him by teaching the children, especially by endeavoring to train your own children. Go and hold a temperance meeting, and show the drunkard that there is hope for him in Christ, or go to the midnight meeting and let the fallen woman know that Jesus can restore her. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1817.cfm

With the Help of God

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 2 Comments

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. – Isaiah 54:17

“Over horse and over car,
Over every man of war,
Over Pharaoh’s crown of gold
The loud thundering billows rolled.
Mid the water dark and dread,
Down they sank, they sank like lead!”

Haman had conceived a hatred to Mordecai, and for his sake the whole race of Jews must perish. How deep he lays his plots, how readily he obtains the consent of the king, how sure is he of revenge. Even now in imagination he sees Mordecai swinging on the lofty gallows, and all his kindred given to slaughter. Ah, thou enemy, delight in thine imagination, for it shall be disappointed; rejoice in thy design, but it shall be utterly confounded. There is a God in the courts of heaven, and an Esther in the palace of Shushan. Thou thyself shalt be hanged on thine own gallows, and the race of David shall revenge the deed of the Agagite upon his sons. O, Israel, well mayest thou rejoice at the feast of Purim, for the weapon of the mighty is broken.

March on, despot; bid thy slaves rise against the free, crush the helpless, and usurp the dominions of thy neighbor; but know that the Lord is mightier than thou. Thy northern hordes are not invincible; and Britons, with the help of God, shall teach thee that in vain thou liftest the hand of robbery. Thou contendest with a nation in whose midst the elect of God are praying against thee, and thou shalt know that God has said unto her holy seed, “No weapon formed against thee shall prosper.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm

The Saint’s Heritage

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

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.”- Isaiah 54:17

Remember that “all things are ours” -the gift of God, the purchase of the Saviour’s blood; time would fail us to talk of the possessions of the child of God. This world is his; earth is his lodge, and heaven his home. This life is his, with all its sorrows and its joys; death is his, with all its terrors and solemn realities; and eternity is his, with all its immortality and its grandeur. God is his, with all His attributes. The saint has a prospective right to every thing. God hath made him the heir of all things; for we are co-heirs with Christ, and joint-heirs with the Son of God. O, we have not time enough in the term of seventy years to read over once the fair inventory of the saint’s possessions. If we could read it over once, there would be such a depth unfathomable, such a height immeasurable, such an intensity of value, such a depth of preciousness, that we should need to read it over an eternal number of times before we should ever be able to comprehend the love of God.

…there is the promise that we shall have protection against the hand of men: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” …There has never been a time when a weapon has not been forged against the church of Christ. Yea, even at the present moment, as I stand here, and with the eye of fancy survey our world, I see a fire blazing-fierce is the flame and high its pile of fuel. I see a monarch forging a weapon; a crowned tyrant longs to bring forth chains of iron for the liberties of Europe, and smaller despots long to destroy the germ of all true liberty, the glorious gospel of the blessed God. I see the armies ready against the Lord of hosts, ready to do battle against the servants of God.* Still here is the sweet comfort; they may forge the weapon; they may fashion the sword; they may shut the prison door; they may confine the prisoners, they may make their instruments of torture; but they can not prosper; for God hath said it: He “breaketh the bow; and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.” “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” He will not let it do so. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2908.cfm

Where is He?

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

Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him? – Isaiah 63:11

“Where is He?” He is somewhere. Then, He lives. Beloved, the Lord God omnipotent still liveth and reigneth. Many usurpers have tried to turn Him from His throne; but He still sits upon it, and reigns amongst His ancients gloriously. He was, and is, and is to come, the Almighty; “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”

He is; but where is He? The question implies that some were beginning to seek Him. Where is He? Those were brave days when He was here on the moors, or on the hills of Scotland, or at the stakes of Smithfield, or the prisons of Lambeth Palace. Those were glorious days when Christ was here, and His people knew it, and rejoiced in Him. Then the virgin daughter of Zion shook her head at the harlot of Rome, and laughed her to scorn; for she lay in the bosom of her King, and rejoiced in His love. O beloved, do we begin to long after Him again? I hope that we do. I trust the cry of many loyal hearts is, “Come back, King Jesus! When Thou art away, all things languish. Down the streets of Mansoul ride again, O Prince Emmanuel! Then shall the city ring with holy song, and every house shall be bedecked with everything that is beautiful and fair. Only come back!” If the King may but have His own again, I shall be content to sing old Simeon’s song, “Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word!” The church longs for the King’s coming. Where is He? Where is He? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2258.cfm

God Makes Himself a Glorious Name

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

…so didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself a glorious name. – Isaiah 63:14

The life of a true believer is a glorious life. For himself he claims no honour, but by his holy life he brings great glory to God. There is more glory to God in every poor man and woman saved by grace, and in the one unknown obscure person, washed in the Redeemer’s blood, than in all the songs of cherubim and seraphim, who know nothing of free grace and dying love. So you see, beloved, the motive of God in all that He did; and I dwell upon it, though briefly, yet with much emphasis, because this is a motive that can never alter. What if the church of to-day be reduced to a very low condition, and the truth seems to be ebbing out from her shores, while a long stretch of the dreary mud of modern invention lies reeking in the nostrils of God; yet He that wrought such wonders, to make Himself a name, still has the same object in view. He will be glorious. He will have men know that He is God, and beside Him there is none else. Thus saith the Lord God, “All flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” “The earth shall be full of knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” O brethren, He is a jealous God still; and when the precious blood of Christ is insulted, God hears it, and forgets it not. When the inspiration of the blessed Book is denied, the Holy Ghost hears it and is grieved, and He will yet bestir Himself to defend His truth. When we hear the truth that we love, the dearest and most sacred revelations from our God, treated with a triviality that is nothing less than profane, if we are indignant, so is He, and shall not God avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily, though He bear long with His adversaries. God’s motive is His own glory. He will stand to that, and He will vindicate it yet; and we need to have no doubt, nor even the shadow of a fear, about the ultimate result of a collision between God and the adversaries of His truth. Shall not the moth, that dashes at the candle, die in that flame? How shall the creatures of a day stand out against our God, who is a consuming fire? Here, then, is the hope of the people of God, the constant persistent, invariable motive of God to make Himself glorious in the eyes of men. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2258.cfm