salvation

The Divine Warrant for Missions

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

And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. – Luke 24:47

The text says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations. Here, then, we have the divine warrant for missions. They are no speculations, or enthusiastic dreams. They are matters of divine command. I daresay you have heard of what the Duke of Wellington said to a missionary in India who was questioning whether it was of any use to preach the gospel to the Hindus. “What are your marching orders?” said this man of discipline and obedience. “What are your marching orders?” That is the deciding question. Now the marching orders are, “Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” …We are to preach the gospel everywhere; missions are to be universal. All nations need the preaching of the word. The gospel is a remedy for every human ill among all the races that live upon the face of the earth. Some out of all nations shall receive it, for there shall be gathered before the eternal throne men out of every kindred, nation, and tongue. No nation will utterly refuse it. There will be found a remnant according to the election of grace even among the most perverse of the tribes of men.

Brethren, there was a Divine necessity that Christ should die, and an equally imperative must that He should arise again from the dead. But there is an equally absolute necessity that Jesus should be preached to every creature under heaven. It behooves to be so. Who, then, will linger? Let us each one, according to his ability and opportunity, tell to all around us the story of the forgiveness of sin through the Mediator’s sacrifice to as many as confess their sin and forsake it. We are bidden to preach repentance of sin and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, let us not be slow to do so. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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Gospel Repentance

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

“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” – Luke 24:47

You that would faithfully serve Christ note carefully how He taught His disciples what they were to preach. We find different descriptions of the subject of our preaching, but on this occasion it is comprised in two things—repentance and remission of sins. I am glad to find in this verse that old-fashioned virtue called repentance. It used to be preached, but is now out of fashion. Indeed, we are told that we always misunderstood the meaning of the word, “repentance,” and it simply means a “change of mind” and nothing more. I wish that those who are so wise in their Greek knew a little more of that language, for then they would not be so ready with their infallible statements. True, the word does signify a change of mind, but in its scriptural connection it indicates a change of mind of an unusual character. It is not such a fitful thing as men mean when they speak of changing their minds, as some people do fifty times a day, but it is a change of mind of a deeper kind. Gospel repentance is a change of mind of the most radical sort—such a change as never was worked in any man except by the Spirit of God.

Let every man understand that he will never have remission of sin while he is in love with sin, and that if he lives in sin he cannot obtain the pardon of sin. There must be a hatred of sin, a loathing of it, and a turning from it or it is not blotted out. We are to preach repentance as a duty. “The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now command all men everywhere to repent.” “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” He that has sinned is bound to repent of having sinned. It is the least that he can do. How can any man ask God for mercy while he lives in his sin? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Click to access chs1729.pdf

Christ’s Desire to Save Men

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

There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, “Give Me to drink.”…In the mean while His disciples prayed Him, saying, “Master, eat.” But He said unto them, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” – John 4:7,31-32

“I thirst.” – John 19:28

I cannot think that natural thirst was all He felt…”I thirst” meant that His heart was thirsting to save men. This thirst had been on Him from the earliest of His earthly days. “Wist ye not,” said He, while yet a boy, “that I must be about My Father’s business?” Did He not tell His disciples, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished?” He thirsted to pluck us from between the jaws of hell, to pay our redemption price, and set us free from the eternal condemnation which hung over us; and when on the cross the work was almost done His thirst was not assuaged, and could not be till He could say, “It is finished.” It is almost done, Thou Christ of God; Thou hast almost saved Thy people; there remaineth but one thing more, that Thou shouldst actually die, and hence Thy strong desire to come to the end and complete Thy labour. Thou wast still straightened till the last pang was felt and the last word spoken to complete to full redemption, and hence Thy cry, “I thirst.”

Christ was always thirsty to save men, and to be loved of men; and we see a type of His life-long desire when, being weary, He sat thus on the well and said to the woman of Samaria, “Give Me to drink.” There was a deeper meaning in His words than she dreamed of, as a verse further down fully proves, when He said to His disciples, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” He derived spiritual refreshment from the winning of that women’s heart to Himself. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1409.cfm

Our Glorious Samson

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

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, “I thirst.” Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, “It is finished” and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost. – John 19:28-30

It seems to me very wonderful that this “I thirst” should be, as it were, the clearance of it all. He had no sooner said “I thirst,” and sipped the vinegar, than He shouted, “It is finished”; and all was over: the battle was fought and the victory won for ever, and our great Deliverer’s thirst was the sign of His having smitten the last foe. The flood of His grief has passed the high-water mark and began to be assuaged. The “I thirst” was the bearing of the last pang; what if I say it was the expression of the fact that His pangs had at last begun to cease, and their fury had spent itself, and left Him able to note His lesser pains? The excitement of a great struggle makes men forget thirst and faintness; it is only when all is over that they come back to themselves and note the spending of their strength. The great agony of being forsaken by God was over, and He felt faint when the strain was withdrawn. I like to think of our Lord’s saying, “It is finished,” directly after He had exclaimed, “I thirst”; for these two voices come so naturally together. Our glorious Samson had been fighting our foes; heaps upon heaps He had slain His thousands, and now like Samson He was sore athirst. He sipped of the vinegar, and He was refreshed, and no sooner has He thrown off the thirst than He shouted like a conqueror, “It is finished,” and quitted the field, covered with renown. Let us exult as we see our Substitute going through with His work even to the bitter end, and then with a “Consummatum est” returning to His Father, God. O souls, burdened with sin, rest ye here, and in resting, live. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1409.cfm

Appetite Swallowing Up Itself

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

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. – Genesis 3:6

“I thirst.” – John 19:28

We know from experience that the present effect of sin in every man who indulges in it is thirst of soul. The mind of man is like the daughters of the horseleech, which cry for ever, “Give, give.” Metaphorically understood, thirst is dissatisfaction, the craving of the mind for something which it has not, but which it pines for. Our Lord says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink,” that thirst being the result of sin in every ungodly man at this moment. Now Christ standing in the stead of the ungodly suffers thirst as a type of His enduring the result of sin. The great Surety says, “I thirst,” because He is placed in the sinner’s stead, and He must therefore undergo the penalty of sin for the ungodly. “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” points to the anguish of His soul; “I thirst” expresses in part the torture of His body; and they were both needful, because it is written of the God of justice that He is “able to destroy both soul and body in hell,” and the pangs that are due to law are of both kinds, touching both heart and flesh. See, brethren, where sin begins, and mark that there it ends. It began with the mouth of appetite, when it was sinfully gratified, and it ends when a kindred appetite is graciously denied. Our first parents plucked forbidden fruit, and by eating slew the race. Appetite was the door of sin, and therefore in that point our Lord was put to pain. With “I thirst” the evil is destroyed and receives its expiation. I saw the other day the emblem of a serpent with its tail in its mouth, and if I carry it a little beyond the artist’s intention the symbol may set forth appetite swallowing up itself. A carnal appetite of the body, the satisfaction of the desire for food, first brought us down under the first Adam, and now the pang of thirst, the denial of what the body craved for, restores us to our place. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1409.cfm

The Sympathy of Christ

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

“I thirst.” – John 19:28

Let our thoughts also turn with delight to His sure sympathy: for if Jesus said, “I thirst,” then He knows all our frailties and woes. The next time we are in pain or are suffering depression of spirit we will remember that our Lord understands it all, for He has had practical, personal experience of it. Neither in torture of body nor in sadness of heart are we deserted by our Lord; His line is parallel with ours. The arrow which has lately pierced thee, my brother, was first stained with His blood. The cup of which thou art made to drink, though it be very bitter, bears the mark of His lips about its brim. He hath traversed the mournful way before thee, and every footprint thou leavest in the sodden soil is stamped side by side with His footmarks. Let the sympathy of Christ, then, be fully believed in and deeply appreciated, since He said, “I thirst.”

How great the love which led Him to such a condescension as this! Do not let us forget the infinite distance between the Lord of glory on His throne and the Crucified dried up with thirst. A river of the water of life, pure as crystal, proceedeth to-day out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and yet once He condescended to say, “I thirst,” before His angelic guards, they would surely have emulated the courage of the men of David when they cut their way to the well of Bethlehem that was within the gate, and drew water in jeopardy of their lives. Who among us would not willingly pour out his soul unto death if he might but give refreshment to the Lord? And yet He placed Himself for our sakes into a position of shame and suffering where none would wait upon Him, but when He cried, “I thirst,” they gave Him vinegar to drink. Glorious stoop of our exalted Head! O Lord Jesus! we love Thee, and we worship Thee! We would fain lift Thy name on high in grateful remembrance of the depths to which Thou didst descend! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1409.cfm

Sinner, Christ Wants Thee!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation 1 Comment

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. – Matthew 11:28,29

Sinner! if thou wantest Christ, Christ wants thee; if thou hast a desire after Christ, Christ has a desire after thee. What sayest thou, poor soul, wilt thou take Christ just as He is? Come! bundle out all thy righteousness. come! Pack up all thy goodness and cast it out of doors. Take Jesus, Jesus only, to be thy salvation; and I tell thee, though thou wert black as night, and filthy as a demon, while thou art yet in the land of the living, if thou dost now take Christ as thy Savior, that Christ will be enough for thee, enough to clothe thee, enough to purge thee, enough to perfect thee, and enough to land thee safe in heaven. But if you are self-righteous, I have no gospel for you except this,

“Not the righteous, not the righteous, Sinners, Jesus, came to save.”

Sinners, of all sorts and sizes! sinners black, sinners blacker, sinners blackest! sinners filthy, sinners filthier, sinners filthiest! Sinners bad, sinners worse, sinners worst! All ye who can take to yourselves the name of sinner! All of you who can subscribe to that title! I, in God’s name, preach to you that “He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him;” and if by faith and prayer you are enabled to come to Him this night, there is not a sinner who feels his need of a Savior who may not this night have that Savior. God has given Him first, and He will not deny Him second. He who is freely proclaimed in revelation, is freely commended to you in ministration.

“True relief and true repentance,

Every grace that brings you nigh;

Without money,

Come to Jesus Christ and buy.”

Oh! save souls! O God! save souls! Amen! Amen!

~ C.H. Spurgeon

Sermon, Grace Reviving Israel