salvation

The Pleading Prayer

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

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you… – Matthew 7:7

The Lord loves to hear the prayers of His people, and He sometimes keeps them waiting at the posts of His door, that they may pray more. It is always a blessing for us to pray as well as to get the answer to prayer. Prayer is in itself a blessing. When the Lord hears us knock faintly at the door, He does not open; we may knock and knock again-He likes us to knock; it does us good to knock. But when it comes to this, that it is all knocking with us, and our very soul and body seem to knock, and our heart and flesh cry after God, the living God: when we shall thus come to appear before God, and open our mouth and pant vehemently for the mercy He has promised, then it will come. When thou canst not take a denial, thou shalt not have a denial. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. There is none so violent as the man who is in desperate need…Poor soul, go and plead your need before God. Plead your sin, tell Him you are wretched and undone without His sovereign grace. Use the strange argument which David used, the strangest in all the world, “For Thy name’s sake, O Lord! pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” Plead the very greatness of your sin as a reason for mercy; the damnable character of your sin; the certainty that you will soon be cast into hell, the fact that He might justly drive you from His presence for ever; plead all that before Him; and say, “Lord, if ever the heights and depths of Thy grace might be seen in saving an undeserving soul, I am just that one. If Thy mercy wants to honor itself by saving the most undeserving, ill deserving, hell deserving sinner that ever lived, Lord, I am the man. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm

The Poor Man’s Friend

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

He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in His sight. – Psalm 72:13, 14

There shall always be a gracious limit put to the blows that come from Jehovah’s hand for His own people. Oh, what a mercy to be amongst His poor ones, and to feel that He will spare us; He spared not His own Son, but He will spare us, the poor and needy; He smote Him with the blows of avenging justice, but concerning us it is written, “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but the covenant of My love shall not depart. As I have sworn that the waters shall no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.” He wilt spare His people; He will bring them safely through, and, meanwhile, He will not let the waters be deep enough to overwhelm them.

“He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence.” Redemption belongs to the Lord’s poor people. He bought with a price His poor ones, and as the ransom has all been paid, they belong to Christ, and none shall take them out of His hand. He that redeemed them by price will redeem them by power…”Heaven and earth may pass away, but His word shall never pass away.” He would sooner shake the heavens themselves than suffer one of His children to famish, or utterly to perish, rest assured of that. Oh, what glorious comfort there is in all this! We shall be spared, we shall be redeemed, we shall be delivered, we shall be saved, we shall be revenged and cleared before the judgment-bar of God; and, all because the great King has made the poor and needy the special objects of His love. Oh! my soul revels in this. I cannot speak out the thoughts I feel, much less the joy that arises out of them; but what a mercy it really is, that the great King, the King who rules from the river to the ends of the earth, is the poor man’s friend. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm

Brought Safely Through the Perils that Threaten You

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

He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. – Psalm 72:4

The Lord’s people are like sheep among wolves, the wolves treat them injuriously. Christ Himself was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. His people may expect to be oppressed too; but they have this for their comfort, that Christ will surely deliver them, and He will break their oppressors in pieces. Are you oppressed by Satan? Have you things laid to your charge by him that you know not of, and doth conscience oppress you with the remembrance of sins which have been forgiven? Have you ever believed concerning them in the atonement of Christ? Well, bow your head meekly, and go to the mercy-seat once again, pleading the precious blood, and He shall break in pieces the oppressor. There is no answer for Satan like the blood! and there is no answer for conscience but the blood.

“He shall deliver the needy.” Deliver them! You are brought into great troubles; you shall be delivered out of them. You are just now the subject of many fears: you shall be delivered from your fears. It seems as though the enemy would soon exult over you, and put his foot upon your neck, and make an end of you; you shall be delivered. You are like a bird taken in the fowler’s net, and he is ready to wring your neck and take the breath out of you; but you shall be delivered out of the hand of the fowler, and brought safely through the perils that threaten you. Oh, that we all had faith! Oh, that we all could exercise faith when in deep waters. It is a fine thing to talk about faith on land, but we want faith to swim with when we are thrown into the flood. May you get such a grip of this precious word that you may take it before the Lord and say, “I am poor and needy, and have no helper. O God, deliver my soul now.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm

It Is All of the Grace of God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 2 Comments

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. – James 4:10

In choosing to bless the poor and needy by His grace, the Lord finds for Himself warm friends, those who will give Him much praise, contend earnestly for His reign and for His sovereignty, and endure much obloquy for very love to His dear name. Why if the Lord were to save the Pharisees, they would hardly say, “thank you,” they are so good themselves. They reckon themselves to be so excellent, that if they had salvation they would take it as a matter of course, and, like the lepers, they would never return to thank Him that healed them. But when the Lord saves a great sinner, a man that feels there is nothing good in him; oh, how that man talks of it and tells it to others. He cannot take any praise to himself, he knows that he had nothing to do with it, that it is all of the grace of God. And, oh, see that man how he will stand up for the doctrines of grace!…They are dear to him as his own life. “What,” says he, “is not God the giver of salvation? Is not salvation all of God, from first to last? I know it is,” saith he…”for unless it is grace from first to last, I am a lost man; and, if I be indeed a child of God, then can I contend for the doctrines of grace, and will do till I die.”

Dear objects of Almighty love, He finds you on the dunghill, but He lifts you from it. He finds you in the dust, but is not this the song of Hannah and the song of Mary too-“He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and He hath exalted them of low degree: He hath filled the hungry with good things, but the rich He hath sent empty away?” It is God’s way of dealing with the poor and lost; rejoice at it, it is full of encouragement to you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm

Wise Mercy Seeks Out Chief Misery

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

But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. – James 4:6

We see in the poor, and the needy, and the helpless, a reason for God’s grace. They are the persons who are most willing to accept it, for they are the persons who most require it. Your generosity will not stand to be dictated to, but, at the same time, you usually prefer to give to those who want most. Wise mercy seeks out chief misery, and God therefore delights to give His blessings to those who need them most, not to those who fancy they deserve them-they shall have none of them, but those who need them, they shall have all of them.

When a soul is made to feel its own poverty, it does not set itself up in rivalry with Christ; it does not pretend to be able to help itself; it has no disputing about the terms of the gospel. A sinner, when he is thoroughly famished, has such an appetite that he eats such things as God’s mercy sets before him, and he raises no question. A proud Pharisee will say, “I will not submit to this, to be saved by faith alone-I will not have it. To accept mercy as the absolute gift of heaven, irrespective of my character, I cannot endure it.” The high soul of a Pharisee, I say, kicks at it. But when God has brought a man low, till like the publican he cries, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” he is glad to be saved in God’s way, and no matter however humbling the plan of grace, nor how the sinner is debased and Christ exalted, the poor sinner loves to have it so. It is a way suitable to his own wants, a way which he accepts for the very reason that God has adapted it to his position. Hence, if there be reasons they lie here, not in man’s merit but on the Lord’s mercy. The fact that bare misery, when touched and guided by the Spirit of God, makes the soul to open its mouth like the hard chapped soil to drink in the rain, as soon as the rain descends from above, is an argument why grace so commonly flows in this course. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm

When the Chariot of the Eternal Comes

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

“In Me ye shall have peace.” -John 16:33

For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. -Psalm 72:12

The trials of God’s servants are sometimes extremely severe. Not a few are literally as well as spiritually poor. Hunger, privation, and embarrassment haunt their steps. And when you once come to be poor, how often does it happen that you have no helper. In the summer of prosperity your friends and acquaintances are numerous as the leaves of the forest, but in the winter of your losses and distresses, your friends are few indeed; your neighbors stand aloof, your old mates desert you, for like the wind your trials have borne them all away as sere leaves, and you cannot find them.

But, do not think that the Lord has cast you off, because He is thus chastening you with the rod of men; take it as an exercise of your faith, and go to Him and plead this promise, “He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.”

When the chariot of the Eternal comes from above, He bids it roll far downward from the skies; He passes by the towers of haughty kings; He leaves the palaces of princes and the halls of senates, and down to the hovels of cottagers the chariot of His grace descends, for there He sees with joy and delight the objects of His everlasting love. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,” is the word of divine sovereignty, and God makes it true by taking the poor and the needy, and them that have no helper. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm

The Path of Sorrow

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 1 Comment

…In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. – John 16:33

When a Christian is richest in grace he is poorest in himself. The way to grow rich in grace is to feel your poverty. Whenever you think you have stored up a little strength, a little comfort, a little provision against a rainy day, you are pretty sure to have the trouble you bargained for, and to miss the resources you counted on. Estimate your true wealth before God by your entire dependence on Him. The more you have, the less you have, and the less you have, the more you have. When you have nothing at all in yourself, then Christ is all in all to you. The perpetual condition of every child of God in himself is that of a needy and a poor and a helpless one-on the high mountains with his Lord, rejoicing in His love, yet is he even there in himself less than nothing and vanity-still poor and needy.

There have been times when we felt this very powerfully, perhaps, very painfully. Has Satan ever beset you, my brethren, with his fierce temptations? No doubt many of you have had to feel the ferocity of his attacks. Perhaps, blasphemous thoughts have been injected into your mind-dark forebodings, such as these, “God has forsaken me.” Perhaps, he has said, “He has sinned himself out of the covenant-he is a castaway,” and your poor little faith has tried to hold on to Christ, but it seemed as if she must be driven from her hold. While others found it as you thought easy to get to heaven, you realised the truth of the text-“The righteous scarcely are saved.” You have had to fight for every inch of ground, and it seemed to you often as though you had not a spark of grace in you, not a ray of hope, and not so much as a single grain of the grace of God within your heart. Ah! and at such times you have been poor and needy, and you have had no helper. And, perhaps, at such seasons, too, temporal trouble may have come in. Whoever may go through the world without trouble, but God’s people never do.

“The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the place where sorrow is unknown.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1037.cfm