salvation

Nothing Less Will Do – You Must Be Born Again

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

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. – John 3:3

Behold, the Lord Jesus is now enthroned in heaven. He it is who makes all things new. Is not this what some of you deeply need? If you look within, yourselves will see much to disgust and alarm you. Peradventure, you dare not take stock of yourselves now; you dare not consider where you are, nor what you are, nor whither you are bound. “To speak candidly,” you say, “I want reforming.” Very likely, but you want a great deal more than mere reformation. I have heard of a being who used habitually to swear, “God mend me!” Somebody said, “Better make a new one.” That is the case with full many of you. You are saying, “Well, I will turn over a new leaf.” You had better shut the book up altogether, and never turn over any more leaves, for all the pages are alike bad. “Oh! well,” says one, “I shall try if I cannot alter.” I wish you would try God’s altering of you, instead of altering yourselves. “Well, but surely, surely, I may wash and be clean; I will try to make myself as clean as possible?” Yes, yes, that is all very well; but what if you have a corpse in the house? I would have you make it clean, yet that will not make it live. However much you may wash it, it is corrupt still. You may reform yourselves as much as ever you please, all your reformation will be futile; you need more, a great deal more than that. The fact is, you must be made new. Nothing less will do; you must be made new; you must be born again. “Ah!” says one, “if I could be made new, there might be a chance for me.” Well now, Christ looks down from His throne in heaven, and He says, “Behold I will make all things new.”…Do not be afraid, however bad thy character, or however vicious thy disposition. “Behold,” says Christ, “I make all things new.” What a wonder it is that a man should ever have a new heart!

I am glad to notice the tear in your eye, when you think on the past, but wipe it away now, and look up to the cross and say:-

“Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb, O God, I come.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3467.cfm

 

The New-Making Work of the Gospel

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

Behold, I make all things new. – Revelation 21:5

After the relation of the world to God had been changed by the sufferings of Jesus, the world’s thought concerning God came to be changed by the preaching of Jesus. He came and revealed God to man as man had never seen God before. It was through Him we learned that “God is love.” It was through Him that we understood that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” It is the preaching of the cross of Jesus that is to make the world new.

And it is also by the giving of the Holy Ghost, as the result of the ascension of Christ on high, that the world is made new. Thus He gives power to the ministry. There were three thousand new creations in one day when Peter preached the Gospel under the influence of the Holy Spirit…Oh! I would that there might be some new creations, that that divine heavenly Spirit would come into some of your souls, and drop there that vital spark of heavenly flame which shall never be quenched, but shall burn brightly in heaven for ever. Wherever the Gospel is preached, the Spirit is present in that Gospel, and He gives faith to men, gives life to men, and so they are made new, and the new-making thus goes on.

I might go on to speak of His constant and prevalent intercessions, for His pleading before the throne is also a part of the mighty operation; nor can I doubt but that His Second Advent will be the bringing out of the topstone with shoutings of “Grace, grace unto it!” Then shall be fulfilled-finally and exhaustively fulfilled-the saying that is written, “Behold I make all things new.” The text begins with “Behold!” and I am going to close with that same note of admiration. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3467.cfm

Our New Nature

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

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. – Galatians 6:15

I love Thee, O my Saviour, because on the cross Thou didst bear shame, and spitting, and manifold disgrace for me. New principles stir the new nature which God has given. And this new nature is conscious of new emotions. It loves what once it hated; it hates what once it loved. It finds blight where once it sought for bliss, and finds bliss where once it found nothing but bitterness. It leaps at the sound which was once dull to its ears-the name of a precious Christ. It rejoices in hopes which once seemed idle as dreams. It is filled with a divine enthusiasm which it once rejected as fanatical. It is conscious now of living in a new element, breathing a fresh air, partaking of new food, drinking out of new wells not digged by men nor filled from the earth. The man is new-new in principles, and new in emotions…He was an heir to wrath; he is now a child of God. He was a bond-slave; he is now a freeman…He rejoices in Christ Jesus, and feasts to the full. He was the citizen of earth once; he is now a citizen of heaven. He once found his all beneath the clouds; but now his all is beyond the stars. He has new relationships. Christ is his brother; God is his Father; the angels are his friends; and the despised people of God are his best and nearest kinsfolk. And hence the man has new aspirations. He now pants to glorify God. What cared he about the glory of God once? He now pants to see God; once he would have paid the fare, if it had cost his life, that he might escape from the presence of the Lord. Now he hungers and thirsts after the living God; yea, if his soul had wings, and he could break the fetters of this mortality, he would mount at once to dwell where Jesus is.

Dear friends, are you new men? If you are, you understand what it is; if you are not, I know I cannot explain it to you. Oh! to be born again is a great mystery; blessed is the soul that comprehends it! But he that knows it not will never learn it by the lip; he can only know it by the Spirit of God causing him also to be made a new creature in Christ Jesus. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3467.cfm

New Creatures in Christ Jesus

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit 7 Comments

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Christ has made for us a new covenant. The old covenant was, “Do this and live.” That covenant was a sentence of death upon us all. We could not do, therefore we could not live, and so we died…The covenant of grace reveals God’s kindness towards us, and our part thereof has been fulfilled for us by our surety, Christ Jesus. Thus it runs, “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more for ever; a new heart also will I give them, and a right spirit will I put within them.” The old world is still under the old covenant of works, and its children perish, for they cannot carry out the conditions of the covenant, they cannot keep God’s law, they break it constantly, and they die. But the children of grace are under the new covenant of grace, and through the precious blood, which is the penalty of the old broken covenant, and through the spotless righteousness of Christ, which is the fulfilment and magnifying of the old covenant, the Christian stands secure, and rejoices that he is saved. Christ has thus made His people dwell under a new covenant, instead of under the old one.

In addition to the new covenant, Christ has been pleased to make us new men. His saints are “new creatures in Christ Jesus.” They have a new nature. God has breathed into them a new life. The Holy Spirit, though the old nature is still there, has been pleased to put within them a new nature. There is now a contending force within them-the old carnal nature inclining to evil, and the new God-given nature panting after perfection. They are new men, “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This new nature is moved by new principles. The old nature needed to be awed with threatenings, or bribed with rewards; the new nature feels the impulse of love. Gratitude is its mainspring: “We love Him because He first loved us.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3467.cfm

A New Start

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

“He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new.”- Revelation 21:5

 If our calendar suggests some dismal memories in the past, our calculation forestalls some happier prospects in the future. And it will sometimes happen that we leave so much anxiety, adversity, and chastisement behind us, that it is a relief to hope that the tide has turned, and that a course of comfort, prosperity, and mercy lies before us. One weeps over the past and the lost. I suppose the best of men must do so at times. I am sure those of us who are not the best, feel often constrained to pour out some such a lamentation as this:

“Much of our time has run to waste;
Our sins, how great the sum!
Lord, give us pardon for the past,
And strength for days to come.”

I do not know but it is sometimes as well, when one has been plunged in sorrow, or feels ashamed of his past life-after having regretted that which is bygone and repented of it, and sorrowed over it-to feel as if he breathed another atmosphere, and had started on a fresh career. Having thrown away the old sword, he is now about to see what he can do with the new: having put off an old garment, he is desirous to walk more worthily of his vocation with fresh ones that are provided for him. Perhaps the thought of freshness, the fact of new time having dawned on our path, may be a little help to those of us who are dull and heavy, and we may be stirred up to action, or, if not to action, it may awaken earnest hope that the infusion of a new start into our lives, new vigour instead of the old lethargy, new love instead of the old lukewarmness, new zeal instead of the old deathlikeness; new, pertinacious, persevering industry for Christ, instead of the old idleness, may result. God grant that it may be so! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3467.cfm

Debt Free, Praise Jesus!

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

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. – Romans 4:8

You understand that so long as Jesus was here He lay under the charge of our sins. Whilst He was in the world, His Father had made to meet upon Him the iniquity of us all. But when He died, His death discharged all the liabilities of His elect. The handwriting of ordinances that was against us was then taken away. When He went to Calvary as our Surety, the sins of all His people were His debts: He had taken them upon Himself. But when He rose from the dead in the garden He had no debts of ours: He had no longer any substitutional engagement or liability. All the debts which He had taken upon Himself as our Redeemer He had fully and completely discharged. No officer can arrest a man for debt who has none, and Christ now lives, therefore, as a justified person. And,. brethren, no officer of justice can arrest any of the people for whom Christ paid their debts. How, then, shall death have any dominion over those whose debts are all discharged? How shall they be laid in prison for whom Christ was laid in prison? How shall they suffer death, which is the penalty of sin, for whom Christ has already suffered all the penalties which justice could have demanded? Because He lives the life of one who has discharged the debts of His people, they must, in justice, live.

Jesus Christ represents all the people who are in Him, and as long as He lives, they live. He is their Covenant Head. As long as Adam stands, his race shall stand; when Adam falls, the human race falls. While, therefore, Christ lives, the Christly ones, who are in Him, live through His representation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3401.cfm

The Triumph of Christ

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

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name: those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. – John 17:12

This is the triumph of Christ, “Of all those whom Thou hast given Me, I have lost none” Now, suppose there to be heard a whisper from the infernal pit, “aha! Aha! Thou liest! There is one here whom the Father gave Thee, but who Thou didst lose”-why, Christ would never be able to speak again by way of triumph! He could never boast any more. Then might He put down His crown. If it were but to happen in that one case, at any rate, the enemy would have got the advantage over Him, and He would not have been the Conqueror all along the line. But, glory be to God! He who trod the winepress with none for His assistant, came forth out of the crimson conflict, having smitten all His foes, and won a complete victory. There shall not be in the whole campaign a single point over which Satan shall be able to boast.

Christ has brought many sons to glory as the Captain of their salvation, and never yet has He failed, and He never shall in any point, neither the least nor the greatest, neither the strongest nor the weakest. This is essential, dear friends. It is essential to the acclamations of heaven, that every soul that believes in Jesus should live for ever. It is essential to the everlasting harmony and to the joy of Christ throughout Eternity, that all who trust in Him should be preserved and kept safe, even until the end.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3401.cfm