salvation

Converted to God by His Still Small Voice

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

And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. – 1 Kings 19:12

Many have been converted to God by the still small voice whom no wind, though it rose to a hurricane, no earthquake, though it rent the world to its centre, and no fire, though it licked up the forests, could ever move. A gentle word has done it. Sometimes that still small voice has come to us by apparently very, very inadequate means. It is astonishing what little things God will use when He pleases to do so. He wanted to soften the heart of that rough prophet Jonah, and He sent a worm and a gourd, and they did it. He would bring Peter to repentance, and He bade a cock to crow… Means may seem to be absolutely ridiculous, yet God maketh use of the things that are not, as though they were. I remember to have heard the story of a man, a blasphemer, profane, an atheist, who was converted singularly by a sinful action of his. He had written on a piece of paper, “God is nowhere,” and bade his child read it, for he would make his child an atheist too. And the child spelt it, “God is n-o-w h-e-r-e-God is now here.” It was a truth, instead of a lie, and the arrow pierced the man’s own heart. I remember one who had lived a life of gross iniquity who stepped into Exeter Hall and found Christ there. It was not my sermon, however, that God blessed: it was only this. I read the hymn, “Jesus, lover of my soul.” Just those words touched his heart. “Jesus, lover of my soul,” he said to himself. “Did Jesus love my soul? Then how is it that I could have lived as I have done?”; and that word broke him down. God works great results by little things. A little hymn learnt at the Sunday School is sung at home by a little prattler, and the heart of the father is softened by it. One little sentence uttered by a friendly visitor reaches a mother’s conscience and impresses her heart. Ay, and God can use the quiet of the evening, or the stillness of the night, or a flash of lightning, or a peal of thunder, or a dewdrop, or a little flower-He can use anything He wills to bring His banished home. Often doth the Spirit speak thus with a still small voice. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3498.cfm

Seeking Soul, Heaven and Hell Tremble in the Balance for Thee!

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

And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee: for Thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee. -Psalm 9:10

Cry unto God to show thee the way; ask Him to do it, for, remember, He can do for thee what you canst never do for thyself. Understand that thou canst not save thyself-that thou hast no right to be saved-that if saved, it will be His sovereign grace; therefore, cry humbly, but oh! note the value of the blessing thou needest, and, therefore, pray earnestly. Do not let Him go, except He bless thee. Rob thyself of sleep, sinner, rather than rob thy soul of Christ…Oh! if a soul be resolved, “I will not perish if mercy is to be had; I will stoop to anything; I will have Christ or nothing; I will be nothing; I will let Him do what He wills with me, if I may but be saved; I will make no terms and no conditions, only let my sins be blotted out. My friend, thou art already not far from the kingdom of God. Already grace is at work in thy soul, and “if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee.” Continue in that blessed search. Let nothing take thee off from it; it is thy life; thy soul hangs on it; heaven and hell tremble in the balance for thee; give thy heart to God, thy faith to Christ, thy whole soul to the purpose of seeking thy salvation, and say, “It is my only business, with holy faith and holy fear, to make my calling and election sure while here I stand upon this narrow neck of land, betwixt the two unbounded seas.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/history/spurgeon/web/ss-0036.html

Seeking God Heartily and Earnestly

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

But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. -Deuteronomy 4:29

We have lost our God by the Fall-by our own sin. We have alienated ourselves from Him, but our case is not hopeless. Since Jesus Christ has come into the world, and given the gospel, and provided an atonement, it is a certainty that, if we desire the Lord and seek Him, He will be found of us. Now He has told us the way in which to seek. It is by coming to Him as He is revealed in Christ Jesus, and trusting our souls with Jesus. If we do this, we have found God, and we are saved. The sum and substance of the promise is this: any soul that, by prayer, seeks God, desires salvation through Jesus, through faith in Jesus-such a soul shall be heard, shall get the blessing it desires, shall find its God. You shall not pray in vain. Your tears, and cries, and longings shall be heard. Christ shall be revealed to you, and, through your believing in Christ, you shall certainly be saved. There is not, and never will be, in hell, a single person who dare say that he sought the Lord through Christ and could not find Him. There is not living a man who dares say that, or if he did, his own conscience would belie him…Seeking in God’s way, heartily and earnestly, God will not reject him…I do know this, that if “the wicked forsakes his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and turns unto the Lord, He will have mercy upon him, and our God will abundantly pardon” him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3490.cfm

Come Empty-Handed and He Will Be Found of Thee

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

…for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee… -1 Chronicles 28:9

It has been supposed that we should want a good deal of help in seeking after salvation. Certain persons who step in to be absolutely necessary priests between us and God. A great delusion, but there be thousands who believe it and who fancy that God won’t hear them if they pray, except they have some respect for these human mediators. Away with the whole, away with any pretence for anyone to stand between the soul and God, save Jesus Christ. “If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee.” Though thou bring no other man with thee, but come empty-handed as thou art to God here, without paraphernalia, or altar, or sacrifice of the Mass, He will be found of thee. Take the text in its simplicity and sublimity. It is just this: that if any heart really seeks God in His way, it shall find Him; if any man really wants mercy from God and seeks it as God tells him to seek it, he shall have it. Any man of woman born, be he who he may, if he comes to God in the way laid down, and sincerely asks for salvation, that salvation he shall surely have. The matter is simple enough; our pride alone obscures it. The way to heaven is so plain that “a wayfaring man, though a fool, may not err therein.”

Is anything impossible for the Saviour? Oh! conceive it not so. The idea that any guilt is too great for Christ to pardon scarcely deserves to be replied to. It is so absurd when you are dealing with the infinite mercy of a Saviour who is God Himself.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3490.cfm

Jesus Christ is Salvation

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

If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee.”- 1Chronicles  28:9

Although this was addressed to Solomon, it may, without any violence to truth, be addressed to every unconverted person here present, for there are a great many texts of Scripture of a similar import which apply to all ungodly ones, such, for instance, as that, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon Him while He is near.” And that other, “He that seeketh findeth; to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.” I should like to go round, if it were possible, and say to every hearer here, as I put my hand upon his shoulder, “If thou seek thy God, He will be found of thee”-even of thee. May I ask you to take it as spoken to each individual-not to your neighbours, not to one who is better or worse than yourselves, but to you? You, young man, and you of riper years, you of all ages, classes and sexes, “If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee.” I know that those who think at all about religion, and do not understand it, are very apt to conceive that there is something wonderfully mysterious about it. That a man should follow it, and may perhaps attain the blessing of it towards the end of life, or on a dying bed, though some conceive that then nobody is quite sure that he is saved, unless it is some extraordinarily good man. Oh! is not this strange, that with a book so plain as this, and with a gospel preached by so many in these days, yet the mass of mankind are in a cloud and a fog about the blessed revelation of God? Jesus Christ is salvation. He is to be had-He is to be had now. You may know you have Him. You may be now saved-completely saved, and live in the full enjoyment of that knowledge. “If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3490.cfm

Sweetly Drawn to Salvation in Christ

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

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace… – Ephesians 1:7

There are some who, like Lydia, have their hearts opened not by the crowbar of conviction, but by the pick-lock of divine grace. Sweetly drawn, almost silently enchanted by the loveliness of Jesus, they say, “Draw me, and I will run after Thee.”
And now you ask me the question-“Why has God brought me to Himself in this gentle manner? “Again I say-there are some questions better unanswered than answered. God knows best the reason why He does not give you these terrors; leave that question with Him. But I may tell you an anecdote. There was a man once who had never felt these terrors and he thought within himself-“I never can believe I am a Christian unless I do.” so he prayed to God that he might feel them, and he did feel them, and what do you think is his testimony? He says, “Never, never do that, for the result was fearful in the extreme.” If he had but known what he was asking for, he would not have asked for anything so foolish. I knew a Christian man once who prayed for trouble. He was afraid he was not a Christian, because he had no trouble; but when the trouble came, he soon discovered how foolish he was to be asking for a thing which God in mercy had kept back from him. O be not foolish enough to sigh for misery. Thank God that you go to heaven along the walls of salvation; bless the Master that He does not call you in the cloudy and dark day, but brings you gently to Himself; and be content, I pray you, to be called by the music of the voice of love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0313.cfm

The Comforting Remedy

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

But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name -John 1:12

Sinners distressed on account of sin, and bowed down with terror, there is a way of salvation for thee, a way open and accessible -accessible now. Thou mayest now have all thy griefs assuaged, and all thy sorrows may flee away. Hear thou then the remedy, and hear it as from the lips of God, and take care that thou availest thyself of it now, for the longer thou tarriest, the harder will it be to avail thyself of it. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Do you understand me? Trust Christ and you are saved; trust Him now and all your sins are gone; there is not one left. Past, present, and to come, all gone. “Am I to feel nothing?” No, not as a preparation for Christ; trust Jesus and thou art saved. “Are there no good works required of me?” None, none; good works shall follow afterwards. The remedy is a simple one; not a compound mixture of thy things and Christ; it is just this-the blood of Jesus Christ. There is Jesus on His cross. His hands are bleeding; His heart is bursting; His limbs are tortured; the powers of His soul are full of agony. Those sufferings were offered to God in the place of our sufferings, and “Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” Believe on Him now. “But I may not,” says one. Thou mayest, nay, not only thou mayest, but thou art condemned if thou dost not believe Him now. “I cannot,” saith one. Canst not believe thy Lord? Is He a liar? Canst thou not believe His power to save? The Son of God in agony, and yet no power to save?! “I cannot think He shed His blood for me,” saith such an one. Thou art commanded to trust Him. Come just as thou art; naked, lost, ruined, helpless, poor. If thou art so bad that I cannot describe thee, and thou canst not describe thyself, yet come. Mercy’s free, mercy’s free….There is the remedy, by the power of the Holy Spirit; avail thyself of it. Now God help thee and thou art fully saved. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0313.cfm