salvation

He Has Prepared the Way for You, Sinner

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

God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them…For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:19,21

Do you ask, “How can I ever get to God? Surely, the justice of God, on account of my sin, raises an impassable barrier between us.” That is quite true, yet listen to this, poor, guilty sinner. God must be just, that is certain; and, being just, He must punish thy sin. But hast thou not heard that He has given His only-begotten Son that He might stand in the sinner’s stead, and bear the punishment that was due on account of the sinner’s guilt? That middle wall of partition Christ has broken down, even as the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. Oh, what a mighty rent was that! Not a little slit, part of the way down; but from the top to the bottom. So has Jesus Christ demolished the barrier which stood between a justly angry God and a guilty but repenting sinner, and now there is a way of approach, for the very worst of men and women, right up to the throne of the Most High. By the blood of Jesus, once shed for many, for the remission of sins, the guiltiest foot of man may come. Ay, by that blood-besprinkled way, the most condemned sinner may come without fear of being repulsed. The chasm has been filled, the gulf bridged over, and if thou truly believest in Jesus Christ, thou mayest, in His name, and for His sake, come back to thy Heavenly Father. That wise resolve within thy heart, which says, “I will arise and go to my Father,” should be at once carried into effect, for thy Father hath prepared the way by which thou mayest come back to Him, and, to encourage thee, He has sprinkled it with the blood of His dear Son,-the surest sign and token of His love to sinners that even God Himself could give. Here, then, is good news from a far country. Your Father thinks of you, poor prodigal; and He has paved the way for you to come back to His own house and heart.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

Good News from God to Sinners

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

…good news from a far country. -Proverbs 25:25

Sin has led the sinner into a far country. That part of the description of the prodigal son, who gathered all together, and went into a far country, aptly describes the condition of the whole human race…We are, by nature, far off from God in the whole bent and current of our life, which no longer runs in a parallel line with the life of God as first imparted to man (before the Fall), but runs rather according to the fashion of the life of Satan, so that we yield ourselves up to the evil influence of that foul spirit who worketh in the children of disobedience.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so is it with our God. He pities those who wander away from Him. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” God takes no delight in your sin, and no delight in the shame and sorrow which your sin will bring upon you unless you turn from it, but He will take delight in you if you return to Him. He still cries to you, “Return ye now every one from his evil way;” and He still remembers you in pity and compassion. Notwithstanding your forgetfulness of Him, and your wilful rebellion against Him, He doth remember you still; for God is love, and there is love in His heart even towards sinners who are dead in trespasses and sins. That, surely, is good news to you, and if God thus thinks of you in pity, should not you think of God with deep, heartfelt penitence and contrition?~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

Like Cold Water to a Sinner’s Thirsty Soul

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, promises, salvation 8 Comments

As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. –Proverbs 25:25.

This is a text for summertime rather than for a winter’s evening. It is only on one of our hottest summer days that we could fully appreciate the illustration here employed; we need to be parched with thirst to be able to feel the value of cold waters to quench our thirst. At the same time, I think that we can, without any very great stretch of imagination, put ourselves into the position of some to whom cold waters have been almost like life from the dead. Look at Hagar, in the wilderness with her child, whom she has cast under one of the shrubs, that she may not see him die. The water in the bottle is spent, and she longs for a cooling draught that might save the young lad’s life. Then the Lord opened her eyes, so that she saw a well of water in the desert, and as she filled her bottle from it she understood what cold waters are to a thirsty soul. Think also of the whole nation of Israel in the wilderness crying out in agony because there was no water for them to drink. Then they began to murmur against the Lord, and against Moses; but how joyful they were when the smitten rock poured forth its cooling stream, and they rushed to it, and drank to the full. If you want another personal example of the blessing of cold water to a thirsty soul, think of Samson. Heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass he has slain a thousand men; but the dust of the conflict, and the heat, and the exhaustion had caused such an intense thirst to come upon him that he is ready to die. Then he lifts up his voice to the Lord; and the same God, who had made the jawbone to be so mighty a weapon against the Philistines, opens for him a spring of water in that very jawbone, and he drinks, and is refreshed, and magnifies the name of the Lord. So, you see, there are occasions when cold waters are inexpressibly precious to thirsty souls; and Solomon, who seems to have known something of their value, says that good news from a far country is equally pleasant, and refreshing, and reviving.

Good news from God for sinners is like cold waters to a thirsty soul~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2866.cfm

“Depart, ye cursed!”

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

Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels -Matthew 25:41

Doubtless many would be greatly pleased if there were no God at all; for in their hearts they say, “No God.” God is not to them a father, a friend, a trust, a treasure. If they were to speak from their hearts, and could hope for a satisfactory answer, they would ask, “Whither can I flee from His presence?” If a spot could be found wherein there would be no God, what a fine building speculation might be made there! Millions would emigrate to “No God’s land,” and would feel at ease as soon as they trod its godless shore. There they could do just as they liked, without fear of future reckoning. Now, friend, if you would fain escape from the presence of God, your state is clearly revealed by that fact. There can be no heaven for you; for heaven is where the Lord’s presence is fullness of joy. If you could be happy to be far off from God, I must tell you what your fate will be. You are now going away from God in your heart and desire, and at last the great Judge of all will say to you, “Depart, ye cursed”; and you will then be driven from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.

“Is the presence of God my delight?” If so, I am His, and He will be with me. On the contrary, Is the presence of God a matter of indifference, or even of dread? Then my condition is one of guilt, disease, and danger. May the Lord, of His infinite mercy, set me right!~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm

Beholding Him

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation, The Father 3 Comments

…and they shall call His name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. -Matthew 1:23

I almost tremble while I remind you of the truest temple of God-the body of our Lord. The nearest approach of Godhead to our manhood was when there was found, wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a manger, that child who was born, that Son who was given whose name was called “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” As for thee, O Bethlehem favored above all the towns of earth, out of thee He came, who is Immanuel, God with us! Verily Thy name is Jehovah-shammah. All along, through thirty years and more of holy labor, ending in a shameful death, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. In the gloom of Gethsemane, among those sombre olives, when Jesus bowed, and in His prayer sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground, He was “seen of angels” as the Son of God bearing human sin. Speak of Gethsemane, and we tell you God was there. Before Herod, and Pilate, and Caiaphas, and on the cross-the Lord was there. Though in a sense there was the hiding of God, and Jesus cried, “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” yet in the deepest sense Jehovah was there, bruising the great sacrifice. The thick darkness made a veil for the Lord of glory, and behind it He that made all things bowed His head and said, “It is finished.” God was in Christ Jesus on the cross, and we, beholding Him, feel that we have seen the Father. O Calvary, we say of thee, “The Lord is there.”

“Oh, come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm

 

Heaven’s Supreme Delight

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, prophecy, salvation 7 Comments

…and so shall we ever be with the Lord. -1 Thessalonians 4:17

Up yonder, whither many of our beloved ones have already gone: up yonder, within that gate of pearl where eye cannot as yet see. What is it that makes heaven”, with all its supreme delights? Not harps of angels, nor blaze of seraphim; but this one fact, “the Lord is there.” What must it be to be with God? O soul that loves Him, what will your fullness of pleasure be when you shall dwell with Him for whom your soul is hungering and thirsting! What joy to be “for ever with the Lord”! This perfect bliss may be ours this very day. We little know how near we are to our glorification with our Lord. The veil is very thin that parts the sanctified from the glorified.

One gentle sigh, the soul awakes:
We scarce can say ‘He’s gone,’
Before the ransomed spirit takes
Its mansion near the throne.”

The joy and glory of those divine mansions is that “the Lord is there.” Heaven’s loftiest peak shines for ever in this clear light-The Lord God and the Lamb are the light thereof: “the Lord is there.”

“No beams of cedar or of fir
Can with Thy courts on earth compare;
And here we wait, until Thy love
Raise us to nobler seats above.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm

Make Every Place the House of God

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

And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. -Psalm 40:3

I often feel sorry when the Sabbath is nearly over and so do many of you. I know you wake on Monday morning and take those shutters down again, or go off to that workshop where you suffer so much ridicule, or return to the ordinary grind of daily labor, and mix up with so many of the ungodly; and you do it mournfully. Now, pray that you may keep up the Sabbath tone all the week. Make every place, wherever you go, to be the house of God. A dear brother of ours went to a shop where he worked with four ungodly men, but his Lord went with him. It was not long before we had the privilege of baptizing that friend’s master and all his shopmates, for the Lord was there. The other day there came a fresh man to work who could not bear to hear a word upon religion, but our brother was the means of his conversion, and the new man is coming among us, warm with his first love. Our brother makes up his mind that he is not to be conquered by any scoffers, but on the contrary he is determined to conquer them for Christ. He will not yield to the influences of sin, but he resolves, in the name of the Lord, that evil influences shall yield to the power of truth, and to the attractions of the cross. Write across your workshop, “The Lord is here.” If you cannot do if literally, do it spiritually, “Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is there.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2182.cfm