salvation

Christ is All or Nothing

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

Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: Thy blessing is upon Thy people. Selah. – Psalm 3:8

There are (those) in this world to whom Christ is something, but not much. They are anxious to save themselves, but since they must confess some imperfections they use the merits of Christ as a sort of makeweight for their slight deficiencies. Their robe is almost long enough, and by adding a little fringe of the Redeemer’s grace it becomes all they can wish. To say prayers, to go to church, to take the sacrament to observe Good Friday, these are the main reliances of many a religionist, and then if the coach sticks a little in a deeper rut than usual they call in the help of the Lord Jesus, and hope that He will put His shoulder to the wheel. They commonly say, “Well, we must do our best, then Christ will be our Savior, and God is very merciful.” They allow the blessed and all-sufficient work and sacrifice of the Savior to fill up their failures; and imagine that they are extremely humble in allowing so much as that. Jesus is to them a stopgap, and nothing more. I know not whether the condition of such people is one whit more desirable than that of those to whom Jesus is nothing at all, for this is a vile contempt and despising of Christ indeed, to think that He came to help you to save yourselves, to dream that He is a part Savior, and will divide the world and honor of salvation with the sinner. Those who yoke the sinner and the Savior together as each doing a part rob Christ of all His glory; and this is robbery indeed, to pilfer from the bleeding Lamb of God the due reward of His agonies. “He trod the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Him.” In the work of salvation Jesus stands alone. Salvation is of the Lord. If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Savior of men. If He be something He must be everything, and if He be not everything He is nothing to you.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1006.cfm

It is Not to Every Man that Christ is All

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

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him – Colossians 3:10

Paul does not say that Christ is all in all to all men, but he tells us that there is a new creation, in which the man is “renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him,” where all national and ceremonial distinctions cease, and Christ is all and in all. It is not to every man that Christ is all and in all. Alas! there are many in this world to whom Christ is nothing; He scarcely enters into their thoughts. Some of the baser sort only use His name to curse by; and as to many others, if they have a religion, it is a proud presumption which excludes a Savior. The creed of the self-righteous has no room in it for the sinner’s Savior; the justifier of the ungodly is nothing to them. The worldly, the frivolous, the unchaste, the licentious, these do not permit themselves to think of the Holy Redeemer. Perchance some such are now present, and though they will hear about Him this morning, and of nothing else but Him, they will say, “what a weariness it is,” and be glad when the discourse is ended. Jesus is a root out of a dry ground to multitudes, to them He hath no form nor comeliness, and in Him they see no beauty that they should desire Him. Ah, what will they do when He is revealed in the glory of His power? They thought it nothing to them as they passed by His cross, but they will not be able to despise Him as they stand convicted before His throne. O ye who make Jesus nothing, kiss the Son lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Without Christ, you are today without peace, and will be for ever without hope! Nothing remains for Christless souls at the last, but a fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation. I could well pause here, and say, let us pray for those who are unbelievers, and so are living without a Savior, that they may not remain any longer in this state of condemnation.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1006.cfm

 

This is the Seal of God on Believers

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

Christ is all in all. – Colossians 3:11.

The Apostle was arguing for holiness. He was earnestly contending against sin and for the maintenance of Christian graces, but he did not, as some do, who would like to be thought preachers of the gospel, resort to reasons inconsistent with the gospel of free grace. He did not bring forward a single legal argument; he did not say, “This do, and ye shall merit reward;” or, “This do not, and ye shall cease to be the beloved of the Lord.” He knew that he was writing to believers, who are not under the law but under grace, and he therefore used arguments fetched from grace, and suitable to the character and condition of “the elect of God, holy and beloved.”

In the new birth we are created in the image of Jesus, the second Adam, and in consequence all the distinctions that appertain to the old creation are rendered valueless; “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Sythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all”: the argument from this fact being, that since the only abiding distinction in the new creation is Christ, we should take care that his image is most clearly stamped upon us so that we may not only confess with our tongues that we are Christians, but our conversation and our entire character shall bespeak us to be such. As you may recognize the Jew by his physiognomy, the Greek by his gracefulness, and the barbarian by his uncouthness; so should the Christian be known by his Christliness, by the light, love, and life of Christ streaming forth from him. This is the seal of God which is set upon the forehead of the faithful, and this is the mark of election which is in due season graven in the right hand of all the elect.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1006.cfm

Bear It, and Be Not Vexed

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

Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. – John 4:9

When I begin to seek the conversion of anyone, I must try as much as ever I can to ignore any repulsiveness that there may be in his character. I know that he is a sinner, else I should not seek his salvation; but if he happens to be one who has fallen very low in the esteem of others, I must not treat him as such, but cover his worst points. You cannot possibly bring the Samaritan woman who has had five husbands into a right state of mind by “wondering that He spake with the woman.” Thus the disciples acted, but not so their Master, for He sat on the well and talked with her, and made Himself her willing companion that He might be her gracious Saviour; He ignored her sin so far as to converse with her for her good.

You will not long have begun this holy work before you will discover in the heart you seek to win much ignorance of the gospel. Bear with it, and bring forward the text which sheds light on that darkness, and teach the truth which will remove that error. Ere long you will have to contend with hardness of heart, for when a man knows the truth he is not always willing to receive it. Bear it, and be not vexed. Did you not expect the heart to be hard? Do not you know what business you are upon? You are sent to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God. Be not astonished if these things should not prove to be child’s play.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Herein is Love

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

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. – 1 John 4:10

This is where all our hope, and our joy, and our love begin: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.” In connection with this same truth of union with Christ, and fruitbearing as the result of it, our Lord Himself says, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” When this love thus made choice of us, He entered into covenant with His Father concerning His people; and before we were born He identified Himself with us, so that in the purpose of God from all eternity we were accepted in Him. But union with us meant union with our sins; and though the Son of God could never be overcome of evil, or become a sharer in human guilt, yet by the blessed mystery of His unity with His people, He could take their sin upon Himself, and bear it in His own body on the tree. Thus, as there is no past or future to the eyes of Him before whom all events are spread out in one eternal “now”, the Son of God was able to atone for the iniquities of those who, through all the ages, would be truly joined to Him. His love that chose us did not shrink back from the awful payment which our debt rendered necessary: it was stronger than death, and mightier than the grave. Many waters could not quench it; many floods could not drown it; nor will it cease to exert its blessed influence over us until it shall bring us home to the mansions above; and not even then, for Christ’s love is everlasting. By this loving union Christ brings us safely through all the temptations of life; the ransomed spirits of such as are joined to Him are taken to be with Christ the instant they are absent from the body; and at last out of the tomb that same love shall call the body, and on the glad day of resurrection it shall be clearly seen how wonderful is the love which made our Lord so one with us.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2245.cfm

A Living Union with Christ

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

For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. – John 5:21

This living union is Christ’s life in us. It is given to Him, not only to take us in our feebleness; but it is His divine prerogative to impart life to us, and to call dead men, and to make them live. “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.” This is how we come to have life in connection with Him. His life flows into us, as out of the tree into the branches: so that we can truly say, with the apostle, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith to the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” The living union begins with our Lord’s life, and then that life flows into us, and we begin to live also.

O souls, if the life of Christ is not in you, you are dead while you live, and you will die forever when you die! Unless you get linked to Christ, you will be driven from the presence of God, and away from all that makes for true life and joy. Lay hold on Christ, and you will “lay hold on eternal life”; for He is “that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us,” and living contact with Him is our only hope either for the present or for the future.

God grant to you and to me to have such a living union to Christ!~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2245.cfm

We Are to Be as the Moon

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation 6 Comments

“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” – John 17:23

Oh, to throw back on Christ His Father’s love. The Father is the sun and we are the moon, but the moonlight is not the same light as the sunlight. We can see a difference because reflection robs the light of much of its heat and its brilliance, but it is the same light. The moon has not a ray of light but what came from the sun, and we have not a live coal of love to Christ but what came from the Father. We are as the moon, shining by reflected light, but Jesus loves the moonlight of our love and rejoices in it. Let us give Him all of it: let us try to be as the full moon always, and let us not dwindle down to a mere ring of love, or a crescent of affection; let us render no half-moon love; let us not be half dark and cold, but let us shine on Christ with all the light we can possibly reflect of His Father’s love, saying in our very soul,

“My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.”

This love of the Father in us is to go beaming forth from us to all around. When we get the love wherewith the Father loves the Son into our hearts, then it is to go out towards all the chosen seed…Ay, and your love is to go forth to all the sons of men, seeking their good for God’s glory, that they may be brought in to know the same Saviour in whom we rejoice. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1667.cfm