salvation

Faith Which Triumphs Over Difficulties

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

“Master, I have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit.”…And He asked his father, “How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, “Of a child.” – Mark 9:17,21

This man’s faith was real, because it was faith which triumphed over difficulties, difficulties which typify our own, and hence it was clearly the work of the Spirit of God, for no other will endure the trial. I shall ask thee, dear hearer, whether faith has triumphed over difficulties in thy case. For observe, his child was grievously tormented, and the malady was of long standing. When the Savior said to him, “How long hath this happened unto him?” he said, “Of a child.” Must it not have seemed, now that his son had grown older, a very unlikely thing that he should be recovered…Yet in the teeth of that the man believed that Christ could cast that long-established demon out of his son. Dear friend, thy case of sin is similar. The sins of thy youth rise up before thee now: are they not in thy bones? The sins of thine early manhood, and the sins of thy riper years, and, mayhap, the sins of thy decaying years; all these come up before thee…Crimes so long continued, evil habits so deeply rooted, can all these be overcome? O soul, if thou hast true faith, thou wilt say, “Yes, I believe that since Christ is God He can deliver me from all evil, and forgive me all sin. Even if I had lived as long as Methuselah, and had continued all that while in the vilest of transgression, yet Jesus is so mighty to save that He could deliver me in a moment.” His word is, “All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” Looking to those dear wounds, those founts of love and blood, I do believe, and will believe, that all my years of sin are gone as in a moment, and like thick clouds before a mighty wind are blown away never to return. Oh, this is faith, poor soul. I pray God enable thee to exercise it.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1033.cfm

The Sweetness of Jesus

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

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. -Psalm 42:1

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. -Hebrews 10:38

Can anybody suggest a reason why the lover of Christ should turn from Him? Polycarp was asked that he should curse Christ, and he replied, “Wherefore should I curse Him?” The assembly in the amphitheatre could give no answer to that; all hell could never give a reply to that. What hath He done, what hath He done that we should leave Him? What can He have done, and what is there that the world can offer that would ever repay us for leaving Him? Could we so false, so traitorous, prove as to turn away from Christ, what should we gain? A little pleasure gone in a moment, like thorns that crackle beneath the pot. What should we lose, my brethren? We should lose the joy of life; we should lose our support in tribulation; we should lose our hope in death; we should lose heaven, to inherit nothing but the blackness of darkness for ever. I cannot conceive a bribe heavy enough to weigh against Him; I cannot imagine an honour bright enough to compare with Him. I cannot conceive a disgrace that can be black enough to compare with the disgrace of deserting Him. The silver mine of Demas is a poor reward for selling His Master. All the wealth of India, could it be poured into one’s lap, were but a mockery of a soul that damned itself by casting away its confidence in Christ. To whom should we go, Master; to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. To leave Christ would be the meanest thing of which any could be capable. I suppose the devil himself, with all that he has ever done, has never been able to compass a wickedness that would equal this wickedness, if it were possible of a truly gracious soul deliberately deserting Jesus for the world, for such a soul knows the hollowness of this world’s joys; such a soul knows something of the sweetness of Jesus; such a spirit has been with Him, and has learned of Him, has had the enlightenments of His grace, has learned the faithfulness of His promise and the love of His heart. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

Think of All He Has Done for Us!

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

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. -Psalm 22:6

His cross is despised; let us be despised with it, for He bore shame for us. His truth is counted a lie; let us be willing to be regarded as liars, for He had reproach cast on Him. Sometimes to defend His cause has required the loss of all things; be it ours. if needs be, to lose all things for Him who gave up all-and what an all that was!-the bliss of heaven, and a life itself for us, that He might redeem our souls. The deserts of Jesus are such that it would need an angel’s tongue to tell them out, even though it were but in brief catalogue. Look at Him in what He is Himself as His Father’s darling. Look at His character; was there ever such another? Survey the beauties of His person-were there ever such charms commingled before? Think of His life, and of His death, and of what He is doing still before the throne, and surely you will feel that it is but right and just that, with Jesus, you should enter into the ship and, with Him, sail the ocean over, be it rough or be it smooth.

If we could put our feet down exactly where His feet went down, even though we had to walk up to Calvary itself, it would be our duty so to do, for His path was perfect rectitude, and in Him was no sin. We challenge heaven, with its omniscience, to detect a flaw in Him. We challenge hell, with its malice, to discover in Him an aught that is amiss. Lovers of the right and of the true, ask grace that you may be as He was. You cannot be more adamant for virtue than He. You cannot serve your God better. You cannot do better than keep close to every step that He has taken, and, whether in life or in death, to follow Him. It is right, then, because He deserves it; it is right, again because in itself it is according to the eternal rules of equity.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3504.cfm

 

By His Given Power

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, The Holy Spirit 1 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

There is many a poor sinner who says, “I know that Christ is Himself the Truth, but how can that Truth be mine? I know that there is eternal life, and that Christ is the Life as well as the Truth and the Way, but I am spiritually dead, can I ever have that life?” Yes, you can, for our Lord Jesus Christ is not merely the Way, but He is also the power by which we run in that way. He is not only the Truth, but He gives us the illuminating Spirit to lead us into the Truth; and He is not only the Life, but He puts that Life into us, and sustains and perfects it. You have nothing to do, sinner, but to give yourself up to the leading, guiding, directing, assisting, quickening of the blessed Spirit of God. It is true that you must believe, but He will give you the grace of faith. It is true that you must repent, but it is also true that He works repentance in us. There must and there will be a change of life in all true converts but it is the Holy Spirit who converts you and turns you completely round. There must be sanctification in genuine believers, but it is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you. There is nothing asked of you in the gospel, but what the gospel itself gives you. Those things which, in one part of Scripture, are put as precepts, are, in other parts of Scripture, among the promises. What the Lord bids the sinner do, He enables the sinner to do, just as, when Jesus said to the man that was paralyzed, “Take up thy bed, and walk,” with the command He gave the power to obey it; and when He said to another man, “Stretch out thy hand, withered though it be,” the miraculous power, that gave the nerves and muscles force again, went with the mandate from the lips of Jesus. In like manner, trust thou the Lord to give thee the power to lay hold on the gospel. The very eye, with which to look at the brazen serpent is His gift; and that gift He is prepared to bestow upon all who come to Him for it. Is not this good news from a far country? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

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

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