salvation

Likened to the Golden Lions

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

But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption…-1 Corinthians 1:30

Righteousness is that attribute which the carnal man fears but he who sees the righteousness of God satisfied by the atonement of Christ, is charmed even by the severe aspect of God dressed as a judge. The justified child of God is not afraid of the righteousness of God, for he can meet all its demands. He likens it to the golden lions which stood in pairs upon the steps of the throne of Solomon-not meant to drive away the petitioner, but to let him see how strong, how powerful, was that throne upon which Israel leaned. I see the righteousness and holiness of God like huge colossal lions, as I look at His throne, and I delight, as I ascend the steps to bow before the glorious Father’s face, to know that His righteousness is engaged to save those for whom Jesus died. Let us recount the righteous vengeance of Calvary, the terrors that God cast forth upon His Son when He cursed our sins by making Christ to be a curse for us, though He knew no sin. This is a subject upon which we should delight to dwell…The Lord prizes His saints above all the world beside. He gave Egypt and Ethiopia for them-He did more, He gave His Son for them; He gave heaven’s brightest jewel, heaven’s glory, heaven’s heaven He gave that He might redeem them from all iniquity, to be His own peculiar people. Thus, my beloved brethren, take care when you converse upon the Lord’s acts, that you speak of His peculiar favor towards Israel, His chosen, His elect.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0763.cfm

 

The Silenced Archers

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

Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob… -Genesis 49:22-24

They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water…-Judges 5:11

It seems that archers and wells frequently go together. It was the blessing of Joseph-“Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall.” But what next? “The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him.” And so in the text: here are wells, but there is the noise of archers, which greatly disturbs those who go to draw water. Brethren and sisters-I think you know, but I will refresh your memories-you know what the noise of archers has been to you when you have tried to draw water. Years ago, with some of us, our sins were the archers that shot at us when we would fain come to Christ and drink of His salvation. When we bowed the knee in prayer, a fiery arrow would dart into our hearts-“How dare you pray? God heareth not sinners!” When we read the word of God, another barbed shaft would be shot against us-“What hast thou to do with God’s word? There can be no promise there for such as thou art. Knowest thou not that thou art a condemned sinner, and that book curses thee solemnly? Turn away from it, of what service can it be to thee?”

Ah! but beloved, you are delivered from the noise of archers now; your sins which are many, are forgiven you; now you can come to Jesus, now you can come to the ordinances, now you can read the Bible, now you can hear the word, and you find that God’s paths drop fatness… for you are accepted in the Beloved, justified by faith, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0763.cfm

Our Great Inexhaustible Well

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

They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD -Judges 5:11

We thank God that we who are the children of the Most High, have wells to go to. The world is a wilderness; say what we will of it, we cannot make it into anything else. “This is not our rest; it is polluted.” We are passing through the desert of earth to the Promised Land of heaven, but we praise God that we have wells to drink of on the road. As Israel drank at Elim, and as the patriarchs drank at Beersheba, so have we wells of salvation, out of which we joyfully draw the living water. Our great inexhaustible well is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is, indeed, the great “deep that lieth under,” the “deep that coucheth beneath,” the secret spring and source from which the crystal streams of life flow, through the wells of instrumentality and ordinance. “All my fresh springs are in Thee.” Whenever we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, we drink and are refreshed. No thirst can abide where He is. “He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him,” saith He, “shall never thirst.” Glory be to His name, we know the truth of this-

“I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.”

As often as we muse upon His person, commune with Him in holy fellowship, think of His wounds, triumph in His ascension, and long for His second advent, so often doth our spirit drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, and we lift up our head. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0763.cfm

Give Christ Your Heart

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

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. -Romans 10:9

A missionary was preaching to the Maori tribe of the New Zealanders. He had been telling them of the suffering love of Christ, how He had poured forth His soul unto death for them; and as he concluded, the hills rung to the thrilling question-“Is it nothing to any who pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto His?” Then stood forth a plumed and painted chief, the scarred warrior of a thousand fights, and as his lips quivered with suppressed emotion, he spoke. “And did the Son of the Highest suffer all this for us men? Then the Indian chief would like to offer him some poor return for his great love. Would the Son of God deign to accept the Indian’s hunting dog? Swift of foot and keen of scent the tribe has not such another, and he has been to the Indian as a friend.” But the missionary told him that the Son of God had need of no such gifts as these. Thinking he had mistaken the gift he resumed-“Yet perchance He would accept the Indian’s rifle? Unerring of aim, the chief cannot replace it.” Again the missionary shook his head. For a moment the chief paused; then as a new thought struck him, suddenly despoiling himself of his striped blanket he cried with childlike earnestness, “Perhaps He who had not where to lay His head will yet accept the chieftain’s blanket. The poor Indian will be cold without it, yet it is offered joyfully.” Touched by love’s persistency, the missionary tried to explain to him the real nature of the Son of God; that it was not men’s gifts but men’s hearts that He yearned for. For a moment a cloud of grief darkened the granite features of the old chief; then as the true nature of the Son of God slowly dawned upon him, casting aside his blanket and rifle he clasped his hands, and looking right up into the blue sky, his face beaming with joy, he exclaimed-“Perhaps the Son of the Blessed One will deign to accept the poor Indian himself!”

Is that what you say this morning? You would give Christ this, and that, and the other. Soul, give Him your heart. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0400.cfm

Your Sin Can Forever Be Put Away

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

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. -Matthew 11:28

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. -Acts 2:21

To return to God is not a cruel request to you. He does not ask you to perform a pilgrimage and blister your weary feet, or to thrust an iron in your back and swing yourself aloft as does the Hindoo; He asks you not to lie on a bed of spikes or starve yourself till you can count your bones. He asks no suffering of you, for Christ has suffered for you. All He asks is that you would return to Him, and what is that? That you would be unfeignedly sorry for your past sin, that you would ask His grace to keep you from it in the future, that you would now believe in Christ who is set forth to be the propitiation for sin, that through faith in His blood you may see your sin for ever put away and all your iniquity cancelled. That is neither a hard nor a cruel demand. It is for your good as well as for His glory. O Spirit of God, make the sinner now willing to repent and to believe in Christ.

“A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear with Thy righteousness on,
My person and offering to bring.

The terrors of law and of God,
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour’s obedience and blood,
Hide all my transgressions from view.”

God promises-and He cannot lie-“He that believeth and is baptized,” He does not say, “may be,” but “shall be” saved, and God’s “shalls” and “wills” do not play with men; but He speaks them in real earnestness. “Whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0400.cfm

Thou Hast Said He Would Heal You

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

Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. -Hosea 6:1

The wounds which you now feel He made Himself, and if He is willing to heal any wounds, how much more those that He has Himself made…The text I read as a promise. It looks at first sight as if it were spoken by man, and so it is; but then inasmuch as it is put in God’s book as the utterance of God’s inspired prophet, it is a part of God’s word, and it is warranted to be most true. “He hath torn and He will heal.” Go and put your finger on this text and say, “Lord, Thou hast torn me, and it is written in Thy word, ‘He will heal us;'”

“Lord, I know Thou canst not lie,
Heal my soul or else I die.”

Put you your finger on the text-“He will bind us up.” Say, “Lord, I do not deserve it; I deserve only to perish, but then Thou hast said Thou wilt do it, be as good as Thy word. Lord, here is a poor sinner near despair, he comes to Thee, bind up his broken heart; give him peace;”-and soul, the everlasting hills shall bow, the hoary deep shall itself be burned up, and earth’s foundation shall be removed, but God’s word shall never pass away, nor shall His promise fail in one single case. Only believe the promise; receive the promise, and this very day, poor broken heart, He will heal thy wounds, and thou shalt have joy and peace in believing through Jesus Christ our Lord. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0400.cfm

Come and Trust Jesus

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit 2 Comments

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. _ John 14:1

Are you sorrowing for sin? It shall be pardoned, and in a moment joy shall fill your spirit. Are you mourning because you are unfit to come? Come with all your unfitness, and you shall thank God that you were saved from making a fitness and were enabled to come as a sinner to Christ. Do you mourn because you have a hard heart? Come and trust Jesus, and He will give you a heart of flesh and you shall bless His name that you were another instance of His Almighty power to change the hearts of men… oh, there was never such a Lord as He is! Sorrow, He told us, we should have, and we have had it, but He has always turned it into joy, and up to this moment I can say of Him, if I had to die like a dog and there were no hereafter, I would prefer to be a Christian; and if there were no joy about religion but the present joy which it gives to a believing heart, let me have it beyond all the joys of wealth, or fame, or honor. There is none like Christ. I would that some of you would come and take Him.

May His Spirit guide you and may you tonight become His disciples, and your sorrow shall be turned into joy. The Lord grant it for His name’s sake. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.gracegems.org/Spurgeon/from_sorrow_to_joy.htm