salvation

Unpurchaseable

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

Remember the words of Scripture,

Scarcely for a righteous man will one die; peradventure, for a good, a generous man, one might even dare to die; but God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. -Romans 5:7-8

He gave Himself. We cannot purchase the love of God. This highest expression of divine love, the gift of His own Son, was, in the nature of things, unpurchaseable. What could we have offered that God should come into this world, and be found in fashion as a man, and should die? Why, the works of all the angels in heaven put together could not have deserved one pang from Christ. If for ever the angels had continued their ceaseless songs, and if all men had remained faithful, and could have heaped up their pile of merit to add to that of the angels, and if all the creatures that ever were, or ever shall be, could each bring in their golden hemp of merit-yet could they ever deserve His cross? Could they deserve that the Son of God should hang bleeding and dying there? Impossible! It must be a gift, for it was utterly unpurchaseable; though all worlds were coined and minted, yet could they not have purchased a tear from the Redeemer; they were not worth it. It must be grace; it cannot be merit; He gave Himself.

And the gift is so thoroughly a gift that no prep of any kind was brought to bear upon the Saviour. There was no necessity that He should die, except the necessity of His loving us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3513.cfm

He Gave Himself for Us

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

…the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us… -Titus 2:13-14

Who is this that is spoken of? and the text gives the answer. It is “the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us.” We had offended God; the dignity of divine justice demanded that offenses against so good and just a law as that which God had promulgated should not be allowed to go unpunished. But the attribute of justice is not the only one in the heart of God. God is love, and is, therefore, full Of mercy. Yet, nevertheless, He never permits one quality of His Godhead to triumph over another. He could not be too merciful, and so become unjust; He would not permit mercy to put justice to an eclipse. The difficulty was solved thus: God Himself stooped from His loftiness and veiled His glory in a garb of our inferior clay. The Word-that same Word without whom was not anything made that was made-became flesh, and dwelt amongst us; and His apostles, His friends, and His enemies, beheld Him-the seed of the woman, but yet the Son of God, very God of very God, in all the majesty of deity, and yet man of the substance of His mother in all the weakness of our humanity, sin being the only thing which separated us from Him, He being without sin, and we being full of it. It is, then, God, who “gave Himself for us”; it is, then, man, who gave Himself for us. It is Jesus Christ, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God; who made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and, being found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. It is Christ Jesus, the man, the God, “who gave Himself for us.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3513.cfm

The Soul is Precious

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

For you know that it was not with perishable things like silver or gold that you have been ransomed from the worthless way of life handed down to you by your ancestors -1Peter 1:18

You may tell how serious it is to lose the soul, from its intrinsic value. The soul is a thing worth ten thousand worlds; in fact, a thing which worlds on worlds heaped together, like sand upon the sea shore, could not buy. It is more precious than if the ocean had each drop of itself turned into a golden globe, for all that wealth could not buy a soul. Consider! The soul is made in the image of its Maker; “God made man,” it is said, “in His own image.” The soul is an everlasting thing like God; God has gifted it with immortality; and hence it is precious. To lose it, then, how fearful! Consider how precious a soul must be, when both God and the devil are after it. You never heard that the devil was after a kingdom, did you? No, he is not so foolish; he knows it would not be worth his winning; he is never after that; but he is always after souls. You never heard that God was seeking after a crown, did you! No, He thinketh little of dominions; but He is after souls every day; His Holy Spirit is seeking His children; and Christ came to save souls. Do you think that which hell craves for, and that which God seeks for, is not precious?

The soul is precious again, we know, by the price Christ paid for it. “Not with silver and gold,” but with His own flesh and blood did He redeem it. Ah! it must be precious, if He gave His heart’s core to purchase it. What must it be to lose your soul?..Oh! sirs, because the soul is capable of heaven, its loss is a dreadful and terrific thing. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0092.cfm

A Loser? Or A Gainer?

Sherry Christian Life, salvation 3 Comments

What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?- Mark 8:36

Spiritually man is a great trader-he is trading for his own welfare; he is trading for time and for eternity; he keeps two shops: one shop is kept by an apprentice of his, a rough unseemly hand, of clayey mold, called the body; the other business, which is an infinitely more vast concern, is kept by one that is called “the soul” a spiritual being, who does not traffic upon little things, but who deals with hell or heaven, and trades with the mighty realities of eternity…Let me beseech you, my brethren, while you are not careless of the body, as, indeed, you ought not to be, seeing that it is, in the case of believers, the temple of the Holy Ghost, to take more especial care of your souls…Look to your soul, as well as to your body; to the life, as well as to that by which you live. Oh that men would take account of the soul’s vast concerns, and know their own standing before God. Oh that ye would examine yourselves. If men would do so, if all of you would now search within, how many of you would be bankrupts? You are making a pretty little fortune with regard to the body; you are doing tolerably well and comfortable; you are providing for yourselves things as you would desire them. Your mortal body, perhaps, if even pampered, and has no fault to find with its owner; but as your poor soul how that is getting on, and you will find it not a gainer, but in many instances, I fear, a loser. Let me solemnly tell you, that if your soul be a loser, however much your body may be a gainer, you have not profited in the least degree. Let me ask you all this question in the name of Jesus Christ, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0092.cfm

Our Numbered Days

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

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. -Psalm 90:12

Listen for one moment to the ticking of that clock!…It is the beating of the pulse of eternity. You hear the ticking of that clock!-it is the footstep of death pursuing you. Each time the clock ticks, death’s footsteps are falling on the ground close behind you. You will soon enter another year. This year will have gone in a few seconds…where will the next year be spent, my friends? One has been spent on earth; where will you spend the next? “In heaven!” says one, “I trust.” Another murmurs, “Perhaps I shall spend mine in hell!” Ah! solemn is the thought, but before that clock strikes 12, some here may be in hell; and blessed be the name of God! some of us may be in heaven! But O, do you know how to estimate your time, my hearers? do you know how to measure your days? Oh! I have not words to speak to-night. Do you know that every hour you are nearing the tomb? that every hour you are nearing judgment?…Do you know where the stream of life is hastening some of you? To the rapids-to the rapids of woe and destruction! What shall the end of those be who obey not the gospel of God?…O take care! take care! time is precious! and whenever we have little of it, it is more precious; yea, it is most precious. May God help you to escape from hell and fly to heaven! I feel like the angel, to-night, who put his hand upon Lot, and cried-“Escape! look not behind thee! stay not in all the plain; flee to the mountain, lest thou be consumed!”

“Ye virgin souls, arise!
With all the dead awake;
Unto salvation wise;
Oil in your vessels take:
Upstarting at the midnight cry,
Behold Your heavenly bridegroom nigh.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0059.cfm

Seek to Know Him

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

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. _ John 17:3

Should a man despise the wine of which he has never sipped. It may be sweeter than he dreams. Oh! taste and see that the Lord is good, and so sure as ever you taste, you will see His goodness. I will venture to say, again, that there are many who make light of the gospel, simply through ignorance; and if that is so, I am somewhat in hopes that when they are a little enlightened by sitting under the Word, the Lord may be pleased graciously to bring them to Himself; and then I know they will never make light of Christ again. Oh! do not be ignorant, “for that the soul be without knowledge is not good.” Seek to know Him whom to know aright is life eternal; and when you know Him you will never make light of Him.

In America, it is said, they worship the almighty dollar; I believe that in London many men worship the almighty sovereign; they have the greatest possible respect for an almighty bank note; that is the god which many men are always adoring. The prayer-book they carry so religiously in their hands is their cash-book…. it is the height of folly, the very climax of absurdity, excelling all that the fool, with his cap and bells, ever did, to be living just to gather up the pelf of this world, and not for things to come. Worldliness is a demon that hath wrung the neck of many souls; God grant that we may not perish through our worldliness!! C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0098.cfm

Chaff and Tares

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

Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. – Matthew 22:8

We have some in our churches that are not so good as chaff, for they do not seem to have been near the wheat at all; they are nothing better than tares. They have come into our churches, just as they would into a trade-association, because they think it will improve their business. It gives respectability to their name to take the sacrament; it makes them esteemed to have been baptized, or to be a member of a Christian church; and so they come in by shoals after the loaves and fishes, but not after Jesus Christ. Ah! hypocrite, thou makest light of Christ if thou thinkest that He is a stalkinghorse to get thee wealth. If thou dreamest that thou art to saddle and bridle Christ, and ride to wealth upon Him, thou makest a grand mistake, for He was never meant to carry men anywhere except to heaven. If you suppose that religion was intended to gild your homes, to carpet your floors, and line your purses, you have greatly erred. It was intended to be profitable to the soul; and he who thinks to use religion to his own personal advantage thinks lightly of Christ: and at the last day this crime shall be laid to his charge-that he has made light of it; and the King shall send His armies to cut him in pieces, among those who have despised His Majesty, and would not obey His laws.

Oh! dear friends, if you once knew what a blessed Master Christ is, if you once knew what a blessed thing the gospel is, if you could once be brought to believe what a blessed God our God is, if you could only have one hour’s enjoyment such as the Christian experiences, if you could only have one promise applied to your heart, you would never make light of the gospel again. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0098.cfm