salvation

Coming to God

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, salvation 4 Comments

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. -Hebrews 4:2

Coming to God is not what some of you suppose; now and then sincerely performing an act of devotion, but giving to the world the greater part of your life. You think that if sometimes you are sincere, if now and then you put up an earnest cry to heaven, God will accept you; and though your life may be still worldly, and your desires still carnal, you suppose that for the sake of this occasional devotion God will be pleased, in His infinite mercy, to blot out your sins. I tell you, sinners, there is no such thing as bringing half of yourselves to God, and leaving the other half away…I think I hear one say, “Well, then, tell us what it is to come to God.” I answer, coming to God implies leaving something else. If a man comes to God, he must leave his sins; he must leave his righteousness; he must leave both his bad works and his good ones, and come to God, leaving them entirely.

Again, coming to God implies, there is no aversion towards Him; for a man will not come to God while he hates God; he will be sure to keep away. Coming to God signifies having some love to God. Again, coming to God signifies desiring God, desiring to be near to Him. And, above all, it signifies praying to God and putting faith in Him. This is coming to God and those that have come to God in that fashion are among the saved. They come to God, that is the place to which their eager spirits hasten. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0084.cfm

Where Salvation is Found

Sherry Attributes of God, promises, salvation 3 Comments

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. -John 5:35

I read nothing of salvation in creation. The rocks tell me, “Salvation is not in us;” the winds howl, but they howl not salvation: the waves rush upon the shore, but among the wrecks which they wash up, they reveal no trace of salvation; the fathomless caves of the ocean bear pearls, but they bear no pearls of grace; the starry heavens have their flashing meteors, but they have no voices of salvation. I find salvation written nowhere, till in this volume of my Father’s grace I find His blessed love unfolded towards the great human family, teaching them that they are lost, but that He can save them, and that in saving them He can be “just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly.” Salvation, then, is to be found in the Scriptures, and in the Scriptures only; for we can read nothing of it elsewhere. And while it is to be found only in Scripture, I hold that the peculiar doctrine of revelation is salvation. I believe that the Bible was sent not to teach me history, but to teach me grace; not to give me a system of philosophy, but to give me a system of divinity; not to teach worldly wisdom, but spiritual wisdom. Hence I hold all preaching of philosophy and science in the pulpit to be altogether out of place. I would check no man’s liberty in this matter, for God only is the Judge of man’s conscience; but it is my firm opinion that if we profess to be Christians, we are bound to keep to Christianity; if we profess to be Christian ministers, we drivel away the Sabbath-day, we mock our hearers, we insult God, if we deliver lectures upon botany, or geology, instead of delivering sermons on salvation. He who does not always preach the gospel ought not to be accounted a true-called minister of God.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0084.cfm

Fall Not Out by the Way

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

So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. -Genesis 45:24

We indeed ought to have peace amongst ourselves. Joseph said to his brethren when they were going home to his father’s house, “See that ye fall not out by the way.” There was something extremely beautiful in that exhortation. “See that ye fall not out by the way.” Ye have all one father, ye are of one family. Let men of two nations disagree; but you are of the seed of Israel, you are of one tribe and nation; your home is in one heaven. “See that ye fall not out by the way.” The way is rough; there are enemies to stop you. See that if ye fall out when ye get home, ye do not fall out by the way.  Keep together; stand by one another, defend each other’s character, manifest continual affection, for recollect you will want it all. The world hateth you because you are not of the world. Oh! you must take care that you love one another. You are all going to the same house. You may disagree here, and not speak to one another, and be almost ashamed to sit at the same table even at the sacrament; but you will all have to sit together in heaven. Therefore do not fall out by the way. Consider, again, the great mercies you have all shared together. You are all pardoned, you are all accepted, elected, justified, sanctified, and adopted. See that ye fall not out when ye have so many mercies, when God has given you so much. Joseph has filled your sacks, but if he has put some extra thing into Benjamin’s sack, do not quarrel with Benjamin about that, but rather rejoice because your sacks are full. You have all got enough, you are all secure, you have all been dismissed with a blessing, and, therefore, I say once more, “See that ye fall not out by the way.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0049.cfm

The Restorer of Peace

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

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel. -Genesis 3:15

God is the great Peacemaker; and thus He is indeed the God of peace. When Satan fell, there was war in heaven. God made peace there, for He smote Satan and cast him and all his rebel hosts into eternal fire. He made peace by His might and power and majesty, for He drove him out of heaven, and expelled him by His flaming brand, never again to pollute the sacred floor of bliss, and never more to endanger Paradise by misleading his peers in heaven. So He made peace in heaven by His power. But when man fell, God made peace not by His power, but by His mercy. Man transgresses. Poor man! Mark how God goes after him to make peace with him!…Through the covenant He made with Jesus Christ from all eternity, God’s people were at peace with God. Although God saw that man shall fall; though He foresaw that His elect would with the rest depart from rectitude, and become His enemies, yet He did long before the fall draw up a covenant with Jesus, wherein Jesus stipulated that He would pay the debts of all His people, and the Father on their behalf did actually and positively forgive their sins, and justify their persons, take away their guilt, acquit them, accept and receive them unto peace with Him… Jesus was not our ambassador merely, but He was our peace; not the maker of peace merely, but our peace; and since there was a Christ before all worlds, there was peace before all worlds. Since there always will be a Christ, so there always will be peace between God and all those interested in the covenant. Oh, if we can but feel we are in the covenant, if we know we are numbered with the chosen race, and purchased with redeeming blood, then we can rejoice, because God has been to us the Restorer of breaches, the Builder of cities to dwell in, and hath given us peace which once we lost; He is the Restorer of peace.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0049.cfm

Returning to God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Father, The Holy Spirit 4 Comments

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. -Hebrews 12:2

This generation hath gradually, and almost imperceptibly, become to a great extent a godless generation. One of the diseases of the present generation of mankind, is their secret, but deep-seated, godlessness by which they have so far departed from the knowledge of God. Science has discovered to us second causes; and hence, many have too much forgotten the first Great Cause, the Author of all: they have been able so far to pry into secrets, that the great axiom of the existence of a God, has been too much neglected. Even among professing Christians, while there is a great amount of religion, there is too little godliness: there is much external formalism, but too little inward acknowledgment of God, too little living on God, living with God, and relying upon God. Hence arises the sad fact that when you enter many of our places of worship you will certainly hear the name of God mentioned; but except in the benediction, you would scarcely know there was a Trinity. In many places dedicated to Jehovah the name of Jesus is too often kept in the background; the Holy Spirit is almost entirely neglected; and very little is said concerning His sacred influence. Even religious men have become to a large degree godless in this age. We sadly require more preaching regarding God; more preaching of those things which look not so much at the creature to be saved, as at God the Great One to be extolled. My firm conviction is, that in proportion as we have more regard for the sacred godhead, the wondrous Trinity in Unity, shall we see a greater display of God’s power, and a more glorious manifestation of His might in our churches. May God send us a Christ-exalting, Spirit-loving ministry-men who shall proclaim God the Holy Ghost in all His offices and shall extol God the Saviour as the author and finisher of our faith, not neglecting that Great God, the Father of His people, who, before all worlds, elected us in Christ His Son, justified us through His righteousness, and will inevitably preserve us and gather us together in one, in the consummation of all things at the last great day.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0050.cfm

 

God Sanctifies Your Spirit

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

Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. -John 17:17

The best proof I can give you of the holy tendency of our doctrines is this great fact, that in every age those who have held the doctrines of grace have exhibited in their lives a holy walk and conversation…And we have told you that the Holy Ghost gives a new heart, and a right spirit, and that there is something more required than you can do yourselves; that you are unable to perform such good things as God expects from you, therefore God the Spirit must renovate you.

“Except ye have the spirit of Christ, ye are none of His.” Except ye live like Christ, ye shall not be with Christ at last; if your spirit be not sanctified in this world, you will not find that God will sanctify you when you come before His throne. But you, poor sinners, who have no holiness of your own, and no good works at all; I know you have not any, because you are not a child of God. Do you feel that you have not? Come then, and Christ will give you some: He will give you Himself. If you believe on the Lord Jesus, He will wash you from all your sins, give you a new heart, and henceforth your life shall be holy, your conduct shall be consistent, He shall keep you to the end, and you shall most assuredly be saved. God bless this testimony to any such as are living in sin, that they may be reclaimed from it; for Christ’s sake! Amen.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0070.cfm

The Origin of Good Works

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

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us…-Romans 12:6

It is an old maxim, that nature can never rise above itself. Water, coming from the top of a hill, will rise as high as its source; but unless there is some extraordinary pressure put upon it, it will never rise higher. So of human nature, Scripture says it is exceedingly vile; we cannot expect good works out of an evil nature…We must not look for good works in an evil nature any more than we should look for the grapes of Sorek on the vines of Gomorrah. We cannot expect to find good works coming from nature; truly it is vain and idle to think that good works can arise from the natural man. “Where, then,” you ask, “do they come from?” We answer, good works come from a real conversion, brought about by the Spirit of God. Until our conversion, there is not the shadow of goodness about us. In the eye of the world we may be reputable and respectable, but in the eye of God we are nothing of the sort… When once the human heart is put under the microscope of Scripture, and we see it with a spiritual eye, we see it to be so vile and filthy, that we are quite sure that until we have a new heart and a right spirit, it would be just as impossible to expect to find good works in an unrighteous, unconverted man, as to hope to see fire burning in the midst of the ocean. The two things would be incongruous. Our good works, if we have any, spring from a real conversion; yet more, they spring also from a constant spiritual influence exercised upon us, from the time of conversion even until the hour of death. Ah! Christian, thou wouldst have no good works if thou hadst no fresh influence day by day. Thou wouldst not find the grace given thee at the first hour sufficient to produce fruit to-day…Good works, I know whence you come! Ye come floating down on the stream of grace, and if I did not have that stream of grace always flowing, I should never find good works coming from me. Good works from the creature? Impossible! Good works are the gifts of God, His choice pearls, which He sendeth down with His grace.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0070.cfm