salvation

Sinner, Come Now to Christ

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, prayer, promises, salvation 4 Comments

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

Some of you are speeding your way to hell blindfolded…I do not deceive you, you are going to perdition as fast as time can carry you. Some of you are deceiving yourselves with the thought that you are righteous, and you are not so. Many of you have had solemn warnings, and have never been moved by them…Hundreds of you are without God, and without Christ, …and may I not plead with you?…Why, poor hearts, do you know your sad condition? Do you know that “God is angry with the wicked every day;” that “the way of transgressors is hard;” that “he that believeth not is condemned already?” Has it never been told you that “he that believeth not shall be damned? “and can you stand damnation? My hearers could you make your bed in hell? Could you lie down in the pit? Do you think it would be an easy portion for your souls to be rocked on waves of flames for ever, and to be tossed about with demons in the place where hope cannot come? You may smile now, but you will not smile soon. God sends me as an ambassador now; but if ye listen not to me, He will not send an ambassador next time, but an executioner. There will be no wooing words of mercy soon: the only exhortation thou wilt hear will be the dull cold voice of death, that shall say, “Come with me.” Then thou wilt not be in the place where we sing God’s praises, and where righteous prayers are daily offered. The only music thou wilt hear will be the sighs of the damned, the shrieks of fiends, and the yellings of the tormented. O may God in His mercy snatch you as brands from the fire, to be trophies of His grace throughout eternity. The way to be saved is to “renounce thy works and ways with grief,” and fly to Jesus…If thou will confess that thou art a sinner, that is all God requires of thee, and even that He gives thee. Jesus Christ says “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Do you hear His wooing words? Will ye turn from His sweet looks of mercy? Has His cross no influence? have His wounds no power to bring you to His feet?

…If thou wilt with thine heart believe, and with thy mouth confess the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved, for “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

The Forgotten Backslider

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

My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back…James 5:19

(H)e who is the means of the conversion of a sinner does, under God, “save a soul from death, and bide a multitude of sins,” but particular attention ought to be paid to backsliders; for in bringing backsliders into the church there is as much honor to God as in bringing in sinners. “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him.” Alas! the poor backslider is often the most forgotten. A member of the church has disgraced his profession, the church excommunicated him, and he was accounted “a heathen man and a publican.” …Now-a-days it is the fashion, if a man falls, to have nothing to do with him. Men say, “he is a bad fellow, we will not go after him.” Beloved, suppose he is the worst, is not that the reason why you should go most after him? Suppose he never was a child of God-suppose he never knew the truth, is not that the greater reason why you should go after him? I do not understand your mawkish modesty, your excessive pride, that won’t let you go after the chief of sinners. The worse the case, the more is the reason why we should go. But suppose the man is a child of God, and you have cast him off-remember, he is your brother; he is one with Christ as much as you are; he is justified, he has the same righteousness that you have; and if, when he has sinned, you despise him, in that you despise him you despise his Master. Take heed! thou thyself mayest be tempted, and mayest one day fall. Like David, thou mayest walk on the top of thine house rather too high, and thou mayest see something which shall bring thee to sin. Then what wilt thou say, if then the brethren pass thee by with a sneer, and take no notice of thee? Oh! if we have one backslider connected with our church, let us take special care of him. Don’t deal hardly with him. Recollect you would have been a backslider too if it were not for the grace of God. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

 

 

This Sacred Enterprise

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation 4 Comments

…he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:20

How many have been converted by the example of true Christians. Many of you feel that you cannot write or preach, and you think you can do nothing. Well, there is one thing you can do for your Master; you can live Christianity. I think there are more people who look at the new life in Christ written out in you, than they will in the old life that is written in the Scriptures. An infidel will use arguments to disprove the Bible, if you set it before him; but, if you do to others as you would that they should do to you, if you give of your bread to the poor and disperse to the needy, living like Jesus, speaking words of kindness and love, and living honestly and uprightly in the world, he will say, “Well, I thought the Bible was all hypocrisy; but I cannot think so now, because there is Mr. So-and-so, see how he lives. I could believe my infidelity if it were not for him. The Bible certainly has an effect upon his life, and therefore I must believe it.”

…Oh! men and women, how can ye better spend your time and wealth than in the cause of the Redeemer? What holier enterprise can ye engage in than this sacred one of saving souls from death, and hiding a multitude of sins? This is a wealth that ye can take with you; the wealth that has been acquired under God, by having saved souls from death, and covered a multitude of sins. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

The Choicest Happiness

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

Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”- James 5:20

The choicest happiness which mortal breast can know is the happiness of benevolence; of doing good to our fellow-creatures. To save a body from death is that which gives us almost heaven on earth. Some men can boast that they have sent so many souls to perdition; that they have hurled many of their fellows out of the world. We meet, now and then, a soldier who can glory that, in battle, he struck down so many foemen; that his swift and cruel sword reached the heart of so many of his enemies; but I count not that glory… To me it would be the very portal of hell, if I could think I had been a destroyer of my fellow-creatures. But what bliss is it to be the instrument of saving bodies from death!

…But ah! brethren, the body which was saved from death to-day may die to-morrow. Not so the soul that is saved from death: it is saved everlastingly. It is saved beyond the fear of destruction. And if there be joy in the breast of a benevolent man when he saves a body from death, how much more blessed must he be when he is made the means in the hand of God of saving “a soul from death, and hiding a multitude of sins.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

God Will Be Glorified

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

Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God…Revelation 19:1

For what is the end of the gospel ministry? Some will say it is to convert sinners. That is a collateral end. Others will say it is to convert the saints. That is true. But the proper answer to give is that it is to glorify God, and, God is glorified even in the damnation of sinners. If I testify to them the truth of God and they reject His gospel; if I faithfully preach His truth, and they scorn it, my ministry is not therefore void. It has not returned to God void, for even in the punishment of those rebels He will be glorified, even in their destruction He will get Himself honor; and if He cannot get praise from their songs, He will at last get honor from their condemnation and overthrow, when He shall cast them into the fire for ever. The true motive for which we should always labor, is the glory of God in the conversion of souls; and building up of God’s people; but let us never lose sight of the great end. Let God be glorified; and He will be if we preach His truth faithfully and honestly. So, therefore, while we should seek for souls, if God denies them unto us, let us not say, “I will not have other mercies that He has given;” but let us comfort ourselves with the thought that, though they be not saved, though Israel be not gathered in, God will glorify and honor us at last… Glory and honor, praise and power, be unto God, that He thus honors His people. But when He exalts us most, we will still conclude with, “Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy name be all the glory for ever and ever.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

God’s Use of Men

Sherry Attributes of God, Christian Life, salvation 3 Comments

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God…that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
 – 1 Peter 4:10,11

One would think, perhaps, at first sight, that it would reflect more glory to God, if He effected all conversions Himself, without the use of men; but that is a great mistake. It is as honorable to God to convert by means of Christians and others, as it would be if He should effect it alone. Suppose a workman has power and skill with his hands alone to fashion a certain article, but you put into his hands the worst of tools you can find; you know he can do it well with his hands, but these tools are so badly made, that they will be the greatest impediment you could lay in his way. Well now, I say, if a man with these bad instruments, or these poor tools-things without edges-that are broken, that are weak and frail, is able to make some beauteous fabric, he has more credit from the use of those tools, than he would have had if he had done it simply with his hands because the tools, so far from being an advantage, were a disadvantage to him; so far from being a help are, of my supposition, even a detriment to him in his work. So with regard to human instrumentality. So far from being any assistance to God, we are all hindrances to Him. What is a minister? He is made by God a means of salvation, but it is a wonderful thing that any one so faulty, so imperfect so little skilled, should yet be blessed of God to bringing forth children for the Lord Jesus.  God in His mercy does more than make Christians without means; He takes bad means to make good men with, and so He even reflects credit on Himself because His instruments are all of them such poor things. They are all such earthen vessels, that they do but set of the glory of the gold which they hold, like the foil that setteth forth the jewel, or like the dark spot in the painting that makes the light more brilliant; and yet the dark spot and the foil are not in themselves costly or valuable. So God uses instruments to set forth His own glory; and to exalt Himself.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm

Let Us Prize the Salvation of Other People

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit 5 Comments

“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth; and one convert him; Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”- James 5:19-20

The true believer is always pleased to hear of anything which concerns the salvation of his own soul. He rejoices to hear of the covenant plan drawn up for him from all eternity, of the great fulfillment on the cross at Calvary, of all the stipulations of the Saviour, of the application of them by the Holy Spirit, of the security which the believer has in the person of Christ, and of those gifts and graces which accompany salvation to all those who are heirs thereof: But I feel certain that, deeply pleased as we are when we hear of things touching our own salvation and deliverance from hell, we, as preachers of God, and as new creatures in Christ, being made like unto Him, have true benevolence of spirit, and therefore are always delighted when we hear, speak, or think, concerning the salvation of others. Next to our own salvation, I am sure, as Christians, we shall always prize the salvation of other people; we shall always desire that what has been so sweet to our own taste, may also be tasted by others; and what has been of so inestimably precious a value to our own souls, may also become the property of all those whom God may please to call unto everlasting life. I am sure, beloved,…you will take as deep an interest in it as if it were something that immediately concerned your own souls, for, after all, such were some of you once. You were unconverted and ungodly; and had not God taken thought for you, and set His people to strive for your souls, where had you been? Seek, then, to exercise that charity and benevolence towards others which God and God’s people first exercised towards you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0045.cfm