salvation

Sinner, Receive the Free Pardon

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

He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. -Job 33:27-28

This is a word of truth, gathered from the experience of a man of God, and it is tantamount to a promise. What the Lord has done, and is doing, He will continue to do while the world standeth. The Lord will receive into His bosom all who come to Him with a sincere confession of their sin; in fact, He is always on the lookout to discover any that are in trouble because of their faults.

Can we not endorse the language here used? Have we not sinned, sinned personally so as to say, “I have sinned”? Sinned willfully, having perverted that which is right? Sinned so as to discover that there is no profit in it but an eternal loss? Let us, then, go to God with this honest acknowledgment. He asks no more. We can do no less.

Let us plead His promise in the name of Jesus. He will deliver us from the pit of hell which yawns for us; He will grant us life and light. Why should we despair? Why should we even doubt? The Lord does not mock humble souls. He means what He says. The guilty can be forgiven. Those who deserve execution can receive free pardon. Lord, we confess, and we pray Thee to forgive! ~C.H. Spurgeon

http://bible.christiansunite.com/devotionals.shtml

Thou Shalt Sing Before His Face

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

Our God is the God of salvation; and to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death. -Psalm 68:20

“My dear friends, you who are not converted… God knoweth there are some of you that are on the road to hell; and do not suppose you will enter heaven, if you go hell’s road. Nobody would expect, if he proceeded to the north, to arrive at the south. Nay; God must change thine heart. By simple trust in Jesus, if thou givest thyself up to His mercy, even though the vilest of the vile, thou shalt sing before His face. And methinks, poor sinner, thou wilt say to me, as a poor woman did last Wednesday, after I had been preaching, when I believe everybody had been crying, from the least to the greatest, and even the preacher in the pulpit. As I went down, I said to one, “Are you chaff or wheat?” And she said, “Ah!I trembled tonight, sir.” I said to another, “Well, sister, I hope we shall be in Paradise soon.” And she replied, “You may, sir.” And I came to another, and said, “Well, do you think you will be gathered with the wheat?” And she answered, “One thing I can say-if God ever lets me get into heaven, I will praise Him with all my might. I will sing myself away, and shall never think I can sing loud enough.” It reminded me of what an old disciple once said: “If the Lord Jesus does but save me He shall never hear the last of it.” Let us praise God, then, eternally-

“While life, or thought, or being lasts,
Or immortality endures!”

But with my Lord I will now take my feast of loves. Oh, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Thou art heaven! I want nought else. I am lost in Thee!~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0043.cfm

Christians At the Jordan River

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

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. -Philippians 1:21

(L)et me tell you what Dr. Owen said-that celebrated prince of Calvinists…A friend called to tell Dr. Owen that he had put to press his “Meditations on the Glory of Christ.” There was a momentary gleam in his languid eye as he answered, “I am glad to hear it. Oh!” said he, “the long-wished for time has come at last, in which I shall see that glory in another manner than I have ever done, or was capable of doing in this world.”

George Herbert, after some severe struggles, and having requested his wife and nieces, who were weeping in extreme anguish, to leave the room, he committed his will to Mr. Woodnott’s care, crying out, “I am ready to die-Lord, forsake me not now, my strength faileth; but grant me mercy for the merits of my Lord Jesus. And now, Lord receive my soul.” Then he laid himself back and breathed out his life to God. Thus the poet dies. That glorious fancy of his, that might have pictured gloomy things if it had pleased, was only filled with rapturous sight of angels. As he used to say himself, “Methinks I hear the church bells of heaven ringing.” And methinks he did hear them when he came near the river Jordan.

(Missionary Brainard) said, “I am almost in eternity. I long to be there. My work is done. I have done with all my friends. All the world is now nothing to me. Oh, to be in heaven, to praise and glorify God with His holy angels.”…(said he) who counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and went among wild untutored Indians to preach the gospel.

…I never wish to have the choice given to me; but to die is the happiest thing man can have, because it is to lose anxiety, it is to slay care, it is to have the peculiar sleep of the beloved. To the Christian, then, death must be acceptable.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0043.cfm

We Shall Not All Sleep

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

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. -1 Thessalonians 4:17

“It is appointed unto all men once to die,” yet a time shall come when some Christian men shall not die at all. We know that had Adam never sinned he would not have died, for death is the punishment of sin, and we know that Enoch and Elijah were translated to heaven without dying. Therefore it does seem to follow, that death is not absolutely necessary for a Christian. And, moreover, we are told in Scripture, that there are some who shall be “alive and remain,” when Jesus Christ shall come; and the apostle says, “I tell you a mystery-we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” There shall be some who shall be found living, of whom the apostle says, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” We know that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom; but it is possible that they may be refined by some spiritual process, which shall preclude the necessity of dissolution. Oh! I have thought of that idea very much, and I have wondered whether it should not be possible that some of us might be in that happy number who shall not see death. Even if we are not, there is something very cheering in the thought: Christ did so conquer death that He not only delivers the lawful captive out of the prison, but He saves a band from the jaws of the monster, and leads them by his den unharmed! He not only resuscitates the dead, and puts new life into those that are slain by the fell scythe, but some He actually takes to heaven by a bye-road. He says to death-“Avaunt, thou monster! On these thou shalt never put thy hand! These are chosen men and women, and thy cold fingers shall never freeze the current of their soul. I am taking them straight to heaven without death. I will transport them in their bodies up to heaven without passing through thy gloomy portals, or having been captives in thy dreary land of shades.” How glorious is the thought, that Christ has vanquished death; that some men shall not die. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0043.cfm

Manifested Mystery of God

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

The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. -Nahum 1:3

The ways of God are hidden ones. Cowper did not say amiss when he sang,-

“He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.”

His footsteps cannot be seen, for, planted on the sea, the next wave washes them out; and placed in the storm, rioting as the air then is, every impression of His chariot wheels is soon erased. Look at God, and at whatever He has deigned to do, and you will always see Him to have been a hidden God. He has concealed Himself, and all His ways have been veiled in the strictest mystery. Consider His works of salvation. How did He hide Himself when He determined to save mankind? He did not manifestly reveal Himself to our forefathers. He gave them simply one dim lamp of prophecy which shone in words like these “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head;” and for four thousand years God concealed His Son in mystery, and no one understood what the Son of God was to be. The smoking incense beclouded their eyes, and while it showed something of Jesus, it did hide far more. The burning victim sent its smoke up towards the sky, and it was only through the dim mists of the sacrifice that the pious Jew could see the Saviour. Angels themselves, we are told, desired to look into the mysteries of redemption, yet though they stood with their eyes intently fixed upon it, until the hour when redemption developed itself on Cavalry, not a single angel could understand it. The profoundest sage might have sought to find out how God could be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly; but he would have failed in his investigations. The most intensely pious man might meditate, with the help of that portion of God’s Spirit which was then given to the prophets, on this mighty subject, and he could not have discovered what the mystery of godliness was- “God manifest in the flesh.” God marched in clouds, “He walked in the whirlwinds;” He did not deign to tell the world what He was about to do; for it is His plan to gird Himself in darkness, and “the clouds are the dust of His feet.” Ah! and so it always has been in Providence as well as grace. God never condescends to make things very plain to His creatures. He always does rightly; and therefore, He wants His people always to believe that He does rightly. But if He showed them that He did so, there would be no room for their faith.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0036.cfm

May Ye, Sinner, Never Know It!

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

And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. -Matthew 13:50

Should ye die Godless and Christless, a strong hand will seize you on your death-bed, and irresistibly you will be borne along through the vast expanse of ether, unknowing whither you are tending, but with the dread thought that you are in the hand of a demon, who with an iron hand is bearing you most swiftly on. Down he plungeth thee! Ah! what a fall were that my friends! to find yourselves there in that desperate land of torments! May you never know it! Words cannot tell you of it now. I can but just call up a few dread horrible emotions; I can but picture it in a few short rough words: may you never know it! Would ye wish to escape: there is but one door. Would ye be saved: there is but one way. Would ye find entrance into heaven and escape from hell: there is but one road. The road is this-“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.” To believe is to trust in Jesus. As an old divine used to say, “Faith is recumbency on Christ.” But it is too hard a word. He meant, faith is lying down on Christ. As a child lieth on its mother’s arms, so is faith; as the seaman trusteth to his bark, so is faith; as the old man leaneth on his staff, so is faith; as I may trust, there is faith. Faith is to trust. Trust in Jesus, He will ne’er deceive you:

“Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude;
None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.”

Thus may you escape that furnace of fire into which the wicked must be cast. God bless you all, for His name’s sake. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0035.cfm

Comfort for the Tried Ones

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

Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. -Daniel 3:25

Comfort thyself, thou tried one, with this thought: God saith, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” The fire is hot, but He has chosen me; the furnace burns, but He has chosen me; these coals are hot, the place I love not, but He has chosen me… Whatever (the fiery trial) is, I know that He has chosen me.

The next comfort is that you have the Son of Man with you in the furnace. In that silent bedchamber of yours, there sitteth by your side one whom thou hast not seen, but whom thou lovest; and ofttimes when thou knowest it not, He makes all thy bed in thy affliction, and smoothes thy pillow for thee. Thou art in poverty; but in that lonely house of thine that hath nought to cover its bare walls, where thou sleepest on a miserable pallet, dost thou know that the Lord of life and glory is a frequent visitor; He often treads those bare floors, and putting His hands upon those walls He consecrates them!…He loves to come into these desolate places that He may visit thee. The Son of Man is with thee, Christian. Thou canst not see Him, but thou mayest feel the pressure of His hands. Dost thou not hear His voice? It is the valley of the shadow of death: thou seest nothing; but He says, “Fear not, I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God.” …Fear not, Christian! thou carriest Jesus in the same boat with thee, and all His fortune! He is with thee in the same fire. The same fire that scorches thee, scorches Him. …Wilt thou not take hold of Jesus, then, and say-

“Through floods and flames, if Jesus lead,
I’ll follow where He goes.”

Feeling that you are safe in His hands, will you not laugh even death to scorn, and triumph over the sting of the grave, because Jesus Christ is with you? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0035.cfm