salvation

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

A Correct Verdict by the Lower Court

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

If our heart condemn us… -1 John 3:20

There are some persons whose hearts justly condemn them and the voice of conscience is, in them, the Voice of God. The echo of the Divine sentence, “Depart, you cursed,” is heard by them in the halls of conscience before the Voice of God has spoken it…Conscience is saying, “You will be driven, O Man, from the Presence of God!” Now, in this case, the court of conscience sits under the King’s arms with the marks of Divine Authority displayed above its head. And conscience sitting thus as a judge, judges rightly when it judges by the Word of God. Righteous judgment must not be according to man’s whim or fancy, but according to the supreme Law of God—and the verdict of conscience is worth nothing unless it is so formed. The charge against the culprits is that they have broken God’s Law and, in the case of many of them, that they have also rejected God’s mercy. They have offended against the Law and the Gospel!

There is many a man who has wished to believe a lie till he has believed it—and I think that a man who wishes to believe the Truth of God has the easier task of the two! May the ever-blessed Spirit lead you into a solemn conviction of the Truth as it is in Jesus!

If there is one here who says, “I do not believe in Jesus and I do not want to believe in Him,” may God have mercy upon that poor sinner and save him tonight—and God shall have the Glory both now and forever! Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons55.xxviii.html

The Verdict of the Highest Court

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

“For if our heart condemns, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” -1 John 3:20,21.

Friends, there is (a) class of persons…who…do lay the things of God to heart and they are constantly weighing themselves in the balances of conscience. They look within again and again—they are not afraid of heart-searching— indeed, they spend the most of their time in that stern occupation. Am I about to blame these friends? I must answer, “No and yes.” I will not blame them for what they do, for they do the right thing—but I shall blame them for what they leave undone! Namely this—they forget that the tribunal of conscience, though a very important one, is not the supreme court and that, although it is well to try matters before the heart to see whether it condemns or acquits, yet there is another court, far higher than the court of the human heart—”God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” There are some good Christian people who are always distressed because they never take their cases into the supreme court and, on the other hand, I fear that there are some ungodly professors who are always presumptuously at ease because they have been satisfied with the verdict of the lower court, which is very liable to err in its judgment—and so they have never presented their case before the great Judge who cannot by any means make a mistake.

Remember that there is salvation in Him. Whoever trusts Jesus Christ is saved! Whoever relies upon His finished work shall never come into condemnation and even though his heart may sometimes accuse him, Christ will clear him from all guilt through His own most precious blood. May this be the happy portion of each one of you here! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons55.xxviii.html