salvation

What is Your Liberty?

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

To the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. -Ephesians 1:6

Many people are honest because they are afraid of the policeman. Many are sober because they are afraid of the eye of the public. Many persons are seemingly religious because of their neighbours… I am bold to say, that if a man be destitute of the grace of God, his works are only works of slavery; he feels forced to do them. I know before I came into the liberty of the children of God, if I went to God’s house, I went because I thought I must do it; if I prayed, it was because I feared some misfortune would happen in the day if I did not; if I ever thanked God for a mercy, it was because I thought I should not get another if I were not thankful; if I performed a righteous deed, it was with the hope that very likely God would reward me at last, and I should be winning some crown in heaven…If I could have had my will, there would have been no chapel-going for me, no religion for me-I would have lived in the world and followed the ways of Satan, if I could have done as I pleased. As for righteousness, it was slavery; sin would have been my liberty. But now, Christian, what is your liberty?

“Love made your willing feet
In swift obedience move.”

Ah! ye poor bondsmen who come to church and chapel because ye must; ah! ye poor slavish moralists that are honest because of the gyves, and sober because of the prison; ah! ye poor slaves! We are not so; we are not under the law, but under grace…we are freed from the law, but we are freed from it that we may obey it more than ever we did. The true-born child of God serves his Master more than ever he did. As old Erskine says:-

“Slight now His loving presence if they can;
No, no; His conquering kindness leads the van.
When everlasting love exerts the sway,
They judge themselves most kindly bound to obey;
Bound by redeeming love in stricter sense,
Than ever Adam was in innocence.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0009.cfm

Free from the Power of Sin

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

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. -Romans 6:14

Every living man before he is converted, is a slave to lust. Profane men glory in free living and free thinking. They call this free living-a full glass, a Bacchanalian revel, shouting, wantonness, chambering.-Free living, sir! Let the slave hold up his fetters and jingle them in my ears, and say, “This is music, and I am free.” The man is a poor maniac. Let the man chained in his cell, the madman of Bethlehem, tell me he is a king, and grin a horrible smile; I say, “Ah, poor wretch, I know wherefore he counteth that he is a king; he is demented, and is mad.” So it is with the worldling who says he is free. Free sir! you are a slave. You think you are happy; but at night, when you lay yourself upon your bed, how many times have you tossed from side to side sleepless and ill at ease; and when you awaked have you not said, “Ah! that yesterday-that yesterday !” And though you plunged into another day of sin, that “yesterday,” like a hell-dog, barked at you, and followed at your heels. You know it, sir,-sin is a bondage and a slavery. And have you ever tried to get rid of that slavery? “Yes,” you say, “I have.” But I will tell you what has been the end of it. When you have tried, you have bound your fetters firmer than ever; you have riveted your chains…

A sinner without grace is a slave: he cannot deliver himself from his sins. But not so the Christian! Is he a slave to his sin? Is a true-born heir of God a slave? Oh, no. He does not sin, because he is born of God; he does not live in uncleanness, because he is an heir of immortality. Ye beggars of the earth may stoop to deeds of wrong, but princes of heaven’s blood must follow acts of right. Ye poor worldlings, mean and pitiful wretches in God’s sight–ye may live in dishonesty and unrighteousness, but the heir of heaven cannot; he loves his Lord; he is free from the power of sin; his work is righteousness, and his end is everlasting life. We are free from the dominion of sin. ~C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0009.cfm

I Stand Here Freed from Every Sin

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

And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. -Psalm 37:6

Ask for the sinner, Justice! Let the voice of Justice cry, “Bring forth the sinner!” The sinner is brought. Who doth the executioner lead forth? It is the incarnate Son of God. True, He did not commit the sin; He was without fault; but it is imputed to Him: He stands in the sinner’s place. Now Justice cries, “Bring forth the righteous, the perfectly righteous.” Whom do I see? Lo, the Church is brought; each believer is brought. Justice says, “Are these perfectly righteous?” “Yes they are. What Christ did is theirs; what they did is laid on Christ; His righteousness is theirs; their sins are His.” I appeal to you, ye ungodly. This seems strange and startling, does it not? …and you laugh at it. Set it down for what you please, sirs. God has set it up as His truth; He has made us righteous through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. And now, if I am a true believer, I stand here freed from every sin. There is not a crime against me in the book of God; it is blotted out for ever; it is cancelled; and not only can I never be punished, but I have nothing to be punished for. Christ has atoned for my sins, and I have received His righteousness.

“Saviour, if of Zion’s city,
I, by grace, a member am,
Let the world revile or pity,
I will glory in Thy name.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0009.cfm

 

There is Liberty from the Guilt of Sin

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

And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. -Romans 5:16

This is the wonder of wonders. The Christian is positively not guilty any longer the moment he believes. Now, if Her Majesty in her goodness spares a murderer by giving him a free pardon, that man cannot be punished: but still he will be a guilty man; she may give him a thousand pardons, and the law cannot touch him, but still he will be guilty; the crime will always be on his head, and he will be branded as a murderer as long as he lives. But the Christian is not only delivered from the bondage and from the punishment, but he is positively absolved from the guilt. Now this is something at which you will stand amazed. You say, “What? is a Christian no more a sinner in God’s sight ?” I answer, he is a sinner as considered in himself; but in the person of Christ he is no more a sinner than the angel Gabriel; for snowy as are angelic wings, and spotless as are cherubic robes, an angel cannot be more pure than the poor blood-washed sinner when he is made whiter than snow. Do you understand how it is that the very guilt of the sinner is taken away? Here I stand to-day a guilty and condemned traitor; Christ comes for my salvation, He bids me leave my cell, “I will stand where you are; I will be your substitute; I will be the sinner; all your guilt is to be imputed to Me; I will die for it, I will suffer for it; I will have your sins.” Then stripping Himself of His robes, He says, “There, put them on; you shall be considered as if you were Christ; you shall be the righteous one. I will take your place, you take Mine.” Then He casts around me a glorious robe of perfect righteousness; and when I behold it, I exclaim, “Strangely, my soul, art thou arrayed, with my elder brother’s garments on.” Jesus Christ’s crown is on my head, His spotless robes are round my loins, and His golden sandals are the shoes of my feet. And now is there any sin? The sin is on Christ; the righteousness is on me. ~C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0009.cfm

No Condemnation

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

There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.-Romans 8:1

Talk of the punishment of a believer! there is not such a thing. The afflictions of this mortal life are not punishments for sin to Christians; they are fatherly chastisements, and not the punishments of a judge. For me there is no hell; let it smoke and burn, if I am a believer I shall never have my portion there. For me there are no eternal racks, no torments, for if I am justified, I cannot be condemned. Jesus hath suffered the punishment in my stead, and God would be unjust if He were to punish me again; for Christ has suffered once, and satisfied justice for ever. When conscience tells me I am a sinner, I tell conscience I stand in Christ’s place, and Christ stands in mine. True, I am a sinner; but Christ died for sinners. True, I deserve punishment; but if my ransom died, will God ask for the debt twice? Impossible! He has cancelled it. There never was, and never shall be one believer in hell. We are free from punishment, and we never need quake on account of it. However horrible it may be- if it is eternal, as we know it is-it is nothing to us, for we never can suffer it. Heaven shall open its pearly portals to admit us; but hell’s iron gates are barred for ever against every believer. Glorious liberty of the children of God! ~C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0009.cfm

Liberty from the Penalty of Sin

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

He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be condemned.-Mark 16:16

Eternal death-torment for ever-that is the sad penalty of sin. It is no sweet thing to fear that if I died now I might be in hell. It is no pleasant thought for me to stand here and believe that if I dropped down I must sink into the arms of Satan and have him for my tormentor. Why, sirs, it is a thought that would plague me; it is a thought that would be the bitterest curse of my existence. I would fain be dead and rotting in the tomb rather than walk the earth with the thought that I might suffer such a penalty as this. There are some of you here who know right well that if you die hell is your portion. You don’t attempt to deny it; you believe the Bible, and there you read your doom, “He that believeth not shall be damned.” You cannot put yourselves among believers. You are still without Christ. Have any of you been brought into such a condition that you believe yourself so full of sin that God could not be just if He did not punish you? Have you not felt that you have so rebelled against God by secret crimes, ay, I say, by secret crimes, and by open transgression, that if He did not punish you He must cease to be God and lay aside His sceptre? And then you have trembled, and groaned, and cried out under the fear of the penalty of sin. You thought when you dreamed, that you saw that burning lake whose waves are fire, and whose billows are ever blazing brimstone; and each day you walked the earth it was with fear and dread lest the next step should let you into the pit which is without a bottom. But Christian, Christian, you are free from the penalty of sin. Do you know it? Can you recognize the fact? You are free at this moment from the penalty of sin. Not only are you forgiven, but you never can be punished on account of your sins however great and enormous they may have been.

“The moment a sinner believes,
And trusts in his crucified God;
His pardon at once he receives,
Salvation in full through His blood,”   

~C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0009.cfm

Set Free of the Heavy Burden

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

If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. -John 8:36

Ah! that moment when first the bondage (of sin) passed away! Methinks I recollect it now. I saw Jesus on His cross before me; I thought on Him, and as I mused upon His death and sufferings, methought I saw Him cast a look on me; and when He gazed on me, I looked at Him, and said,

“Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly.”

He said “come,” and I flew to Him and clasped Him; and when He let me go again, I wondered where my burden was. It was gone! There, in the sepulchre, it lay, and I felt light as air; like a winged sylph, I could fly over mountains of trouble and despair; and oh! what liberty and joy I had! I could leap with ecstasy for I had much forgiven, and now I was freed from sin.” Beloved, this is the first liberty of the children of God. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” from the bondage of sin. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0009.cfm