salvation

Answering to the Righteous Judgment of God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, confession of sin, prayer, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God, the unbelieving life Leave a comment

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds. – Romans 2:5,6

When we offend a man, if we are right-minded, we not only note the fact with regret, but we sit down and weigh the matter and seek to rectify it; for we would not be unjust to any person, and if we felt that we had been acting unfairly it would press upon our minds until we could make amends. But are there not some of you who have never given half an hour’s consideration to your relation to your God? He has spared you all this while, and yet it has never occurred to you to enter into your chamber and sit down and consider your conduct towards Him. It would seem to be too much trouble even to think of your Creator. His longsuffering leads you to repentance, but you have not repented; in fact, you have not thought it worth your while to consider the question at all: you have thought it far more important to enquire, “What shall I eat and what shall I drink?” Bread and broadcloth have shut out the thought of God. Thou think that God is altogether such an one as thyself, and that He will wink at thy transgression and cover up thy sin; but thou shalt not find it so. That base thought proves that thou despisest His longsuffering. Ah me, you will stand at His judgment bar before long-and then? Perhaps ere this week is finished you may have to answer, not to me, but unto Him that sits upon the throne; therefore, I do implore you now, for the first time give this matter thought. Despise no longer the goodness and longsuffering of God…Will you not care about the saving of your own souls? Oh, strange infatuation-that men will not consent to be themselves saved; but foolishly, madly, hold out against the mercy of God which leads them to repentance. Oh, that hearts may be touched with pity for their slighted Saviour, that they may seek His face! Here is the way of salvation: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” ~ C. H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1714.cfm

The Blood Heat of Christ’s Love

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh… – Romans 9:1-3

I wish all felt it, but there are generally some in every church who will never warm up to the right point. If we could once get the whole Church up to blood heat, we might be content. I never want you to get to fever heat, but to blood heat—the heat of the blood of Christ—to love as He loved! Oh, to get there and to stay there! Well, what would be the result, if we all felt as Paul did? The first effect would be likeness to Christ! After that manner He loved—He did become a curse for us! He entered under the awful shadow of Jehovah’s wrath for us. He did what Paul could wish but could not do. He passed under the awful sword that we might be delivered from its edge forever!

Brethren, I want you to feel that you would pass under poverty if you could save souls better by being poor! That you would gladly endure sickness if from your sick bed you could speak better for Christ than now! Yes, and that you would be ready to die if your death might give life to those dear to you! …Oh, to be willing to die if others may be saved from the eternal death! God give us just such a spirit as that! This should be our constant feeling—how else can we become like Christ? …When the Spirit of God has brought you to it, you will pray day and night for those whom you love! As you go down the road, something will suggest your praying for them. The very oaths and blasphemies so common in our streets will make you pray for sinners. A gracious meeting where some are saved will move you to prayer. A thousand things will lead you to pray, and that prayer will lead you to effort—to proper and fitting effort. It is wonderful how a man can talk to souls when he loves them! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1425.cfm

Our Deep Love for the Lost Souls

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. – Romans 9:2

Our concern for souls must be worked in us by the Holy Spirit. It must come irresistibly upon us and become a master passion. Just as the birds, when the eggs are in the nest, have upon them a natural feeling that they must sit on those eggs and that they must feed those little fledglings which will come from the eggs—so if God calls you to win souls, you will have a natural love for them, a longing worked in you by the Holy Spirit so that the whole of your being will run out in that direction, seeking the salvation of men. The Apostle goes on to say that he had great heaviness—not only heaviness, but great heaviness. Was he, therefore, an unhappy man? By no means! He had great joy in other things, though he had great heaviness on this point…Whenever Paul’s thoughts turned towards his Jewish brethren, a great heaviness came upon him. It bore him down and he would have sunk under it if it had not been for sustaining grace. “O God,” he said, “shall my nation perish? Shall my people die? Shall my kinsmen be anathema? Shall it come to this, that they shall hear the Gospel in vain and perish, after all?” …He thought of his brethren and their unbelief—and then he thought of how they had been the enemies of Christ and, therefore, sorrow filled his heart. I could wish that in full many a professor the same sorrow reigned, for then there would be much more holy work done for souls! …Let other men’s sins grieve you! Let their eternal destiny be often on your mind! No better spur can be needed. You will labor for their good in proportion as you feel for them. I do not think that I can ask a better thing for the unconverted than that the converted may be in heaviness over them! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1425.cfm

The Plainly Written Truth of God

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

 …who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. – Romans 9:4,5

“Israel is my first-born,” says God…They had the first hold of all the spiritual gifts which the Lord bestowed upon the sons of men. They had, as it were, a monopoly of Light and Truth among them. The Jewish people had been singularly favored—they had seen God revealing His Son to them by types, by priests, by sacrifices, by the temple, by a thousand signs and marks. Verily the kingdom of God had come very near to them. But the privileges of the Jews were not greater than the privileges of men and women who hear the Gospel in these days, for Christ is not so well seen in bleeding bulls and rams and hyssop and scarlet wool as He is seen in the preaching of the Gospel! In the Gospel, God has torn the veil and made bare His heart to us in the Person of His dying Son.

You have no longer to search for the mind of God by mysterious hieroglyphs—it is written in plain letters and the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein! You have but to hear it and with the exercise of an ordinary understanding, the letter of its meaning may be comprehended. And if there is a willing heart, no matter how small the capacity of the mind, there is intellect enough to receive the saving Truth of God! You do not now live in the moonlight of the Jewish dispensation, but you bask in the noontide sunlight of the Truth of God! God, who spoke to our fathers by the Prophets, has, in these last days, spoken to us by His Son who is the express image of His Person and the brightness of His Glory! “See that you refuse not Him that speaks.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1425.cfm

Plead for the Unsaved Nearest to You

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

For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites… – Romans 9:3,4

These people for whom Paul was in so much concern were his kinsfolk according to the flesh. It is well said that charity must begin at home, for he that does not care for his own household is worse than a heathen and a publican. He who does not desire the salvation of those who are his own kin, “how dwells the love of God in him?” Christianity is expansive—it makes the bosom glow with love to all that God has made—but, at the same time, our love does not expand so as to lose force, and this is seen when it turns its power towards those who are nearest home. Is your husband unsaved? O Woman, love him to Christ! Is your child unconverted? O Parent, pray that child to Christ! Are your neighbors still out of Christ? Lay them on your heart as an intercessor before God on their account—and cease not to plead till they are saved!

We may regard those for whom he prayed, in the next light, as persons of great privileges—a very important point. They had privileges by birth— “who are Israelites.” Many of you are highly favored. You are not Israelites, but you are the children of godly parents which is much the same thing…You have the privilege of being born in the midst of holy and gracious influences—an advantage not to be despised. If there are any people we ought to pray for above others, it seems to me they are the unconverted who live in the light but will not see—who have the bread of Heaven upon the table before them but will not eat—who have Free Grace and dying love sounding in their ears, but yet refuse the wondrous message of Grace! Beloved, let us not rest unless we feel a deep concern for those who stand on a par with Israelites, since they have the privilege of being born under a Christian roof. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1425.cfm

Paul’s Conversion and His New Passion

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

“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsman according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”- Romans 9:1-5

Our first thought, after reading this passage, is, what a wonderfully tender and loving preacher Paul must have been. One of the early fathers was known to say that he wished he could have seen Solomon’s temple in its glory, Rome in its prosperity and Paul preaching! I think the last the grandest sight of the three! Oh, to have heard him speak! It might have shamed us into deeper tones of earnestness. Though, I suppose, his oratory was not very astonishing as mere rhetoric, for some said his speech was contemptible, yet it must have been wonderfully powerful upon the heart, for it abounded in sighs and tears and other tokens of evident emotion! Besides, his awful intensity of look and tone must have made his discourses irresistible! He would never have written as he has done in his Epistles if he had been one who could speak with icicles hanging about his lips. He must have spoken from a burning heart which shot forth red-hot bolts of fiery words! He poured his language out like lava from a volcano from the flaming furnace of his soul! His sentences burned their way into the hearts of those who heard him! Brother, if you are called to preach the Gospel, let Paul be your model! I reckon that we never preach aright unless we pour out our inmost soul! And unless we long and hunger and thirst for the conversion of our hearers, we might as well be in bed and asleep! We shall teach them to be indifferent if we, ourselves, are indifferent…. Commend me to the eloquence of Paul and to the oratory of his Master, for Paul was a great preacher because he caught his Master’s spirit and spoke in the manner of Him of whom they said of old, “Never man spoke like this Man.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1425.cfm

A Heart Changed

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

“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsman according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”- Romans 9:1-5

What an intense man Paul was! Once convince him and his whole nature moved in the direction which he judged to be right. He was whole-hearted when he persecuted the Church of God and he was equally whole-hearted when, afterwards, he labored with all his might to build up the Church which he had sought to destroy! What a change was worked in Saul of Tarsus, that he who was so ardent a persecutor should become so fervent a preacher! His conversion is one of the proofs of the Divinity of Christianity. When you remember what he was by nature, you will marvel at the extraordinary change of thought and feeling which was worked in him! He who was cruel to the saints, who gave his voice against Stephen and held the garments of those that stoned him, became tenderhearted as a nurse towards her child! Though his Jewish brethren terribly persecuted him and pursued him from city to city, there is not a trace of resentment in any word he writes! Rather, he is full of gentleness. The lion had become a lamb and he that breathed out threats breathed out prayers! He who seemed to burn with enmity became a flame of love! I would to God we were all as thorough-going in the service of our Lord! The pity is that so many professing Christians appear to have no heart, while others borrow a heart for some occasions but do not seem to keep one permanently beating in their own bosoms. O for a warm, engine-like heart all consecrated and forever pulsing mightily! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1425.cfm