salvation

Christ’s Pledge

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

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him… – Matthew 20:18,19

Our Lord was forecasting His death in all its mournful details. Do you not know that frequently it is more painful to anticipate death than it is actually to die? Yet our Lord dwelt upon His sufferings, even to their minutiae…Our Lord was like a grain of wheat which is cast into the ground and lies there awhile before it dies. He was buried, as it were, in prospective agony; immersed in suffering, which He foresaw. In the thought of the cross He endured it before He felt the nails. The shadow of His death was upon Him before He reached the tree of doom. Yet He did not put away the thought but dwelt upon it as one who tastes a cup before he drinks it to the dregs. After so deliberate a testing, is it not all the more marvellous that He did not refuse the draught? Did He not remember His engagement to go through with our redemption? “Lo, I come”, said He: “in the volume of the Book it is written of Me.” He had pledged Himself by solemn covenant, and in the Book it was written that He would stand in our stead and give His life an offering for sin. From this suretiship He never departed. He knew that the Father would bruise Him and put Him to grief in the approaching day of His anger. He knew that the wicked would pierce His hands and His feet. He knew all that would occur, and He started not back from the pledge which He had given in the council chamber of eternity- that His life should be rendered up as a ransom for many. It were well if we also remembered our vows to God, and the obligations under which we are placed by His great love. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2212.cfm

The Plain Truth

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken. – Luke 18:34

They listened to this private talk, but we are told by Luke that it was very much lost upon them, because they did not understand Him. “And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.”…Numbers of people imagine that they understand mysteries, and yet the simplicities of the faith are hid from their eyes because they are gazing after abstruse doctrines. They search after difficult things and miss the plain truth. We groan as we wantonly dive into a profound abyss; and yet we stand confounded over a little transparent stream, which, to wade through, would bring us bliss. When our Lord told the twelve that He would die, they imagined that it was a parable, concealing some deep mystery. They looked at one another, and they tried to fathom where there was no depth, but where the truth lay on the surface. The deep things of God thousands will pry into; but yet these are not saving matters, nor are they of any great practical value. Fixed fate, free-will, predestination, prophecy, and the like, these have small bearings upon our salvation from sin; but in the death of our Lord lies the kernel of the matter. Beloved, when we try to commune with Jesus, let us wear the garments of simplicity. It is the serpent who trades in subtlety, but I would have you remember “the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus.” There is in Him a depth which we cannot fathom; but His every word is pure truth, and those things which are necessary are made so plain that he who runs may read, and he who reads may run. Believe Him to mean what He says, and take His promises as they stand, and His precepts in their plain meaning; and, oh, if we do this, we shall be made greatly wise! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2212.cfm

This is Our Lord Jesus Christ

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

…And shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him: and the third day He shall rise again. – Matthew 20:19

“The third day He shall rise again.” Oh, that blessed doctrine of the resurrection! If our Lord’s record ended at the cross, it might drive us to despair; but He is declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection from the dead. That He was raised from the dead makes us see the merit, the power, the great reward of His death. He that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, even He will make us perfect in every good work to do His will. Whenever the Master comes very near to us in His gracious condescension, He shows us not only that He shed His blood for us, but that He rose again, and ever liveth to carry on our cause. When you worship most closely, you will worship Him that lived, and died, and rose again, and now liveth for ever and ever. This is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not a teacher only, or a bright example merely; but the One whose death is the source of our salvation, and whose resurrection and eternal glory are the guarantee and foretaste of our everlasting bliss. A living, dying, risen Christ is the One with whom we have joyful fellowship; and if we know Him not in this character, we do not know Him at all. It was well for Him to speak to them on such a practical theme: they would be cheered and comforted on after days when they remembered that He had told them of these things. He will draw us into very intimate communion if we are willing to take up His cross and bear His reproach. We lose much when we quit the separated path because it is rough, for we lose our Lord’s sweet company. Oh, for grace to love the rough paths, because we see His footprints upon them! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2212.cfm

He is Lifted Up in Every Grateful Heart

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God 1 Comment

And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. – John 17:3

Beloved, our Lord Jesus has said many delightful things; and let Him say what He will, His voice is as angels’ music to our ear; but from the cross His voice is richest in consolation. We never come so near to Jesus-at least, such is my experience-as when we gaze upon His bloody sweat, or see Him robed in shame, crowned with thorns, and enthroned upon the cross. Our Lord’s incomparable beauties are most visible amid His griefs. When I see Him on the cross, I feel that I must borrow Pilate’s words, and cry, “Behold the man!” Covered with His own blood from the scourging, and about to be led away to be crucified between two thieves, you look into His inmost heart, and behold what manner of love He bore towards guilty men. We know not Christ till He putteth on His crimson garments. I know not my Beloved when He is only to me as the snow-white lily for purity; but when, in His wounding, He is red as the rose, then I perceive Him. “My Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.” A suffering Savior bears the palm for me: a wounded Savior is my Lord and my God. The lower He went for my redemption, the higher does He rise in my soul’s loving esteem. He saw this when He said, “I, if I be lifted up”; for indeed it was a lifting up for Him to die upon the cruel gibbet. To the wondering universe the Son of God is lifted to a height of wondering admiration, by His becoming obedient unto death, out of love to His chosen. He is lifted up in every grateful heart and shall be lifted up for ever. Our fellowship with Jesus largely flows along the great deep of His suffering; and to me, at least, it is then deepest, truest, and sweetest. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2212.cfm

The Prominent Badge of the Servant of God

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

And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. – Matthew 22:12

The man came in full exercise of self-will and self-love. He resolved to yield no homage, but to assert his independent self-sovereignty. He would show the king even at his table, where his bounties were so largely dispensed, that he was not afraid to affront him. When he came to the door of the feast, he found the guests all putting on the garment suitable for the marriage banquet…While others cheerfully put on this wedding dress the traitor would not; he resolved to defy the rules of the palace, and to insult the king by appearing in his own garments. He scorned to wear the livery of respectful joy, he preferred to make himself conspicuous by his daring insolence. Alas, how many are willing enough to receive gospel blessings, but they are still at enmity with God and have no delight in the only begotten Son. Such will dare to use the forms of godliness, and yet their hearts are full of rebellion against the Lord. The wedding garment represents anything which is indispensable to a Christian, but which the unrenewed heart is not willing to accept, anything which the Lord ordains to be a necessary attendant of salvation, against which selfishness rebels. Hence it may be said to be Christ’s righteousness imputed to us, for alas, many nominal Christians kick against the doctrine of justification by the righteousness of the Saviour and set up their own self-righteousness in opposition to it. To be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but having the righteousness, which is of God by faith, is a very prominent badge of a real servant of God, and to refuse it is to manifest opposition to the glory of God, and to the name, person, and work of His exalted Son. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0976.cfm

Our Sympathetic God

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

Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. – Matthew 22:4

The “guests were pressed very delicately, but still in a way which if they had possessed any generosity of heart at all, must have touched them. You see how the evangelist puts it, he does not say, “Come, or else you will miss the feast; come, or else the king will be angry; come, come, or else you will be the losers.” No, but-he puts it…”My dinner is ready, but there is no one to eat it; my oxen and fatlings are all killed, but there are no guests.” “Come, come,” he seems to say, “for I am a host without guests.” So sometimes in the gospel you will see God speaks as if He would represent Himself as getting an advantage by our being saved. Now we know that herein He condescends in love to speak after the manner of men. What can He gain by us? If we perish, what is He the loser? But He makes Himself often in the gospel to be like a father who yearns over his child, longing for him to come home. He makes Himself, the infinite God, turn beggar to His own creatures, and beseeches them to be reconciled. Wondrous stoop: for, like a chapman who sells his wares, He cries, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, let him come.” Do you observe how Christ, as He wept over Jerusalem, seems to weep for Himself as well as for them. “How often would I have gathered thy children together.”…Do you not feel, as it were, a sympathy with God when you see His gospel rejected? Shall the cross be lifted high, and none look to it? Shall Jesus die, and men not be saved by His death?…Great God, we come, we come right gladly, we come to participate of the bounties which Thou hast provided, and to glorify Jesus Christ by receiving as needy sinners that which Thy mercy has provided. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0975.cfm

The Amazing Love of God to Sinners

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

Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. – Acts 16:31

One of the best ways of bringing sinners to Christ is to explain the gospel to them. If we dwell upon its preparations, if we speak of its richness and freeness, some may be attracted whom the short message which merely tells the plan of salvation might not attract. To some it is enough to say, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” for they are asking, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” but others need to be attracted to the wedding feast by the description of the sumptuousness of the repast. We must try to preach the gospel more fully to you, but we shall never tell you of all the richness of the grace of God. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His thoughts above your thoughts, and His ways above your ways. Forsake your sins and your thoughts and turn to the Lord, for He will abundantly pardon you. He will receive you to His heart of love and give you the kiss of His affection at this hour, if, like prodigal children, you come back and seek your Father’s face. The gospel is a river of love, it is a sea of love, it is a heaven of love, it is a universe of love, it is all love. Words there are none, fully to set forth the amazing love of God to sinners, no sin too big or too black, no crime too crimson or too cursed for pardon. If you do but look to His dear crucified Son, all manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven you. There is forgiveness. Jesus gives repentance and remission. And then the happiness which will be brought to you here and hereafter are equally beyond description. You shall have heaven on earth and heaven in heaven… Here is God to be our helper, His Son to be our Shepherd, the Spirit to be our instructor. Here is the love of the Father to be our delight, the blood of the Son to be our cleansing, the energy of the Holy Spirit to be life from the dead to us…God shall be your God, Christ shall be your friend, and eternal bliss shall be your portion. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0975.cfm