salvation

The Age of Gold is Yet to Come

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

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven… – Eccliastes3:1

We frequently hear the question discussed as to which are the best times. Some are perpetually singing the praises of the “good old times;” though, if one reads the page of history, it does not appear that the old times deserve any very special praise, unless oppression, ignorance, persecution, and abundant suffering deserve to be the theme of song. It is the common habit of the fathers, with tears in their eyes, to say, “The former days were better than these,” but we have the wisdom of Solomon on our side when we tell them they do not enquire wisely concerning this. “Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10.) Others there be who are always boasting of the present eventful period. There was none like it: this is the era of invention and of progress, the age of liberty and of light, when slavery must cast away her fetters, and superstition must hide herself among her congenial associates, the moles and bats. But I cannot perceive that this century is so much the age of gold as to need any very enthusiastic praises. Its greatest virtues are counterbalanced by greater sins; and the progress which has been made towards liberty, has scarcely kept pace with its advance towards licentiousness: the barriers have been broken down, it is true, but in some places the bulwarks have fallen too. Many there be who with bright eyes are looking forward to the future, and their declaration is, that the “good time is coming,” if we but “wait a little longer;” if we will but look ahead, till this beast shall have been slain, that vial shall have been poured out, and the other seal shall have been broken, then it is that we shall arrive at halcyon times. We agree with these watchful waiters: the age of gold is yet to come; the Advent is the world’s best and brightest hope, insomuch that every lover of his kind, may importunately cry out, “Come quickly; yea, come quickly, Lord Jesus.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0603.cfm

If You Would Be Saved…

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, confession of sin, promises, repentance, salvation, Sovereignty of God 2 Comments

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. – James 4:7,8

Submit thyself to the Word of God. Believe it to be true. Believing it to be true, yield thyself to its force. Does it accuse thee? Confess the accusation. Does it condemn thee? Plead guilty. Does it hold out hope to thee? Grasp it. Does it command thee? Obey it. Does it guide thee? Follow it. Does it cheer thee? Believe it. Submit thyself to Him who proclaims Himself the Savior of all such as will throw down the weapons of their rebellion and end their futile war by relying upon His power to save them…God speaks often to men through the still small voice of conscience. Open thine ear, then, and listen. Thy conscience can do thee no hurt; it may disturb thee, but it is well to be disturbed when peace leads on to death. He was a fool who killed the watch dog because it alarmed him when thieves were breaking into his house. If conscience upbraid thee, feel its upbraiding and heed its rebuke. It is thy best friend; faithful are its friendly wounds, but the kisses of a flattering enemy are deceitful.

“He that confesseth his sin shall find mercy.” Sinner, choose between one of two things; judge yourself, or be judged of God. If you will judge yourself and put in a plea of guilty, then will the Great Judge grant you forgiveness, but not else. Condemn yourself and you shall not be condemned. Confess the indictment to be true, for true it is, and to deny it is to seal your doom…When He brings you to submit, He has given you His grace. Submission to His divine will is the essence of salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1276.cfm

Who Will Be Your Master, Sinner?

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

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. – James 4:7

“No surrender” is the stubborn sinner’s motto. I have known men who would give their bodies to be burned sooner than yield to God. Their high stomach has stood out long against the Most High and they have been little Pharaohs till the Lord has brought them to their senses. “Must I yield, must I bow at His feet?”-they could not brook such humiliation. If the gospel had tolerated their pride and given them a little credit, they would have rejoiced in it; but to be tumbled in the dust and made to confess their own nothingness they could not bear. “Submit” is wormwood and gall to haughty sinners, yet must they drink the cup or die. Hear then, ye stout-hearted, you can never be saved unless you submit, and when you are saved one of the main points in your salvation will be that you have submitted. I desire to whisper one little truth in your ear, and I pray that it may startle you: You are submitting even now. You say, “Not I; I am lord of myself.” I know you think so, but all the while you are submitting to the devil. The verse before us hints at this. “Submit yourselves unto God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” If you do not submit to God you never will resist the devil, and you will remain constantly under his tyrannical power. Which shall be your master, God or the devil, for one of these must. No man is without a master: some power or other is paramount within us, either good or evil is supreme in our hearts; and if we will not be mastered by the good, the evil has already gained the sway. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1276.cfm

He Rises Above All

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

And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. – Luke 24:51

Our Lord’s ascension was a triumph over the world. He had passed through it unscathed by its temptations; He had been solicited on all hands to sin, but His garments were without spot or blemish. There was no temptation which had not been tried upon Him, the quivers of the earth had been emptied against Him, but the arrows had glanced harmlessly from His armor of proof. They had persecuted Him relentlessly; He had been made to suffer all that cruel scorn could invent, but He came forth from the furnace with not the smell of fire upon Him. He had endured death itself with love unquenched and courage invincible. He had conquered by enduring all. As He rose, He was infinitely beyond their reach; though they hated Him no less than before, He had been forty days amongst them, and yet no hand was outstretched to arrest Him. He had shown Himself openly in divers places, and yet not a dog dare move his tongue. In the clear air, from far above the hills of Jerusalem, He who was once tempted in the desert, looked down upon the kingdoms of the earth, which had been shown Him by Satan as the price of sin, and reserved them all as His own by right of merit. He rises above all, for He is superior to all. As the world could not injure His character by its temptations, so no longer could it touch His person by its malice. He has defeated altogether this present evil world.

There, too, He led captive sin. Evil had assailed Him furiously, but it could not defile Him. Sin had been laid upon Him, the weight of human guilt was borne upon His shoulders, it crushed Him down, but He rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and proved that He had shaken off the load, and left it buried in His sepulcher. He has abolished the sins of His people; His atonement has been so efficacious that no sin is upon Him, the Surety, and certainly none remains upon those for whom He stood as substitute. Though once the Redeemer stood in the place of the condemned, He has so suffered the penalty that He is justified now, and His atoning work is finished for ever. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0982.cfm

Who is this King of Glory?

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

…Who is this King of glory? – Psalm 24:7-10

Call to your minds how the Psalmist in vision saw the Savior’s ascension, and, in the twenty-fourth Psalm, represented the angels as saying: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” The scene is described in rich poetic imagery of the most sublime kind, and it evidently teaches us that when our Savior left the sight of mortals, He was joined by bands of spirits, who welcomed Him with acclamations and attended Him in solemn state as He entered the metropolis of the universe. The illustration which has usually been given is, I think, so good that we cannot better it. When generals and kings returned from war, in the old Roman ages, they were accustomed to celebrate a triumph; they rode in state through the streets of the capital, trophies of their wars were carried with them, the inhabitants crowded to the windows, filled the streets, thronged the house-tops, and showered down acclamations and garlands of flowers upon the conquering hero as he rode along. Without being grossly literal, we may conceive some such a scene as that attending our Lord’s return to the celestial seats. The sixty-eighth Psalm is to the same effect: “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” So also in Psalm forty-seven: “God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” Angels and glorified spirits saluted our returning champion; and, leading captivity captive, He assumed the mediatorial throne amidst universal acclamations. “having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0982.cfm

Go to the Source of Life

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

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. – Romans 6:23

Apart from Christ we are dead in trespasses and sins; look at the depth of our degradation! But in Christ we live- live with His own life. Look at the height of our exaltation, and let our thankfulness be proportioned to this infinity of mercy. Measure if you can from the lowest hell to the highest heaven, and so great let your thankfulness be to Him who has lifted you from death to life.

Union with Christ makes you live; keep up your enjoyment of that union, that you may clearly perceive and enjoy your life. Begin with the prayer, “Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee.” Think much of the spiritual life and less of this poor carnal life, which will be soon be over. Go to the source of life for an increase of spiritual life. Go to Jesus. Think of Him more than you have done; pray to Him more; use His name more believingly in your supplications. Serve Him better and seek to grow up into His likeness in all things. Life is a growing thing. Your life only grows by getting nearer to Christ; therefore, get under the beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Time brings you nearer to Him, you will soon be where He is in heaven; let grace bring you nearer also. You taste more of His love as fresh mercies come; give Him more of your love, more of your fellowship. Abide in Him, and may His word abide in you henceforth and forever, and all shall be to His glory. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0968.cfm

Complete Satisfaction

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

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. – John 10:28

It must be enough to make believers live that Christ lives; for first, Christ’s life is a proof that His work has accomplished the absolution of His people from their sins. He would have been in the tomb to this hour had He not made a complete satisfaction for their sins but His rising again from the dead is the testimony of God that He has accepted the atonement of His dear Son; His resurrection is our full acquittal. Then if the living Christ be our acquittal, how can God condemn us to die for sins which He has by the fact of Christ’s resurrection declared to be forever blotted out? If Jesus lives, how can we die? Shall there be two deaths for one sin, the death of Christ and the death of those for whom He died? God forbid that there should be any such injustice with the Most High. The very fact that Jesus lives, proves that our sin has been atoned for, that we are absolved, and therefore cannot die.

Jesus is the representative of those for whom He is the federal head. Shall the representative live, and yet those represented die? How shall the living represent the dead? But in His life I see my own life, for as Levi was in the loins of Abraham, so is every saint in the loins of Christ, and the life of Christ is representatively the life of all His people. Moreover, He is the surety for His people, under bonds and pledges to bring His redeemed safely home. His own declaration is, “I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hands.” Will He break His covenant bonds? Shall His suretyship be cast to the winds? It cannot be. The fact that if any of His people for whom He died, to whom He has given spiritual life, should after all die, Christ would be disappointed of His intent, which supposition involves the grossest blasphemy. What so many shall He have for His reward? The purchase-price shall not be given in vain; a redemption so marvelous as that which He has presented upon the tree shall never in any degree become a failure. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0968.cfm