salvation

Salvation Works Grateful Obedience to Christ

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

But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (He said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. – Luke 5:25

The man’s healing was proved by his obedience. Openly to all onlookers an active obedience became indisputable proof of the poor creature’s restoration. Notice, our Lord bade him rise-he rose; he had no power to do so except that power which comes with divine commands. He rose, for Christ said “Rise.” Then he folded up that miserable palliasse-the Greek word used shows us that it was a very poor, mean, miserable affair- he rolled it up as the Savior bade him, he shouldered it, and went to his home. His first impulse must have been to throw himself down at the Savior’s feet, and say, “Blessed be Thy name;” but the Master said, “Go to thy house;” and I do not find that he stayed to make one grateful obeisance, but elbowing the crowd, jostling the throng with his load on his back, he proceeded to his house just as he was told, and that without deliberation, or questioning. He did his Lord’s bidding, and he did it accurately, in detail, at once, and most cheerfully. Oh! how cheerfully; none can tell but those in like case restored. So, the true sign of pardoned sin, and of paralysis removed from the heart, is obedience. If thou art really saved thou wilt do what Jesus bids thee; thy request will be, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” and that once ascertained, thou wilt be sure to do it…Open, careful, prompt, cheerful obedience to Christ, becomes the test of the wonderful work which Jesus works in the soul. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

Joy in Being Forgiven by the Savior

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

What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, rise up and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (He said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. – Luke 5:22-24

After our blessed Lord had taken away the root of the evil, you observe He then took away the paralysis itself. It was gone in a single moment. Every limb in the man’s body was restored to a healthy state; he could stand, could walk, could lift his bed, both nerve and muscle were restored to vigor. One moment will suffice, if Jesus speaks, to make the despairing happy, and the unbelieving full of confidence. What we cannot do with our reasonings, persuadings, and entreaties, nor even with the letter of God’s promise, Christ can do in a single instant by His Holy Spirit, and it has been our joy to see it done…Paralysed souls who could neither do nor will, have been able to do valiantly, and to will with solemn resolution. The Lord has poured power into the faint, and to them that had no might He hath increased strength. He can do it still…He has never spoken in secret in the dark places of the earth; He has not said to the seed of Jacob, “Seek ye My face in vain.”

“Thy sins be forgiven thee,” fell on him as a dew from heaven; he believed the sacred declaration, and his eyes sparkled. He might almost have felt indifferent whether he remained paralysed or not, it was such joy to be forgiven, forgiven by the Lord Himself. That was enough, quite enough for him; but it was not enough for the Savior, and therefore He bade him take up his couch and walk, for He had given him strength to do so. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

Christ’s Power to Speak the Word of Absolution

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

And when He saw their faith, He said unto Him, Man, thy sins be forgiven thee. Luke 5:20

It was the business of the four bearers to bring the man to Christ; but there their power ended. It is our part to bring the guilty sinner to the Savior: there our power ends. Thank God, when we end, Christ begins, and works right gloriously. Observe that He began by saying: “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” He laid the axe at the root; He did not desire that the man’s sins might be forgiven, or express a good wish in that direction, but He pronounced an absolution by virtue of that authority with which He was clothed as the Savior. The poor man’s sins there and then ceased to be, and he was justified in the sight of God. Believest thou this, my hearer, that Christ did thus for the paralytic man? Then I charge you believe something more, that if on earth Christ had power to forgive sins before He had offered an atonement, much more hath He power to do this, now that He hath poured out His blood, and hath said, “It is finished,” and hath gone into His glory, and is at the right hand of the Father. He is exalted on high, to give repentance and remission of sin. Should He send His Spirit into thy soul to reveal Himself in thee, thou wouldst in an instant be entirely absolved. Does blasphemy blacken thee? Does a long life of infidelity pollute thee? Hast thou been licentious? Hast thou been abominably wicked? A word can absolve thee-a word from those dear lips which said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I charge thee ask for that absolving word. No earthly priest can give it thee; but the great High Priest, the Lord Jesus, can utter it at once. Ye twos and fours who are seeking the salvation of men, here is encouragement for you. Pray for them now, while the gospel is being preached in their hearing; pray for them day and night, and bring the glad tidings constantly before them, for Jesus is still able “to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

Help These Spiritual Paralytics

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

And when He saw their faith, He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. – Luke 5:20

Jesus intended to heal the paralysed man, but He did so by first of all saying, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” There are some in this house of prayer this morning who are spiritually paralysed; they have eyes and they see the gospel; they have ears and they have heard it, and heard it attentively too; but they are so paralysed that they will honestly tell you that they cannot lay hold upon the promise of God; they cannot believe in Jesus to the saving of their souls. If you urge them to pray, they say: “We try to pray, but it is not acceptable prayer.” If you bid them have confidence, they will tell you, though not in so many words perhaps, that they are given up to despair. The bottom of this paralysis is sin upon the conscience, working death in them. They are sensible of their guilt, but powerless to believe that the crimson fountain can remove it: they are alive only to sorrow, despondency, and agony. Sin paralyses them with despair. I grant you that into this despair there enters largely the element of unbelief, which is sinful; but I hope there is also in it a measure of sincere repentance, which bears in it the hope of something better. Our poor, awakened paralytics sometimes hope that they may be forgiven, but they cannot believe it; they cannot rejoice; they cannot cast themselves on Jesus; they are utterly without strength…Lend us your help, ye earnest brethren; form your parties of four; grasp the couches of these who wish to be saved, but who feel they cannot believe. The Lord, the Holy Spirit, make you the means of leading them into forgiveness and eternal salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

A Holy Company for the One Lost Soul

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

And behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before Him. – Luke 5:18

The great mass of persons who are brought into the kingdom of Christ are converted through the general prayers of the church by the means of her ministry. Probably three out of four of the members of any church will owe their conversion to the church’s regular teaching in some form or other; her school, her pulpit, her press has been the nets in which they were taken. Private personal prayer has, of course, in many instances been mingled with all this; but still the most of cases could not be so distinctly traced out as to be attributable mainly to individual prayers or exertions…There are some, again, who are led to Jesus by the individual efforts of one person; just as Andrew found his own brother Simon, so one believer by his private communication of the truth with another person becomes instrumental, by the power of God’s Spirit, in his conversion. One convert will bring another, and that other a third. But this narrative seems to show that there are cases which will neither be brought by the general preaching of the word, nor yet by the instrumentality of one; they require that there should be two, or three, or four in holy combination, who, with one consent, feeling one common agony of soul, shall resolve to band themselves together as a company for this one object, and never to cease from their holy confederation until this object is gained and their friend is saved. This man could not be brought to Christ by one, he must have four to lend their strength for his carrying, or he cannot reach the place of healing…Let brotherly quaternions look after these by God’s help.  ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

Longing for Pardon and Receiving It

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

And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy…they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when He saw their faith, He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. – Luke 5:18-20

The case which the narrative brings before us, is that of a man stricken down with paralysis…and, as I look at the case, I think I perceive with equal clearness that this paralysis was in some way or other, at least in the man’s own judgment, connected with his sin. He was evidently penitent, as well as paralytic. His mind was as much oppressed as his bodily frame. It is most probable that being burdened with a sense of sin he had a feeble hope in divine mercy…The affliction for which his friends pitied him was in his body, but he himself felt a far severer trouble in his soul, and probably it was not so much with the view of being healed bodily, as in the hope of spiritual blessing, that he was willing to be subjected to any process by which he might come under the Savior’s eye. I gather that from the fact that our Savior addressed him in these words, “Be of good cheer;” intimating that he was desponding, that his spirit sunk within him, and, therefore, instead of saying to him at once, “Rise, take up thy bed,” our tender-hearted Lord said, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” He gave him at the outset a blessing for which the patient’s friends had not asked, but which the man, though speechless, was seeking for in the silence of his soul. He was a “son,” though an afflicted one: he was ready to obey the Lord’s bidding when power was given, though as yet he could neither lift hand nor foot. He was longing for the pardon of sin yet could not stretch out his hand to lay hold upon the Savior.

Shall I need to appeal to my brethren who love their Lord, and say, band yourselves together to win souls? Your humanity to the paralytic soul claims it, but your desire to bring glory to God compels it. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0981.cfm

Sinner, Pray to Escape the Wrath to Come!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, prayer, promises, salvation, the unbelieving life 7 Comments

“Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” – Matthew 25:41

In reference to the world to come, the terrible doom of the ungodly is a most solemn warning to us. My heart fails me to speak concerning the destiny of the ungodly in another world. Dying without hope, without a Savior, they go before the throne uncleansed, unforgiven, to hear that awful sentence, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Pursue them for a moment in your thoughts, down to the deeps of wrath, whither God’s judgment shall pursue them. My Lord, I pray Thee of Thy grace, save me from the sin which brings such a result at the end of it. If the wages of sin be such a death as this, Lord save me from so accursed a service. Will not the sight of their destruction drive us to watchfulness, and cause us to make our calling and election sure? Will it not make us anxious lest we also come into this place of torment? O the wrath to come!

Dear friends, if you are not in Christ, much of what I have said bears upon you. Bethink yourself and pray to escape from the wrath to come. I would not have you be made a mere washpot to be used and broken as a potter’s vessel. Neither should you wish to be a vessel without honor, a thing of no esteem; but may you have faith in Jesus; life in Him, and then you shall be a royal diadem, a crown of glory in the hand of our God. May you have a heritage among those who fear the Lord and are reconciled to Him by faith in the total sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0983.cfm