salvation

Till We See the Cross

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

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6

Sin is an attack upon the moral government of God; it undermines the foundations of society, and were it permitted to have its way it would reduce everything to anarchy, and even destroy the governing power and the Ruler Himself…If sin were left unpunished it would soon be known through myriads of worlds, and in fact by ten thousand times ten thousand races of creatures, that they might sin with impunity; if one race had done so, why not all the rest? This would be a proclamation of universal license to rebel. 

The blotting out of sin seems hard till we see the cross, and then it appears easy enough. I have looked at sin till it seemed to blind me with its horror, and I said in myself, “This damned spot can never be washed out…0 sin, thou deep, eternal evil, what can remove thee?” And then I have seen the Son of God dying on the cross, and read the anguish of His soul, and heard the cries which showed the torment of His spirit when God His Father had forsaken Him, and it has seemed to me as if the blotting out of sin were the easiest thing under heaven. When I have seen Jesus die, I have not been able to understand how any sin could be difficult to remove. Let a man stand on Calvary and look on Him whom he hath pierced, and believe and accept the atonement made, and it becomes the simplest thing possible that his debt should be discharged now that it is paid, that his freedom should be given now that the ransom is found, and that he should be no longer under condemnation, since the guilt that condemned him has been carried away by his great Substitute and Lord. It is then because of what Jesus Christ has suffered in our stead that God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven us. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1448.cfm

For Christ’s Sake

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

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. – Ephesians 4:32

“For Christ’s sake;” all the good things which God has bestowed upon us have come to us “for Christ’s sake,” but especially the forgiveness of our sins has come “for Christ’s sake.”…The great God can, as a just Lawgiver and King, readily pass by our offences because of the expiation for sin which Christ has offered. If sin were merely a personal affront toward God, we have abundant evidence that He would be ready enough to pass it by without exacting vengeance; but it is a great deal more than that. It would probably be the worst calamity that could happen-that any sin should go unpunished by the supreme Judge. Sometimes in a state, unless the lawgiver executes the law against the murderer, life will be in peril, and everything will become insecure, and therefore it becomes mercy to write the death-warrant: so is it with God in reference to this world of sinners…It is His very love as well as His holiness and His justice which, if I may use such a term, compels Him to severity of judgment, so that sin cannot and must not be blotted out till atonement has been presented. There must first of all be a sacrifice for sin, which, mark you, the great Father, to show His love, Himself supplies, for it is His own Son who is given to die, and so the Father Himself supplies the ransom through His Son- that Son being also one with Himself by bonds of essential unity, mysterious but most intense. If God demands the penalty in justice, He Himself supplies it in love. Tis a wondrous mystery, this mystery of the way of salvation by an atoning sacrifice; but this much is clear, that now God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven us, because satisfaction has been made to the injured honour of the divine government, and justice is satisfied. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1448.cfm

The Tenderest Spirit of Forgiveness

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

“Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”- Ephesians 4:82

The heathen moralists, when they wished to teach virtue, could not point to the example of their gods, for, according to their mythologists, the gods were a compound of every imaginable, and, I had almost said, unimaginable vice. Many of the classic deities surpassed the worst of men in their crimes: they were as much greater in iniquity as they were supposed to be superior in power. It is an ill day for a people when their gods are worse than themselves. The blessed purity of our holy faith is conspicuous, not only in its precepts, but in the character of the God whom it reveals. There is no excellency which we can propose but we can see it brightly shining in the Lord our God: there is no line of conduct in which a believer should excel but we can point to Christ Jesus our Lord and Master as the pattern of it. In the highest places of the Christian faith you have the highest virtue, and unto God our Father and the Lord Jesus be the highest praise. We can urge you to the tenderest spirit of forgiveness by pointing to God who for Christ’s sake has forgiven you. What nobler motive can you require for forgiving one another? With such high examples, brethren, what manner of people ought we to be? We have sometimes heard of men who were better than their religion, but that is quite impossible with us: we can never, in spirit or in act, rise to the sublime elevation of our divine religion. We should constantly be rising above ourselves, and above the most gracious of our fellow Christians, and yet above us we shall still behold our God and Saviour. We may go from strength to strength in thoughts of goodness and duties of piety, but Jesus is higher still, and evermore we must be looking up to Him as we climb the sacred hill of grace. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1448.cfm

The Joy-day of Heaven

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

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. – Revelation 21:23

In heaven you will see nothing without Him. “Nothing?” say you. No, nothing; here is a proof of my words. “The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” All the light, the knowledge, the joy, the bliss of heaven, come through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Not Jesus only, but Jesus slain, Jesus the Lamb of God, is the very light of heaven.

And what, think you, is the joy-day of heaven, the time for the highest exultation? Why, the joyous day when all the golden bells shall peal out their glorious melodies, and all the silver trumpets shall ring out their jubilant notes, will be the day of the marriage of the Lamb. It is the heaven of heavens, the climax of ineffable delight; and the voice of the great multitude, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, sings, “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.” So that, at the topmost round of the ladder of eternal bliss, there do you find the Lamb. You cannot get beyond Him. He gives you all He has, even Himself. Behold Him, then, and go on beholding Him throughout the countless ages of eternity. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2329.cfm

To Die Full of Life

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

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. – 1 Corinthians 15:22

You will fall asleep in Him one of these days, at the very hour that God has appointed; and when you open your eyes, it will not be in the narrow death-chamber, you will not be on the bed of sickness. Methinks you will be startled to find yourself amid such new surroundings. “What is this I hear?” you will say. “Such music as this has never charmed me before, and what is that I see?”. “But you will not need to enquire, for you will know that face at once. You knew, while on earth, that Jesus still lived; but you will know it better then, when you lay aside these heavy optics that do but dim our sight, and get into the pure spirit state, and then see HIM. Oh, the bliss of that first sight of Christ! It seems to me as if that would gather up an eternity of delight into a single moment; that first glimpse of Him will be enough to make us swoon away with excessive rapture. I do verily think that some saints whom I have known, have done just that, swooned away with the excess of joy that they have felt in their departing moments. I have, sounding in my ears just now, the voice of a dear brother (who) said to me, “I shall be home to-night, pastor. I wanted to see your face once more before I went; but I shall be home to-night and see the face of Jesus.” …I hope you will all be prepared to die after that fashion. That is the way to die, full of life. Because Jesus lives, we shall live also, and we may well die full of life because of our union to Him. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2909.cfm

O Blessed Truth!

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

For I know that my Redeemer lives… – Job 19:25

Job had a living Kinsman amid a dying family. All his children were dead. We cannot easily estimate the full force of that blow upon the patriarch’s heart. The loss of one child is a very painful event, even when the child is a very little one, and the parents have many others left; but it is a far worse bereavement when the children, who are taken away, are grown up, as Job’s were…Altogether, it was a fine family -seven sons and three daughters; -and now they were all gone at once! To lose all one’s family at once, like that, is a heavy stroke that none can measure but those who have felt it. All were gone! -the whole ten at once! That was sad for poor Job, but it was most blessed that he was able to say, “Though my children are all dead, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth.’ He, is not dead, and in Him I find more than all that I have lost.”

Rejoice that He lives in a dying world. If you walk through the cemetery, or stand by the open grave, how blessedly these words seem to fall upon your spirit, like the music of angels, “These are dead, but ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth,’-liveth on, liveth in power, liveth in happiness, liveth with a life which He communicates to all who trust Him. He lives, and therefore I shall live with Him. He lives, and therefore the dead, who are in Him, shall live for ever.” O blessed truth! ` C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2909.cfm

The Best of All Possessions

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

For I know that my Redeemer lives… – Job 19:25

Poor Job, he had lost everything else, but he had not lost his Redeemer. Notice, he does not say, “I know that my wife and my children live;” but he says, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Ah! “my Redeemer,”-he has not lost Him, so he has the best of all possessions still left. Looking up to Him, by faith, with the tears of joy standing in his eyes, he says, “Yes, He is my Redeemer, and He still lives; I accept Him as mine, and I will cling to Him for ever.” Can you, beloved friends, not merely rejoice in Christ as the Redeemer, but also as your Redeemer? Have you personally accepted Him as your Redeemer? Have you personally trusted Him with your soul, wholly and really; and do you already feel in your own heart, a kinship to this great Kinsman, a trust in this great Vindicator, a reliance upon His great redemption? Another man’s redemption is of no value to my soul; the sweetness lies in the little word “my”-“my Redeemer.” Luther used to say that the marrow of the gospel is found in the pronouns, and I believe it is: “my Redeemer.” We had lost everything. Father Adam had put everything under a heavy mortgage, and we could not even meet the interest on it; but the whole estate is unmortgaged now, even to paradise itself. Does someone ask, “Is there not any mortgage even upon paradise?” …Jesus Christ hath said, in the words of the psalmist, “I restored that which I took not away.” Bankrupt debtors, through the Lord’s sovereign grace, you are no longer under any liabilities because of your sin if Christ be accepted by you as your Goel and Redeemer. He hath restored to you the estates which your first father, Adam, had lost; and He hath made you heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, through the wondrous redemption which He wrought for you upon the cross of Calvary. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2909.cfm