“Can I be saved?”
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation… – Ephesians 1:13
I know the devil tells you that you have been too great a sinner. That cannot be. Perhaps he reminds you that you have been a scoffer, or have lived in immorality, or have been self-righteous, which is as heinous a sin as any other. Ah! well, but the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. A young woman wrote to me the other day- I do not know who she is, but she said, “I cannot tell anybody, but I have done so-and-so, a dreadful sin; indeed, if my mother knew it it would break her heart.” I do not know her, and therefore her mother will never know it from me, but she says, “Can I be saved?” Young woman, you can! She says that she is worse than Magdalene, for Magdalene did not know Christ when she was a sinner, but she did know the gospel, and yet sinned. Oh! well, if you are worse than Magdalene, Christ will be glorified in saving such a one as you are. Only come with all your sin about you and throw yourself at His feet. Trust Him! Trust Him! Do Him the honour to believe that He can save even such an abominable sinner as you have been. Though you have gone to the utmost extremity of human guilt, and looked over the gulf of endless misery, yet still believe Him; trust Him, and He will be as good as ever you can think Him to be; for when you think your highest thoughts of Him, He is higher than your highest thoughts, and can save even to the uttermost. – C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0802.cfm
The Priceless Soul
“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” – Acts 4:12
John Owen said that if you had to preach to a whole nation for twelve months, in order to win one soul, it would be good wages, for a soul is so priceless, that to redeem it from going down to the pit would be worth the expenditure of all human strength. Richard Knill once said, that if there were only one unconverted person in the wilds of Siberia, and that God had ordained that every Christian in the world must go and talk to that one person before he would be converted, it would be an exceedingly little thing for us all to do, to go all the way there through the cold, and frost, and snow, to win that one soul.
The name of our Lord Jesus Christ is glorified. Who would not wish to live, or even to die, for this?
“Let Him be crowned with majesty,
Who bowed His head in death,
And let His praise be sounded high,
By all things that have breath.”
If you have not forgotten what He suffered for you, dear friends, do you not wish to see Him crowned with many crowns? He wore the crown of thorns for you, would not you wish to see the fruit of His soul’s travail, the removal of the curse, the extension of His kingdom, the honour of His fame, the growing enthusiasm of His subjects-to make His excellency apparent, and His praise more and more famous to the very end of time? I know you would, and therefore I ask you to strive in your prayers and your efforts, that the number of His disciples may be multiplied greatly. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0802.cfm
The Prayer of Faith
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” – Matthew 19:26
Nothing is impossible to the man who knows how to overcome heaven by wrestling intercession. When we have seen one, two, or ten, or twenty penitents converted, and when we have sometimes been heartily thankful that a hundred have been added to this church in a month, ought we ever to have been satisfied? Should we not have felt that the prayer, which was blessed to the conversion of a hundred, had it been more earnest, might, in the divine purpose, have been answered with the conversion of a thousand? Why not? You will say, “We have not enough ministers.” But God can make them. I tell you, sirs, He could find ministers for His truth-ay, if He willed it, among the very offscourings of the earth. He can take the worst of men, the vilest of the vile, and change their hearts, and make them preach the truth if He pleases. We are not to look to what we have. The witness of the senses only confuses those who would walk by faith. See what He did for the church in the case of Saul of Tarsus. He just went up to the devil’s army, and took out a ringleader, and said to him, “Now, sir, you preach the gospel which once you despised.” And who preached it better? Why, I should not wonder if ere long in answer to prayer we see the Ritualistic clergy preaching the gospel! Who can tell-the Romish priests may yet do it and repeat the tale of Luther and Melancthon. Were not Luther, and Melancthon, and Calvin, and their comrades, brought out of Papal darkness to show light unto the people? We have heard with our ears, why may we not see with our eyes, the mighty works of God? The Lord can find His men where we know nothing about them…Let us not despair. If we will but pray for it, our heavenly Father will deny His children nothing. Come, do but come, in simplicity of heart, and according to your faith shall it be done unto you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0802.cfm
Conduct Worthy of the Gospel
Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. – Philippians 1:27
If we would see the gospel spread abroad, we must have much holy living to back it all up. After we have done the sermon, people say, “How about the people that attend there? What about the church members, are they upright? Are they such people as you can trust? What about their homes? Do they make good husbands? Are they good servants? Are they kind masters?” People will be sure to enquire this, and if the report of our character be bad, it is all over with our testimony.
If you put the sword into the scabbard, you cannot kill with it; you must pull it out, and let it glitter in all its naked sharpness. If you put the sword of the gospel into the scabbard of worldly conformity, as some of you do, you cannot expect that there will be any power in it. Draw it away from your worldly company, and your pernicious customs, and then shall you see that it still has power to kill and to make alive. There must be holy living as well as plain testimony.
I say, my brethren, if we are to have the victory you must be every one of you in the fight. We must not spare a single one, neither man nor woman, old nor young, rich nor poor, but you must each fight for the Lord Jesus according to your ability; that His kingdom may come, and that His will may be done upon earth even as it is in heaven. We shall see great things when you all agree to this and put it in practice. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0802.cfm
Plainly Declare the Gospel
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. – Romans 1:16
I do believe that the hiding of the cross beneath the veil of fine language and learned dissertation is half the cause of the spiritual destitution of our country. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. I would sooner say these few words and then cease my testimony, than utter the most splendid oration that ever streamed from the lips of Demosthenes or of Cicero, but not have declared the gospel of Christ. We must keep to this. This must be the hammer that we bring down upon the anvil of the human heart again, and again, and again. God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord! God forbid that we should know anything among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified! Look to Him-not to the priest, not to your good works, not to your prayers, not to your church-goings or your chapel-goings, but to Christ Jesus exalted. Look to Him in faith, and God is willing to forgive you, able to forgive you, to receive you, to make you His children, and for ever to glorify you with Himself. We must have much more of this plain preaching, and not only plain preaching but plain teaching. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0802.cfm
By Thy Power We Rely
Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. – Acts 6:7
If we pant to see the Word of God increase, multitudes added to the disciples, and a great company of those who are least likely to be saved brought in, there must be an adequate instrumentality. Nothing can avail without the operation of the Holy Spirit and the smile from heaven. Paul planteth, Apollos watereth, and God giveth the increase. We must never begin our catalogue of outward means without referring to that blessed and mysterious Potentate who abides in the church, and without whom nothing is good, nothing efficient, nothing successful.
“Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all Thy quickening powers.”
This should be our first prayer whenever we attempt to serve God, for if not, we begin with pride, and can little hope to succeed by prowess. If we go to the warfare at our own charges we must not marvel if we return stained with defeat. O Spirit of the living God, if it were not for Thy power we could not make the attempt, but when we rely upon Thee, we go forward in confidence. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0802.cfm
