Christ’s Authority
…and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations… – Luke 24:47
My brethren, you must proclaim the gospel according to your ability. It is not a thing which you may do or may not do at your own discretion. But you must do it if you have any respect for your Savior’s name. If you dare pray in that name, if you dare hope in that name, if you hear the music of joy in that name, then in the name of Jesus Christ preach the gospel in every land. But it means more than that. Not only preach it under His orders, but preach it on His authority. The true servant of Christ has His Master to back him up. The Lord Jesus will seal by threats or by grace, the word of His faithful messengers. If we threaten the ungodly, the threat shall be fulfilled. If we announce God’s promise to the penitent, that promise shall be surely kept. The Lord Jesus will not let the words of His own ambassadors, fall to the ground. “Lo, I am with you always,” He says, “even to the end of the world. Go you, therefore and teach all nations.” You have Christ with you; teach the nations by His authority.
Oh, sinner, there would be no acceptance of your repentance if it were not for that dear name! Oh, guilty conscience, there would be no ease for you through the remission of sin if it were not that the blessed name of Jesus is sweet to the Lord God of hosts! We dare preach pardon to you in His name. The blood has been shed and sprinkled on the burning throne. The Christ has gone in within the veil, and stands there, “able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him, seeing He always lives to make intercession for them.” There is assuredly salvation in His name, and this is our glory, but, “there is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved.” That name has a fullness of saving efficacy, and if you will but rest in it, you shall find salvation, and find it now. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
The Divine Warrant for Missions
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. – Luke 24:47
The text says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations. Here, then, we have the divine warrant for missions. They are no speculations, or enthusiastic dreams. They are matters of divine command. I daresay you have heard of what the Duke of Wellington said to a missionary in India who was questioning whether it was of any use to preach the gospel to the Hindus. “What are your marching orders?” said this man of discipline and obedience. “What are your marching orders?” That is the deciding question. Now the marching orders are, “Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” …We are to preach the gospel everywhere; missions are to be universal. All nations need the preaching of the word. The gospel is a remedy for every human ill among all the races that live upon the face of the earth. Some out of all nations shall receive it, for there shall be gathered before the eternal throne men out of every kindred, nation, and tongue. No nation will utterly refuse it. There will be found a remnant according to the election of grace even among the most perverse of the tribes of men.
Brethren, there was a Divine necessity that Christ should die, and an equally imperative must that He should arise again from the dead. But there is an equally absolute necessity that Jesus should be preached to every creature under heaven. It behooves to be so. Who, then, will linger? Let us each one, according to his ability and opportunity, tell to all around us the story of the forgiveness of sin through the Mediator’s sacrifice to as many as confess their sin and forsake it. We are bidden to preach repentance of sin and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, let us not be slow to do so. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
Finding Mercy
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. – Proverbs 28:13
There is nothing in repentance deserving of the favor of God. But, the Lord Jesus Christ having come, we read, “He that confesses and forsakes his sin shall find mercy.” God accepts repentance for the sake of His dear Son. He smiles upon the penitent sinner, and puts away his iniquities. This we are to make known on all sides. Every thief is sorry when he has to go to prison, every murderer is sorry when the noose is about his neck, the sinner must repent, not because of the punishment of sin, but because his sin is sin against a pardoning God, sin against a bleeding Savior, sin against a holy law, sin against a tender gospel. The true penitent repents of sin against God and he would do so even if there were no punishment. When he is forgiven, he repents of sin more than ever, for he sees more clearly than ever the wickedness of offending so gracious a God.
Repentance is not a grace which is only to be exercised by us for a week or so at the beginning of our Christian career. It is to attend us all the way to heaven. Faith and repentance are to be inseparable companions throughout our pilgrimage to heaven. Repenting of our sin and trusting in the great Sin Bearer is to be the tenor of our lives, and we are to preach to men that it must be so. The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted on high to give repentance and remission of sins. Repentance is a plant that never grows on nature’s dunghill. The nature must be changed, and repentance must be implanted by the Holy Spirit or it will never flourish in our hearts. We preach repentance as a fruit of the Spirit or else we greatly err. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
Gospel Repentance
“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” – Luke 24:47
You that would faithfully serve Christ note carefully how He taught His disciples what they were to preach. We find different descriptions of the subject of our preaching, but on this occasion it is comprised in two things—repentance and remission of sins. I am glad to find in this verse that old-fashioned virtue called repentance. It used to be preached, but is now out of fashion. Indeed, we are told that we always misunderstood the meaning of the word, “repentance,” and it simply means a “change of mind” and nothing more. I wish that those who are so wise in their Greek knew a little more of that language, for then they would not be so ready with their infallible statements. True, the word does signify a change of mind, but in its scriptural connection it indicates a change of mind of an unusual character. It is not such a fitful thing as men mean when they speak of changing their minds, as some people do fifty times a day, but it is a change of mind of a deeper kind. Gospel repentance is a change of mind of the most radical sort—such a change as never was worked in any man except by the Spirit of God.
Let every man understand that he will never have remission of sin while he is in love with sin, and that if he lives in sin he cannot obtain the pardon of sin. There must be a hatred of sin, a loathing of it, and a turning from it or it is not blotted out. We are to preach repentance as a duty. “The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now command all men everywhere to repent.” “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” He that has sinned is bound to repent of having sinned. It is the least that he can do. How can any man ask God for mercy while he lives in his sin? ~ C.H. Spurgeon
The Lord Hath Done It
Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit (My Father) taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. – John 15:2
Supposing Him to be the gardener. – John 20:15
Certain of us have been made to suffer much physical pain, which often bites into the spirit, and makes the heart to stoop: others have suffered heavy temporal losses, having had no success in business, but, on the contrary, having had to endure privation, perhaps even to penury. Are you ready to complain against the Lord for all this? I pray you, do not do so. Take the supposition of the text into your mind this morning. The Lord has been pruning you sharply, cutting off your best boughs, and you seem to be like a thing despised that is constantly tormented with the knife. Yes, but “supposing Him to be the gardener,” suppose that your loving Lord has wrought it all, that from His own hand all your grief has come, every cut, and every gash, and every slip: does not this alter the case? Hath not the Lord done it? Well, then, if it be so, put your finger to your lip and be quiet, until you are able from your heart to say, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord.” I am persuaded that the Lord hath done nothing amiss to any one of His people; that no child of His can rightly complain that He has been whipped with too much severity; and that no one branch of the vine can truthfully declare that it has been pruned with too sharp an edge. No; what the Lord has done is the best that could have been done, the very thing that you and I, if we could have possessed infinite wisdom and love, would have wished to have done; therefore, let us stop each thought of murmuring, and say, “The Lord hath done it,” and be glad…Let us believe great things from the work of Christ by His Spirit in the midst of His people’s hearts, and we shall not be disappointed. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1699.cfm
Turn Unto the Lord
Supposing Him to be the Gardener. – John 20:15
But He answered and said, Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. – Matthew 15:13
In this great congregation many are to the Church what weeds are to a garden. They are not planted by God; they are not growing under His nurture; they are bringing forth no fruit to His glory. My dear friend, I have tried often to get at you, to impress you, but I cannot. Take heed; for one of these days, “supposing Him to be the gardener,” He will reach you, and you shall know what that word meaneth, “Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.” Take heed to yourselves, I pray.
Others among us are like the branches of the vine which bear no fruit. We have often spoken very sharply to these, speaking honest truth in unmistakable language, and yet we have not touched their consciences. Ah, but “supposing Him to be the gardener,” He will fulfill that sentence: “Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away.” He will get at you, if we cannot. Would God you would turn unto the Lord with full purpose of heart; so that instead of being a weed you might become a choice flower; that instead of a dry stick, you might be a sappy, fruit-bearing, branch of the vine. The Lord make it to be so; but if any here need the caution, I pray them to take it to heart at once. “Supposing Him to be the gardener,” there will be no escaping from His eye; there will be no deliverance from His hand. As “He will thoroughly purge His floor, and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire,” so He will thoroughly cleanse His garden and cast out every worthless thing. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1699.cfm
He Hath Said 