The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

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СКАЧАТЬ is rags, and the best livery for a sinner to go to Christ in, is for him to go just as he is, with nothing but sin about him. “But no”; you say, “I must be a little better, and then I think Christ will save me!” You cannot get any better, try as long as you please. And besides — to use a paradox — if you were to get better, you would be all the worse, for the worse you are, the better you are to come to Christ. If you are all unholy come to Christ; if you feel your sin, and renounce it, come to Christ; though you have been the most debased and abandoned soul, come to Christ; if you feel yourself to have nothing about you that can commend you, come to Christ.

      Venture on him, venture wholly;

      Let no other trust intrude.

      I do not say this to urge any man to continue in sin. God forbid! If you continue in sin, you must not come to Christ; you cannot; your sins will hamper you. You cannot be chained to your galley oar — the oar of your sins — yet come to Christ, and be a free man. No, Sir, it is repentance; it is the immediate leaving of the sin. But notice, neither by repentance, nor by leaving of your sin, can save you. It is Christ, Christ, Christ — Christ only.

      17. But I know you will go away, many of you, and try to build up your own Babel tower, to get to heaven. Some of you will go one way to work, and some another. You will go the ceremony way: you will lay the foundation of the structure with infant baptism, build confirmation on it, and the Lord’s supper. “I shall go to heaven,” you say; “Do I not keep Good Friday and Christmas day? I am a better man than those dissenters. I am a most extraordinary man. Do I not say more prayers than anyone?” You will be a long while going up that treadmill, before you get an inch higher. That is not the way to get to the stars. One says, “I will go and study the Bible, and believe right doctrine; and I have no doubt that by believing right doctrine I shall be saved.” Indeed you will not! You can no more be saved by believing right doctrine than you can by doing right actions. “There,” says another, “I like that, I shall go and believe in Christ, and live as I like.” Indeed you will not! For if you believe in Christ he will not let you live as your flesh likes; by his Spirit he will constrain you to mortify its affections and lusts. If he gives you the grace to make you believe, he will give you the grace to live a holy life afterwards. If he gives you faith, he gives you good works afterwards. You cannot believe in Christ, unless you renounce every fault, and resolve to serve him with full purpose of heart. I think at last I hear a sinner say, “Is that the only door? And may I venture through it? Then I will. But I do not quite understand you; I am something like poor Tiff, in that remarkable book ‘Dred.’ {c} They talk a great deal about a door, but I cannot see the door; they talk a great deal about the way, but I cannot see the way. For if poor Tiff could see the way, he would take these children away by it. They talk about fighting, but I do not see anyone to fight, or else I would fight.” Let me explain it then. I find in the Bible, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” What have you to do, but to believe this and trust in him? You will never be disappointed with such a faith as that. Let me give you over again an illustration I have given hundreds of times, but I cannot find another as good, so I must give it again. Faith is something like this. There is a story told of a captain of a man-of-war, whose son — a young lad — was very fond of running up the rigging of the ship; and one time, running after a monkey, he ran up the mast, until at last he got on to the maintruck. Now, the maintruck, you are aware, is like a large round table put on to the mast, so that when the boy was on the maintruck there was plenty of room for him; but the difficulty was — to use the best explanation I can — that he could not reach the mast that was under the table; he was not tall enough to get down from this maintruck, reach the mast, and so descend. There he was on the maintruck; he managed to get up there, somehow or other, but he never could get down. His father saw that, and he looked up in horror; what was he to do? In a few moments his son would fall down, and be dashed to pieces! He was clinging to the maintruck with all his might, but in a little time he would fall down on the deck, and there he would be a mangled corpse. The captain called for a speaking trumpet; he put it to his mouth, and shouted, “Boy, the next time the ship lurches, throw yourself into the sea.” It was, in truth, his only way of escape; he might be picked up out of the sea, but he could not be rescued if he fell on the deck. The poor boy looked down on the sea; it was a long way; he could not bear the idea of throwing himself into the roaring current beneath him; he thought it looked angry and dangerous. How could he cast himself down into it? So he clung to the main truck with all his might, though there was no doubt that he must soon let go and perish. The father called for a gun, and pointing it up at him, said, “Boy, the next time the ship lurches, throw yourself into the sea, or I’ll shoot you!” He knew his father would keep his word; the ship lurched on one side, over went the boy splash into the sea, and out went brawny arms after him; the sailors rescued him, and brought him on deck. Now, we, like the boy, are in a position of extraordinary danger, by nature, which neither you nor I can possibly escape by ourselves. Unfortunately, we have some good works of our own, like that maintruck, and we cling to them so fondly, that we never will give them up. Christ knows that unless we do give them up, we shall be dashed to pieces at the last, for that rotten trust must ruin us. He, therefore, says, “Sinner, let go of your own trust, and drop into the sea of my love.” We look down, and say, “Can I be saved by trusting in God? He looks as if he were angry with me, and I could not trust him.” Ah, will not mercy’s tender cry persuade you? — “He who believes shall be saved.” Must the weapon of destruction be pointed directly at you? Must you hear the dreadful threat — “He who does not believe shall be damned?” So it is with you now as with that boy — your position is one of imminent peril in itself, and your slighting the Father’s counsel is a matter of more terrible alarm, it makes peril more perilous. You must do it, or else you perish! Let go of your hold! That is faith when the poor sinner lets go of his hold, drops down, and so is saved; and the very thing which looks as if it would destroy him, is the means of his being saved. Oh! believe on Christ, poor sinners; believe on Christ. You who know your guilt and misery come, cast yourselves upon him; come, and trust my Master, and as he lives, before whom I stand, you shall never trust him in vain; but you shall find yourselves forgiven, and go your way rejoicing in Christ Jesus.

      {a} Doit: A small Dutch coin formerly in use, the eighth part of a stiver, or the half of an English farthing; hence (chiefly in negative phrases) as the type of a very small or trifling sum. OED.

      {b} Sign-manual: An autograph signature (esp. that of the sovereign) serving to authenticate a document. OED.

      {c} Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp is the second novel from American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was first published in two volumes by Phillips, Sampson and Company in 1856. Although it enjoyed better initial sales than her previous, and more famous, novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin it was ultimately less popular. Dred was of a more documentary nature than Uncle Tom’s Cabin and thus lacked a character like Uncle Tom to evoke strong emotion from readers. See Explorer “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred,_A_Tale_of_the_Great_Dismal_Swamp”

      Spiritual Resurrection

      No. 127-3:161. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, April 12, 1857, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

      And you he has quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. {Ephesians 2:1}

      1. It might naturally be expected that I should have selected the topic of the resurrection on what is usually called Easter Sunday. I shall not do so; for although I have read portions which refer to that glorious subject, I have had pressed on my mind a subject which is not the resurrection of Christ, but which is in some measure connected with it — the resurrection of lost and ruined man by the Spirit of God in this life.

      2. The apostle is here speaking, you will observe, of the church at Ephesus, and, indeed, of all those who were chosen in Christ Jesus, accepted in him, and redeemed with his blood; СКАЧАТЬ