The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

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СКАЧАТЬ is the ground of your trust, you have a rotten hope; you have a plank to stand upon that will not bear your weight in the day of God’s account. As the Lord my God lives, before whom I stand, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.” And if you think the best performance of your hands can save you, know this, that “Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.” Those who did not seek after it have attained it. Why? Because the one has sought it by faith, the other has sought it by the deeds of the law, where justification never was to be found. Hear, now, the gospel, men and women; down with that boasting form of your righteousness; away with your hopes, with all your trusts that spring from this —

      Could your tears for ever flow,

      Could your zeal no respite know,

      All for sin could not atone;

      Christ must save, and save alone.

      11. If you wish to know how we must be saved, hear this — you must come with nothing of your own to Christ. Christ has kept the law. You are to have his righteousness to be your righteousness. Christ has suffered in the place of all who repent. His punishment is to stand instead of your being punished. And through faith in the sanctification and atonement of Christ, you are to be saved. Come, then, you weary and heavy laden, bruised and mangled by the Fall; come then, you sinners; come, then, you moralists; come, then, all you who have broken God’s law and feel it; leave your own trusts and come to Jesus, he will take you in; give you a spotless robe of righteousness, and make you his for ever. “But how can I come?” one says; “Must I go home and pray?” No, sir, no. Where you are standing now, you may come to the cross. Oh, if you know yourself to be a sinner, now — I beseech you, before your foot shall leave the floor on which you stand — now, say this —

      Myself into your arms I cast:

      Lord, save my guilty soul at last.

      Now, down with you, away with your self-righteousness. Look to me — look, now; do not say, “Must I mount to heaven and bring Christ down?” “The word is near you, on your mouth and in your heart; if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe with your heart, you shall be saved.” Yes, you — you — you. Oh! I bless God, we have heard of hundreds who have in this place believed on Christ. Some of the blackest of the human race have come to me only recently, and told me what God has done for them. Oh, that you, too, would now come to Jesus. Remember, he who believes shall be saved, even though his sins ever so many; and he who does not believe, must perish, even though his sins ever so few. Oh, that the Holy Spirit would lead you to believe; so that you should escape the wrath to come, and have a place in paradise among the redeemed!

      {a} Paul, Sir John Dean: second baronet (1802-1868), banker and fraudster. See Explorer “http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101021602/”

      David’s Dying Prayer

      No. 129-3:177. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, April 26, 1857, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

      Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. {Psalms 72:19}

      1. There was a time when this prayer would have been unnecessary; a period, in fact, when it could not have been offered, seeing the thing to be asked for was already existed. There was a time when the word rebellion had not been uttered against the great magistracy of heaven; there was a day, when the slime of sin had never been left by the trail of the serpent, for no serpent existed then, and no evil spirit. There was an hour, never to be forgotten, when the seraph might have flapped his wing for ever, and never have found anything of discord, or anything of rebellion or of anarchy throughout God’s universe; when the mighty angels assembled in the halls of the Most High, and without exception did reverence to their liege Lord, and paid him due homage; when the vast creation revolved around its centre, the great metropolis, the throne of God, and paid its daily and hourly homage to him; when the harmonies of creation always came to one spot and found their focus near the throne of God. There was a time when every star was bright; when all space was filled with loveliness; when holiness, purity, and happiness, were like a robe which mantled the entire creation. This world itself was once fair and lovely — so fair and lovely that we who live in these erring times can scarcely imagine its beauty. It was the house of song, and the dwelling place of praise. If it had no preeminence among its sister spheres, certainly it was not inferior to any of them, surrounded with beauty, girt with gladness, and having in it holy and heavenly inhabitants. It was a house to which the angels themselves loved to resort, where the holy spirits, the morning stars, delighted to sing together over this beautiful and fair earth of ours. But now how is it changed! how very different! Now it is our duty devoutly to bend our knees and pray that the whole earth may yet be filled with his glory.

      2. In one sense this prayer is still unnecessary, for in a certain sense the whole earth is filled with God’s glory. “All your works praise you, oh God,” is as true now as it was in paradise. The stars still sing their Maker’s praise; no sin has stopped their voice, no discord has made a jarring note among the harmonies of the spheres. The earth itself still praises its Maker; the exhalations, as they arise with the morning, are still a pure offering, acceptable to their Maker. The lowing of the cattle, the singing of the birds, the leaping of the fishes, and the delights of animal creation, are still acceptable as consecrated offerings to the Most High. The mountains still bring righteousness; on their hoary summits God’s holy feet might tread, for they are yet pure and spotless. Still do the green valleys, laughing with their verdure, send up their shouts to the Most High. The praise of God is sung by every wind; it is howled forth in dread majesty by the voice of the tempest; the winds resound it, and the waves, with their thousand hands, clap, keeping chorus in the great march of God. The whole earth is still a great orchestra for God’s praise, and his creatures still take up various parts in the eternal song, which, ever swelling and ever increasing, shall by and by mount to its climax in the consummation of all things. In that sense, therefore, the prayer is still inappropriate. God, who fills all in all, and fills earth and heaven, does not need to have more glory, as to the essence of his glory; for he is still glorified in the whole earth.

      3. But David intended this prayer in another sense. “Let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen”; not as Creator, but as a moral Governor, and a Ruler. It is as Governor that we have revolted from God and done dishonour to him; it is as our Master, our Ruler, our Judge, that we have done despite to his glory, and have trampled on his crown. It is, therefore, in this respect that David wished that the whole earth might be filled with God’s glory. He desired that every idol temple might be cast down — that the name of Jehovah might be sung by every lip, that he in his person might be loved by every heart, and be for ever adored as “God over all blessed for ever.” A foolish wish, you say, for it never can be accomplished. Surely the day will never come when hoary systems of superstition shall die. What! shall colossal systems of infidelity and of idolatry totter to their fall? They have resisted the battering ram for many a year; and yet shall they pass away, and shall God’s kingdom come, and his will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven? No, it is no daydream of a boy, it is no wish of the enthusiast. Notice who uttered that prayer, and where he was when he uttered it. It was the prayer of a dying king; it was the prayer of a holy man of God, whose eyes were just then shining with brightness in view of the celestial city, as he stood on the mighty Pisgah, “and looked over the landscape” — the prayer of the dying psalmist, when on the margin of his life he surveyed the ocean — the prayer of a mighty king, when he saw the scroll of prophecy unfolded before him for the last time, and was about to be ushered into the presence of his Maker. He uttered this as his last best wish and desire; and when he had uttered it he sank back in his bed, and said, “The prayers of David the son of СКАЧАТЬ