Return of the Prodigal

If thou hast no good thoughts or feelings, if hitherto thou hast been the most damnable of rebels against God, if up to this moment thy hard and impenitent heart has been at enmity against God and against Christ, yet if now, this very day, thou wilt believe that Christ incarnate, Christ died, Christ risen, Christ pleading, can save thee, and if thou wilt rest thy soul upon that fact, thou shalt be saved.

God, the infinitely loving father, is willing to receive thee just as thou art. He asks nothing of thee. O prodigal, thou mayst come back in thy rags and filthiness, notwithstanding that thou hast spent thy living with harlots; notwithstanding that the swine have been thy companions, and thou wouldst fain have filled thy belly with their husks; thou mayest come back without upbraiding, or so much as a word of anger, because thy Father’s only begotten Son has stood in thy stead, and in thy place has suffered all that thy many sins deserved. If thou wilt now trust in Jesus, the Lord, who loved thee with unspeakable love, thou shalt be this very day received into joy and peace, with a Father’s arms about thy neck, accepted and beloved; with thy rags stripped from off thee, clothed in the best robe; with the ring upon thy finger and the shoes upon thy feet, listening to music and dancing, because thy soul which was lost is found, thy heart which was dead has been made alive.

From a sermon entitled "Believing With The Heart," delivered July 12, 1863. Flickr photo by daita saru; some rights reserved.

We must be converted to Christ

Remember, first of all, that Jesus Christ has revealed to you your need. He has told you in express words that you need regeneration. “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Enlarging upon the doctrine, he adds — “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.” He has laid the new birth before you as an imperative necessity. You admit that this is true; your admission that this Book came from God is clearly an assent to this teaching. Why, then, is it that you who have never passed from death unto life, remain contented without that divine change, and are satisfied with moral reformation or outward respectability, while the Book assures you that these will never avail? The Great Master assures you that you must be converted. Hear his express words — “Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

From a sermon entitled "Nominal Christians - Real Infidels," delivered February 1, 1863. Flickr photo by Jason Hunter; some rights reserved.

Eternal life comes from God

The eternal life which God gives his people is in no sense whatever the fruit of their exertions; it is the gift of God. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we, giving nothing, partake freely of the grace of God. The saints are not by nature wells, or streams, they are but cisterns into which the living water flows. They are but as the empty vessel; sovereign mercy puts them under the conduit-pipe, and they receive grace upon grace till they are filled to the brim.

He that talks about winning salvation by works; he that thinks he can earn it by prayers, by tears, by penance, by mortification of the flesh, or by zealous obedience to the law, makes a mistake; for the very first principle of the divine life is not giving out, but receiving. It is that which comes from Christ into me which is my salvation; not that which springs out of my own heart, but that which comes from the divine Redeemer and changes and renews my nature. It is not what I give out, but what I receive, which must be life to me.

From a sermon entitled "Life And Walk Of Faith," delivered December 7, 1862. Flickr photo by Flemming Christiansen; some rights reserved.

Arise and call upon your God

But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, "What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.” - Jonah 1:5, 6.

Yet further, let us remember that as Jonah was the only man in the ship whose prayer could be of any avail, so the children of God are the only men who can do any real spiritual service to the perishing world. All the cries of the shipmaster and his crew were addressed to the gods of their various countries, who had ears which could not ear, and hands which could afford no aid. Jonah was the only man who worshipped the Lord that made the sea and the dry land; hence, his prayers alone could save the ship. Now, the salvation of the world under God lies with the Church. Christ has finished the atonement; it is for the Church to finish the ingathering. Christ hath paid the purchase-price, and completed redemption by blood; it is for the Church to seek the Holy Spirit, and fully to redeem the world by power. Suppose, then, that you who fear God say, “This is no case of mine; I am not my brother’s keeper;” suppose that you waste opportunities, and throw precious time to the dogs, then the world must go down to its awful doom; but, mark you, its blood shall be upon your skirts.

This generation, under God, must have salvation given to it through our ministry, through our evangelists, through our Sunday Schools, through our missionaries, through our preachings and teachings; and if we do it not, the world will not stay from perishing while we are staying from laboring. Men will not live on until another generation worthier than we are shall have taken our places, but this generation must go down to the tomb, muttering curses between its lips against the faithless, wicked, unbelieving, inactive Church; and we must go down too, to meet the doom of those who had no real faith in Christ, or else they would have had a love for the souls of men; who had not the spirit of Jesus, or else they would with wooing entreaties, and with earnest efforts have brought men to the cross of Christ.

From a sermon entitled "What Meanest Thou, O Sleeper?," delivered September 14, 1862. Flickr photo by Axel Buhrmann; some rights reserved.

God is mighty to save

When God says to a sinner, “Live,” all the devils in hell cannot keep him in the grave. If the Lord should say to a blasphemer here today, “Live,” that blasphemer must become a saint. Saul of Tarsus is on the road to Damascus to arrest the saints of the living God. A strong hand might seize the bridle of his charger and throw him to the ground; but Saul is not to be stopped like this; he will rise from the ground the same Saul, to go to Damascus as bloodthirsty as ever. But see what divine grace can do! A voice from heaven and a light above the brightness of the sun, and Saul is crying out, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Within three days he is baptized, he becomes a preacher; and Saul that was called Paul becomes a leader in the hosts of the Most High. My Master can do the like today. Mighty to save is he.

From a sermon entitled "Ezekiel's Deserted Infant," delivered September 7, 1862. Flickr photo by Chris Gin; some rights reserved.

The Friend of Sinners

A vague notion is abroad in the world that the benefit of Christ’s passion is intended only for good people. The preaching of some ministers, and the talk of some professors, would lead the uninstructed to imagine that Christ came into the world to save the righteous, to call the godly to repentance, and to heal those who never were sick. There is in most sinners’ consciences, when they are aroused, a frightful fear that Christ could not have come to bless such as they are, but that he must have intended the merit of his blood and the efficacy of his passion for those who possess good works or feelings to recommend them to him.

Dear friends, you will clearly see, if you will but open one eye, how inconsistent such a supposition is with the whole teaching of Scripture. Consider the plan itself. It was a plan of salvation and of necessity, it was intended to bless sinners. Wherefore salvation if men be not lost, and for whom salvation but for the ruined? The plan was based in grace, but how “grace” unless it was meant for persons who deserve nothing? If you have to deal with creatures who have not sinned, and have been obedient, what need of grace?

From a sermon entitled "The Friend Of Sinners," delivered June 29, 1862. Flickr photo by rachel_thecat; some rights reserved.

Your religion is not vain

...I know a man who was as stingy a soul as could be, once, and now he is as generous a man as walks God’s earth. There is another, he was not immoral, but he was passionate, and now he is as quiet as a lamb. It is grace that has altered these characters, and yet you tell me that this is a fiction! I have not patience to answer you. A fiction! If religion does not prove itself to be true by these facts, then do not believe it; if it does not, when it comes into a neighborhood, turn it upside down, sweep the cobwebs out of its sky, clean the houses, take the men out of the public-houses; if it does not make swearers pray, and hard-hearted men tender and compassionate, then it is not worth a button. But our religion does do all this, and therefore we boldly say, it is not a vain thing.

From a sermon entitled "Religion - Reality!," delivered June 22, 1862. Flickr photo by Dawn; some rights reserved.

Trust Him with your soul

Do you feel the force of what has been said? O my hearers! Do you feel that it is a solemn thing to have been at ease so long? Do you tremble? Are you saying, “O that I might be saved! O that God would have mercy upon me!” He will do it. He will. The Gospel is free to you still as it always has been, and lo, we preach it to you. All he asks of you is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved. He has not asked an impossible thing, a hard thing, — that which takes weeks to do. It is done in an instant and when his Spirit is present, it is done at once and completely. “But what is to believe in Christ?” say you. It is to trust him — trust him with your soul — trust him with your soul just as it is.

From a sermon entitled "Scourge For Slumbering Souls," delivered November 3, 1861. Flickr photo by Wolfgang Staudt; some rights reserved.

Joint heirs with Christ

Who shall accuse the Redeemer? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of him who rose again from the dead? Nor can any creature accuse his saints, nor can heaven, or earth, or hell disprove our rights or infringe upon our title so long as his title stands undisputed and indisputable. We shall see his face; the devils in hell cannot hinder it; we shall possess the promised rest, still the fiends that are beneath shall not rob us of the heirloom. And, believer, there is no fear that Christ shall be the possessor of nothing or heir of little things. He is the Son of God the infinitely rich, and God will not give to his Son a petty dowry or a trifling portion. “Ask of me,” saith he, and he gives him unlimited permission to ask, not as Herod who would give only the half of his kingdom, but as one who would give everything to his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom he make the worlds. And O my soul, thy portion cannot be slender nor thy dowry narrow, since it is the same inheritance which Christ has from his Father’s hands.

From a sermon entitled "The Joint Heirs And Their Divine Portion," delivered July 28, 1861. Flickr photo by Brandi Tressler; some rights reserved.

Through faith in His Blood

He does not ask you to perform a pilgrimage and blister your weary feet, or to thrust an iron in your back and swing yourself aloft as does the Hindoo, he asks you not to lie on a bed of spikes or starve yourself till you can count your bones. He asks no suffering of you, for Christ has suffered for you. All he asks is than you would return to him, and what is that? That you would be unfeignedly
sorry for your past sin, that you would ask his grace to keep you from it in the future, that you would now believe in Christ who is set forth to be the propitiation for sin, that through faith in his blood you may see your sin for ever put away and all your iniquity cancelled. That is neither a hard nor a cruel demand.

From a sermon entitled "Our Miseries, Messengers Of Mercy," delivered July 14, 1861. Flickr photo by Jackie ; some rights reserved.

Incorruptible seed

The child of God in his new nature never dies. He can never see death. Christ, who is in him, is the immortality and the life. “He that liveth and believeth in Christ shall never die.” And yet again, “Though he were dead yet shall he live.” When we are born again, we receive a nature which is indestructible by accident, which is not to be consumed by fire, drowned by riveter, weakened by old age, or smitten down by blast of pestilence; a nature invulnerable to poison; a nature which shall not be destroyed by the sword; a nature which can never die till the God that gave it should himself expire and Deity die out. Think of this, my brethren, and surely you will find reason to rejoice. But perhaps, you ask me, why it is the new nature can never die? I am sure the text teaches it never can. “But not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, even of the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.”

From a sermon entitled "The New Nature," delivered June 30, 1861. Flickr photo by Iain Cuthbertson; some rights reserved.

A fullness of blessings!

The Daily Spurgeon wishes you a joyous Resurrection Sunday! We'll see you again on Tuesday, March 24.

There is a fullness of atoning efficacy in his blood, for “the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” There is a fullness of justifying righteousness in his life, for “there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” There is a fullness of divine providence in his plea, for “he is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him; seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” There is a fullness of victory in his death, for "through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil."

There is a fullness of efficacy in his resurrection from the dead, for by it we are "begotten again to a lively hope.” There is a fullness of triumph in his ascension, for “when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive, and received gifts for men.” There is a fullness of blessings unspeakable, unknown; a fullness of grace to pardon, of grace to regenerate, of grace to sanctify, of grace to preserve and of grace to perfect.

From a sermon entitled "The Fulness Of Christ — Received!," delivered October 20, 1861. Flickr photo by Christina Robinson; some rights reserved.

It Is Finished

He is nailed to the tree; the world abhors him, fools gaze, and sinners laugh. Do you lay down your weapons and say, it is idle to defend such a man as this? It is all over now, he bows his head upon the cross. “It is finished,” saith he; and do your unbelieving hearts say, “Ay, indeed, it is finished; his career is over, his hopes are blighted, his prospects withered?” Ah! Little do you know that his shame was the mother of his future glory; that the stooping was the rising, that the crown of thorns was in fact the fruitful root out of which sprang the eternal crown of glory.

From a sermon entitled "The Missionaries' Charge And Charts," delivered April 21, 1861. Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.

His Blood cleanses us from all sin

It is a great truth which lies at the foundation of the gospel system, that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin. When a man is washed in the sacred laver which is filled with the blood of the atonement, he is not partially cleansed, but he is clean every whit. Not so much as the shadow of a spot remains upon the blood-washed. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” If that cleansing were partial it were unavailing. If it left but one sin still upon us in the sight of God, it would have no power to save. It is only because when once applied by the Holy Spirit and received by faith it makes a total and complete cleansing from all past guilt, that it is of any use whatever to the poor trembling conscience of
the distressed sinner. Let us lay it down then in our own minds as a settled fact which neither our experience nor any of the teachings of diverse heretics shall make us let go, that he who by faith lays hold on Christ, hath his blood cleansed in that same hour, and all his iniquities are put away.

From a sermon entitled "Perfect Cleansing," delivered April 7, 1861. Flickr photo by Jun ; some rights reserved.

He now makes intercession for us

He has set forth Christ before every one of you, in the daily preaching of the Word, and in yon Inspired Book, as his anointed to do his work, suffering in the stead and place of all who believe on him. He has set him forth as nailed to Calvary’s cross, that your sins might be nailed there. Set him forth as dying, that your sins might die; nay, buried that your iniquities might be buried; risen, that you might rise to newness of life, ascended, that you might ascend to God; received in triumph, that you might be received in triumph too; made to reign, that you might reign in him, forever loved, forever crowned, that you in him may be forever loved and forever crowned too. Him hath God the Father set forth, that by faith in his blood our sins being put away, you might enjoy the blessing of complete justification. “Who is he that condemneth, Christ hath died, yea rather, hath risen again, and sitteth at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?”

From a sermon entitled "Christ Set Forth As A Propitiation," delivered March 29, 1861. Flickr photo by miyukiutada ; some rights reserved.

The Lord is my light and my salvation

“The Lord is my light and my salvation.” - Psalm 27:1

Here is personal interest, “my light,” “my salvation;” the soul is assured of it, and therefore, declaring it boldly. “My light” - into the soul at the new birth divine light is poured as the precursor of salvation; where there is not enough light to see our own darkness and to long for the Lord Jesus, there is no evidence of salvation. Salvation finds us in the dark, but it does not leave us there; it gives light to those who sit in the valley of the shadow of death. After conversion our God is our joy, comfort, guide, teacher, and in every sense our light; he is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us. Note, it is not said merely that the Lord gives light, but that he “is” light; nor that he gives salvation, but that he is salvation; he, then, who by faith has laid hold upon God has all covenant blessings in his possession.

From The Treasury of David, exposition of Psalm 27:1. Flickr photo by Amy Mew; some rights reserved.

Into the depths of the sea

As soon as a man believeth in Christ Jesus, his sins are gone from him, and gone away for ever. They are blotted out now. What if a man owe a hundred pounds, yet if he has got a receipt for it, he is free, it is blotted out, there is an erasure made in the book, and the debt is gone. Though the man commit sin yet the debt having been paid before even the debt was acquired, he is no more a debtor to the law of God. Doth not Scripture say, that God has cast his people’s sins into the depths of the sea? Now, if they are in the depths of the sea, they cannot be on his people too. Blessed be his name, in the day when he casts our sins into the depth of the sea, he views us as pure in his sight, and we stand accepted in the beloved. Then he says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” They cannot be removed and be here still. Then if thou believest in Christ, thou art no more in the sight of God a sinner, thou art accepted as though thou wert perfect, as though thou had at kept the law, — for Christ has kept it, and his righteousness is thine. You have broken it, but your sin is his, and he has been punished for it.

From a sermon entitled "None But Jesus," delivered February 17, 1861. Flickr photo by Ville Miettinen; some rights reserved.

God has made you His child

Consider again, I pray you, what a dignity God hath conferred upon you — even upon you in making you his son. The tall archangel before the throne is not called God’s Son, he is one of the most favored of his servants, but not his child. I tell thee, thou poor brother in Christ, there is a dignity about thee that even angels may well envy. Thou in thy poverty art as a sparkling jewel in the darkness of the mine. Thou in the midst of thy sickness and infirmity art girt about with robes of glory, which make the spirits in heaven look down upon the earth with awe. Thou movest about this world as a prince among the crowd. The blood of heaven runs in thy veins; thou art one of the blood royal of eternity — a son of God, descendant of the King of kings. Speak of pedigrees, the glories of heraldry — thou hast more than heraldry could ever give thee, or all the pomp of ancestry could ever bestow.

From a sermon entitled "The Sons of God," delivered October 7, 1860. Flickr photo by David K; some rights reserved.

Boundless love

Oh! I know my sins reach from the east even to the west — that aiming at the eternal skies they rise like pointed mountains towards hearer. But then, blessed be the name of God, the blood of Christ is wider than my sin. That shoreless flood of Jesus’ merit is deeper than the heights of mine iniquities. My sin may be great, but his merit is greater still. I cannot conceive my own guilt, much less express it, but the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Infinite guilt, but infinite pardon. Boundless iniquities, but boundless merits to cover all.

What if thy sins were greater than heaven’s breadth, yet Christ is greater than heaven. The heaven of heavens cannot contain him. If thy sins were deeper than the bottomless hell, yet Christ’s atonement is deeper still, for he descended deeper than ever man himself as yet hath dived — even damned men in all the horror of their agony, for Christ went to the end of punishment, and deeper thy sins can never plunge. Oh! boundless love, that covers all my faults.

My poor hearer, believe on Christ now. God help thee to believe. May the Spirit now enable thee to trust in Jesus. Thou canst not save thyself. All hopes of selfsalvation are delusive. Now give up, have done with self, and take Christ. Just as thou art, drop into his arms. He will take thee; he will save thee. He died to do it, and he lives to accomplish it. He will not lose the spirit that casts itself into his hands and makes him his all in all.

From a sermon entitled "Sin Immeasurable," delivered February 12, 1860. Flickr photo by Laszlo Ilyes; some rights reserved.

A harvest of souls

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed, and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.” — Amos 9:13.

God is about to send times of surprising fertility to his Church. When a sermon has been preached in these modern times, if one sinner has been converted by it, we have rejoiced with a suspicious joy; for we have thought it something amazing. But, brethren where we have seen one converted, we may yet see hundreds; where the word of God has been powerful to scores, it shall be blessed to thousands; and where hundreds in past years have seen it, nations shall be converted to Christ. There is no reason why we should not see all the good that God hath given us multiplied a hundredfold; for there is sufficient vigor in the seed of the Lord to produce a far more plentiful crop than any we have yet gathered.

God the Holy Ghost is not stinted in his power. When the sower went forth to sow his seed, some of it fell on good soil, and it brought forth fruit, some twenty fold, some thirty fold, but it is written, “Some a hundred fold.” Now, we have been sowing this seed; and thanks be to God, I have seen it bring forth twenty and thirty fold; but I do expect to see it bring forth a hundred fold. I do trust that our harvest shall be so heavy, that while we are taking in the harvest, it shall be time to sow again; that prayer meetings shall be succeeded by the enquiry of souls as to what they shall do to be saved, and ere the enquirers’ meeting shall be done, it shall be time again to preach, again to pray; and then, ere that is over, there shall be again another influx of souls, the baptismal pool shall be again stirred, and hundreds of converted men shall flock to Christ.

From a sermon entitled "A Revival," delivered January 26, 1860. Flickr photo by Tim ; some rights reserved.