“The gate of Mercy is opened, and over the door it is written, ‘This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.‘

Between that word ‘save’ and the next word ‘sinners,’ there is no adjective.

It does not say, ‘penitent sinners,’ ‘awakened sinners,’ ‘sensible sinners,’ ‘grieving sinners’ or ‘alarmed sinners.’

No, it only says, ‘sinners.’

And I know this, that when I come, I come to Christ today, for I feel it is as much a necessity of my life to come to the cross of Christ today as it was to come ten years ago—when I come to him, I dare not come as a conscious sinner or an awakened sinner, but I have to come still as a sinner with nothing in my hands.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, preaching on John 3:18, 17 February 1861.

Via: Ray Ortlund

Charles Spurgeon’s thoughts on our salvation and sanctification from his message “Spiritual Revival, the Want of the Church”:

All true religion is the work of God.  God is indeed the author of salvation in the world, and religion is the work of grace.  If there is anything good or excellent found in his Church, it, too, is entirely God’s work, from last to first.

It is God who quickens a soul which was dead, and it is God who maintains the life of that soul; God who nurtures and perfects that life in the Church.  We ascribe nothing to ourselves and everything to God.  We do not dare for a single moment to think that our conversion or our sanctification is effected by our own efforts or the efforts of another.  True, there are means by which we are converted and sanctified, but they are entirely God’s work.

Spurgeon on the truth of God’s Word:

There are many things that should make you valiant for God and for his truth. The first thing I will bring to your remembrance is the fact, that this warfare in which you are engaged is an hereditary warfare; it is not one which you began, but it is one which has been handed to you from the moment when the blood of Abel cried aloud for vengeance.

Each martyr that had died has passed the blood-red flag to the next, and he in his turn has passed it on to another.  Every confessor who has been nailed to the stake to burn, has lit his candle, and handed it to another, and said, “Take care of that!”  And now here is the old “sword of the Lord and of Gideon.”

Remember what hands have handled the hilt; remember what arms have wielded it; remember how often it has “pierced to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow.”  Will you disgrace it?

There is the great banner: it has waved in many a breeze; long ere the flag of this our land was made, this flag of Christ was borne aloft.  Will you stain it?  Will you not hand it to your children, still unsullied, and say, “Go on, go on; we leave you the heritage of war; go on, and conquer. What your father did, do you again, still keep up the war, till time shall end.”

I love my Bible because it is a Bible baptized with blood; I love it all the better, because it has the blood of Tyndale on it; I love it, because it has on it the blood of John Bradford, and Rowland Taylor, and Hooper; I love it, because it is stained with blood.

If only more in the church today understood the sacredness of God’s Word and knew more of those who shed the blood of martyrdom so that we may have our own personal copy to study.

I wonder how many of us have ever made the connection between faith and repentance.  Charles Spurgeon certainly did.

Says Spurgeon,

“When we are sure that we are forgiven, then we abhor iniquity; and I suppose that when faith grows into full assurance, so that we are certain beyond a doubt that the blood of Jesus has washed us whiter than snow, it is then that repentance reaches to its greatest height.  Repentance grows as faith grows. Do not make any mistake about it; repentance is not a thing of days and weeks, a temporary penance to be over as fast as possible! No; it is the grace of a lifetime, like faith itself.”

In the same way that faith is not a one-time decision, neither is repentance a one-time act.  Both faith and repentance are defining traits of those who not only believe in Jesus Christ but who have also been born again by His Spirit.

May we never grow feeble in faith, and may never lose the fervor of contrition.