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| Denisegilmore Registered user Username: Denisegilmore Post Number: 124 Registered: 10-2000 |
This is so very edifying that my prayer will be that this will also uplift All who read. May Jesus Christ Bless you all! http://www.spurgeon.org/all_of_g.htm | ||
| Lindylou Registered user Username: Lindylou Post Number: 7 Registered: 1-2005 |
Denise, This looks like a very neat site. I downloaded it so that I could read it in little bites. There's lots to digest. Thanks for sharing. Linda | ||
| Lindylou Registered user Username: Lindylou Post Number: 8 Registered: 1-2005 |
This verse really stood out for me. "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Rom. 4:5 That packs a punch - the idea that God JUSTIFIES the UNGODLY! WOW! It is a simple concept - but one that is easily glossed over because it is too good to be true. I think that is our most difficult "work" to simply believe that which is too good to be true. It goes against our human nature. Everything in our lives screams "you don't get something for nothing!" I can still hear these words in my head - "If it is too good to be true - it must NOT be true." It is a daily battle for me to push away the negative messages that play in my head - many of them old SDA recordings - and hold tight to the wonderful Good News of God's Grace. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1334 Registered: 12-2003 |
So true, Linda! It's hard to believe that salvation happens when we are UNGODLY. The clean up comes after. As Clay Peck says, "Now we're working FROM victory instead of "TOWARD" victory. Colleen | ||
| Madelia Registered user Username: Madelia Post Number: 122 Registered: 2-2003 |
This thread reminds of the book I just checked out from the library: Philip Yancey's "What's so Amazing About Grace?". Have any of you read it? I just started the intro and he tells a story of a prostitute who was talking to a minister. She was telling how she was "hiring out" her 2 year old daughter and could make more money that way in order to supply her drug habit, but she knew what she was doing was wrong and didn't know how to stop. THe minister was horrified and asked why she hadn't sought help from a church. Her response was that she couldn't go there because the church would just make her feel worse. | ||
| Raven Registered user Username: Raven Post Number: 186 Registered: 7-2004  |
Yes, I've recently read Yancey's book "What's so Amazing About Grace?" It's my favorite book, so far. | ||
| Denisegilmore Registered user Username: Denisegilmore Post Number: 127 Registered: 10-2000 |
Dear Linda, It's always so exciting to see how God's Word can impact someone as it has you! We have a Wonderful God of which there is none other like Him. That particular line had the same impact on me a few years back and I had to keep reading it over and over to make sure I had read that right. Now we know why so many call it "AMAZING GRACE!" (Grace=un-merited favor) And you know, it is a hard one to grasp when first reading it, isn't it? Yet the more one contemplates that Truth, the more profound God's Love to us becomes. AMAZING GRACE INDEED! My prayers will go up in your behalf that those old tapes in your head will soon vanish. Between now and then, enjoy this site for this is a great ministry that our Lord has put Richard and Colleen in charge of. And this site has helped me tremendously and it still does. And yes, read Spurgeon's site and soak in all you can there also. It's a very edifying site. Like Colleen has stated "the clean up comes after." Which reminds me of the lost son parable in Luke 15:11-32. When the lost son arrived home, the father didn't tell him to clean up first THEN he could have the "best robe", the gold ring and sandals. Nope. He embraces that son with elation and puts the "best robe" on him, the gold ring and the sandals FIRST. Then has the fatted calf slaughtered and they CELEBRATE! That's our God. CHUCK FULL OF LOVE! Especially for us "Un-Godly." He showed that by dying for us Un-Godly, taking upon Himself our sins, AND He took our punishment and gave us His Robe of Righteousness. Blessed be His Name! And May God bless you! Madelia and Raven, I haven't read that book but Yancey sure has the word "Amazing" right, when it comes to God's Grace. It is absolutely AMAZING! Looks like there's another "to buy" book for me this week. Sounds edifying. May God Bless you both! Oh, Madelia, about the lady with the two year old and her experience. Unfortunetly many churches do tend to look down upon people like a homeless person who walks in and hasn't had a bath for weeks and like that lady in the book, this is a sad fact of our churches in how they do treat people like her or like the homeless person I saw walk into church and everyone moved away from him and were whispering. Or like me--I dared to wear other than a dress at one church and also smoked cigarettes between Sunday School and Worship Service. There was a lot of gossip about me and I couldn't get a conversation going with anyone. This was when I first began church attendance in 1999, after years and years without. It's a fact that happens and it's wrong for people in church to shun ANYONE who first walks in. Who are we except a bunch of sinners ourselves! Hopefully that lady did find a church where the 'saints of God' embraced her and helped her along in edification, teaching and all the social stuff that occurs also. Hopefully Yancy tells us the rest of the story otherwise I'm going to have to write to him and ask! I worry. In Christ. Denise | ||
| Riverfonz Registered user Username: Riverfonz Post Number: 374 Registered: 3-2005 |
There is an excellent review article in Christianity Today on why C.H. Spurgeon was such an effective preacher that I enjoyed, and here is the link www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/122/52.0.html Stan | ||
| Carol_2 Registered user Username: Carol_2 Post Number: 389 Registered: 2-2002  |
Here is something I have been wanting to share from a chapter in a book by Spurgeon. It may seem redundant to some, but it spoke to me in a powerful way at a time I needed to hear it. I've greatly condensed this chapter (hope that's OK,) and originally did this because I had a dear friend from academy dying of ovarian cancer (nearly four years ago.) She and I were 40 at the time. She was SDA, and scared to die, as she was not sure if she was good enough to be saved. This is what I sent her, and hope blessed her (she was near the end, and I did not hear from her again.) Love and prayers to all, Carol ---------- From the book "Praying Successfully" by Charles Spurgeon GRACE GUARANTEED! (Chapter 4) And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. - Joel 2:32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. - Acts 2:21 If we want to understand the full meaning of Joel 2:32, let us first examine the circumstances at the time when Joel was writing. Vengeance was coming toward Judah at full speed. The armies of divine justice had been called forth for war. They ran like mighty men, they climbed the wall like men of war (Joel 2:7.) They invaded and devastated the land, and they turned the land from being like the Garden of Eden into a desolate wilderness. All faces grew pale, the people were "much pained" (v. 6). The sun itself was dim, the moon was dark, and the stars withdrew themselves; furthermore, the earth quaked and the heavens trembled (v. 10). At such a dreadful time, when we might have least expected it, between the peals of thunder and the flashes of lightning was heard this gentle word: "It shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered." In the worst times that can ever happen, salvation is still available. "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered" -- from sin, death, and hell. He will, in fact, be so delivered as to be, in divine language, "saved" -- saved from guilt, saved from the penalty and the power of sin, saved from the wrath to come. A dispensation of immediate acceptance was proclaimed at Pentecost, and it has never ceased. Its fullness of blessing has grown rather than dwindled. The sacred promise stands in all its certainty, fullness, and freeness; it has lost none of its breadth or length. "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." I have nothing to write about in this chapter except; the old, old story of infinite mercy meeting infinite sin; of free grace leading free will into better things; of God Himself appearing to undo man's ruin that he brought on himself; of God lifting man up by a great deliverance. In Present Trouble I have no doubt many readers need deliverance from present trouble. If you are in much trouble and are very distressed, I invite you to take my text as your guide and believe that "whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered." When you do not know how to act, when you are bewildered and at your wit's end, when wave of trouble has followed wave of trouble until you are like a sailor in a storm who staggers to and fro, if you cannot help yourself because your spirit sinks and your mind fails, call upon God, call upon God, call upon God! Lost child in the woods, with the night fog thickening around you, ready to lie down and die, call your Father! Call upon God, troubled one, for "whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered." If men and women could just tell in simple, natural language how God has come to their rescue in the hour of imminent distress, they would set the harps of heaven singing with new melodies. Oh, that we would repeatedly remind ourselves of His great goodness during the night of our weeping! In Future Trouble Joel 2:32 also promises deliverance from future troubles. What is to happen in the future we do not know. We do know from the Word of God that "the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood" (v. 31). God will show great wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. You will certainly need deliverance then. Fortunately, deliverance will still be near at hand. Ö..when the worst and most terrible convulsions occur, "whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered." The star Wormwood may fall (Rev 8:11), but we will be saved if we call upon the name of the Lord. Plagues may be poured out, trumpets may sound, and judgements may follow one another as quickly as the plagues of Egypt, but "whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered." While the need for deliverance will notably increase, the abundance of salvation will increase with it. You do not need to fear the direst of all wars, the bitterest of all famines, the deadliest of all plagues, because the Lord has pledged to deliver us if we call upon Him. In the Dreaded Last Hour Yes, when your time comes to die, when to you the sun has turned into darkness, this text ensures deliverance in the dreaded last hour. Call upon the name of the Lord, and you will be saved. Amid the pains of death and the gloom of departure, you will enjoy a glorious visitation, which will turn darkness into light and sorrow into joy. When you wake up amid the realities of eternity, you will not need to dread the Resurrection or the Judgement Day or the yawning mouth of hell. If you have called upon the name of the Lord, you will still be delivered. Though the unpardoned are thrust down to the depths of woe and the righteous are scarcely saved, you who have called upon the name of the Lord must be delivered. The promise stands firm, no matter what may be hidden in the great book of the future. God cannot deny or contradict Himself. He WILL deliver those who call upon His name. A Sure Foundation What is needed, then, is salvation. I do think, beloved believers, that those who preach the Word and long to save souls, need to repeat very often this grand old truth about salvation for the guilty. We need to speak often about deliverance for all who call upon the name of the Lord. Sometimes we talk to friends about the higher life or about attaining high degrees of sanctity. All this is very proper and very goodÖÖ..even so, first and foremost is this elementary, all-important truth: "Whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved." Ö.there are other seasons when I hide my head in darkness. Then I am very glad for such a broad, gracious promise as this: "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." I find that my sweetest, happiest, safest state is that of a poor, guilty, helpless sinner calling upon the name of the Lord and taking mercy from His hands, although I deserve nothing but His wrath. I am happy when I dare to hang the weight of my soul on such a sure promise as this: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Prayer: The Means of Deliverance To "call on the name of the Lord" is to pray a believing prayer -- to cry to God for His help and to leave yourself in His hands. This is very simple, is it not? There is no cumbersome process here, nothing complex and mysterious. No priestly help is needed, except the help of our Great High Priest, who always intercedes for us (Heb 7:25.) A poor, broken heart pours its distress into the ear of God and calls upon Him to fulfill His promise to help in the time of need -- that is all. I thank God that nothing more is mentioned in our texts. The promise is "whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." With Intelligence Little as you may know, call upon Him according to the little that you do know. Cast yourself upon Him, whether your trouble is external or internal, but especially if it is internal. If it is the trouble of sin, if it is the burden of guilt, if it is a load of horror and fear because of wrath to come, call upon the name of the Lord, for you will be delivered. Your deliverance is promised by God. The promise is not "He may be delivered," but, "He shall be." Note well the everlasting "shall" of God -- irrevocable, unalterable, unquestionable, irresistible. His promise stands eternally the same. "Hath he said, and shall he not do it?" (Num. 23:19). Yes, He will do what He has said! For God's Glory This way of salvation - calling upon the name of the Lord - glorifies God. He asks nothing of you but that you ask everything of Him. You are the beggar, and He is the Benefactor. You are in trouble, and He is the Deliverer. All you have to do is to trust Him and ask Him. This is easy enough. This takes the matter out of your hands and puts it into the Lord's hands. Dear friends, I am sure I write to some who are under severe trial. You are beginning to lose hope. Perhaps you have given up, or at any rate, have given yourself up. You cannot perish praying; no one has ever done so. If you could perish praying, you would be a new wonder in the universe. A praying soul in hell is an utter impossibility. A man calling on God and rejected by God - the supposition is not to be endured! God Himself would have to lie, deny His nature of love, forfeit His claim to mercy, and destroy the integrity of His character if He were to let a poor sinner call upon His name and yet refuse to hear him. I used to think that I must do something, that I must be something, that I must in some way prepare myself for the mercy of God. I did not know that simply calling upon God, simply trusting myself to His hand, simply petitioning His sacred name, would bring me to Christ the Savior. Heaven is given away. Salvation may be had for the asking. I hope that many a captive heart will at once leap to loose his own chains and cry, "It is even so. If God has said it, it must be true. There it is in His own Word. I have called upon Him, and I must be delivered." To Whom Is The Promise Given? Notice the people to whom this promise and this deliverance are given: "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered." Go down to the hospital. You may select, if you wish, a hospital for recovering alcoholics or drug users. In that house of misery, you may stand at each bed and say, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." You may then hasten to the jail. You may stop at every door of ever cell, yes, even at the bars of the cells on death row, and you may safely say to each one: "Whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered." I know what the Pharisee will say: "If you preach this, people will go on in sin." It has always been true that the great mercy of God has been turned by some into a reason for continuing in sin, but God - and this is the wonder of it - has never restricted His mercy because of that. It must be a terrible provocation of almighty grace when people pervert God's mercy into an excuse for sin, but the Lord has never even taken the edges off His mercy because people have misused it. He has still made His mercy stand out bright and clear: "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." To Both Small and Great Often, when I have been cheering up a poor sinner and urging him to believe in Christ, I have thought, "Well, if he will not drink this cup of comfort, I will drink it myself." I assure you, I need it as much as those to whom I offer it. I have been as great a sinner as any of you, my readers, and therefore I take the promise for myself. The divine cup of comfort will not be lost; I will accept it. The miracle of this cup is that millions may drink from it, yet it is just as full as ever. There is no restriction in the word "whosoever." The way of salvation is the same for the little as well as for the great, for the poorest and most obscure as well as for the strong in faith who lead the army of God to battle. To Those Without Devout Feelings Ö.those who most mourn their lack of feeling are those who feel most acutely. They say that their hearts are like hardened steel, but it is not true. Even if it were true, "whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved." Come, you who are like a frozen iceberg, who have nothing in you whatsoever but that which chills and repels. Come, call upon the name of the Lord, and you will be saved. To Nobodies Nobody, where are you? You are the very person that I am sent to look after. If there is nothing in you, there will be all the more of Christ. If you are not only empty, but cracked and broken; if you are done for, destroyed, ruined, and utterly crushed, to you is this word of salvation sent: "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." I have opened the gate wide. If the entrance led to the wrong track, all the sheep would go through. But since it is the right road, I can leave the gate open as long as I wish, yet the sheep will evade it unless You, Great Shepherd, go around the field and lead them in. Take up in Your arms a lost lamb whom You purchased long ago with Your dear heart's blood. Take him upon Your gracious shoulders, rejoicing as You do it, and place him within the field where the good pasture grows. A Bountiful Blessing Now, this is a rule that all God's people may safe practice: We may always understand God's promises in the largest possible sense. If the words could possibly mean more than you thought at first glance, you may certainly believe the broader meaning. He "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or (even) think" (Eph. 3:20). God never draws a line in His promise so that He may barely go up to it. No, it is with the great God as it was with His dear Son, who, although He was sent "unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt 15:24), spent a great part of His time in Galilee, which was called, "Galilee of the Gentiles." Furthermore, as we will see in the next chapter, He went to the very edge of Canaan to find a Canaanite woman so that He could give her a blessing. The Consequences of Refusing the Blessing As I conclude this chapter, I must explain one unhappy thought. I want to warn you above the common neglect of this blessing. You would think that everybody would call upon the name of the Lord, but read the second part of Joel 2:32Ö..notice the last part of the verse "And in the remnant whom the Lord shall call." It seems to leave me altogether speechless, that word "remnant." What! Will all not come? No, only a remnant. And even that remnant will not call upon the name of the Lord until God first calls them by His grace. Oh, my dear readers, do not let it be so with you! ÖÖ..(to those not saved) breathe an earnest prayer to God, saying, "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13). Lord, I need to be saved. Save me. I call upon Your name. Lord, I am guilty. I deserve Your wrath. I cannot save myself. Lord, I need a new heart and a right spirit, but what can I do? I can do nothing. Come and give me both the desire and the ability to do what You want. Now, from my very soul, I call upon Your name. Trembling, yet believing, I cast myself entirely upon You, O Lord. I trust the blood and righteousness of Your Son. I trust Your mercy, Your love, and Your power, as they are revealed in Jesus. I dare to claim this promise of Yours, that "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Lord, save me now, for Jesus' sake. Amen." Pray this moment, I entreat you, and you will be saved. | ||
| Carol_2 Registered user Username: Carol_2 Post Number: 390 Registered: 2-2002 |
P.S. Colleen - if it is NOT OK for me to post from this book, please delete this for me, as I don't know how to take it back out! |
