Charles Spurgeon
1858
Luke 15:20
To get rid of old prejudices and preconceived notions is a very hard struggle indeed. It has been well said, that those few words, “I am mistaken,” are the hardest in all the English language to pronounce, and certainly it takes very much force to compel us to pronounce them: and after having done so, it is even then difficult to wipe away the slime which an old serpentine error has left upon the heart.
If I had been let alone to form my notion of God, entirely from Holy Scripture, I feel, that with the assistance of his Holy Spirit it would have been far more easy for me to understand what he is, and how he governs the world, than to learn even the truths of his own Word, after the mind had become perverted by the opinions of others.
Oh that we could unlearn all these fallacies, and believe God to be what he is! Oh that we could come to Scripture, and there look into that glass which reflects his sacred image, and then receive him as he is, the all Wise, the all-Just, and yet the all- Gracious, and all-Loving Jehovah!
It is the man who knows himself lost, but desires to be saved, who is here declared to be met by God, and received with affectionate embraces.
So let God’s grace just open a window and let the light into a man’s soul, and he will stand astonished to see at what a distance he is from God.
Conscience tells every man that if he would be saved he must get rid of his sin. The Antinomian may possibly pretend to believe that men can be saved while they live in sin. but conscience will never allow any man to swallow so egregious a lie as that. I have not one person in this congregation who is not perfectly assured that if he is to be saved he must leave off his drunkenness and his vices.
It is singular that other men think they shall live for ever, but men convinced of sin, who seek a Savior, are afraid they shall not live another moment.
There was never a soul yet, that sincerely sought the Savior, who perished before he found him. No. the gates of death shall never shut on thee till the gates of grace have opened for thee; till Christ has washed thy sins away thou shalt never be baptized in Jordan’s flood. Thy life is secure, for this is God’s constant plan — he keeps his own elect alive till the day of his grace, and then he takes them to himself.
Sinner, let this be thy comfort, that God sees thee when thou beginnest to repent. He does not see thee with his usual gaze, with which he looks on all men, but he sees thee with an eye of intense interest. He has been looking on thee in all thy sin, and in all thy sorrow, hoping that thou wouldst repent; and now he sees the first gleam of grace, and he beholds it with joy.
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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