From Charles Spurgeon

Just Damnation

I know that you have attended this Tabernacle ever since it was built, and listened to our ministry for years; but boast not of that; away with that as a ground of trust; pull off that garment. You have never failed in business; you have brought up your children well; you never swear; you were never a drunkard; midnight orgies never saw you mixed up in them; this is well, but I pray you, put not on this as your proper dress: the proper dress for a sinner to go to Christ in, is sackcloth and the rope. “Well,” says one, “I never will acknowledge that I deserve to be damned!” Then you never will be saved. “Well,” says another, “I never will take the language of a great sinner upon my lips.” Then you shall never be saved; for unless you are willing to confess that God may justly damn you, God will never save you; but if you feel in your heart to-night, that if He sends your soul to Hell, His righteous Law approves it well ; if you wonder how it is that you are not in the pit, and marvel why such mercy should have been shown to you, come, brother, come; come as you are, for you wear the true court-dress of a sinner. When a beggar goes out to beg at the door, should he put on a new black coat, and a clean white cravat, and kid gloves. Nay, verily, let him clothe himself in tatters — the more rents he has the better — for tatters are the livery of a beggar, and rags are the court-dress of a mendicant. So, come in your sins; come in your doubts; come in your hardness of heart; come in your impenitence; come in your deadness; come in your lethargy; come as you are — foul, vile, filthy, waiting for no amendment, but with a rope upon your neck, and a garment of sackcloth about your loins; come now, come now; God help you to come.

I just read this on the front page of wayofthemasterradio.com and it corresponded with some things I have been thinking about. I find that when the battle of my flesh and the Holy Spirit is the greatest is when I do not have either a correct view of God, or I forget what an undeserving wretch I am and that, as Spurgeon put more eloquently than I can,

"God may justly damn [me]" and "if He sends [my] soul to Hell, His righteous Law approves it well".

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I'm going to copy Mike and share a hymn that was sung last Sunday night at a Community Bible Church:

GRACE GREATER THAN OUR SIN

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt, Yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured, There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Refrain:
Grace, grace, God's grace (split part: Marvelous grace, infinite grace) Grace that will pardon and cleanse within! [repeat]

Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.

Refrain

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide-
What can avail to wash it away?
Look! there is flowing a crimson tide;
Whiter than snow you may be today.

Refrain

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe!
You that are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?

Refrain