JUDE'S DOXOLOGY. - APIBS Home

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the Lord, and I am sure that you could not have a better occupation to all
eternity. Remember that, if you do not praise God, it is impossible for you
ever to enter heaven, for that is the chief occupation of heaven; and
remember also that praise from your lips, until those lips are divinely
cleansed, would be like a jewel in a swine’s snout, a thing altogether out of
place. For you, dear unsaved hearer, the first thing is, not praise, but
prayer, — nay, not even prayer first, but faith. “Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved;” and then, in faith, pray the prayer which
God accepts. But, thou must first, believe in Jesus. “And what does
believing in Jesus mean?” thou askest. It means this: thy sin deserves
punishment, for God, who is just, must punish sin. But his Son came into
the world to suffer in the stead of those who trust him; and now, God can
be just, and yet, the Justifier of every soul that believes in Jesus. In the
person of his Son, God hangs upon a tree, and dies a felon’s death; wilt
thou believe in the merit of that death, and in the love of God, who spared
not, his own Son in order that he might spare us? Canst thou trust Jesus as
thy God and Savior? Wilt thou do it now? Then thou art saved. The first
moment of thus trusting God is the beginning of a new life, — a life which
will drive out the old death of sin. The moment that thou dost thus trust
thy God, thou wilt be placed upen a new footing with regard to him, thy
whole aspect towards God will be changed. Repentance will take such
possession of thy spirit that thou wilt be actuated by new motives, and
swayed by new desires; in fact, thou wilt be a new man in Christ Jesus.
This is being saved, — saved from the love of sin, saved from returning to
sin, saved from falling, and so completely saved that Christ shall one day
present thee “faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
May God do this for every one of you, my hearers, according to the riches
of his grace! It is my heart’s last, best, and strongest desire that every one
of you may be saved. May we all meet in heaven, before the throne of God,
never more to be parted! While I am away, listen with all earnestness to
othe Heralds of the cross, and pray the Lord to bless their messages to
your salvation, if mine have not been so blest. I pray that, by some
instrumentality, you may all be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. Amen.
EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON.
THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JUDE.