I love reading Charles Spurgeon. He was an English preacher and author. I took it upon myself to revise one of his tracts to updated language. Read and respond.
It is by God’s grace alone that sinners are rescued for instant death. God’s justice, like an ax ready to chop down a barren tree, is stopped by Jesus’ interceding, saying “Spare the sinner for a little while.” Many sinners have admitted after converting to God that it was only His mercy that allowed them to go on living. In his book Grace Abounding, John Bunyan tells about three “escapes” from death before he was a believer. He says these were the result of God’s patience and mercy. Sometimes, these “escapes” are the very things that convict us about how we have offended God, and give us a sense of love for God. Shouldn’t it be that way? We should recognize God’s patience as part of God’s saving love for us. That what Saint Peter says in his second epistle, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation.” (2 Pet. 3:15)
Here’s a story to illustrate: During a battle, and officer was shot in the stomach. But the bullet struck him right on a pocket, and struck a silver coin. He pulled the coin and bullet from his pocket, and on the coin was written in Latin, DEI GRATIA, which means By the Grace of God. He was amazed. He immediately remembered a letter a Christian woman had given him before he left for war. He read the letter, and was immediately convicted of God’s grace and became a believer. God blessed him through saving his life, then through the reading of the letter. And he was saved.
Let me ask you this as direct as I can: Are you still not saved? Do you remember any of your “escapes”? If so, the time has come to adore and admire God’s free grace. It’s time for pray that you may be led to repentance! Remember DEI GRATIA, and never forget that it is by God’s grace alone that we are saved. Grace always means that the one who gets it hasn’t done anything to deserve it. In fact, grace starts where all our supposed good works stop. That’s incredible news – but only once we accept that before God we are completely unworthy of salvation, without enough good works to be acceptable, without any goodness compared to the goodness of God. God is offering forgiveness for all our crimes. He is saving us because He loves us and chooses to save us. It’s his love, it’s His choice. Grace means it’s free. John Wickliffe, the first guy to translate the Bible into English, used to pray “Lord, save me freely.” Save us with your grace. Nothing we can do will earn us salvation. It can’t be bought or deserved. So Father gives it to us for free, and doesn’t charge us with any wrongdoing.
Grace comes to us through faith in Jesus. Whoever believes in Him is no longer condemned. Listen, you are a sinner, I am too. But God can give us His grace to look to Jesus, and start to truly live. Don’t wait. Now. Now. Now is the time.
Psalm 4 (and commentaries)
Psalm 4
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm of David.
1Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
be merciful to me and hear my prayer.
2How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love delusions and seek false gods? Selah
3Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord will hear when I call to him.
4In your anger do not sin;
when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Selah
5Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.
6Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?”
Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord.
7You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.
8I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
David was a preacher, a royal preacher, as well as Solomon; many of his psalms are doctrinal and practical as well as devotional; the greatest part of this psalm is so, in which Wisdom cries to men, to the sons of men (as Prov. 8:4, 5), to receive instruction. The title does not tell us, as that of the former did, that it was penned on any particular occasion, nor are we to think that all the psalms were occasional, though some were, but that many of them were designed in general for the instruction of the people of God, who attended in the courts of his house, the assisting of their devotions, and the directing of their conversations: such a one I take this psalm to be. Let us not make the prophecy of scripture to be of more private interpretation than needs must, 2 Pt. 1:20. Here I. David begins with a short prayer (v. 1) and that prayer preaches. II. He directs his speech to the children of men, and, 1. In God’s name reproves them for the dishonour they do to God and the damage they do to their own souls (v. 2). 2. He sets before them the happiness of godly people for their encouragement to be religious (v. 3). 3. He calls upon them to consider their ways (v. 4). III. He exhorts them to serve God and trust in him (v. 5). IV. He gives an account of his own experiences of the grace of God working in him, 1. Enabling him to choose God’s favour for his felicity (v. 6). 2. Filling his heart with joy therein (v. 7). 3. Quieting his spirit in the assurance of the divine protection he was under, night and day (v. 8).
Ps 4:1-8. On Neginoth, that is, stringed instruments, as the kind of musical accompaniment. On other parts of title, see [569]Introduction., The historical occasion was probably the same as that of the foregoing [see on [570]Ps 3:1]. The writer, praying for further relief, admonishes his enemies of the vanity of attacking God’s servant, exhorts them to repentance, and avows his confidence and peace in God’s favor.
1. Hear-as in Ps 3:4.
God of my righteousness-or, “my righteous God, as my holy hill” (Ps 2:6), who will act towards me on righteous principles.
thou hast enlarged-expresses relief afforded in opposition to “distress,” which is expressed by a word denoting straits or pressure. Past favor is a ground of hope for the future.