Let this be to you the mark of true gospel preaching - where Christ is everything, and the creature is nothing; where it is salvation all of grace, through the work of the Holy Spirit applying to the soul the precious blood of Jesus.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of Christ's centrality in salvation and the grace that operates through the Holy Spirit.
Charles Spurgeon highlights that true gospel preaching revolves around Christ, portraying Him as the focal point of faith and salvation, while humanity is rendered insignificant in the grand scheme of divine grace. This underscores the belief that salvation is solely by grace, administered by the Holy Spirit through the sacrificial blood of Jesus, thus reaffirming the need to recognize one's dependency on God's mercy rather than human effort.
In practice
In a sermon about the essence of faith, one might use this quote to illustrate the need for Christ's central role.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
The Bible in the pulpit must never supersede the Bible at home.
Nothing is more beautiful in the eyes of God than a soul that loves to hear His Word.
Anyone can be sentimental about the nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don’t believe in the resurrection, you’re not a believer." “If you don’t believe in Easter,” Owen Meany said. “Don’t kid yourself—Don’t call yourself a Christian.
I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself.
One saintly priest attracts more souls to Christ...than do those who lack the imprint of their sacred office
Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship.
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