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.
Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she bears witness to God’s love. Be missionaries of God’s tenderness!
Meditating on the nature and dignity of prayer can cause saying at least one thing to God: Lord, teach us to pray!
The more reverence we have for the Word of God, the more joy we shall find in it.
Believers keep up and maintain their walk with God by secret prayer. The spirit of grace is always accompanied with the spirit of supplication. It is the very breath of the new creature, the fan of the divine life, whereby the spark of holy fire, kindled in the soul by God, is not only kept in, but raised into a flame.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him, all creatures here below! Praise Him above, ye heavenly host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
The Rosary is the most beautiful and the most rich in graces of all prayers; it is the prayer that touches most the Heart of the Mother of God...and if you wish peace to reign in your homes, recite the family Rosary.
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