If the Savior has not sanctified you, renewed you, given you a hatred of sin and a love of holiness, He has nothing in you of a saving character.
Interpretation
True transformation requires divine influence and a sincere desire for holiness.
Charles Spurgeon's quote emphasizes that genuine spiritual renewal comes from a connection with the Savior, leading to a profound rejection of sin and an authentic love for holiness. Without this divine sanctification, one cannot claim to possess the essential qualities of a redeemed character.
In practice
During a sermon, a pastor might use this quote to inspire deeper spiritual reflection among congregants.
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 world also remains a hopeful place. Calls for democracy and human rights are being reborn everywhere, and these calls are an expression of support for the values enshrined in the United Nations Charter. They encourage our hopes for a more stable, more peaceful, more prosperous world.
If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes.
People trample over flowers, yet only to embrace a cactus.
RUMOR, n. A favorite weapon of the assassins of character.
In the middle of everything evil, in an evil place, you can find goodness. Goodness. I'd even call it godliness.
Oh, a very useful philosophical animal, your average tortoise. Outrunning metaphorical arrows, beating hares in races... very handy.
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