Obnoxious to God, corrupt and abominable!
(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)
Charles Spurgeon
"Among them we too all formerly lived in
the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with
which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made
us alive together with Christ!" Ephesians 2:3-5
"You have loved my soul out of the pit of corruption!" Isaiah 38:17
See, dear brethren, where we lay by nature--in the pit of corruption!
We were so destroyed by sin that we were like men who had rotted in a pit
and were corrupt, for sin is a foul putrefaction of our nature, and it has
worked in us to the most dreadful degree. Like the slain upon the battle
field, rotting with foul decay--we were obnoxious to God, corrupt and
abominable!
As all of His redeemed children know that it was the God's wondrous
love, which moved Him to have compassion upon us when we were in the pit of
corruption. The Lord loved us even when we were in that loathsome condition!
To love us when there was no good in us, but every evil in us; to love us
when we were unlovable, and even hateful to Him--this is not after the
manner of man, but is worthy of the infinite heart of God. We know that this
divinely wondrous love, which had no cause except itself, devised the way to
lift us out of the pit of sin and Hell.
Love supplied all the costly provisions for carrying out that plan.
Love brought the precious Savior to bear our
sins on the cruel cross.
The Father's love chose us.
The Son's love redeemed us.
The Spirit's love regenerated us, and irresistibly drew us to the Savior's cross.
Divine love has supported us until this day, and will
keep us
to the end.
"As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those
who fear Him!" Psalm 103:11
"Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love! Therefore with
loving-kindness I have drawn you!" Jeremiah 31:3
Beloved, the love of God to you has never changed.
He could not love you more--and He will not love you less!
The great, inconceivably vast heart of God belongs as much to every
Christian, as if there were not another being in the world for God to love!
"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God!" 1 John 3:1
Think it over, and then say to yourself:
"Jehovah, the Eternal, Self-existent One--loves me!
Jesus, the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the Wonderful, Counselor, the
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace--loves me!
The Holy Spirit, the Wonderworker, the Comforter, the
Illuminator--loves
me!
What bliss is this!"
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:10
"May you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide,
how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of
Christ, though it is too great to understand fully!" Ephesians 3:18-19