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.
Faith is a living, daring, confidence in God's grace.
The outpouring of Christ's blood is the source of the church's life.
One saintly priest attracts more souls to Christ...than do those who lack the imprint of their sacred office
Faith is above all a personal, intimate encounter with Jesus, and to experience [His] closeness, [His] friendship, [His] Love; only in this way does one learn to know [Him] ever more, and to love and follow [Him] ever more. May this happen to each one of us.
Ministry in no way is a privilege...it is the core of the Christian life. No Christian is a Christian without being a minister.
When my heart is cold and I cannot pray as I should I scourge myself with the thought of the impiety and ingratitude of my enemies, the Pope and his accomplices and vermin, and Zwingli, so that my heart swells with the righteous indignation and hatred and I can say with warmth and vehemence: 'Holy be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done!' And the hotter I grow the more ardent do my prayers become.
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