A Sermon by C H Spurgeon
2 Corinthians 6:2. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
2. The glorious day itself, for the day of salvation is rich with blessing. I would commend that day because of its fourfold excellence. Read again the verse in which our text stands. Although the words must be regarded as spoken, in the first place, to the Lord Jesus, the best expositors say that they are also addressed to His Church in Him. The words came to Him as the Head and Representative of His people, and so to His chosen ones as one with Him.
First then, beloved, in this day of salvation our prayer will be heard: “I have heard thee in a time accepted”. If you will sincerely pray in the name of Jesus, you will be heard. Are you very guilty? Ask for mercy, and you will be heard. “I have heard thee in a time accepted.” Have you condemned yourself? Have you written your own death warrant? Are you bowed down with a sense of guilt? Pray and pray, and pray again! Pray, I beseech you. If you are between the jaws of hell, still pray, for now is the day of salvation. And it is a day in which “every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened”.
Second, we are further told that on this day help will be given. What does it say? “In the day of salvation have I succoured thee.” Are you helpless? Are you hopeless? This is a day in which God will come to your relief. Do you need strength to break the chains of habit? Do you need power even to repent? Do you need help to feel your helplessness? Do you need everything? “Behold,” He says, “in the day of salvation have I succoured thee.” He will help you; only ask Him; only trust Him.
When there was a great lack of business in the Manchester district during the American Civil War and many were out of work and starving, many instances occurred in which people were found near to death’s door, dying of starvation. When they were kindly visited and asked why they did not apply for relief, they answered that they could not ask. British independence, as we call it – and a very noble spirit it is within proper bounds – was strong within them, and many a man said, “I could not bring myself to ask”. I admire that spirit between man and man, but I do not admire it when it touches the matter of the soul and lies between a poor worthless sinner and the great and ever-blessed God. Do not be proud and say, “I cannot bring myself to ask”, for behold your prayer will be answered now and whatever help you require will be freely given you. Does that one fact not show that we live in the day of salvation?
It is added, “Behold, now is the accepted time;” so the third blessing is that coming sinners will be accepted. If you will come to God, He will not reject you, whoever you may be. However poor your repentance and however weak your faith, it is a time of grace and the Lord will freely accept your sincere desires for His Son’s sake. Does not this fact encourage you to come? The door of mercy is open and no man can shut it. The Lord Jesus has never yet rejected a coming sinner and He never will, for it is written, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out”. It is a season of acceptance, not of rejection; come and partake in the blessing.
The fourth excellence is that it is a time of salvation, of which we will speak at greater length. You need saving; be glad then that it is salvation’s own day. All that can be needed to secure the salvation of a sinner has been fully prepared by Christ, and is now freely presented in the preaching of the Word to every soul that is willing to receive it. Jesus was born to save; He died to save and lives to save.
Now let me notice that this ought to be specially pleasant news to those who are heavily laden with guilt. I have known the day when, if I had heard such words as those I try to speak, I think I should have leaped at them at once, as a hungry dog does at a bone. Sinners, this is the day of salvation, not a day of justice. Come and confess your sin; you shall not be accused, condemned and punished, but freely forgiven. It is a day in which you may mourn to think that you have sinned, but you need not despair or indulge a single unbelieving thought, for that would be unsuitable to the time – which is a day of good tidings. From now till the day when you shall pass out of this mortal state is one long and blessed day of grace. There was a week of creation, and the Lord God performed great wonders of creating power and did not put out His left hand to destroy; so now there is a day of salvation, and angels of love are hovering all around, singing still, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men”.
God saves all that come to Him by Jesus Christ. Everything proclaims salvation. In fact, your very existence, continued by God’s longsuffering, is a message of grace. You are found in a house of prayer this morning, a place where you may be saved. Your eager attention gives me hope it shall be so. Shall it not be now accomplished by your believing in Jesus? The fountain to wash your guilt away is full; the “best robe” to cover you is prepared; the ring of everlasting love is ready to be put upon your finger, and the shoes of gladness and of peace are waiting for you. O poor soul, today I have nothing to preach but salvation, salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel”, said the Lord Jesus, and that gospel is salvation, free salvation to the sons of men.
The truth of our text should also be very encouraging to those who are fighting against inward sin. I know some who can trust Christ for pardon, but their chief difficulty is how they can be made holy. I greatly delight in seekers in whom this is the main thought, not so much to escape punishment as to avoid future sin. Well, if you are fighting against evil in the name of Jesus Christ, do not be discouraged; you will master it, because this is the day of salvation, and it is written: “Thou shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins”.
Do I address a drunkard? Has intoxicating liquor a strange fascination for you, and have you gone back to drinking after having often loathed yourself for it? You need not be a slave to it any longer, for this is a day of salvation from that sin; by faith in Christ you shall be delivered out of that deadly snare. Or have you been tempted to some other gross iniquity which holds you spellbound? Does a certain vice fix its eyes upon you and enchant you till you can no longer restrain yourself? Rejoice, for this is the day of salvation from sin. Neither saint nor sinner need sit down under the power of any sin, for in Christ Jesus’ name we can overcome the power of evil.
Do not excuse yourselves by talking of besetting sins. You must thrust away all sin; you must overcome temptation, for if any sin shall totally vanquish you, you will be lost for ever, since it is only to “him that overcometh” that the crown is given. How then can you overcome? Only by the power of Christ, who bids us this day lay hold upon salvation from sin. Come to Him and trust Him, and He will destroy the works of the devil within you.
While this is very encouraging to penitents and to those who are fighting with sin, it should be equally cheering to tried believers. Beloved, are you in deep trouble just now? Is your spirit overwhelmed within you? Be of good cheer, for this is the day of salvation. It is not a time for saints to die in; it is not a day in which the enemy shall triumph over believers; it is for them the day of salvation. Be glad then, you who are assailed by the enemy. Though your foe may put his foot upon your neck, yet he cannot crush your life out, but you may boldly cry, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise”. It is the day in which believers must be saved.
Did not Christian, in Pilgrim’s Progress, find it so from the very day in which he left the City of Destruction to the time when he passed through the river and said, “I feel the bottom, and it is good”? He had days of conflict, days of weariness, and days of deep distress of mind, but all along he was saved – saved from the lions, saved from Giant Despair, saved from the flatterer’s net, and saved from the last river with its chill floods. We also live in the day of salvation.
“Ah,” said a Popish bishop once to one of our martyrs: “You are a heretic, and you will be damned”. “My lord,” said the heroic man, “there I am at a pass with you; I may be burned, but I never shall be damned.” “Why so?” said his adversary. The man replied by quoting that passage, in the old translation, “There is therefore now no damnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit”. Who shall condemn those for whom Christ has died? It is the day of salvation, not of accusation. It is the day of victory, not of defeat, not of captivity, much less a day of destruction to the true people of God. Let us then, as is most suitable, hang out the streamers of joy and, with glad music, set our souls in fit trim to keep the feast of salvation.
And do you not think that this truth should encourage all who are at work to win souls for Jesus? If I had my pick of days, I should like to go forth and preach the gospel when it is a day of salvation, would you not? If you like to go down the river with the tide, and if you can have a fair wind as well, it is grand sailing; but surely, whenever you seek for souls, you have wind and tide with you, for it is the day of salvation. God is saving sinners; it is His daily business and His crowning glory, and He has set His heart on it. I remarked that Ahasuerus ordained a season of feasting, and there is no doubt that they did feast at a royal rate; so when the infinite Jehovah proclaims a day of salvation, the people shall be saved, and there shall be no question about it. Thousands upon thousands of erring ones shall repent and believe; they shall be saved to the glory of His grace.
Do not tell me that London is very wicked; I know it is, but the Lord has much people in this city, and He will redeem them from all iniquity. Our rural population, in many places, may also be perishing in gross darkness, but “the Lord knoweth them that are His”. He has jewels in yonder cottages, and He will make them His own. His chosen ones are hidden away in the dark mines of iniquity, but He will find out His gold and purify it. His everlasting purpose shall not fail, and His infinite pity shall not be stayed. Glory be to His blessed name, He will accomplish all His purposes, for this is a day of salvation and His people shall be called to Him by some means, by any means, by every means. They shall be brought up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay, and they shall know that the Lord saves not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit.
I think I have worked out that point sufficiently. “Now is the day of salvation.” I wonder whether anybody mistakes me. Dear friends, you know we commonly call this year AD 1878, a year of grace. We are quite right, for it is so. We say Anno Domini, the year of our Lord, and so it is; it is Jesus Christ’s year. Any time between the January 1 and December 31 in which you seek Him, He will be found by you. Suppose you do so now – here, where many have found Him. There cannot be a better hour. May the Holy Spirit help you to do so by now saying, I would be reconciled to Thee, O God, by the great Mediator; may I accept this salvation which Thou hast freely set before me! I pray you may do so.
3. A dark cloud which may darken the close of this day of salvation.
I pray it may not, yet I fear it will. To some of you I have spoken these many years, getting now into a twenty-fifth year, and shall I speak in vain? My dread is that you receive this great favour in vain – that you live in this day of salvation and yet are lost. That will be for me a calamity, for I shall lose my labour. And more, there will be your mother’s tears all lost, your father’s prayers all lost, your Sabbath school teacher’s earnest instructions all lost, and other ministers’ frequent invitations all gone for nothing. May it not be so, for that is unprofitable for you as well as for us. You will have lost all those Sabbaths, all those Bible readings, all those prickings of conscience.
I know some of you are very attentive hearers and yet you have not found grace in this day of salvation. Salvation is all round you, yet you do not have it. You have wasted golden opportunities. Ah, there will come a day when you will wish for another Sabbath, but it will be denied you; you shall have heard your last sermon and shall have received your last warning. Do not lose, I pray you, the privileges you enjoy of being born in a Christian land, of having an open Bible, of listening to an earnest ministry. Do not let those who never enjoyed such privileges have the start of you in the eternal world. Do not let Sodom and Gomorrah and Tyre and Sidon have to tell you that it is more tolerable for them in hell than for you. The Lord Jesus assures us that it will be so if you have been hearers of the gospel and lived in the day of salvation and received this grace in vain.
The text says it is a day, and a day comes to an end. These are no words of mine, but the words of Scripture. “Again, He limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today if ye will hear His voice.” Do you not see that the day of salvation, though it has lasted 1800 years and more, is still a day, and it will surely end? The opportunity of mercy does not last for ever; let no one deceive you as to that matter. The hope of grace will end with the day of grace; do not let the smooth-tongued ministers of the devil, who enter the pulpits of Christ nowadays, delude you as to any vain hope that another day of grace will come. I have no such flattering message to give you, but I speak as this Book teaches. If you let this day of salvation pass and if you glide into another world unsaved, you are lost for ever. I know no more, but I know that this Bible so declares it: “These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal”.
Do not indulge vain dreams. If the Lord speaks of a day, be sure that He has limited the day; and if He declares this to be the day of salvation, you are not authorised to expect that another such period will ever come. If “he that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses” (listen to that): “of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God”. O yield to the Lord Jesus, accept His salvation, and trust Him at once. I pray you in Christ’s stead, be reconciled to God.
^1^Taken, with editing, from The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol 24. The first part appeared last month; it contained the first head: “The great reason for this day” – because the Saviour has come. This section concludes the sermon.