The Road to Salvation

I read something remarkable last night and I felt compelled to post it here. It has to do with how you can come to God even if you're not feeling sorry in your sins and you want to. I've read that concern on here a lot and I've had it myself but I've never heard it addressed by someone I would consider a solid authority on scripture....until last night.

Some of you may have read those posts: "I want to want to feel sorry for my sins". People whose minds are deep in virtual reality and filled with PMO and video, other things and recognize on some level the sin they're doing. They want a path out of their situation. I wanted to post this resource and recommend everyone who is searching regarding this to listen to it. It's a sermon by John MacArthur of Grace Community Church, over 20 years old so that's why I didn't find it easily, but all his sermons are available on his website.

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-190/the-only-way-to-happiness-mourn-over-sin

That's the sermon. The relevant part is toward the end so you have to be patient. Here's an excerpt "So the first great hindrance is a hard heart, and hard hearts are the result of the love of sin, despair, conceit, presumption, procrastination, shallowness. One way to look beyond that, one way to do a little inventory is to look at the cross of Christ. If that can’t break your heart, I don’t know what can."

For those of you who want to know what it means to pursue Christ and to "look at the cross" and know Christ better I'm going to recommend a few books for you. They're cheap on amazon because they're old but don't worry, they're readable, not "Ye Auld English".

"The Greatest Fight in the World" and "Christ's Glorious Achievements "by Charles Spurgeon

"The Heart of Christ" by Thomas Goodwin

"The Glory of Christ" by John Owen

If you feel you're wrestling with doubt or as James put in his epistle "double-mindedness" may I recommend "God in the Dark" by Os Guinness. Finally, MacArthur quoted a poem in his sermon I'd like to repost here for encouragement:

"Good Friday" by Christina Rossetti

Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon –
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

I pray this helps someone.