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  SPURGEONS SERMONS VOLUME 18 1872
  by C.H. Spurgeon
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Volume 18 of Spurgeon's collected sermons, containing messages preached during
1872 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. These sermons showcase Spurgeon's powerful
biblical exposition, vivid illustrations, and passionate gospel proclamation
that drew thousands to hear the 'Prince of Preachers' during his Metropolitan
Tabernacle ministry.

  Chapters: 18

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    0. Spurgeons Sermons Volume 18 1872
    1. The Glorious Master and the Swooning Disciple
    2. A Call to Holy Living
    3. The Pilgrim's Longings
    4. How Can I Obtain Faith?
    5. The Two Yokes
    6. Faith's Dawn and Its Clouds
    7. The Only Atoning Priest
    8. The Real Presence, the Great Want of the Church
    9. Precious Deaths
   10. The Poor Man's Friend
   11. Another Royal Procession
   12. |Pray Without Ceasing|
   13. What and Whence Are These?
   14. Mercy's Master Motive
   15. A Persuasive to Steadfastness
   16. Glorious Predestination
   17. The Great Assize

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  CHAPTER 0: SPURGEONS SERMONS VOLUME 18 1872
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  CHAPTER 1: THE GLORIOUS MASTER AND THE SWOONING DISCIPLE
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A Sermon (No.1028) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, January 7th, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "And when I saw him, I fell
at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear
not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and,
behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."
-- Revelation 1:17-18. LOW THOUGHTS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST are exceedingly
mischievous to believers. If you sink your estimate of him you shift everything
else in the same proportion. He who thinks lightly of the Savior thinks so much
the less of the evil of sin; and, consequently, he becomes callous as to the
past, careless as to the present, and venturesome as to the future. He thinks
little of the punishment due to sin, because he has small notions of the
atonement made for sin. Christian activity for right is also abated; as well as
holy horror of wrong. He who thinks lightly of the Lord Jesus renders to him but
small service; he does not estimate the Redeemer's love at a rate high enough to
stir his soul to ardor; if he does not count the blood wherewith he was redeemed
an unholy thing, yet he thinks it a small matter, not at all sufficient to claim
from him life-long service. Gratitude is weak when favors are undervalued. He
serves little who loves little, and he loves little who has no sense of having
been greatly beloved. The man who thinks lightly of Christ also has but poor
comfort as to his own security. With a little Savior I am still in danger, but
if he be the mighty God, able to save unto the uttermost, then am I safe in his
protecting hand, and my consolations are rich and abounding. In these, and a
thousand other ways, an unworthy estimate of our Lord will prove most solemnly
injurious. The Lord deliver us from this evil. If our conceptions of the Lord
Jesus are very enlarged, they will only be his due. We cannot exaggerate here.
He deserves higher praise than we can ever render to him. As high as the heavens
are above the earth, so high is be above our loftiest conceptions. Even when the
angels strike their loudest notes, and chant his praises most exultingly on
their highest festal days, the music falls far short of his excellence. He is
higher than a seraph's most soaring thought! Rise then, my brethren, as on
eagle's wings, and let your adoring souls magnify and extol the Lord your
Savior. When our thoughts of Jesus are expanded and elevated, we obtain right
ideas upon other matters. In the light of his love and atoning sacrifice, we see
the depth of the degradation from which such a Redeemer has uplifted us, and we
hate, with all our hearts, the sins which pierced such an altogether lovely one,
and made it needful for the Lord of life to die. Forming some adequate estimate
of what Jesus has done for us, our gratitude grows, and with our gratitude our
love -- while love compels us to consecration, and consecration suggests heroic
self-denying actions. Then are we bold to speak for him, and ready, if needs be,
to suffer for him while we feel we could give up all we have to increase his
glory, without so much as dreaming that we had made a sacrifice. Let your
thoughts of Christ be high, and your delight in him will be high too; your sense
of security will be strong, and with that sense of security will come the sacred
joy and peace which always keep the heart which confidently reposes in the
mediator's hands. If thou wouldst thyself be raised, let thy thoughts of Christ
be raised. If thou wouldst rise above these earthly toys, thou must have higher
and more elevated thoughts of him who is high above all things. Earth sinks as
Jesus rises. Honor the Son even as thou wouldst honor the Father, and, in so
doing, thy soul shall be sanctified and brought into closer fellowship with the
great Father of Spirits, whose delight it is to glorify his Son. My object, this
morning, is to suggest some few truths to your recollection which may help to
set the Lord Jesus on a glorious high throne within your hearts. My motto, this
morning, will be -- "Bring forth the royal diademAnd crown him Lord of all."My
anxiety is that he may be crowned with many crowns in all these many hearts, and
that you may now perform those exercises of faith, those delightful acts of
adoring love, which shall bring to him great glory.I. Coming to the text, the
first thing we notice in it is THE DISCIPLE OVERPOWERED. We will meditate a
little while upon that. John writes, "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as
dead."The beloved disciple was favored with an unusual vision of his glorified
Lord. In the blaze of that revelation even his eagle eye was dimmed and his holy
soul was overwhelmed. He was overpowered, but not with ecstacy. At first sight
it would have seemed certain that excess of delight would have been John's most
prominent feeling; it would appear certain that to see his long lost Master,
whom he had so dearly loved, would have caused a rush of joy to John's soul, and
that if overpowered at all, it would have been with ecstatic bliss. That it was
not so is clear from the fact that our Lord said to him, "Fear not." Fear was
far more in the ascendant than holy joy. I will not say that John was unhappy,
but, certainly, it was not delight which prostrated him at the Savior's feet;
and I gather from this that if we, in our present embodied state, were favored
with an unveiled vision of Christ, it would not make a heaven for us; we may
think it would, but we know not what spirit we are of. Such new wine, if put
into these old bottles, would cause them to burst. Not heaven but deadly
faintness would be the result of the beatific vision, if granted to these
earthly eyes. We should not say, if we could behold the King in his beauty as we
now are, "I gazed upon him, and my heart leaped for joy," but like John we
should have to confess, "When I saw him I fell at his feet as dead." There is a
time for everything, and this period of our sojourn in flesh and blood is not
the season for seeing the Redeemer face to face: that vision will be ours when
we are fully prepared for it. We are as yet too feeble to bear the far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. I do not say but what we are so prepared
by his grace that, if now he took us away from this body, are should be able to
bear the splendor of his face; but, I do say, that flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, and that when, as an exception to the rule, a mortal
man is permitted to behold his Lord, his flesh and blood are made to feel the
sentence of death within themselves, and to fall as if slain by the revelation
of the Lord. We ought, therefore, to thank God that "he holdeth back the face of
his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it." That face which shines as the sun
in its strength, manifests its love by wearing as yet a concealing veil. Be
grateful, that while you are to be here to serve him, and to do his will in
suffering for him, he does not deprive you of your power to serve or suffer, by
overwhelming you with excessive revelations. It is an instance of the glory of
God's grace that he conceals his majesty from his people, and wraps clouds and
darkness round about him; this he does not to deny his saints a bliss which they
might covet, but to preserve them from an unseasonable joy, which, as yet, they
are not capable of bearing. We shall see him as he is, when he shall be like
him, but not till then. That for a while we may be able to perform the duties of
this mortal life, and not lie perpetually stretched like dead men at his feet,
he doth not manifest himself to us in the clear light which shone upon the seer
of Patmos.I beg you to notice with care this beloved disciple in his fainting
fit, and note first, the occasion of it. He says, "I saw him." This it was that
made him faint with fear. "I saw HIM." He had seen him on earth, but not in his
full glory as the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of the kings of
the earth. When our Savior dwelt among men, in order to their redemption, he
made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant; for
this reason he restrained the flashings of his Deity, and the godhead shone
through the manhood with occasional and softened rays. But now, Jesus was
resplendent as the ancient of days, girt with a golden girdle, with a
countenance outshining the sun in its strength, and this even the best beloved
apostle could not endure. He could gaze with dauntless eye upon the throne of
jasper and the rainbow of emerald, he could view with rapture the sea of glass
like unto crystal, and the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, but
the vision of the Lord himself was too much for him. He who quailed not when the
doors of both heaven and hell were opened to him in vision, yet fell lifeless
when he saw the Lord. None either in earth or heaven can compare with Jesus in
glory. Oh for the day when we shall gaze upon his glory and partake in it. Such
is his sacred will concerning us. "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast
given me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." To bear that
sight we shall need to be purified and strengthened. God himself must enlarge
and strengthen our faculties, for as yet, like the disciples upon labor, we
should be bewildered by the brightness. Here was the occasion of his faintness.
But what was the reason why a sight of Christ so overcame Him? I take it we have
the reason in the text, it was partly fear. But, why fear? Was not John beloved
of the Lord Jesus? Did he not also know the Savior's love to him? Yes, but for
all that, he was afraid, or else the Master would not have said to him, "Fear
not." That fear originated partly in a sense of his own weakness and
insignificance in the presence of the divine strength and greatness. How shall
an insect live in the furnace of the sun? How can mortal eye behold unquenched
the light of Deity, or mortal ear hear that voice which is as many waters? We
are such infirmity, folly and nothingness, that, if we have but a glimpse of
omnipotence, awe and reverence prostrate us to the earth. Daniel tells us that
when he saw the great vision by the river Hiddekel, there remained no strength
in him, for his comeliness was turned in on him into corruption, and he fell
into a deep sleep upon his face. John, also, at that time, perhaps, perceived
more impressively than ever the purity and immaculate boldness of Christ: and,
being conscious of his own imperfection, he felt like Isaiah when he cried "Woe
is me, I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the
Lord of Hosts." Even his faith, though fixed upon the Lord, our righteousness,
was not able to bear him up under the first surprising view of uncreated
holiness. Methinks his feelings severe like those of the patriarch of Uz, when
he says, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth
thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." The most
spiritual and sanctified minds, when they fully perceive the majesty and
holiness of God, are so greatly conscious of the great disproportion between
themselves and the Lord, that they are humbled and filled with holy awe, and
even with dread and alarm. The reverence which is commendable is pushed by the
infirmity of our nature into a fear which is excessive, and that which is good
in itself is made deadly unto us; so prone are we to err on the one side or the
other.There is no doubt, too, that a part of the fear which caused John to swoon
arose from a partial ignorance or forgetfulness of his Lord. Shall we charge
this upon one who wrote one of the gospels, and three choice epistles? Yes, it
was doubtless so, because the Master went on to instruct and teach him in order
to remove his fear. He needed fresh knowledge or old truths brought home with
renewed power, in order to cure his dread. As soon as he knew his Lord he
recovered his strength. The wonderful person who then stood before him bade him
know that he was the first and the last, the ever living and Almighty Lord. The
knowledge of Jesus is the best remedy for fears: when we are better acquainted
with our Lord we part company with half our doubts -- these bats and owls cannot
bear the sun. Jesus in his person, work, offices, and relations, is a mine of
consolation; every truth which is connected with him is an argument against
fear: when our heart shall be filled with perfect love to him fear will be cast
out, as Satan was cast down from heaven. Study then your Lord. Make it your
life's object to know him. Seek the Holy Spirit's illumination, and the choice
privilege of fellowship, and your despondency and distress will vanish as night
birds fly to hide themselves when the day breaketh. It is folly to walk in
sorrow when we might constantly rejoice. We do not read that John was any more
afraid after the Lord had discoursed lovingly upon his own glorious person and
character. That divine enlightenment which was given to his mind, purged from it
any secret mistake and misjudgment which had created excessive fear.But, while
we thus notice the occasion and the reasons, we must not forget the extent to
which John was overpowered. He says, "I fell at his feet as dead;" He does not
say in a partial swoon, or overcome with amazement: he uses a very strong
description, "I fell at his feet as dead." He was not dead, but he was "as
dead;" that is to say, he could see no more, the blaze of Jesus' face had
blinded him; he could hear no more, the voice like the sound of many waters had
stunned his ear; no bodily faculty retained its power. His soul, too, had lost
consciousness under the pressure put upon it; he was unable to think much less
to act. He was stripped not only of self-glory and strength, but almost of life
itself. This is by no means a desirable natural condition, but it is much to be
coveted spiritually. It is an infinite blessing to us to be utterly emptied,
stripped, spoiled, and slain before the Lord. Our strength is our weakness, our
life is our death, and when both are entirely gone, we begin to be strong and in
very deed to live. To lie at Jesus' feet is a right experience; to lie there as
sick and wounded is better, but to lie there as dead is best of all; a man is
taught in the mysteries of the kingdom, who comes to that. Moses with dim legal
light needs to be told to put off his shoe from off his foot in the presence of
the Lord of Hosts, but John is manifestly far in advance of him, because he lies
lower, and is like a dead man before the Infinite Majesty. How blessed a death
is death in Christ! How divine a thing is life in him. If I might see Christ at
this moment upon the terms of instant death, I would joyfully accept the offer,
the bliss would far exceed the penalty. But as for the death of all within us,
that is of the flesh and of fallen nature, it is beyond measure desirable, and
if for nothing else; my soul would pant more and more to see Jesus. May that
two-edged sword which cometh out of his mouth smite all my besetting sins; may
the brightness of his countenance scorch and burn up in me the very roots of
evil: may he mount his white horse and ride through my soul conquering, and to
conquer, casting out of me all that is of the old dragon and his inventions, and
bringing every thought into subjection to himself. There would I lie at his dear
conquering feet, slain by his mighty grace. Only one other reflection while we
look at this fainting apostle, observe well the place where he was overpowered.
Oh, lovely thought. "I fell as dead;" but where? "I fell at his feet as dead."
It matters not what aileth us if we lie at Jesus' feet. Better be dead there
than alive anywhere else. He is ever gentle and tender, never breaking the
bruised reed or quenching the smoking flax. In proportion as he perceives that
our weakness is manifest to us, in that degree will he display his tenderness.
He carrieth the lambs in his bosom, and doth gently lead those that are with
young; feebleness wins on him. When he sees a dear disciple prostrate at his
feet, he is ready at once to touch him with the hand of his familiar love, and
to revive him by his own strength. "He restoreth my soul." "He giveth power unto
the faint." He saith unto our pitiful weakness, "Fear not, I am the first and
the last." To be as dead were not desirable, but to be as dead at Jesus' feet is
safe and profitable. Well doth our poet say, when expressing his desire to
escape from all worldly bonds."But oh, for this, no strength have I,My strength
is at his feet to lie."II. And now, having seen the disciple overpowered, I
shall ask your consideration of THAT SAME DISCIPLE RESTORED. He was not long in
the condition of death, for the Master laid his right hand upon him, and said to
him, "Fear not." Here then, we shall notice, that when the children of God
become exceeding faint and feeble, and their own sense of impurity and
nothingness becomes painful, and even killing to them, the Lord has ways of
restoring and reviving their spirits.And first, he does it by a condescending
approach. "He laid his hand upon me." It is noticeable, that in the great cures
which our Savior wrought, he almost always touched the patient. He could with a
word have healed, but to prove his fellowship with the sick, he put his hand
upon the leper, and upon the blind eye, and touched the deaf ear; thus
manifesting his condescending contact with the infirmities of our nature. The
Master could have spoken a word to John, and have revived him; but he did not
stand at a distance, or guard himself with a "Touch me not" but, instead of
that, he commenced his care with a touch. No other hand could have revived the
apostle, but the hand which was pierced for him had matchless power. There is
mighty healing in the royal hand of our Immanuel. When the Holy Spirit inspires
us with a sense of the relationship which Christ bears to us, of the sympathy
which Christ feels with us, of the kinship and fellowfeeling which reign in
Jesus' breast, then are we comforted. To know that he is not ashamed to call us
brethren is a wellspring of comfort to a tried child of God; to feel his
presence, to perceive the touch of his hand, and to hear him say: "I am with
thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God," this is new life to our waning
spirits. Oh what bliss is this. "In all their afflictions he was afflicted." He
is a brother born for adversity, a sympathetic and tender friend touched with a
feeling of our infirmities. "He laid his hand upon me." "O child of God, pray
for a manifestation of the kinsman Christ to thy soul; ask that he would
instruct thee as to the fact that he enters into thy grief, having himself
endured the like. Thou art one with him, and he is one with thee; and as surely
as the head feels the pain of the members, so does Jesus share in all the
sorrows of his people. Let this be a comfort to thee, thou who art now lying as
dead before the risen Lord. He comes near to thee, not to kill thee, but to
revive thee by most intimate intercourse, talking with thee as a man speaketh
with his friend. O man, greatly beloved, be not so overwhelmed with the
greatness of thy Lord as to forget his love, his great love, his familiar love,
which at this moment lays its hand upon thee.The same action implies the
communication of divine strength. "He laid his right hand upon me." It is the
hand of favor, it is also the hand of power. God gives strength to those who
have none. He puts power into the faint. When the child of God is brought very
low, it is not a mere subject for consideration or theme for reflection that can
lift him up: sick men want more than instruction, they require cordials and
supports. There must be actual strength and energy imparted to a swooning soul,
and, glory be to God, by his own Holy Spirit, Jesus can and does communicate
energy to his people in the time of weakness. He is come that we may have life,
and that we may have it more abundantly. The omnipotence of God is made to rest
upon us, so that we even glory in infirmities. "My grace is sufficient for thee,
my strength is made perfect in weakness," is a blessed promise, which has been
fulfilled to the letter to many of us. Our own strength has departed, and then
the power of God has flowed in to fill up the vacuum. I cannot explain the
process: these are secrets and mysteries to be experienced rather than
expounded; but as the coming of the Spirit of God into us first of all makes us
live in regeneration, so the renewed coming of the power of God into our soul
raises us up from our weakness and our faintness into fresh energy. Be thou
encouraged, then, thou fainting spirit today. They that trust upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. All power belongeth unto the Lord, and be will give
it plenteously to those who have none of their own. Be of good courage and wait
upon him for none shall be ashamed who make him their confidence. Then there
followed a word from the Master's own mouth. He spoke and said, "Fear not." Here
he applied the remedy to the disease. Christ himself is our medicine, as well as
our physician. His voice which stilled the sea, also casts out all our fears.
The word of God, as we find it in this book, is very consoling; the word of God,
as we hear it from Christ's ministers, has great power in it; but the real and
true power of the word lies in Jesus THE WORD. When the truth falls fresh from
his own lips, then is it power. Right truly did the Master say, "the words which
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." With what power did those
syllables fall on the fluttered heart of John -- "Fear not." Oh that we might
hear the same voice by the Spirit in our inmost souls."Oh might I hear thine
heavenly tongue,But whisper 'Thou art mine.'Those gentle words should raise my
songTo notes almost divine."Truly there are many voices and each has its
significance, but the voice of Jesus has a heaven of bliss in its every accent.
Let but my beloved speak to me, and I will forego the angelic symphonies. Though
he should only say, "Fear not," and not a word beyond, it were worth worlds to
see him open his mouth unto us. But you say, can we still hear Jesus speak to
us? Ay, by his Spirit. His Spirit still hath fellowship with the hearts of men,
and he can bring the word of Scripture right home into the soul, until it
becometh no more the letter but the living, quickening word of Christ. Do you
know what I mean by this? If you do not, it is not possible to tell you; and if
you do, you will need no explanation. Jesus speaks to the heart, the truth comes
not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and with power. O thou
troubled believer, thou who art abashed by the very glory thou hast been made to
see, be assured that Jesus will draw near unto thy soul, and touch thee, and
speak with thee, so that thou shalt be strengthened with might by his Spirit in
thine inner man. Had John not fallen as dead, he might never have heard the
voice and felt the touch of his Lord. Sweet is the fall which leads to such a
rise again.In order to complete the cure of his servant our Lord went on to give
him fuller instruction in that very matter which had overpowered him. Sometimes
like cures like. If in a certain sense it is true of divine revelations, that
"shallow draughts intoxicate the brain," it is assuredly true that "drinking
largely sobers us again." If a glimpse of Christ makes holy men to faint, a
clearer sight of him will set them on their feet again. Our Lord went on to
instruct John in the glory of his person and power, that his fears might be
removed. And truly, brethren, John was in a right state for such celestial
instruction; he who is lowly is ready to learn mysteries. He was like wax ready
for the seal; or as paper cleansed of all other writing. Because we think we
know, we know not; but the death of the pride of knowledge is the birth of true
understanding. The Lord loves best for pupils those who lie lowest before him.
"The meek will he guide in judgment, the meek will he teach his way." "With the
lowly is wisdom." Where Jesus is the teacher, and instructs the heart in the
things concerning, himself, the soul is made to inherit substance, and its
treasures are filled. Blessed are the men who are taught by him who is the
wisdom of God, even though while they watch at the posts of his doors they lie
as dead men; they are blessed, for they shall find life, and obtain favor of the
Lord.III. We will now advance to the third point of our discourse which contains
the pith of it. We have observed the beloved disciple overpowered and we have
seen him afterwards revived; now we shall consider for awhile THE SAME DISCIPLE
STILL FURTHER INSTRUCTED. Let me have your attention, dear friends, to the
glorious truth which is now opening up before us in the text. John was first of
all instructed as to the Lord's person. "Fear not, I am the first and the last;
I am he that liveth and was dead." As to the Lord's person, Jesus revealed to
his disciple that he was most truly divine. "I am the first and the last." This
language can be used of none but God himself; none but he is first; none but he
is last; none but God can be first and last. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ was
evidently first. He existed before he was born into the world. We read, "a body
hast thou prepared me." Then Christ was a previously existing one for whom that
body was prepared; and he it is who said, "Lo, I come, to do thy will O God." He
came into the world, but he had from old eternity dwelt in the bosom of the
Father. John the Baptist was born into the world before the Savior, of whom he
was the forerunner, but what does he say? His testimony is "he, coming after me,
is preferred before me, for he was before me." He is first in order of honor
because first in order of existence. John was the elder as man, but as God the
Lord Jesus is from everlasting. Go back in history as far as you will; with one
leap ascend to the days of Moses, and there is Christ before you, for we read:
"Let us not tempt Christ as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of
serpents." There was Christ, then, in the wilderness vexed by the people. He it
was whose voice then shook the earth, but who will yet shake not the earth only
but also heaven. Go further back to Abraham, and we find the angel of the
covenant there. Our Lord expressly says, "Before Abraham was I am." Mark you,
not "I was," but "I am;" -- he speaks in a God-like manner. Ascend even to the
age of Noah, the second parent of our race, and there we discover Jesus Christ
preaching to those spirits who are now in prison, who sometime were disobedient,
when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was
preparing." It was Christ in Noah, who by the Spirit preached to the
antediluvian sinners. We go further back to the creation of the world, and are
find "In the beginning was the word, and the word was God;" and if we fly back
to old eternity, before the creating hand commenced its work, we find in
Proverbs, the eighth chapter, the witness of the incarnate wisdom himself. "I
was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When
there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains
abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled. Before the hills was I
brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the
highest part of the dust of the world." Our Lord is thus the first: and so
assuredly will he be the last; for all things consist and subsist through the
perpetual emanations of his infinite power; and when the kings of the earth
shall sleep in the dust, and the popovers thereof shall have passed away, when
the treasures of time shall have melted, and its most enduring memorials shall
have gone like the mists of the morning, he shall be the same, and of his years
there shall be no end. Christ is the true Melchisedec, without beginning of days
or end of years, "made a priest not after the law of a carnal commandment, but
after the power of an endless life." This was revealed to John for his comfort,
and it stands true to us today, and is equally fraught with consolation.
Moreover, by the words "the first and the last" are signified, in most
languages, the sum and substance of all things. We say sometimes the top and the
bottom of it is so and so; we mean that it is the whole of it. And the Greeks
were wont to say, "This is the prow and stern of the business," meaning that it
is the whole. And so Jesus Christ, in being first and last, is all in all. And,
truly, it is so in the working of redemption and salvation; he begins, carries
on, completes; he asks no creature help and will have none. To us he is the
author and the finisher of our faith, the alpha of our first comfort, and the
omega of our final bliss. We worship Christ as the sum and substance of all
good. Herein is wealth of comfort, and, therefore, did the Lord instruct his
servant, John, therein, he did as much as say, "John, thou needest no ear, for I
am no enemy, no stranger, no avenging spirit, but God himself, in whom thou has
learned to put thy trust. Thou believest in God, believe also in me." To every
trembling believer we would say, Why dost thou fear? Jesus is all. Art thou
afraid of him, thy brother, thy Savior, thy friend. Then, what dost thou fear?
Anything old? He is the first. Anything to come? He is the last. Anything in all
the world? He is all in all, from the first to the last. What dost thou want? If
thou hast him thou hast all. Dost thou need more than all? Hast thou discovered
a need within thy spirit, a grievous lack which troubles thee? How can that be
when thy Lord Jesus fills all things, and all things are yours in him. If thou
hast, indeed, placed thy confidence in him, and made him all thy salvation, to
what end and for what cause shouldst thou be troubled with any sort of fear?
Having a divine person to be thy protector and thy Savior, Why shouldst thou be
afraid?In addition, however, to rendering to John the comfort derived from his
person, our blessed Master went on to comfort him with the truth of his self
existence. "I am he that liveth," saith he, "or I am the living one." Creatures
are not living in themselves, they borrow leave to be; to God alone it belongs
to exist necessarily. He is the I AM, and such is Christ. Why then dost thou
fear? If the existence of thy Lord, thy Savior, were precarious and dependent
upon some extraneous circumstances, thou wouldst have cause for fear, for thou
wouldst be in constant jeopardy. If he had to borrow permission to be, derived
strength from creatures, and needed to look hither and thither for strength to
sustain his own existence, thou wouldst be ever in danger, and consequently in
distress; but, since Jesus cannot possibly cease to be, or be other than he is,
or less than he is, what occasion canst thou have for alarm? A self-existent
Savior, and yet a troubled Christian! Oh, let it not be so. "Fear not, I am he
that liveth."And, if these two sources of consolation should not suffice, the
Lord in the glory of his tenderness mentions a third -- viz, his atoning death.
He says, "I was dead," the original more correctly rendered is "was made dead."
Here we come upon the human nature of our Redeemer. As God and as man he had two
natures, but he was not two persons. As one person he ever lives, and yet he was
made to die. He came into this world in human form that he might be capable of
death; the pure spirit of God could not die, it was not possible that he, the I
AM, could be subject to death; but he allied himself with humanity, and in that
human form Jesus could die, and did die. In very deed, and truth, and not in
semblance; Jesus bowed his head, and gave up the ghost, and they laid his corpse
in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Here to the child of God is a fruitful
source of consolation. He died, then the atonement is complete; without the
shedding of blood there is no remission, but the death of the Son of God brings
plenteous pardon. There must be in the death of such a one of sufficient merit
to remove guilt and cleanse transgression. Is it not written, "He hath washed us
from our sins in his own blood?" Dost thou not hear that song in heaven? Will
not its music make thee glad? His own blood hath washed thee; if thou believest
in him thou art clean. Look to Calvary, and as thou lookest there and perceivest
that he was dead, "fear not."And then the master declared his endless life, "I
am alive for evermore." He who offered up the atonement lives again to claim the
effect of his sacrifice. He has presented the meritorious sacrifice, and now he
has gone to heaven to plead the sacrifice before the throne of God, and to lay
claim to the place which he has prepared for them that love him. Thou hast no
dead Savior to trust to: thou reliest in him who once died -- this is comfort to
thee, but he lives, the great Redeemer lives. He has risen from the tomb; he has
climbed the hills of heaven; he sits at the right hand of the Father, prepared
to defend his people. If thou hadst a Christ in the sepulcher that were sorrow
upon sorrow; but thou hast a Christ in heaven, who can die no more. Be thou of
good cheer.And then, to close the whole, the Master said "Amen, and hath the
keys of hell and of death." The mediatorial office which Christ now occupies is
one of great power. He is "God over all, blessed for ever." His dominion is over
land and seas and over heaven and the regions of the dead. There is nothing hid
from the energy of his power. He is Lord of all. "He hath the keys of hell and
of death." By the word "hell" may be meant here the entire invisible land, the
whole realm of spirits: Christ is Lord there, adored in heaven and feared in
hell. But, if we restrict the sense to the common meaning of the word in our
language, he is Lord of hell. The devil despite his malignity can do nothing but
what Christ permits him. He is a chained enemy; he may rave and rage, but he
cannot injure the child of God. Christ hath him ever in check, and when he
permits him to wander abroad, he makes the wrath of man and the wrath of devils
to praise him, and the remainder he doth restrain. Why dost thou fear therefore?
Thou sayest, "I am a sinner -- Satan will prevail against me." But Christ saith
"I am master of Satan, I am Lord of hell, he cannot prevail against thee." He
cannot leave hell unless Christ permits him, for Christ can turn the key and
lock him in. He could not take thee there, for Christ has locked thee out and
keeps the key. Thou art eternally and perpetually safe from all the machinations
of the powers of darkness. And dost thou tremble at death? Is it that which
alarms thee? Have the pains and groans and dying strifes sounded in thine ear
till thou art timid and afraid? Then remember Christ hath the keys of death.
Thou canst not die until he permits. If men of blood should seek thy life, they
could not smite thee till thy Lord should allow it; and if plagues and death
should fly about thee, and thousands die at thy right hand, and ten thousands at
thy left, thou canst not die till the Lord wills it. Thou art immortal till he
saith "return." The iron gate of death opens not of its own accord to thee, a
thousand angels could not drag thee to the tomb; thou comest there only at his
call. Fear not, therefore, but remember that death is no longer death to the
saints of God, they fall asleep in Jesus. Since thy Lord will be with thee, it
will not be death to die; thou shalt find death to thee an enemy muzzled and
chained: the wasp shall have lost its sting, it shall be a bee that shall bring
thee honey; out of the lion, as Samson did, shalt thou get sweetness to thyself.
Death is overborne, and when it arrives, Jesus will come with it, and make thy
dying bed most soft to thee. Remember one thought more. He that hath the key of
death will annihilate death; for thy body shall not become the prey of the worm
for ever. At the trump of the archangel thy body shall rise again. There shall
not a bone or a piece of a bone of one of his people perish, their very dust is
precious in his sight. They sleep awhile, and rest from their labors; but, from
beds of dust and silent clay, the Lord of life shall call them all. O death,
where is thy sting! O grave, wherein thy victory! Since Jesus who died and ever
lives has the keys of death and hell at his girdle, we will not fear to die, let
the time appointed be when it may. So that you see there was abundance of
comfort for the sinking spirit of the apostle John.Let me close by saying, in
the glory and exaltation of Christ is the saint's cordial. Some of us have tried
it when our mouths were full of bitterness, and we have rejoiced and been
exceeding glad at the thought. A reigning Savior makes a joyful people. Run
there for comfort, ye sons of sorrow: rejoice ye in your king all ye his
saints.But this same glorious Savior will be the sinner's terror. They shall
hide their faces at the last from the brightness of his glory; they shall ask
the hills and mountains to conceal them from his face who sits upon the throne.
A glorious monarch is the rebel's horror. By so much as he whom you have
rejected is great and glorious, by so much shall the punishment from his right
hand be intolerable. Oh that you were wise enough to cease from fighting with
the Almighty Lord.But, lastly, he is also the penitent's hope; for now, to-day,
if you would be forgiven, the exalted Savior presents himself to you most
freely. He is exalted on high, but what for? It is to give "repentance and
remission of sins." The greater he is the better for those who need great mercy;
the more royal and kingly he is the better for humble, broken, bleeding hearts.
"Oh, kiss the son, lest he be angry and ye perish from the way while his wrath
is kindled but a little." From the highest heaven he stretches down the silver
scepter; touch it by a simple faith. May he enable you to do it, and though as
yet you fall at his feet as dead, you shall hear him say this morning, "Fear
not, I am he that liveth, and was dead, and am alive for evermore, and am,
therefore, able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by me, seeing
I ever live to make intercession for thee." God bless you, dear friends, by his
Spirit. Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Proverbs 8:17-36;
Revelation 1.


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  CHAPTER 2: A CALL TO HOLY LIVING
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A Sermon (No.1029) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, January 14th, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "What do ye more than
others?" -- Matthew 5:47. IT IS A VERY GREAT FAULT in any ministry if the
doctrine of justification by faith alone be not most clearly taught. I will go
further, and add, that it is not only a great fault, but a fatal one; for souls
will never find their way to heaven by a ministry that is indistinct upon the
most fundamental of gospel truths. We are justified by faith, and not by the
works of the law. The merit by which a soul enters heaven is not its own; it is
the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am quite sure that you will all
hold me guiltless of ever having spoken about this great doctrine in any other
than unmistakable language; if I have erred, it is not in that direction. At the
same time, it is a dangerous state of things if doctrine is made to drive out
precept, and faith is held up as making holiness a superfluity. Sanctification
must not be forgotten or overlaid by justification. We must teach plainly that
the faith which saves the soul is not a dead faith, but a faith which operates
with purifying effect upon our entire nature, and produces in us fruits of
righteousness to the praise and glory of God. It is not by personal holiness
that a man shall enter heaven, but yet without holiness shall no man see the
Lord. It is not by good works that we are justified, but if a man shall continue
to live an ungodly life, his faith will not justify him; for it is not the faith
of God's elect; since that faith is wrought by the Holy Spirit, and conforms men
to the image of Christ. We must learn to place the precepts in their right
position. They are not the base of the column, but they are the capital of it.
Precepts are not given to us as a way to obtain life, but as the way in which to
exhibit life. The commands of Christ are not upon the legal tenor of "this do
and live," but upon the gospel system of "live and do this." We are not to be
attentive to the precepts in order to be saved, but because we are saved. Our
master motive is to be gratitude to him who has saved us with a great salvation.
I am sure that every renewed heart here will feel no opposition to the most holy
precepts of our Lord. However severely pure that law may seem to be which we
have read just now from this fifth chapter of Matthew, our hearts agree with it,
and we ask that we may be so renewed that our lives may be conformed to it. The
regenerate never rebel against any precept, saying, "This, is too pure;" on the
contrary, our new-born nature is enamoured of its holiness, and we cry, "Thy
word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it. O that my ways were directed
to keep thy statutes." Even though we find that when we would do good evil is
present with us, yet our inmost soul longs after holiness, and pines to be
delivered from every evil way. At any rate, Dear friends, if it be not so with
you, you may well question whether you are indeed the children of God. My
desire, this morning, is to insist upon the precepts which tend to holiness, and
I pray the Holy Spirit to excite desires after a high degree of purity in all
believing, hearts. Too many persons judge themselves by others; and if upon the
whole they discover that they are no worse than the mass of mankind, they give
themselves a mark of special commendation; they strike a sort of average amongst
their neighbors, and if they cannot pretend to be the very best, yet, if they
are not the very worst, they are pretty comfortable. There are certain scribes
and Pharisees among their acquaintance, who fast thrice in the week, and pay
tithes of all they possess, and they look upon those as very superior persons
whom they would not attempt to compete with them; but they thank God that they
are far above those horrible publicans, and those dreadful sinners, who are put
outside the pale of society, and, therefore, they feel quite easy in their
minds, and they go to their place of worship as if they were saints, and bear
the name of Christian as if it belonged to them; they share in Christian
privileges, and sit with God's people, as if they were truly of the family,
their marks and evidences being just these, that they do about as much upon the
whole as other people, and if they are not first they are not altogether last.
The nests of such people ought to be grievously disturbed when they read the
chapter before us, for there the Master insists upon a higher standard than the
world's highest, and tells us that except our righteousness exceeds that of the
scribes and Pharisees, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. In our text,
the great Master asks of those who are professors of his faith, that they should
not only do as much as others to prove their title, but that they should do more
than others; and he makes this a test question concerning their being really his
followers: "What do ye more than others?" I shall try, this morning, first, to
show that there are grounds for expecting more from Christians than from others;
secondly, I shall try to indicate the matters in which we naturally expect more
from them than from others; and, thirdly, I shall give some reasons why it
should be the aim of every saved soul to do more than others. I. We will
consider THE GROUNDS FOR EXPECTING MORE FROM CHRISTIANS THAN FROM OTHERS. There
are legitimate reasons why the world, the church, and our Lord Jesus Christ
himself, may expect more from Christians than from the rest of mankind. And, the
first is, because they profess more. Professions should always be supported by
facts, or else they are deceits, impostures, and hypocrisies. A Christian
professes himself to be a renewed man; he has learned the evil of sin, repented
of it, and fled from it to Christ Jesus; he professes to have been pardoned, and
to have received a new heart and a right spirit; he professes, also, to be a
child of God, and an heir of heaven. Other men do not profess this. Some, who
make no profession, wish that they could hope that these things belonged to
them; others of them, altogether, despise these things; but, in neither case, do
they profess to be what the Christian is. Now, Christian, if you profess this,
your life must prove it, or else, if your life gives the lie to your religious
pretensions, you stand convicted of a flagrant falsehood, a fraud on men and a
felony against God. It is a high crime and misdemeanor for a man to assume the
name of a son of God, when he is utterly devoid of the divine nature, and lives
in unholiness. In proportion as the privilege and the honor of a child of God is
great, the sin of false pretensions to grace is increased. If you say you are
regenerated, renewed, and sanctified, then be all that this means, or else cease
your boasting. Vainly do they boast of scholarship who cannot read a letter, and
idle is that vaunting of valor which leaves a man afraid of his shadow. You
remember the ancient story of the traveler who, upon his return to his native
city, boasted of the extraordinary feats which he had performed, and how, in
particular, he had astonished all by his amazing leaps. I forget how many paces
he had cleared, but something very wonderful indeed. Those who stood round
opened their mouths in amazement, as they heard the marvel, but one sage was
less believing, and, therefore, marked out the exact length on the ground, and
said, "If you leaped as far as that abroad, perhaps you will do the same here,
and then we will believe you." The world, in these times, will be sure to ask
for proofs; the age for mere assertion is over. Men will say to you, you claim
to have experienced this, and to be that; now, just act accordingly and we will
believe you; and, if you do not give them a fair and honest reply, they will not
mutter it in secret places, but they will make it plain to your face that they
believe you to be a mere pretender; and, what is worse, they will blame the
Christian religion of which you are so unworthy a professor. Alas! we may well
blush for many of you professors. How might you blush for yourselves if you were
capable of it; but it is to be feared that many are past shame and have brazen
foreheads. How has Christ been dishonored, crucified afresh, and put to all open
shame by ungodly men who have dared to take his name upon themselves. When one
of the great painters was engaged upon the portraits of Peter and Paul, a
cardinal who stood by observed that he thought the painter put too much red into
their faces. "No," said the artist, "it is to show how much the apostles blush
for the conduct of those who call themselves their successors." Ye professors
are the successors of the early saints, but do you not dishonor their names? In
how many cases may your pastors blush for you, and weep over you, because you
cause the holy name to be blasphemed. Now have all much cause for
heart-searching here, but the misery is that the very men who have most cause to
be anxious will refuse to search themselves. Instead of doing more than others,
it is to be feared that many are not doing as much as others. Even worldly men
are more honest than some professors, and I might add more generous and more
sober. There are thousands who do not profess to be converted, who,
nevertheless, are scrupulous in their dealings and exact in their mercantile
transactions, while some base-born professors have fleeced the public, have
issued lying prospectuses of bubble companies, and have ended in gigantic
bankruptcies: if we have much of this, religion will be a scoff and a byword
throughout the land. God save us from making a profession if we have not grace
to live up to it. But, secondly, we may well expect more from Christians than
others, because it is a fact in the case of those who are truly Christians that
they are more than others. It is not mere talk, it is a fact that the believer
in Christ is born again. He is not only as other men are, made by God, but he
has been twice made, new born, new created in Christ Jesus. It is no fiction but
a matter of truthful experience; we have passed from death unto life. We have
received the Spirit of God into our souls, which has implanted in us a new
nature higher than the nature of other men, as much higher than the common soul
of man as the soul of man is above the nature of the beast; for the children of
God are partakers of the divine nature, God dwelleth in them, and the Spirit of
God inhabits them as a king inhabits his palace. They are more than other men.
They are so not only because of their regeneration, but because of that eternal
act of God which set them apart in the covenant of grace or ever the earth was.
God has a chosen people. "I have chosen you out of the world," saith Christ.
There are some upon whom everlasting love fixed its eye of grace or ever the
mountains pierced the clouds or the rivers sought the sea. These are more than
others, and are infinitely more indebted to God's love than others. He hath
loved them with an everlasting love, and because of this he has drawn them to
himself. These men, because chosen of God, have been redeemed as other men were
not. There is a sense in which the atonement of Christ reaches to all mankind;
but, undoubtedly, Scripture teaches us that there is a people whom Christ has
"redeemed from among men." "He laid down his life for his sheep:" "he loved his
church, and gave himself for it." There is a particular redemption, and in this
every truly regenerated child of God is most certainly a partaker. Upon him is
the blood mark, and he is Christ's. Of all such, it may be said, "Ye are not
your own, ye are bought with a price." They have God's nature in them, they have
God's election upon them, they have God's redemption emancipating them, so that
they are more than others. They are precious sons of God while others are heirs
of wrath; they are in the light while the whole world lieth in darkness; they
are sheep of his pasture while the rest of the world roam upon the wild
mountains of vanity. Now, if they are more than others they ought to produce
more than others in their lives. I will not insist upon the reasoning here,
because I rather appeal to every believer's heart than to his head. According as
ye have received so will love suggest to you to render. Can any holiness be too
precise in return for the infinite love which has been bestowed upon you from
before the foundation of the world? Can any service be too hard to repay the
suffering which your Savior bore for your redemption? Can any self-denial he too
severe to prove that the Holy in you has subdued your flesh and overcome your
corruptions? I say the argument appeals to your love: I will not utter it in
legal tones lest you should think you hear the whip of the law behind me, but
even the Master himself I think would put it to you thus, "Inasmuch as I have
loved you thus, and have redeemed you with such a price, and have begotten you
unto my self by the power of my Spirit, what manner of people ought ye to be in
all holy conversation?" What must be expected from those so signally
distinguished by the sovereign grace of God? Again, it is certain that true
Christians can do more than others. "Can," saith one, "why, they can do
nothing." True, but through Christ that strengtheneth them they can do all
things; and Christ does strengthen his people. I admit their weakness, I admit,
nay, I mourn and experimentally lament, in my own person, their feebleness; but,
for all that, they are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Jesus
Christ lends to them his conquering energy, and, as his blood has overcome the
enemy, they overcome through the blood of the Lamb. God has given them his Son,
and in the power of Jesus they can and must vanquish sin.Moreover, what is the
indwelling Spirit within us? Is he not Omnipotence itself? The Holy Ghost who
has come upon us is no influence which might be limited in its efficacy; but he
is a divine person, who dwelleth with us and shall be in us. Who shall set any
limit to the power of that man in whom the Holy Ghost himself dwells? All
believers, are must never dare to say, "That habit we cannot give up." We can
and must overturn all the idols in our hearts. We may never say, "That height of
devotion I can never reach." Brethren, Omnipotence doth gird us; God giveth us
the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are never to sit down and say, "I
must be a sinner up to such-and-such a point; I cannot get beyond that
attainment." What saith the Scripture? "Be ye perfect even as your Father which
is in heaven is perfect;" after this perfection we are to strain, and towards
this mark of our high calling we are to press. God who dwells in us is working
in us daily to will and to do according to his own good pleasure, so that we can
do what the dead sinner cannot do; we can do what sinners, without the Spirit,
cannot do; and, if we can, we must. Surely, it is required of a man according to
what he hath, and where much is given much will be required. Let us take care
that we quench not the Spirit, that by our unbelief we restrain not his divine
energies; but let us strive, God striving in us, after the highest conceivable
standard of holiness and of separation from the world. O Spirit of God, do thou
help us that we may be sanctified by thy grace, spirit, soul, and body.Yet
further, more is to be expected of Christians than others, because they have
more. "But they are poor," saith one. True, but the poorest Christian possesses
more than the richest unbeliever. You shall set before me now the pauper who is
a believer, and the emperor who has no faith in Christ, and I am persuaded that
the poor, aged pauper would not exchange her lot though the imperial purple
should be offered her. She would refuse to leave her Savior though the world
were offered her. Methinks she would quote Dr. Watts, and say -- "Go you that
boast in all your stores,And tell how bright they shine;Your heaps of glittering
dust are yours,But my Redeemer's mine."While the poor believer feels that his
God is his portion he dispises rather than covets the glories of the
world.Brethren in Christ, you know right well that you possess the covenant of
grace, a covenant rich beyond comparison. When Moses looked from the top of Nebo
and saw the land from Lebanon even to the river of Egypt, no such prospect
gladdened his gaze as that which rises before the eye of your faith when you
survey the covenant ordered in all things and sure. More than that, you have
Christ in the covenant, and Christ is all. All the glories of his immaculate
manhood and his infinite Godhead, and all his merits, and all his conquests, and
all his glories, all are yours, seeing you are his. And what is most of all, God
is yours. "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." And
having God to be your God, Providence is yours -- all things work together for
your good. Life's goods are yours and so are its ills, this world is yours and
worlds beyond the river; time and eternity, things present and things to come,
life and death, all are yours. And yet no good thing was yours by natural
inheritance. To good was yours by purchase from your own earnings or procurement
of your own labor; they are all the gifts of the sovereign grace of God.
Brethren, we all debtors: who shall tell how much we owe? If I said to any of
you, "Take thy pen and sit down quickly, and write how much thou owest to thy
Lord," if you had to sit there till you completed the wondrous tale, you
certainly would never leave those seats. Depths of mercy, that I, a sinner,
should ever have a hope of heaven, but oh, heights of mercy! that I should be
adopted into the family of God, and made a joint heir with Christ Jesus of all
the heritage of the Firstborn of God; to have all that God is, and all that God
has, to be the portion of my cup, this is grace indeed! My cup runneth over!
Bless the Lord, O my soul!And now, after all this, ought you not to do more than
others? Shall the servant who has but his daily pay love the master better than
the child who has the father's heart? Shall the stranger who comes into the
house occasionally love the master of the house better than his spouse who is
beloved of his soul? Oh, by the favors you have received, countless and immense;
by the precious fountain-head of mercy, from which all those favors come; by the
many years in which goodness and mercy have followed you all your days; if you
be not indeed insensible, and your hearts changed to adamant, I beseech you,
brethren, do more than others; serve your Lord with an intensity which others
cannot reach, and live for him with an ardor of which they cannot conceive. I
think there is a good argument here. It will be powerful reasoning, if you feel
it to be so. Do you feel it, brother? And feeling it, will you try to live it
out? Believers ought to do more than others, in the next place, because they are
looking for more than others. The ungodly man's look-out is dark and dreary:
when he dares open the window and look, what seeth he? Come hither, come hither,
ungodly man, I must take thee to the battlements of thine house and bid thee
look abroad. What seest thou? Ah, he closes his eye and refuses to look, for he
sees a river, the name of which is Death, and he seeth that the waves are black
and foaming with the wrath of God. Look, sir, look, I pray you, for to close
your eyes upon it will not dry it up. And see you what is beyond that river? Ah,
he dares not think for after death to him cometh hell and the wrath of God. O
man, look, I beseech thee, look, for it will be thy portion except thou relent
and fly to Christ for mercy. But no, he covers his eyes, and gets him back to
his gaieties, for he cannot bear to look at what will surely be his portion. But
come, thou Christian, thou who hast washed thy robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb; what seest thou? Suppose it should be thy lot to die before
the Master comes in the Second Advent, what seest thou? "I see," saith he, "but
a couch whereon I recline and close mine eyes on earth to open them in heaven; I
see angels waiting round that bed, and the Master, the Lord of life, ready to
receive my spirit." "What next do you see?" "Nay, I cannot tell you, for my eyes
are dazzled with the glory, and my tongue is not able to describe what God
revealeth to his children by his Spirit; but there is the never-ending glory,
for ever with the Lord, the rest that knows no fear, the Sabbath without end."
Oh, the glory, the glory that lasteth on for aye in the presence of the Master
whom we have served, and the Father who hath loved us of old! This is your
prospect now; and brethren, as your prospect is so bright, I beseech you do ye
more than others.II. This is a very large field, but we must leave it because
our time fails us, and we must call your attention to those MATTERS IN WHICH WE
MAY NATURALLY LOOK FOR THE CHRISTIAN TO DO MORE THAN OTHERS.I thought I would
not utter my own ideas this morning, but to fortify myself, would go back to the
Master's own language; so I must refer you again to this fifth chapter of
Matthew, and you will see in looking from the thirteenth to the sixteenth
verses, that our Lord expects his people to set a store godly example than
others do. Observe, they are to be the salt of the earth, they are to be the
light of the world, they are to be as a city set on a hill, and therefore seen
of all. If you were not a professor, my friend, you would certainly have some
influence, and be under responsibilities for it; but as a Christian, your place
in this world is peculiarly that of influence. You are not like a stone,
affected by the atmosphere, or overgrown by moss, a merely passive thing; no,
you are active, and are to affect others, as the salt which operates and
seasons. You are not a candle unlit, which can exist without affecting others;
you are a lighted candle, and you cannot be so lit without scattering light
around. You are made on purpose to exert influence, and your Master warns you
that if your influence be not salutary and good you are a hopelessly useless
person for when the salt has lost its savor it is good for nothing but to be
trampled under foot. You are expected, therefore, to influence others for good.
You are an employer; let your influence be felt by your servants. You are a
child at home; let influence be felt around the social hearth. You are, perhaps,
a domestic servant; then take care that, like the little maid who waited on
Naaman's wife, you seek the good of the household. Your influence must act
quietly and unostentatiously, like the influence of salt, which is not noisy but
yet potent. You cannot get through this world rightly by saying, "If I do no
good, at least, I do no hurt;" that might the plea of a stone or a brick, but it
cannot be an apology for savourless salt; for if when the salt is rubbed into
the meat it does not season and preserve it, it is bad salt, and has not
performed its work, but has caused loss to the owner, and left the meat to
become putrid. And if you in this world, according to your capacity and means,
do not affect other people for good, you have convicted yourself of being
useless, worthless, a cumberer of the ground. The Master expects, as he has put
the pungent influence of his grace into you, that you should be as salt; as he
has put the burning light of his grace upon you, that you should be as a lamp,
and scatter light all round. Take good heed of that. It is no saying of mine, it
is the saying of him whom ye call Master and Lord. Think you hear him speaking
it from those dear lips, which are like lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh,
and instead of seeing my hands lifted up in warning, think you see the print of
the nails in his hand, and let the words come home with force to your soul.Next,
if I read from the seventeenth to the twentieth verse, I am taught that our Lord
expects from his people a more exact performance of the divine will than even
the Pharisees pretend to give. Observe, he speaks here about jots and tittles
never passing away, and about those who break the least of his commandments, and
teach men so; and I gather that he would have us observe the very least of his
words and treasure up his commandments. Do you think, dear brethren, there would
be so many sects among Christians if all believers honestly wanted to know the
truth and to know Christ's will? I do not think there would be. I cannot think
our Lord has written a book so doubtful and ambiguous in its expressions that
men need differ in interpreting it upon plain points. I am afraid we bring
prejudice to it, the prejudice of our constitutional temperament, or of our
parents, or of the church with which we are associated, and we pay reverence to
somebody else's book, perhaps a catechism, perhaps the Book of Common Prayer,
over and beyond the Bible itself. Now, this is all wrong, and we must purge
ourselves of it and come to the word of God itself: and, when we come to this
book, it must be candidly and humbly, with this feeling, "I desire now to
unlearn the most precious doctrine or practice I have ever learned if the Lord
will show me that it is inconsistent with his will; and I desire to learn that
truth which will bring me most into derision, or that ordinance which will
submit me to the greatest inconvenience, if it is his will, for I am his
servant, and I desire nothing to support my own opinion, or to be my own rule."
I think we shall all get pretty near together, if, in the Spirit of God, we
begin reading our Bibles in this way. Surely the Lord expects this of us. I do
not think he expects this of some professors, for certainly he will never get
it; they are quite satisfied to say, "I attend my parish church, and that is the
faith of our church;" or, "My grandmother joined the Dissenters, and, therefore,
I keep to them; besides, after all you know there are no sects in heaven." That
last assertion is one of the most shallow pretences ever designed on earth, to
excuse men from being scrupulously obedient to every word of their Lord and
Master. I do not doubt, O disciple, but what you will reach heaven, even though
you mistake some of the Master's teaching, but I do doubt your ever reaching
there if you wilfully despise his words, or decline to learn what he came to
teach. Our Lord has said unto us, "Go ye therefore, and disciple all nations,
baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost," and therefore, if you will not become disciples, and learn of Christ, we
have not even begun with you, neither can you be baptised, or bear the name of
the Triune God. Jesus will have you obey his will, as well as trust his grace.
Mind that, beloved. This demand for exact obedience is no word of mine, but of
the Master. Look again, from the twenty-first to the twenty-sixth verse, and
though I do not pretend to expound every word, I remark that Christ would have
his people excel all others in gentleness. Others will retaliate on those who
vex them, and call them hard names, and will even go the length of saying
"fool;" and, perhaps, go still further, and even come to cursing and imprecating
terrible judgments. A quarrelsome man when he is in a quarrel with another
rather takes pleasure in it; he does not mind how many hate him, or how many he
hates; his religion is quite consistent with the worst temper; he can say his
prayers, or he can offer his gifts to his God, and yet be as malicious as he
likes; but with the Christian it is not so, and must not be so. We are to bear a
great deal of wrong before we make any reply whatever, and when we do give an
answer, we must, if we would be like our Master, give a gentle one. Heaping
coals of fire upon the head of our enemy by returning abundant kindness is the
right revenge for a Christian, and all other revenge is denied to him. He is not
to stand upon his rights; he is rather to say, "I know it is my right, but I
will yield it sooner than I will contend; I know this man does me an injustice,
but I will bear it sooner than my temper shall be ruffled, or my spirit shall be
defiled, by a thought of evil." "Oh," saith one, "this is a hard measure." Do
you think it so? Are you a Christian then? for while in my soul I feel it is
difficult, my heart feels I desire to do it, and I love it, and aspire after it;
and I think every real Christian, though by reason of infirmity he often breaks
this blessed rule, yet sees the beauty of it, and does not think it hard. Nay,
rather the hard point to him is that he should fall so short of the gentle,
loving nature of his dear Lord and Master.But, I must pass on, for the next
point in which the Christian is to excel is in purity. Read from the
twenty-seventh to the thirty-second verse -- I do not go into particulars, but
purity is earnestly commanded. The ungodly man says, "Well, I do not commit any
act of fornication; you do not hear me sing a lascivious song," and saying that
he feels content: but the Christian's Master expects us to carry the point a
great deal farther. An unchaste look is a crime to us, and an evil thought is a
sin. Oh, it shocks me beyond measure when I hear of professedly Christian people
who fall into the commission of immodest actions, -- not such as are called
criminal in common society, but loose, fleshly, and full of lasciviousness. I
beseech you all of you in your conversation with one other, avoid anything which
has the appearance of impurity in this respect. Looks and gestures step by step
lead on to fouler things, and sport which begins in folly ends in lewdness. Be
ye chaste as the driven snow, let not an immodest glance defile you. We do not
like to say much about these things, they are so delicate, and we tremble lest
we should suggest what we would prevent; but, oh, by the tears of Jesus, by the
wounds of Jesus, by the death of Jesus, hate even the garment spotted by the
flesh; and avoid everything that savours of unchastity. Flee youthful lusts as
Joseph did. Run any risk sooner than fall into uncleanness, for it is a deep
ditch, and the abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein. Strong temptation lie in
wait for the young in a great city like this, but let the young man learn of God
to cleanse his way, by taking heed there to according to his word. May you all
be kept from falling, and be presented faultless before the presence of God with
exceeding great joy. You are not to be commonly chaste, you are to be much more
than that: the very look and thought of impurity are to be hateful to you. Help
us, O Spirit of God.Next to that, the Christian is to be more than others in
truthfulness. Read on from the thirty-third to the thirty-seventh verse, and the
gist of all is, that whereas another man utters the truth because he swears, you
are to speak the truth because you can do no otherwise. Your ordinary word is to
be as true as the extraordinary oath of the man who stands in the witness box in
the court of justice. You are to avoid those evasions, alcove modes of
concealing truth which are common enough in trade, those exaggerations, those
lies which are a common nuisance. Why, our advertisements swarm with lies; our
shop windows are daubed with them -- such as "tremendous sacrifices," when the
only sacrificed person is the customer. All the world sees through puffery, and
yet even professors go on puffing and exaggerating. Shun it, Christian. If you
tell a man you sell him an article under cost price, let it be under cost price,
or do not say so. There are other modes of commending your wares which will be
quite as effectual as falsehood. Scorn to earn a farthing by uttering that which
is not true, and what you might allow in your next door neighbor, and say,
"Well, he is under a different rule from me;" do not for a moment tolerate in
yourself; the strict literal truth in all things should be the law of the child
of God. Let your "yea, be yea," and your "nay, nay." We have already touched
upon the point which our Savior mentions from the thirty-eighth to the
forty-second verse, namely, that the Christian should excel in forbearance. He
should be ready to suffer wrong again and again sooner than be provoked to
resistance, much less retaliation. That I have already spoken of, but may we
excel in it.And lastly, from the forty-second to the forty-eighth verse, our
Savior shows that he expects us to excel in love to all mankind, and in the
practical fruit of it, in trying to do them good. We ought to be, above all
others, the most loving people, and the most good-doing people. Your man who
buttons himself up within himself, and says, "Well, let every man see to
himself, that is what I say; every man for himself and God for us all;" the man
who goes through the world paying his way with strict justice, but all the while
having no heart to feel for the sick, and the poor, and the needy, with no care
about anybody else's soul, his whole hearts enclosed within his own ribs, all
buttoned up in his own broadcloth such; a man is very like the devil, but he
certainly is not like Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ's heart was expansive and
unselfish. He gave himself for his enemies, and died breathing a prayer over
them; he lived never for himself. You could not put your finger on one point of
his life and say, "here he lived for himself alone." Neither his prayers nor his
preachings, his miracles or his sufferings, his woes or his glories were with an
eye to himself. He saved others, but himself he would not save. His followers
must in this follow him closely. Selfishness is as foreign to Christianity as
darkness to light. The true Christian lives to do good, he looks abroad to see
whom be may serve, and with this eye he looks upon the wicked, upon the fallen
and the offcasts, seeking to reclaim them. Yes, in the same way he looks upon
his personal enemies, and aims at winning them by repeated kindnesses. No
nationality must confine his goodwill, no sect or clan monopolise his
benevolence. No depravity of character or poverty of condition must sicken his
lovingkindness, for Jesus received sinners and ate with them. Our love must
embrace those who lie hard by the gates of hell, and we must endeavor with words
of truth and deeds of love to bring them to Christ, who can uplift then to
heaven. Oh that you may all be gentle, quiet, meek in spirit, but full of an
ardent, burning affection towards your fellowmen; so shall you be known to be
Christ's disciples."Oh," say you, "these are great things." Yes, but you have a
great Spirit to help you, and you owe a great deal to your precious Lord and
Master. Did I hear one say, "I will avoid sin by being very retired; I will find
out a quiet place where I shall not be tempted, and where I shall have few calls
upon me." Pretty soldier you who when your Captain says, "Win the victory,"
reply, "I will keep clear of the fight." No, Christian, go about your trade, go
into the busy mart, attend to your business, attend to your family, attend to
those matters which God has allotted to you, and glorify God in the battle of
life by doing more than others. Will God enable you so to do.III. Now, into
about two minutes we must condense what ought to have occupied at least a
quarter-of an-hour. The last head was to deal with REASONS FOR OUR DOING MORE
THAN OTHERS. They were just these. First, by our fruits we are to be known. Men
will never know us by our faith, for that is within us; they know us by our
works, which are visible to them. Bring forth, therefore, the fruits of grace
that the world may know you have been with Jesus. Remember also that works are
to be evidence at the last. It is consistent with the gospel of grace, no doubt,
for it is a truth clearly revealed, that we shall be judged according to the
deeds done in the body, whether they be good or whether they be evil; and you
know that when the Lord gives us the description of the judgment, he did not say
to his disciples, "Ye believed in me," or "Ye loved me" -- these were secret
matters -- but he said, "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty,
and ye gave me drink; I was sick and in prison, and ye visited me." It is by
your works ye will be judged. O believers, may grace enable you to abound in
them.It is by such works that the mouths of gainsayers are to be stopped. One
holy action is a better argument against blasphemers than a thousand eloquent
discourses. You are our replies to sceptics -- you who having been rescued from
sin maintain a life of holiness. When they see the men that are healed, standing
with Peter and John, they can say nothing against them. Oh, by your works
confound gainsayers!These works, too, bring glory to God. "That they, seeing
your good works may glorify your Father which is in heaven."And these works also
ensure peace to your own conscience, and have much to do with your close
communion with God. "How can two walk together except they be agreed?" If ye
walk contrary to him he will walk contrary to you. Your sins will separate
between you and your God, but the Holy Spirit, where he maintains holiness,
maintains peace and communion in the soul. "If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." "If ye
keep my commandments," saith the Savior, "Ye shall abide in my love" -- shall
abide in the conscious fellowship of that love, and in the enjoyment of it. May
God help you, may God help you, for his name's sake. Look ye here, ye who say
you believe in Christ and are living in sin: what does this make of your
boastings? Look you here, ye that say "I have only to believe by-and-by, and I
may live as I like, and yet be saved." Is it so? Is it so? "If the righteous
scarcely be saved, where will the ungodly and the wicked appear?" As for those
whose ungodly lives stare them in the face, so far from being saved by their
pretended faith, they are trees twice dead, plucked up by the roots. If they say
they continue in sin that grace may abound, their damnation is just. The
salvation of Christ is not a salvation in sin, but a salvation from sin. They
who would be saved by him must come and trust him just as they are, and he will
enable them to forsake their sin; but while they continue to say, "We will take
pleasure in sin," there is no salvation possible for them. God bring us to
Christ, and nail our sins to his cross, and give us life in our Savior's life.
Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Matthew 5.


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  CHAPTER 3: THE PILGRIM'S LONGINGS
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A Sermon (No.1030) Delivered by C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle,
Newington "And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they
came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire
a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be
called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." -- Hebrews 11:15-16.
ABRAHAM left his country at God's command, and he never went back again. The
proof of faith lies in perseverance. There is a sort of faith which does run
well, but it is soon hindered, and it doth not obey the truth. That is not the
faith to which the promise is given. The faith of God's elect continues and
abides. Being connected with the living and incorruptible seed, it lives and
abides for ever. Abraham returned not; Isaac returned not; Jacob returned not.
The promise was to them as "strangers and sojourners," and so they continued.
The apostle tells us, however, that they were not forced so to continue; they
did not remain because they could not return. Had they been mindful of the place
from whence they came out, they might have found opportunities to go back.
Frequent opportunities came in their way; there was communication kept up
between them and the old family house at Padan-Aram: they had news sometimes
from the old quarters. More than that, there were messages exchanged, servants
were sometimes sent, and you know there was a new relation entered into -- did
not Rebekah come from thence? And Jacob, one of the patriarchs, was driven to go
down into the land, but he could not stay there; he was always unrestful, till
at last he stole a march upon Laban and came back into the proper life -- the
life which he had chosen, the life which God had commanded him, the life of a
pilgrim and a stranger in the land of promise. You see, then, they had many
opportunities to have returned, to have settled comfortably, and tilled the
ground as their fathers did before them; but they continued to follow the
uncomfortable shifting life of wanderers of the weary foot, who dwelt in tents,
who own no foot of land -- they were aliens in the country which God had given
them by promise. Now, our position is very similar to theirs. As many of us as
have believed in Christ have been called out. The very meaning of a church is,
"called out by Christ." We have been separated. I trust we know what it is to
have gone without the camp, bearing Christ's reproach. Henceforth, in this world
we have no home, no true home for our spirits; our home is beyond the flood; we
are looking for it amongst the unseen things; we are strangers and sojourners as
all our fathers were, dwellers in this wilderness, passing through it to reach
the Canaan which is to be the land of our perpetual inheritance. I. I propose,
then, first of all this evening, to speak to you upon the opportunities which we
have had, and still have, to return to the old house, if we were mindful of it.
Indeed, it seems to me as if the word "opportunity" as it occurs in the text,
were hardly strong enough to express the influence and incentive, the
provocations and solicitations, by which, in our case, we have been urged. It is
a wonder of wonders that we have not gone back to the world, with its sinful
pleasures and its idolatrous customs. When I think of the strength of divine
grace, I do not marvel that saints should persevere; but, when I remember the
weakness of their nature, it seems a miracle of miracles that there should be
one Christian in the world who could maintain his steadfastness for a single
hour. It is nothing short of Godhead's utmost stretch of might that keeps the
feet of the saints, and preserves them from going back to their old unregenerate
condition. We have had opportunities to have returned. My brethren, we have such
opportunities in our daily calling. Some of you are engaged in the midst of
ungodly men, and those engagements supply you with constant opportunities to sin
as they do, to fall into their excesses, to lapse into their forgetfulness of
God, or even to take part in their blasphemies. Oh, have you not often strong
inducements, if it were not for the grace of God, to become as they are? Or, if
your occupation keeps you alone, yet, my brethren, there is one who is pretty
sure to intrude upon our privacy, to corrupt our thoughts, to kindle strange
desires in our breasts, to tantalise us with morbid fancies, and to seek our
mischief. The Tempter he is, the Destroyer he would be, if we were not delivered
from his snares. Ah, how frequently will solitude have temptations as severe as
publicity could possibly bring. There are perils in company, but there are
perils likewise in our loneliness. We have many opportunities to return. In the
parlour, pleasantly conversing, or in the kitchen, perhaps, occupied with the
day's work -- toiling in the field, or trading on the mart, busy on the land or
tossed about on the sea, there are critical seasons on which destiny itself
might appear to hang contingent. Where can we fly to escape from these
opportunities that haunt us everywhere and peril us in every thing? If we should
mount upon the wings of the wind, could we find "a lodge in some vast
wilderness," think ye, then, we might be quite clear from all the opportunities
to go back to the old sins in which we once indulged? No. Each man's calling may
seem to him to be more full of temptation than his fellow's. It is not so. Our
temptations are pretty equally distributed, I dare say, after all, and all of us
might say, that we find in our avocations, from hour to hour, many opportunities
to return. But, dear brethren, it is not merely in our business and in our
calling; the mischief lies in our bone and in our flesh. Opportunities to
return! Ah! Who that knows himself does not find strong, incentives to return.
Ah! how often will our imagination paint sin in very glowing colors, and, though
we loathe sin and loathe ourselves for thinking of it, yet how many a man might
say, "had it not been for divine grace, where should I have been? -- for my feet
had almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped." How strong is the evil in the
most upright man! How stern is the conflict to keep under the body, lest
corruption should prevail. You may be diligent in secret prayer, and, perhaps,
the devil may have seemed asleep till you began to pray, and when you were most
fervent, then will he also become most rampant. When you get nearer to God,
Satan will sometimes seem to get nearer to you. Opportunities to return, as long
as you are in this body, will be with you. To the very edge of Jordan you will
meet with temptations. When you sit expectant on the banks of the last river,
waiting, for the summons to cross, it may be that your fiercest temptation will
come even then. Oh, this flesh, the body of this death -- wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from it? But while it continues with me, I shall find
opportunities to return. So too, dear brethren and sisters, these opportunities
to return are adapted to our circumstances and adjusted to any condition of
life, and any change through which we may pass. For instance how often have
professors, when they have prospered, found opportunities to return! I sigh to
think of many that appeared to be very earnest Christians when they were
struggling for bread, who have become very dull and cold now that they have
grown rich and increased in goods. How often does it happen in this land of
ours, that a poor earnest Christian has associated with the people of God at all
meetings, and felt proud to be there, but he has risen in the world and stood an
inch or two above others in common esteem, and he could not go with God's people
any longer: he must seek out the world's church and join in to get a share of
the respectability and prestige that will always congregate in the domain of
fashion. Henceforth, the man has turned aside from the faith, if not altogether
in his heart, at least in his life. Beware of the high places: they are very
slippery. There is not all the enjoyment you may think to be gathered in
retirement and in ease. On the contrary, luxury often pulleth up, and abundance
makes the heart to swell with vanity. If any of you are prospering in this
world, oh watch, for you are in imminent danger of being mindful to return to
the place whence you came out. But, the peril is as instant every whit in
adversity. Alas, I have had to mourn over Christian men -- at least I thought
they were such -- who have waxed very poor, and when they have grown poor, they
hardly felt they could associate with those they knew in better circumstances. I
think they were mistaken in the notion that they would be despised. I should lie
ashamed of the Christian who would despise his fellow, because God was dealing
with him somewhat severely in Providence. Yet there is a feeling in the human
heart, and, though there may be no unkind treatment, yet, oftentimes, the
sensitive spirit is apt to imagine it, and I have observed some absent
themselves by degrees from the assembly of God with a sense of shame. It is
smoothing the way to return to your old place; and, indeed, I have not wondered
when I have seen some professors grow cold, when I have thought where they were
compelled to live, and how they have been constrained to pass their time.
Perhaps they were living at home before, but now they have to take a room where
they can have no quiet, but where sounds of blasphemy greet them, or, in some
cases, where they have to go to the workhouse, and be far away from all
Christian intercourse or anything that could comfort them. It is only God's
grace that can keep your graces alive under such circumstances. You see, whether
you grow rich or whether you grow poor, you will have these opportunities to
return. If you want to go back to sin, to carnality, to a love of the world, to
your old condition, you never need to be prevented from doing so by want of
opportunities: it will be something else that will prevent you, for these
opportunities are plentiful and countless.Opportunities to return! Let me say
just one thing more about them. They are often furnished by the example of
others."When any turn from Zion's way,Alas, what numbers do!Methinks I hear my
Savior say,Wilt thou forsake me too?"The departures from the faith of those whom
we highly esteem are, at least while we are young, very severe trials to us. We
keenly suspect whether that religion can be true which was feigned so cunningly
and betrayed so wantonly, by one who seemed to be a model, but proved to be a
hypocrite. It staggers us: we cannot make it out. Opportunities to return you
have now; but ah! may grace be given you so that, if others play the Judas,
instead of leading you to do the same, it may only bind you more fast to your
Lord, and make you walk more carefully, lest you also prove a son of
perdition.And ah, my brethren and sisters, if some of us were to return, we
should have this opportunity -- a cordial welcome from our former comrades. None
of our old friends would refuse to receive us. There is many a Christian who, if
he were to go back to the gaiety of the world, would find the world await him
with open arms. He was the favourite of the ball-room once; he was the wit "that
set the table in a roar;" he was the man who above all was courted when he moved
in the circles of the vain and frivolous: glad enough would they be to see him
come back. What a shout of triumph would they raise, and how would they
fraternize with him! Oh, may the day never come to you, you young people
especially, who have lately put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and professed his
name, when you shall be welcomed by the world, but may you for ever forget your
kindred and your father's house, so shall the king greatly desire your beauty,
for he is the Lord, and worship you him. Separation from the world will endear
you to the Savior, and bring you into conscious enjoyment of his presence; but,
of opportunities to return there is no lack.Perhaps, you will say, "Why does the
Lord make them so plentiful? Could he not have kept us from temptation?" There
is no doubt he could, but it was never the Master's intention that we should all
be hothouse plants. He taught us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation," but, at
the same time, he does lead us there, and intends to do it, and this for the
proving of our faith, to see whether it be true faith or not. Depend upon it,
faith that is never tried is not true faith. It must be sooner or later
exercised. God does not create useless things: he intends that the faith he
gives should have its test, should glorify his name. These opportunities to
return are meant to try your faith, and they are sent to you to prove that you
are a volunteer soldier. Why, if grace was a sort of chain that manacled you, so
that you could not leave your Lord; if it had become a physical impossibility to
forsake the Savior, there would be no credit in it. He that does not run away
because his legs are too weak, does not prove himself a hero; but he that could
run, but will not run; he that could desert his Lord, but will not desert him,
has within him a principle of grace stronger than any fetter could be -- the
highest, firmest, noblest bond that unites a man to the Savior. By this shall
you know whether you are Christ's or not. When you have opportunity to return,
if you do not return, that shall prove you are his. Two men are going along a
road, and there is a dog behind them. I do not know to which of them that dog
belongs, but I shall be able to tell you directly. They are coming to a
crossroad: one goes to the right, the other goes to the left. Now which man does
the dog follow? That is his master. So when Christ and the world go together,
you cannot tell which you are following; but, when there is a separation, and
Christ goes one way, and your interest and your pleasure seem to go the other
way, if you can part with the world and keep with Christ, then you are one of
his. After this manner these opportunities to return may serve us a good
purpose: they prove our faith, while they try our character; thus helping us to
see whether we are indeed the Lord's or not. But, we must pass on (for we have a
very wealthy text) to notice the second point.II. We cannot take any opportunity
to go back, because we desire something better than we could get by returning to
that country from whence we came out. An insatiable desire has been implanted in
us by divine grace which urges us to -- "Forget the steps already trod,And
onward press our way."Notice how the text puts it: -- "But now they desire a
better country, that is, a heavenly." Brethren, you desire something better than
this world, do you not? Has the world ever satisfied you? Perhaps it did when
you were dead in sin. A dead world may satisfy a dead heart; but ever since you
have known something of better things, and brighter realities, have you been
ever contented with earthly things and emptier vanities? Perhaps you have tried
to fill your soul with the daintiest provisions the world can offer; to wit --
God has prospered you, and you have said, "Oh, this is well." Your children have
been about you, you have had many household joys, and you have said, "I could
stay here for ever." Did not you find very soon that there was a thorn in the
flesh? Did you ever gather a rose in this world that was altogether without a
thorn? Hare you not been obliged to say, after you have had all that the world
could give you, "Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity?" I am sure it has been so
with me, with you, with all my kinsfolk in Christ, and with all my yokefellows
in his service. All God's saints would confess that were the Lord to say to
them, "You shall have all the world, and that shall be your portion," they would
be broken-hearted men. "Nay, my Lord," they would reply, "do not put me off with
these biding presents; feed me not upon these husks. Though thou shouldst give
me Joseph's lot, the ancient mountains, and the precious things of the lasting
hills," "Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey;" yea,
though thou shouldst confer on me the precious things of the earth, and the
fullness thereof, I would prefer before them all the goodwill of him that dwelt
in the bush. Give me thyself, and take these all away, if so it please thee, but
do not, my Lord, do not think I can be content with Egypt since I have set forth
for Canaan, or that I can settle down in the wilderness now that I am journeying
to the land of promise. We desire something better.There is this about a
Christian that, even when he does not enjoy something better, he desires it; of
that, verily, I am quite sure. How much of character is revealed in our desires.
I felt greatly encouraged when I read this, "Now they desire a better" -- The
word "country" has been inserted by our translators. It weakens the sense; vague
but vast is the craving expressed in the sentence, "They desire a better" -- I
know I long for something far better, something infinitely preferable to that
which my eyes can see or that my tongue can express. I do not always enjoy that
something better. Dark is my path; I cannot see my Lord; I cannot enjoy his
presence; sometimes I am like one that is banished from him; but I desire his
blessing, I desire his presence; and, though to desire may be but a little
thing, let me say a good desire is more than nature ever grew: grace has given
it. It is a great thing to be desirous. "They desire a better country." And,
because we desire this better thing, we cannot go back and be content with
things which gratified us once.More than that, if ever the child of God gets
entangled for awhile, he is uneasy by reason of it. Abraham's slips, for he had
one or two, were made when he had left the land, and gone down among the
Philistines; but he was not easy there: he must come back again. And Jacob -- he
had found a wife -- nay, two -- in Laban's land, but he was not content there.
No, no child of God can be, whatever he may find in this world. We shall never
find a heaven here. We may hunt the world through, and say, "This looks like a
little paradise," but there is not any paradise this side of the skies, for a
child of God at any rate. There is enough out there in the farm yard for the
hogs, but there is not that which is suitable for the children. There is enough
in the world for sinners, but not for saints. They have stronger, sharper, and
more vehement desires, for they have a nobler life within them, and they desire
a better country, and even if they get entangled for awhile in this country, and
in a certain measure identified with citizens of it, they are ill at ease --
their citizenship is in heaven, and they cannot rest anywhere but there. After
all, we confess to-night, and rejoice in the confession, that our best hopes are
for things that are out of sight: our expectations are our largest possessions.
The things that we have a title to, that we value, are ours to-day by faith: we
do not enjoy them yet. But when our heirship shall be fully manifested, and we
shall come to the full ripe age -- oh, then shall we come into our inheritance,
to our wealth, to the mansions, and to the glory, and to the presence of Jesus
Christ our Lord. Thus you see the reason why the Christian cannot go back.
Though he has many opportunities he does not embrace any, he shrinks with
repugnance from them all, for, through divine grace, he has had produced in his
heart desires for something better.Even when he does not realize as yet, or
actually enjoy, that infinite good, which is something better than creature
comfort or worldly ambition, the desires themselves become mighty bonds that
keep him from returning to his former state. Dear brethren, let us cultivate
these desires more and more. If they have such a separating, salutary,
sanctifying influence upon our heart, and effect upon our character, in keeping
us from the world, let us cultivate them much. Do you think that we meditate
enough upon heaven? Look at the miser. When does he forget his gold? He dreams
of it. He has locked it up tonight and he goes to bed, but he is afraid he heard
a footstep down the stairs, and he goes to see. He looks to the iron safe: he
would be quite sure that it is well secured. He cannot forget his dear gold. Let
us think of heaven, of Christ, and of the blessings of the covenant, and let us
thus keep our desires wide awake, and stimulate them to active exercise. The
more they draw us to heaven, the more they withdraw us from the world.III. It
would be unreasonable if we did not vehemently resist every opportunity and
every solicitation to go back.The men of faith to whom the apostle referred in
our text were not only strangers and pilgrims, but it is specially observed that
they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They were a
grand company. From an unit they had multiplied into a countless host. Sprang
there not even of one, and him as good as dead, as many as the stars of the sky
in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable? Now,
brethren, you see we have here a very strong reason for not returning. It is
because you are the descendants, the spiritual descendants, of the patriarchs.
Let me try to show you how urgent a motive for steadfastness this is.
Practically, it comprises two or three considerations of the highest moment. One
thing it implies very obviously is that you thoroughly admire their example and
fervently emulate their spirit. As you have glanced over the scroll of history,
or narrowly scanned the records of men's lives, the pomp of Pharaoh has not
dazzled you, but the purity of Joseph has charmed you; the choice of Moses was
to your taste, though it did involve leaving a court where he was flattered, for
fellowship with enslaved kinsmen by whom he was suspected; and, you would rather
have been with Daniel in the lions' den than with Darius on the throne of
empire. You have transferred their strong will to your own deliberate choice.
And, when the jeer has been raised against canting methodists, you have said, "I
am one of them." You have confessed as occasion served before the world, you
have professed as duty called before the church, you have accepted the
consequences as honesty demanded before angels and men. Therefore, in your heart
of hearts you feel that you cannot go back. The vows of God are upon you. It is
well they are. Review them often: refresh your memory with them frequently;
recur to them and renew them in every time of trial and temptation. Howbeit,
repent of them never, or woe betide you. There is a secret virtue in the
confession, if it be steadfastly adhered to and zealously maintained. It is a
talisman, believe me, against the contagion of an evil atmosphere that might
otherwise instil poison into your constitution.Again, there is another thing;
you have joined yourself to an ancient fraternity that has something more than
rules to guide or legends to captivate; for it has a combination of both, seeing
it is rich in poetic lore. Why, it is on this that patriotism feeds as its
daintiest morsel. "Thy statutes," said David, "have been my songs in the house
of my pilgrimage." Brother! there hath no sorrow befallen thee but what thy
noble ancestors have celebrated in cheery tones, and set to music in cheerful
strains. Oh, beloved! if you could forget the statutes, can you ever fail to
remember the songs? There has never been a revival in the church that has not
witnessed to the value of our psalmody. God be praised for our psalms and
spiritual songs. Oh, how often they have made melody in our hearts to the Lord!
While our voices blend, do not our very souls become more and more richly
cemented? They are, in truth, the pilgrim's solace.Another thing strikes me. I
should not like you to overlook it. There is, in this chapter, a special
commendation for faith in a pleasing variety of operations. But the speciality
of the strangers and pilgrims is that they all died in faith. So, then, you
cannot go back, because you cannot accomplish the end for which you went forward
till you die. You have joined the company that makes the goal of life the object
for which you live. Your aim is to make a noble exit. "Prepare to meet thy God"
was the motto you started with. To go back can hardly cross your thoughts, when
to look back seems to you charged with peril. Our lease of mortal life is fast
running out. The time of our sojourn on earth is getting more and more brief.
Therefore, because our salvation is nearer than when we first believed, it is
but meet that our desire to reach the better country, and to enter the heavenly
city should become more and more vehement, as "we nightly pitch our roving tent
a day's march nearer home." It comes to this, brethren. You feel that you have
little to show for your faith. It never built an ark like Noah; it never offered
a sacrifice like Abraham; it never subdued kingdoms like Joshua; it never
quenched the violence of fire as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Well, be it
so; but he that endureth to the end shall be saved; and all those that die in
faith are gathered with the great cloud of witnesses. Is not this enough to
cheer the rank and file of the church? IV. But, I must close with the sweetest
part of the text, wherein it is shown that we have a great and blessed assurance
vouchsafed to us as an acknowledgment, on the part of God, of those
opportunities, and those yearnings persisted in. "Therefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city." Because they are
strangers, add because they will not go back to their old abode, "therefore God
is not ashamed to be called their God." He might well be ashamed of that. What
poor people God's people are -- poor, many of them, in circumstances, but how
many of them I might very well call poor as to spiritual things. I do not think
if any of us had such a family as God has, we should ever have patience with
them. We cannot, when we judge ourselves rightly, have patience with ourselves;
but, how is it that God bears with the ill manners of such a froward, weak,
foolish, forgetful generation as his people are. He might well be ashamed to be
called their God, if he looked upon them as they are, and estimated them upon
their merits. Own them! How can he own them? Does he not himself sometimes say
of them, "How can I put them among the children?" Yet he devises means, and
brings about the purposes of his grace. Viewed as they are, they may be compared
to a rabble in so many respects, that it is marvellous he is not ashamed of
them. Still, he never does discountenance them, and he proves that he is not
ashamed of them, for he calls himself their God. "I will be your God," saith he,
and he oftentimes seems to speak of it as a very joyful thing to his own heart.
"I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." While he
calls himself their God, he never forbids them to call him their God. In the
presence of the great ones of the earth they may call him their God -- anywhere
-- and he is not ashamed to be so called. Matchless condescension this! Have you
not sometimes heard of a man who has become rich and has risen in the world, who
has had some poor brother or some distant relative. When he has seen him in the
street, he has been obliged to speak to him and own him. But oh, how reluctantly
it was done. I dare say he wished him a long way off, especially if he had some
haughty acquaintance with him at the time, who would perhaps turn round, and
say, "Why, who is that wretched, seedy-looking fellow you spoke to?" He does not
like to say, "That's my brother;" or, "That's a relative of mine." Not so our
Lord Jesus Christ. However low his people may sink, he is not ashamed to call
them brethren. They may look up to him in all the depths of their degradation.
They may call him a brother. He is in very fact a brother, born for their
adversity, able and ready to redress their grievances, he is not ashamed to call
them brethren. One reason for this seems to me to be, because he does not judge
of them according to their present circumstances, but much rather according to
their pleasant prospects. He takes account of what he has prepared for them.
Notice the text, "Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he
hath prepared for them a city." They are poor now, but God, to whom things to
come are things present, sees them in their fair white linen, which is the
righteousness of the saints. All you can see in that poor child of God is a
hard-working laboring man, mocked and despised of his fellows. But what does God
see in him? He sees in him a dignity and a glory assimilated to his own. He hath
put all things under the feet of such a man as that, and crowned him with glory
and honor in the person of Christ, and the angels themselves are ministering
servants to such. You see his outward attire, not his inner self -- you see the
earthly tabernacle, but the spirit newborn, immortal and divine -- you see not
that. Howbeit, God does. Or, if you have spiritual discernment to perceive the
spiritual creature, you only see it as it is veiled by reason of the flesh, and
beclouded by the atmosphere of this world; but he sees it as it will appear,
when it shall be radiant like unto Christ, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing. God sees the poorest, the least proficient disciple as a man in Christ; a
perfect man come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; such
indeed as he will be in that day when he shall see Christ, for then he shall be
like him as he is. It seems too, in the text, that God looks to what he had
prepared for these poor people. He hath prepared for them a city. Methinks, that
by what he has prepared for them, we may judge how he esteems and loves them --
estimating them by what he means them to be, rather than by what they appear to
be at present. Look at this preparation just a minute. "he hath prepared for
them" -- "them." Though I delight to preach a free gospel, and to preach it to
every creature under heaven, we must never forget to remind you of the
speciality. "He hath prepared for them a city" -- that is, for such as are
strangers and foreigners -- for such as have faith, and, therefore, have left
the world, and gone out to follow Christ. "He hath prepared for them" -- not
"for all of you" -- only for such of you as answer the description on which we
have been meditating has he prepared "a city." Note what it is he has made ready
for them. It is a city. This indicates a permanent abode. They dwelt in tents --
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob -- but he has prepared for them a city. Here we
are tent dwellers, and the tent is soon to be taken down. "We know that this
earthly house of our" tent "shall be dissolved, but we have a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens." "He hath prepared a city." A city is a
place of genial associations. In a lonely hamlet one has little company. In a
city, especially where all the inhabitants shall be united in one glorious
brotherhood, the true communism of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity may be
realised in the purest sense and highest possible degree. In a city such as this
there are plentiful occasions for intercourse, where mutual interests shall
enhance mutual joy. "He hath prepared a city." It is a city too possessing
immunities, and conferring dignity upon its residents. To be a burgess of the
City of London is thought to be a great honor, and upon princes is it sometimes
conferred; but, we shall have the highest honor that can be given, when we shall
be citizens of the city which God has prepared.I must not dwell on this theme,
delightful as it is; I want a few words with you, my friends, direct and
personal, before I close. Do not wonder, those of you who are the children of
God, do not wonder if you have discomforts here. If you are what you profess to
be, you are strangers: you do not expect men of this world to treat you as
members of their community. If they do, be afraid. Dogs don't bark as a man goes
by that they know: they bark at strangers. When people persecute you and slander
you, no marvel. If you are a stranger, they naturally bark at you. Do not expect
to find the comforts in this world that you crave after, that your flesh would
long for. This is our inn, not our home. We tarry for a night: we are away in
the morning. We may bear the annoyances of the eventide and the night, for the
morning will break so soon. Remember that your greatest joy, while you are a
pilgrim, is your God. So the text says, "Wherefore God is not ashamed to be
called their God." Do you want a richer source of consolation than you have?
Here is one that can never be diminished, much less exhausted. When the created
streams are dry, go to this eternal fountain, and find it ever springing up.
Your joy is your God: make your God your joy.Now, what shall be said to those
who are not strangers and foreigners? Ah, you dwell in a land where you find
some sort of repose; but I have heavy tidings for you. This land in which you
dwell, and all the works thereof, must be burned up. The city of which you, who
have never been converted to Christ, are citizens, is a City of Destruction,
and, as is its name, such will be its end. The King will send his armies against
that guilty city and destroy it, and if you are citizens of it, you will lose
all you have -- you will lose your souls -- lose yourselves. "Whither away?"
saith one -- "Where can I find comfort then and security?" You must do as Lot
did, when the angels presses him and said, "Haste to the Mount lest thou be
consumed." To what mountain, say you, shall I go? The mountain of safety is
Calvary. Where Jesus died, there you shall live. There is death everywhere else
but there. But there is life arising from his death. Oh, fly to him. "But how?"
saith one. Trust him. God gave his Son, equal with himself, to bear the burden
of human sin; and he died, a substitute for sinners, -- a real substitute, an
efficient substitute, for all who trust in him. If thou wilt trust thy soul with
Jesus, thou art saved. Thy sin was laid on him: it is forgiven thee. It was
blotted out when he nailed the handwriting of ordinances that were against thee
to his cross. Trust him now and you are saved; you shall become, henceforth, a
stranger and a pilgrim. In the better land you shall find the rest which you
never can find here, and need not wish to find, for the land is polluted; let us
away from it. The curse has fallen: let us get away to the country that never
was cursed, to the city that is for ever blessed, Where Jesus dwells there may
we find a home and abide for aye. God add his blessing to this discourse, and
give a blessing to your souls, for Jesus Christ' sake. Amen."THE SWORD AND THE
TROWEL." Edited by C. H. SPURGEON.Contents for January, 1872.The Year of Grace,
1872. By C. H. Spurgeon.Paris and London. By C. H. Spurgeon.Our London Arabs. By
G. Holden PikeDuncan Matheson, the Scottish Evangelist. By Vernon J.
Charlesworth.On Surrendering.Sunday School Addresses. By E. D. Jones, A. M., St.
Louis.Bad Air versus Religion.A Sabbath in RomeThe Blessed Poor. By C. H.
Spurgeon.Children in the Streets of Jerusalem.Reviews.Memoranda.Pastors' College
Account.Stockwell Orphanage.Golden Lane Mission.Colportage Association.Price 3d.
Post free, 4 stamps.London: Passmore & Alabaster, 18, Paternoster Row, and all
Booksellers.


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  CHAPTER 4: HOW CAN I OBTAIN FAITH?
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A Sermon (No.1031) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, January 21st, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "So then faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God." -- Romans 10:17. IT IS DIFFICULT to
make men understand that the salvation of the gospel is not by works but
entirely by grace, that it is not presented to men as the reward of their own
endeavors, but is given to them freely upon their accepting it by an act of
simple faith or trust in Jesus Christ. However plainly we may preach this truth,
there will always be some who will misunderstand us, and as many more who will
raise objections against it, as if it were their part to give an opinion, and
not to do as they are bidden by the Lord. But when men are brought under the
teaching of the word, to see that the pardon of their sins, and the acceptance
of their souls does not lie with any merit of their own, or any doings of their
own, another difficulty generally presents itself: they say, "What is this faith
of which you speak?" and when we assure them that it is a simple trust or
confidence in the finished work of Christ, then straightway they say, "How can
we get this faith? How can we obtain this confidence?" To us, who have faith,
this question is very easy to answer, for when we heard the gladsome news of a
finished salvation for lost sinners, complete forgiveness for the guilty, and
acceptance for the ungodly, simply upon believing in Jesus we came to Jesus, and
we trusted in him, and we continue still to trust, and we have joy and peace
through believing. We see far more reasons for belief than for doubt. Yet,
nevertheless, there are hundreds and thousands who are awakened, and seriously
enquiring, to whom this is a great difficulty -- "How can I get the faith which
gives me possession of Christ Jesus, and brings me salvation?" Our text is the
ready answer, practically a complete answer; not doctrinally or theologically
complete, but practically perfect. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God." "But faith is the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul is it not?"
Certainly. "And it is given by the Spirit to God's own chosen?" Assuredly; yet,
nevertheless, it was not necessary for the apostle to mention those facts here.
Some persons are always for having a whole system of theology in every sermon,
but it is not needful that they should be gratified. Paul is clear enough about
the work of the Spirit in other places, and it is not needful that he should
introduce that subject into every line he writes. It was practically unnecessary
for him to mention that subject in the present instance, and, therefore, he did
not do so. It would sometimes puzzle rather than instruct an enquirer if we were
to go into the full details of a matter. For instance, if I am thirsty, how
shall I quench my thirst? By a draught of water. But in what way can I obtain
water? It quite suffices for practical purposes for you to tell me to go to the
tap or the fountain. There is no need to explain to me before I drink that the
water is supplied by a company, and forced to the spilt by sundry machines,
having been first extracted from the great fountains beneath by artesian wells,
or drawn from the river at Thames Ditton. Nor would it be needful in answer to
my question to trace the river to the clouds, and to treat upon the formation of
vapor by the skill and wisdom of God. Practically, to the thirsty man all you
want to say is, "There's the water, drink." I will add another illustration. A
man is hungry, and he asks you, "How can I get bread?" "Go to the baker's," you
say. The answer is complete enough for him; it meets the case at once. If he
wants a larger declaration of how bread is obtained, we can give it to him at
another time when he is no longer hungry; we will tell him how the corn is sown
in the furrow of earth, and how by mysterious processes of nature it germinates,
grows, and ripens; we will trace it from the reaper to the thresher, and from
the thresher to the mill, and we will also show that daily bread is as much a
gift from heaven as the manna which dropped down upon the hungry people in the
wilderness. But, it is not needful for the feeding, of the hungry that we should
on every occasion go into all those details, although we hold very sound views
upon them. And when you are dealing with an anxious person, it will suffice to
say to him, "Faith cometh by hearing;" further information can be supplied under
happier circumstances. I mean to keep to our text this morning, and if any shall
charge me with an omission of the work of the Spirit, or a failure to trace all
saving faith to the electing grace of God, I shall bear the charge without
murmuring, only saying that my soul rejoices as much as that of any man living
in the work of the Spirit of God; and, that the electing love of God and his
determinate purposes are precious truths to me. If the text was sufficient for
Paul; it will, I trust, be sufficient for you. May the Spirit of God assist us
while we meditate upon the way by which faith cometh. This shall be followed by
a brief indication of certain obstructions which often lie in that way; and then
we will conclude by dwelling upon the importance that faith should come to us by
that appointed road. I. First, then, THE WAY BY WHICH FAITH COMES TO MEN. "Faith
cometh by hearing." It may help to set the truth out more clearly, if we say,
negatively, that it does not come by any other process than by hearing; -- not
by any mysterious and strange method, but in the most simple and natural mode
conceivable, namely, by the hearing of the word. Some imagine that faith comes
by hereditary descent, and they act upon the supposition. Hence, in certain
churches, birthright membership is thought to be a proper practice, and the
child of a Christian is thought to be a Christian. In some other churches,
though the theory would not be stated in so many words, yet it is practically
accepted, and children of pious parents are regarded as scarcely needing
conversion. The text is forgotten which saith that the heirs of salvation are
born, "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God." The typical
covenant secured outward privileges to the children born after the flesh, but
under the covenant of grace the blessing is secured to the spiritual and not to
the natural seed. "He who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he
of the freewoman was by promise." (Galatians 4:23). That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and nothing more: the new-born nature is not transmissible from
father to son like a natural temperament or a cast of countenance. I know the
answer will be that "the promise is to us and to our children," but it will be
well for the objector to reply to himself by completing the quotation -- "even
to as many as the Lord your God shall call." The fact is, that nothing spiritual
is inherited by carnal generation. Our children, even if we are far advanced in
grace, will still be "shapen in iniquity." No matter how high the sainthood of
the professing Christian, his child (when capable of understanding) must for
himself become a personal believer in Jesus. It appears to be thought possible
to infuse grace by sacraments. There are persons yet alive who teach that a babe
may be regenerated by certain aqueous processes, and be thereby placed in "a
state of salvation." But is not faith a perpetual concomitant of regeneration?
and what is that regeneration worth which leaves a person an unbeliever, and,
consequently, "condemned already, because he hath not believed on the Son of
God?" Rest assured, that as faith does not come by descent, neither can it be
produced by any rite which recognizes that descent: it comes in one way, and in
one way only in every case, and that is, by the hearing of the word. To every
person, whoever he may be, though nursed in the bosom of the church, and
introduced to that church by the most solemn ritual, we are bound to say, you
must hear as well as others, and you must believe as the result of that hearing
as well as others, or else you will remain short of saving grace. Faith is not a
mystery juggled into us by the postures, genuflexions, and mumblings of priests.
We have heard a great deal about sacramental efficacy, but I think a man must
have extraordinary hardihood who would say that either baptism, or the so-called
Eucharist, are the sure creators of faith; yet see I not what saving service
these forms can render to unbelieving men if they leave them in an unbelieving
condition, and, consequently, in a state of condemnation. Seeing that without
faith it is impossible to please God, the grace supposed to be conveyed by the
mere participation in sacraments is of small value, it cannot give the cardinal
requisite for acceptance before God. Faith cannot be washed into us by
immersion, nor sprinkled upon us in christening; it is not to be poured into us
from a chalice, nor generated in us by a consecrated piece of bread. There is no
magic about it; it comes by hearing the word of God, and by that way only.These
are superstitions, you tell me, and scarcely need to be mentioned here; very
well then, we will have done with them, and treat of superstitions which linger
in our own congregations. There are some who fancy that faith cometh by feeling.
If they could feel emotions either of horror or of exquisite delight, they would
then, they think, be the possessors of faith; but till they have felt what they
have heard described in certain biographies of undoubtedly good men, they cannot
believe, or even if they have a measure of faith, they cannot hope that it is
true faith. Faith doth not come by feeling, but through faith arises much of
holy feeling, and the more a man lives in the walk of faith, as a rule, the more
will he feel and enjoy the light of God's countenance. Faith hath something
firmer to stand upon than those ever-changing frames and feelings which, like
the weather of our own sunless land, is fickle and frail, and changeth speedily
from brightness into gloom. You may get feeling from faith, and the best of it,
but you will be long before you will find any faith that is worth the having, if
you try to evoke it from frames and feelings."My hope is built on nothing
lessThan Jesus' blood and righteousness;I dare not trust the sweetest frame;But
wholly lean on Jesus' name;On Christ the solid rock I stand,All other ground is
sinking sand."Some, also, have supposed that true faith will come to men by
dreams and visions. It is surprising how a belief in these things lingers still
in what is called this age of light; the notion is still current that if you
dream of seeing Jesus, or fancy you have seen him while awake, or if a passage
of Scripture strikes you, or if you hear or imagine that you hear a voice
speaking to you, you are then a believer. Now, faith in Christ is like faith in
anyone else, it comes to us by the same kind of mental processes, and is based
upon simple principles and plain matters of fact, and needs no vision of the
night. Though you should see all the angels in heaven, it would not prove that
you would go to heaven, any more than my having seen the Pope's body guard would
be a proof that I shall be made a Cardinal. Things which are seen of the eye
save not, for the things which are seen are temporal, and cannot work eternal
salvation. Moreover, men saw Christ, and yet pierced him and blasphemed him.
Visions have been seen by heathens like Nebuchadnezzar, and angels have appeared
to bad men like Balaam who, though he sighed out, "Let me die the death of the
righteous," yet perished, fighting against the God of Israel. True faith has a
more solid basis for its fabric than the fleeting fancies of the mind.I beg you
to notice, too, that it does not say in the text that faith comes through the
eloquence, earnestness, or any other good quality of the preacher. Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word, not of man, but of God. The word of God is
the substance of faith-creating preaching; it is by the hearing of God's word,
and not by any other hearing that saving faith comes to the soul. I may hear a
man descant upon the gospel with all the eloquence that can be commanded by the
most fluent tongue, yet if my faith comes to me because the man spoke
pathetically, or poetically, or argumentatively, or rhetorically, it is a poor
miserable faith; being, of the power of the flesh, it will die, and so prove
itself unlike the faith which springs from the incorruptible word of God, for
that liveth and abideth for ever. On the other hand, I may hope for faith if I
am listening to the true gospel, the very word of God, though the man who speaks
it may be of stammering lips, and his voice may be disagreeable to my ear, and
there may be much about his manner that does not commend itself to me. If he
preaches truth it is by hearing not him, the man, but by hearing the word of
God, that I shall come to faith. I do desire ever, as a preacher, to feel that
it is not my word but God's word that saves souls; we are to explain it and
expound it, but we are not to add to it, take from or conceive that we can
improve it. We must not go into the pulpit and say, "I have been working out a
subject from my own mind, and I am going to give you the result of my thoughts."
We had better keep our own thoughts for some other place, and give the people
the revealed truth of God. The theory now-a-days is that all preachers worth
hearing by this refined generation must be profound thinkers, and inventors of
improved theologies. Brethren, let man's thoughts perish for ever; the thoughts
of God and not the thoughts of man will save souls. The truth of God should be
spoken simply, with as little as possible of the embellishments of metaphysics,
and philosophy, and high culture, and all that stuff. I say the word of God
delivered as we find it is that which, when heard, brings faith to the souls of
men. I counsel you, my occasional hearers, you who perhaps have come freshly to
this city, or who reside where you have a choice of ministry, seek not that
which tickles your ear, but that which your conscience approves as consistent
with the word of God; and, though we or an angel from heaven should preach to
you that which is not God's word, do not listen to us, for it will be
mischievous to you. Hear you what God the Lord speaketh, and hear nothing else.
What though he shall sound forth his word through a ram'shorn, if it be God's
Spirit that giveth forth a certain sound, it shall be more profitable to your
soul than though the silver trumpet should be set to the mouth of falsehood, and
the sweetest music should regale your ear. The matter of a discourse is far more
important than the manner. Saving faith never comes from hearing falsehood, but
from the word of God alone. I ought, perhaps, to add that the expression "by
hearing," though of course literally it must be confined to the hearing of words
vocally uttered, is meant to include in its spirit the reading of the word; for
reading is a sort of hearing with the eyes, and faith has often come and will
often come to men while they are reading the word of God for themselves. We must
not kill the spirit of the text by excessive regard to the mere letter of it,
and we should do so if we excluded readings, which is a quiet hearing of the
still small voice of the printed page. Faith comes by the word of God reaching
our minds, and our knowing and understanding it. The entrance of God's word
giveth light. "Incline your ear and come unto me, hear and your soul shall
live." Thus, we have spoken of it negatively.Now, positively: "Faith cometh by
hearing." Sometimes faith has come into men's minds by hearing the simple
statement of the gospel. They have longed to be saved, and they have been told
that Jesus the Son of God condescended to come into this world and to take upon
himself the form of man, and as man to be partaker of our infirmities, and to
offer himself as a sacrifice in the room, place, and stead of sinners; they
have, moreover, been told that whosoever trusts in this substitutional sacrifice
shall be saved, and straightway they have believed. All they have wanted has
been merely to be informed of the way of salvation. God's Spirit has so prepared
them that they have believed almost as soon as they have heard the saving truth.
In many cases the only difficulty in the way of salvation has been a want of
understanding the word. I know in my own case I would have given all I had, if I
might but have been informed what I must do to be saved. Though I frequented
places where the gospel was preached, I did not catch the meaning of believing,
it puzzled me much. I do not remember to have heard the simple declaration that
to trust in Jesus Christ would save my soul; or, possibly, I did hear it with my
outward ears, but I must have been strangely infatuated, for I did not
understand the sense; and I have often thought if I could have heard the way of
faith simply stated, my soul would have leaped into liberty long before. I will
not so say; but I am persuaded that faith often comes by hearing the simple
declaration that God accepts sinners, not for what they are in themselves but
for what Christ is, and that when sinners believe in Jesus they are saved there
and then, and are acceptable with God through Jesus Christ his dear Son. The
mere statement of this has brought, by the operation of the Spirit of God, faith
into the soul. "How is this?" saith one. Well, it is because the gospel commends
itself to some hearts as true upon the very first blush of it, it strikes them
as being undoubtedly the gospel of God. It is the same in other matters; you
sometimes hear a story about which you say, "Well, I do not know, it may be
correct, but I shall have to look a little into that before I am certain;" but
you often hear statements which you accept at once, because they commend
themselves to your understanding, and you feel that they must be true. There are
minds which God has so prepared that the moment they hear the gospel they
respond to it. I think I hear the seeker after truth exclaim when he heard the
gospel, "True? Why, how could it be otherwise? It is so divinely grand, so
harmonious, so good, so gracious, so unexpected -- nobody could have thought of
it but God himself -- it must be the truth." Having long sought goodly pearls of
truth, the illuminated eye catches the gleam of the gospel and discerns it to be
a priceless gem. Those are blessed indeed who are thus at once brought unto
faith by the statement of the gospel.To some others, the convincing point has
been the suitability of the gospel to their case, for while they have heard it
preached as a gospel for sinners, they have felt that they were certainly among
that class. When the preacher has gone on to describe the misery of the fall,
the utter ruin of human nature, its deceitfulness, feebleness, fickleness, and
folly, the hearer has said, "Is the gospel sent to those who are thus lost,
guilty, and impotent? Why, I am precisely in that condition?" And, then, when
its great command is stated, namely, simple trust in Jesus, the soul perceives
the suitability of the way of grace. We do not go to heaven to bring Christ
down, or dive into the deeps to bring him up from the dead; we can neither keep
the law nor find an atonement for our transgressions; but this simple trust, oh
how suitable it is to undone sinners. Nothing to do -- I can do nothing;
noticing to bring -- I have nothing to bring; it suits my case. Glory be to God
for devising a plan so adapted to our wants. From the suitabilty of the gospel
to the sinner, many have been by God's Spirit led to saving faith in Jesus, and
so faith has come by hearing.In many, I do not doubt, faith has come through
hearing of the condescending pity and the melting love of Jesus. Oh, that we
dwelt more on this; that he loved his enemies, that he died for the ungodly,
that his heart yearns over the lost sheep, that he is willing to receive
prodigal sons, for he is full of grace and truth. "His heart is made of
tenderness,His bowels melt with love."When such texts as the following have been
preached on: -- "This man receiveth sinners." "Come unto me all ye that labor."
"Ho, every one that thirsteth," etc. "All manner of sin and transgression shall
be forgiven unto men." "Whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life
freely." "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out," that melting
strain has touched the heart, and led the most hardened to believe in a Savior
so kind to the undeserving. Men have found it impossible not to believe in a
friend so self-sacrificing, a Redeemer so altogether lovely. The sweet love of
Jesus has an omnipotence in it to win souls. They yield "by mighty love
subdued," unable to resist its charms, and as if they could hold out no longer,
they throw themselves by an act of faith into the Savior's arms. I can well
understand their singing, "I do believe, I must believe in such a friend as
this." Faith comes by hearing of the free forgiveness procured by the agony, the
stripes, the wounds, the death of Jesus, the lover of our souls.At other times,
faith has come not so much through hearing the statement of the gospel as from
hearing of its authority. I may believe a statement because it looks like truth.
I may, on the other hand, accept it not at all because I have myself perceived
the apparent truth of it, but because of the person who tells it to me. And this
is a very right and acceptable kind of faith. What has God said about my
salvation? Before I hear it I am prepared to believe it on the testimony of God.
He says it, and that is enough for me. I believe this Bible to be his book; I
hear what it says, and whatsoever the Lord God hath said I must and will
receive, whether it appears plain or not. There are persons who when they have
heard the gospel preached have not at first believed it, but if it has pleased
the Spirit of God to lead the minister to show that the gospel is of divine
appointment, that the way proclaimed is ordained by God himself, and that God
has set the sanction of his promise upon it -- "He that believeth and is
baptised shall be saved" -- and has also set upon it the second sanction of his
threatening -- "He that believeth not shall be damned" -- then they have yielded
and given over all further question. God bids them trust in Jesus, and they do
so through his grace. Without canvassing the statement itself they receive what
God teaches, and since he hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation for sin
they receive him us such: since he has said, "Look unto me and be saved," they
look because God bids them look, and they are saved. To believe in Jesus is a
command from God's own mouth, and is, therefore, to be obeyed, and the more so,
because "he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth
not the record that God gave of his Son; and this is the record, that God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."In some cases, too, the
coming of faith has been helped by hearing and perceiving the veracity of the
subordinate testifiers of the gospel, -- I mean the writers of the sacred book,
the prophets, and chiefly the apostles. These men are worthy of credit -- they
were honest, unsophisticated men, and they certainly gained nothing by
testifying that Christ was the Messiah, and that he died and rose again from the
dead. One of them, the Apostle Paul, lost his position, which was one of great
eminence, and spent his whole life in toil, and suffering, and reproach, and
ended with a bloody death because of what he preached, and thus he proved that
he was a sincere, honest, upright man. If Paul or any other of the apostles were
in the witness-box, nobody could demur to their evidence; whatever they said we
should believe, because the men were truthful witnesses. Now, sometimes, persons
have been led into faith in Christ, by feeling that those whom he sent to be
testifiers to his person, death, and resurrection were evidently true to the
core, and, therefore, their word was worthy of all acceptation.I believe, dear
friends, that faith has come by hearing in another way. Perhaps the preacher has
not so much stated the gospel, and brought forward its authority, as explained
it. and so faith has come. If we spent our time in nothing else but just
explaining the text, "He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved," we
might achieve a blessed life-work, and perhaps might see greater results than
when our ministry takes a wider range. When the preacher takes up one by one the
soul difficulties which prevent man from seeing what faith is, and keep him away
from looking to Christ, and when he tries to show, as he should, that all the
hope of the sinner lies out of himself, none of it in himself, that all his help
for salvation is laid upon one that is mighty, even Jesus Christ the Son of God,
and that he must look away from his own feelings, and prayings, and doings, and
even away from his own believings as any ground of confidence, and must rest
simply and alone upon the one sacrifice of Jesus; it has often happened that
faith has come through the hearing of such an explanatory word. In some cases,
too, faith has come when the word has possessed a peculiar soul-revealing
pointedness in it to the hearer's particular case. Remember the Samaritan Woman.
Our Lord Jesus Christ explained to her the gospel, but she does not appear to
have been enlightened by his explanations: it was that home stroke of his --
"Go, call thy husband and come hither," which won her to faith. Such revealings
of the thoughts and intents of the heart will occur in any God-sent preaching of
the gospel, just because the Word pierces to the dividing of soul and spirit,
and lays bare the secrets of the soul. Then it is that hearers cry, "Come, see a
man that told me all things that ever I did; is not this the Christ?" Thus, by
the guidance of the Spirit, the word finds out the man, and faith cometh by
hearing.Faith, also, comes in to many by hearing, when we detail the experience
of those who have tasted and handled the good word of life; when the preacher or
teacher tells how he trusted in Jesus, and found pardon, peace, and life
eternal; when he is able to point to others who have felt the same, some of
whom, perhaps, were even greater offenders than the person addressed, then
conviction and faith are wrought in the mind. We bid you see what Jesus has done
for us, in the hope that you will trust and try him for yourselves. Jesus prayed
for those who shall believe on him through our word, and we hope you will be
among the number.To set the whole matter clearly, we will suppose that you are
laboring under a very serious disease, and a physician professes to heal you.
You are quite willing to believe in him, but you cannot blindly follow any man,
for there are thousands of quacks and impostors. You naturally want to know
something about him. Now, in what way would you go to work to get faith in him?
How would faith be likely to come to you? It would come by hearing. You hear him
speak and you perceive that he understands your case, for he describes exactly
all your symptoms, even those which none know but yourself and a skillful
physician. You feel already some confidence in him. He next describes to you as
much of the method of cure as you can comprehend, and it seems to you to be very
reasonable, and withal suitable to the requirements of your case. His proposal
commends itself to your best judgment, and you are already a stage nearer
submission to his mode of operation. Then you enquire as to the man's character;
you find that he is no mere pretender, but an authorized skillful,
longestablished practitioner, well known for truthfulness, uprightness, and
every good quality. Moreover, suppose in addition to this he charges you nothing
whatever, but does everything gratis, having evidently no motive of gain, but
being altogether disinterested, moved only by real pity for you, and a kind
desire to remove your pain and save your life. Can you any longer refuse to
believe and submit? But if, in addition to all this, he allows you his
case-book, and bids you read case after case similar to your own in which he has
affected perfect cure, and if some of these are your own acquaintances, if they
are persons whom you know and esteem, why, sir, you will not insult him by
saying, "I wish I could believe you;" but you will be unable to help trusting
him, unless you are unwilling to be cured. Faith, in such a case, does not
depend upon the will at all; you are convinced by hearing, and you become a
believer. In the same way faith comes by hearing. You are unreasonable if you
sit still and say, "I cannot make myself believe;" of course you cannot, but you
hear, do you not, of how Christ heals sinners; you hear that he is backed by
divine authority; you see that he really does save those who trust him, and what
more of evidence do you want? O soul! it seems to me a harder thing not to
believe in Jesus than to believe in him, if you are indeed willing to be made
whole. When one has heard these things, and understands them, surely the mind,
if it be not wilfully blinded, must receive the Savior. May God forgive your
long perverseness, and by his Spirit open your eyes to see the simplicity of
that faith which comes by hearing the word of God.II. My time, however, flies
much too rapidly this morning, and I must be brief on the second very important
head, namely, OBSTRUCTIONS WHICH OFTEN BLOCK UP THIS WAY.One is a want of
intention, by which I mean that many persons come to hear, but they have no wish
to be led into faith. Like the butterflies which flit from flower to flower,
they extract no honey because they come not for such a purpose: while the bees
dive into the cups and bells of the flowers, and come up loaded with their
luscious food. Oh, if men came to hear, praying to be endowed with faith in
Jesus, faith would surely come to them by hearing. Many persons in hearing a
sermon, are like children looking, at a cornfield -- it is full of yellow
garlic, or perhaps of scarlet poppies, and they cry "What a lovely field;" but
the farmer thinks not so, he is looking for the wheat. Many a hearer watches for
pretty speeches and flowery metaphors, and cries, "How well he puts it! What a
well-turned sentence! How sweetly he quotes poetry!" and so on. Bah! Is that
what you come to God's house for? O fools and slow of heart, is this your end in
hearing the life-giving gospel of the bleeding Lamb? I assure you it is not this
that we are aiming at in preaching to you. If you came to look after the good
corn, you would care little for the gaudy poppies of a flaunting eloquence so
much regarded by the men of these days. Come with the intent to find faith in
Jesus; cry to God to make his word effectual to our salvation, and then hearing
will be quite another business with you. Alas I fear you will perish, let us
preach as we may, while we are regarded by you as mere orators to be criticized,
and not as witnesses whose testimony is to be weighed. Some do not hear aright
for want of attention. Sleepy hearers are not likely to be led to faith.
Eutychus may fall from the third loft and be taken up for dead, but he is not
likely to become a believer by sleeping, even though Paul should be the
preacher. We want attention in order to the real reception of the word. Oh how
pleasant it is to preach to earnest hearers who lean forward to catch every
syllable, anxious to know how they can be saved. Wandering hearts lose the
benefit of the truth, and vain minds trifle away the privilege of a gospel
ministry. Take heed how ye hear, otherwise ye may remain hearers only, and so
perish in unbelief.With many a want of candor is another reason why faith does
not come by hearing. If a man hears with a prejudiced heart, making up his mind
before hand what he will believe, he is not likely to be convinced, he puts
himself as far as he can out of the reach of benefit. When the heart rebels
against the word: when it says, "If this be true I am living a bad life, and I
shall have to give up my pleasures, therefore will not accept it." Well then,
faith does not come and cannot come by such hearing. Faith comes by hearing when
a man does, as it were, give himself up to the word of God, like a person who is
badly wounded and surrenders himself to the surgeon's hand. Oh, if I had a
gangrened limb and it must be taken off, I think I would pray for patience
enough to say, "O sir, if you can but spare my life cut to the very bone." When
it is the soul that is concerned I would say to the preacher, "Sir, do not
flatter me, do not tell me that which will please but delude me; I do not want
your flattery, I do not want your fine words. "Sir, tell me what I am, and where
I am in the sight of God, and how I can be saved; for it will little satisfy me
to wake up in hell and remember that I used to hear a fine orator. I want to be
saved in deed and of a truth." "Ah," says one, "but some preachers are not only
bold, but rough in their expression." Yes, but suppose you were nearly drowned,
and a strong swimmer plunged into the stream and plucked you out just as you
were sinking for the last time, if he dislocated your arm would you grumble? No,
you would say, "The bone can be set at another time, but my life could not have
been restored." And so with the preacher, though he be rough, if it be the truth
which he speaks, only pray that it may save your soul, and be content to put up
with the man's infirmity, if by any means you may attain to salvation by Jesus
Christ.With some, how ever, hearing does not bring faith, because they hear
without any after meditation. There is a great trial going on, as you know, in
the Tichborne case. Every juryman, I doubt not, wants to judge righteously. I am
sure the sleepy one is not likely to do so, and I am pretty clear that the
juryman who is most likely to get at the truth will be the man who, when he gets
away from the court, having heard attentively all the time, takes home the notes
of the evidence, weighs it, and makes comparisons, and endeavors to sift out the
truth. So I would say to you when you hear us preach, sift the sermon
afterwards, turn our sermons over, pick holes in them if you like, and find out
our mistakes; but oh, do search into the truth, and be not content till you find
it. If you want to find Christ, the wisdom of God, you should seek for him as
for silver. You are likely to believe the truth when your mind turns it over and
over. Here is a bag, and I am willing to make a man rich, and, therefore, I drop
into it pound after pound, but I find that the bag is just as empty as before;
the reason is plain, -- there are holes in the bag, and the money drops through.
Too many hearers are as a bag full of holes, and golden sermons will not bless
them because they wilfully forget all. They will never come to faith because
they do but look at their face in the glass of the word, and go their way and
forget what manner of men they are. Oh for hearers who only need to know the
gospel, and the evidence of it, and then consent thereto, saying, "It is the
truth of God, I cannot quarrel with it; I joyfully receive it." Such are saved
souls.III. But, now, I am sorry to be so brief, but I must conclude by speaking,
of THE IMPORTANCE THAT FAITH SHOULD COME TO US BY HEARING. I will let my words
drop rapidly without any ornament, and remind you, dear friend, that if you have
been a hearer and faith has not come to you, you are, this moment, in the gall
of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity. You believe not in Christ, and you
make God a liar, because ye have not believed in his only-begotten Son. The
wrath of God abideth on you. You are dead while you live. Without God, without
Christ, and strangers to the covenant of promise. My soul pities you -- will you
not pity yourselves? Hearers only; faithless, graceless, Christless! Christ
died, but you have no part in his death. His blood cleanses from sin, but your
sin remains upon you. Christ has risen, and he pleads before the throne, -- you
have no part in that intercession. He is preparing a place for his people, but
that place is not for you. Oh, unhappy soul! oh, wretched soul! out of favor
with God, at enmity with eternal love, destitute of eternal life! Truly, if
Jesus were here he would weep over you, as he did over Jerusalem, and say, "How
often would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not." Ah, remember, though your present state is terrible it is not
all. You will soon die, and you will die without faith. Remember that word of
Christ, it is one of the most terrible I know of, "if ye believe not that I am
he, ye shall die in your sins." To die in a ditch, to die in a prison, to die on
the gallows, none of us would desire it; but to die in your sins! O God, it is
hell, it is eternal damnation. May the great Lord save you! But to perish for
ever will be your lot as surely as you live, except you believe in Jesus and
that speedily, for soon you will be out of the reach of all hearing. No more
sermons, no more invitations of grace. Oh, what would you give to have the
gospel once more when you are cast away from it! No more the preacher's voice,
saying, "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die!" No more the pitiful accents of one
who loves your souls, and fain would snatch you as firebrands from the flame:
around you all will be dark, and hard, and the only message for you will be
this, -- "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.""There are no acts of
pardon passed,In that cold grave to which we haste;But darkness, death, and long
despair,Reign in eternal silence there."Ah! then it will he no assuagement of
your miseries that you once heard the gospel; it will rather increase your
torment. Conscience will cry aloud -- "I heard the gospel of grace, and I heard
the arguments which proved it true, but I rejected a gospel which God himself
proclaimed, a gospel which was genuine on the face of it, a gospel full of such
love as ought to have melted a rock, a gospel that was brought to me without
money and without price, a gospel that was pressed upon me from my infancy to my
hoar hairs -- I rejected it, I wilfully rejected it, not because it was not
true, but because I would believe a lie, and would not believe the living God."
Eternal Father, thou who art mighty to save, let not one among us go down into
the pit with a lie in his right hand, refusing to accept the gospel of thy
blessed Son! The Lord save you all, for Christ's sake. Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE
READ BEFORE SERMON -- Romans 1.


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  CHAPTER 5: THE TWO YOKES
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A Sermon (No.1032) Delivered on Lord's Day Evening, January 14th, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "Thus saith the Lord; Thou
hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron." --
Jeremiah 28:13. ALL THROUGH THE BOOK of Jeremiah you will observe that the
prophet taught the people not only by words, but by symbols. At one time he took
his mantle and hid it in the earth till it was soiled and worn, and then taught
them something by wearing it. At another time he took an earthen pot and broke
it in their presence. And on this occasion he put a yoke about his own neck as
the token that Israel should be subdued beneath the power of Nebuchadnezzar.
This was a strange method of teaching. I have sometimes heard complaints made by
those who are fond of criticizing things they know nothing about -- when a
teacher puts a truth very plainly, if he shall, as it were, act what he says, he
is upbraided at once as being histrionic. I know not what ungenerous words are
hurled at him. Yet after all, this was what Jeremiah did. He taught the people
by signs and symbols. So, too, our Lord himself. I doubt not, that when he
uttered those words, "Consider the lilies," he stooped down and plucked a lily;
and when he said, "Consider the ravens," he pointed to the ravens flying
overhead, in the sky. At any rate, we know that once he took a little child, and
set it in the midst of them. What an outcry there would be if I were to take a
little child and set him here and preach about him! Did we use any kind of
symbol, to what ridicule we should expose ourselves! The fact is, we might do
much more good if we did less regard the general current of public opinion, and
ventured to do strange things, that anyhow the truth of God might come home to a
slumbering generation, and the Word of God, which must be learnt by them or they
must perish, were made to tell upon their minds. The prophet Jeremiah, though
exceedingly faithful in his mission, which he discharged as God would have him
discharge it, with many tears in great love and deep anxiety, nevertheless had a
great obstacle in his way. He was met by false prophets who withstood and
contradicted him to his face. Not so very surprising either. It must ever be
expected that it will be so. If God shall speak by any man, there shall be some
other who protests that God speaks by him to the contrary. If there be a Christ,
there will be an Antichrist; if there be a Simon Peter, there will be a Simon
Marcus, if there shall be raised up by God a Luther, there shall be an Eckius,
or some other controversialist who shall seek to resist and overthrow him. Let
no man's heart then fail him if he be flatly contradicted when he bears
testimony for God. Let him rather expect it, and go on never caring, for the
fact is, the truth will outlive error, and in the long run that Word of God
before which all things else are as grass and as the flower, the perishing
flower of the field -- the Word of God shall endure for ever and triumph over
the ruin of all the words of men. Tremble not, ye feeble adherents of the truth,
who fear lest your weakness should make the truth itself weak, and the strong
logic and the powerful rhetoric of its adversaries should overturn the oracles
of God. It cannot be. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the gospel,
mighty though they be both in power and in sophistry. The truth shall abide; the
right shall prevail; for God is faithful, and Christ must reign till he hath put
all enemies under his feet. With this, by way of preliminary observation, we
will now come to the text, and endeavor to make some use of it for ourselves.
Hananiah took off the symbolic yoke, the wooden yoke, from Jeremiah's neck and
broke it. Jeremiah comes again, and says, "You have broken the yoke of wood, but
God has commanded that ye shall now wear yokes of iron." They were not
benefited, therefore, by the change, but the reverse. This is suggestive of a
broad principle. From the symbol, which was applicable in one case, we draw a
general truth. Whenever men say of God, "Let us break his bands asunder, and
cast his cords from us," they may do so if they will; but instead of the yokes
of wood they will be sure to get yokes of iron. If they will not submit to the
government of Christ, they will have to submit to the tyranny of Satan. Some
yoke they will have to wear, and if they reject the easy yoke of the Christ of
God, the wooden yoke as it were which he puts on men, there shall be made for
them yokes of iron, which they shall neither be able to break off nor yet to
support. So our thought will run this way. First, that men must wear some yoke
or other; and, secondly, that the yoke of Christ is a very easy one; and,
thirdly, that when it is refused, it is inevitable that men should wear a
heavier one. I. MEN MUST WEAR SOME YOKE. It is so naturally. There is no stage
of life in which this is not the case. The child must bear the yoke in his
youth. He is an unhappy child that is under no control. Probably there is
nothing so ruinous to a man as to be allowed to have his own way, while yet his
judgment is not ripe enough to guide him. And when we advance into youth, we are
usually placed in some position of life where we are under obligations to some
superior, be he parent, or guardian, or employer. Nor if we become what is
called our own masters, does it make much difference. As things go now, I think
there are no people that are their own masters, for the masters are bound to
yield to the terms which the servants dictate; and this condition of things is
getting more and more rife. I shall not discuss the right or wrong of this,
where questions arise between capitalists and skillful laborers, but I will say
that if the employed claim liberty, the masters might very well be allowed a
portion of that choice prerogative. As it is now, I am sure he that says, "I am
a master," is as much under the yoke to his servants as the servant is under the
yoke to his master. That a man who lives in the midst of society should hold
some relationship to all around him is indispensable. But men are always for
changing their forms of government. Some nations have a revolution almost with
every moon, but for all that there is still a yoke upon them; and if it were
ever to come to anarchy, to mob rule -- ah, I warrant you, it would be a yoke of
iron, and of red hot iron too. God save us from it. No yoke is so hard to bear
as that yoke which a people put upon themselves when they reject all order,
break through all law, and will not submit to any principle or any government,
however just or righteous. You cannot get on in this world without a yoke of
some sort. We are not going to wear a tyrant's yoke any of us. Let lords and
lands have what masters they will: in this land of ours we will be free, and our
own masters still; but the selfishness of individuals or of classes must never
determine the boundary lines of power or of privilege; for we can only maintain
our freedom by everyone of us paying that right obedience to the law which is
due from every citizen, if we would promote alike his own comfort and the common
weal. Away from those lower grounds into higher spheres -- it is certainly true
that we must wear the yoke. God has made us, and not we ourselves; and God has
made us to be his servants. We are daily in dependence on him for the bread we
eat. If any man shall say he is not dependent upon God, I will at least reply to
him, "You are dependent for the air you breathe and the power to breathe it. The
life that is within you hangs upon a thread, and that thread is in the hand of
the Most High." Every moment each one of us is most certainly sustained by God.
And in return for this support, there is something asked, namely, that we would
submit to his will; that we would obey his law, which is perfect, and just, and
right, and that having sinned against him we should rebel no longer or continue
his enemies, but be reconciled to him. We are made dependent creatures, and from
that very fact we must wear a yoke unto God. Moreover, dear friends, we are all
so constituted as creatures, with such passions and propensities, that when we
break one yoke, the yoke which it is meet we should wear, and do not serve God,
we at once bend our necks to another yoke and begin to serve something else --
we serve ourselves, and oh, the slavery of serving one's self! He that makes his
belly his god, and bows down to the lusts of the flesh, serves a tyrant indeed.
Something or other we must serve, not only because we are dependent creatures,
but also it seems to be stamped upon us that we must follow some great
principle, and must yield ourselves to some spiritual influence. A yoke of some
kind or another we must submit to. The man who shall say, "I am perfectly free,
and I live for nothing but myself," is so mean an animal, that he is hardly
worthy to be called a man. In his boasted exemption from all regard to his
fellow creatures and to his God, he sets himself up, in his own esteem, and that
after a diabolical model, alone and apart in his awful selfishness, like an
iceberg to melt away, and may be to crush others as he moves along his course.
What is he but a beacon, against which all are to be warned? Sir, the yoke fits
the human neck, and the human neck was made to wear it. We must have some God,
we must have some ruler, we must have some principle, which shall master us, and
be it ours in God's name to choose the right and the best master, or else, woe
be unto us.II. Not to dwell longer upon our first point, I proceed to notice
THAT THE YOKE OF CHRIST IS AN EASY YOKE. It is, as it were, a yoke of wood. Let
us dwell upon this awhile. God grant that some who have never worn that yoke
may, by the Holy Spirit's power, be led to carry it.If you become a servant of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the man of Nazareth, he asks of you nothing but
what is absolutely right. His life, which is the Christian's law written out in
living characters, is perfection itself. His precepts which distil like dew from
his lips, are all pure and good, just and kind. It ought to be enough for a man,
and would be enough for him if he were not fallen, to know that all rule is
right, and to submit to it at once. When God gives a man a noble spirit, he
pants to enlist in honorable service. He craves a post in the council or the
camp. His heart's enquiry is, "Where can I find a leader who will always lead me
aright? Where shall I discover a law which will never lead me into evil, if I
obey it? Where can I discover an example, which I may imitate in its very jots
and tittles, and yet never be found any other than I ought to be?" I commend to
such spirits, Jesus the Christ of God, for there is nothing in his precepts or
his practices, in his profession or his life, that is not consonant with
righteousness of the highest order, majestic in its compass, and scrupulously
minute in its obedience.The yoke of Christ is framed in our interest. The law of
Christ is drawn up and dictated by our Councillor for our welfare. If man were
infinitely wise, and could draw up a code for himself, which would involve no
hardship, and entail all that was happy, he could devise no regulations more
healthful, more profitable, or more pleasant than those of the Savior; he would
discover that to believe in Jesus was the highest wisdom; to repent of sin, the
most delightful necessity; to follow after holiness the most blissful pursuit,
and to serve God the greatest delight. Service and sovereignty blend here, as
when Joseph became Prime Minister of Pharaoh he was lord over all the land of
Egypt. To serve God in very truth is to reign, and to become a servant of
Christ, is to be made a king and a priest unto God -- to be ennobled with as
much dignity as human nature can bear. Jesus Christ, if he forbids you anything,
only forbids you what would harm you. Say any of you of sin -- "Tis sweet"? Ah!
and so are many I poisoned things. Your nature goes after it. Yes, and many a
sick man's nature craves for that which would be his poison. The Lord Jesus
denies to those who take his yoke nothing but that which would be injurious to
them. His is a blessed yoke, because it is the yoke of righteousness, and it is
the yoke of personal benefit.Moreover, Christ's yoke is not exacting. If he
assesses us with one hand, he more richly endows us with the other hand. He in
his grace always gives to us of his bounty what he asks of us as our duty. Under
one view of divine truth, faith is man's act. The Holy Ghost never believes for
anybody. A sinner must believe himself. It is a personal act. But yet in another
phase of it, it is the Holy Spirit's work in the man -- he gives the faith which
the man exercises towards God. If then faith in Jesus be required, it is not a
hard thing, because the Spirit works in men the very faith which Jesus seeks of
them. If to repent of sin be thought difficult -- how shall we get tears out of
a rock? -- the reply is, true repentance is the gift of the Holy Ghost, and when
it is sought of the Lord, it is never denied. Christ is exalted on high to give
not only the pardon of sin, but to give the repentance which comes before the
pardon. To give repentance and remission of sins is the very office of Christ.
If, then, the precepts should seem difficult, the difficulty is removed, because
the virtues and graces which are a matter of precept are also a matter of
promise. What is commanded in one Scripture, is conceded in another as an
absolute gift of God according to the covenant of his grace. It is an easy yoke,
then, sinner. Dost thou say: "I cannot believe"? Hast thou asked for faith? Is
thy heart hard? Hast thou asked to have it softened? If ye cannot come to Christ
with broken hearts, come for broken hearts, for they are his gift. He will give
you all -- all that his gospel demands, for he is Alpha and Omega, the author
and the finisher of our faith. It is an easy yoke, then, since he gives what he
requires. That the yoke of Christ is easy, I might call to witness all those who
have ever proved it. Never did a man wear it but he always loved to wear it. I
think I have heard that Queen Elizabeth carried the crown in the procession of
her sister Mary at the coronation, and she remarked that it was very heavy, but
some one standing by told her it would not be heavy when she had to wear it
herself. So the precepts which some men do but carry in their hands seem very
heavy; but when a man comes to know Christ and to love him, those very precepts
become light and easy. "I could not," says one, "be a Christian as I am: it
would be very hurtful to me: I should have to give up much that I have learned
to prize." Ah! but suppose you were made a new man in Christ Jesus, there would
be nothing irksome at all about renouncing old habits. Here is a raven, to tutor
it into cleanly living, it must forego all carrion, it must feed upon these
grains sweet and pure. The raven might pine and repine at this as a hardship,
unless by some transmuting influence the raven were turned into a dove. Then it
would be no hardship to forsake the carrion, which its new nature would loathe;
nor would it be grievous to feed upon the clean winnowed grain, for its appetite
would crave it. And, O beloved, the life of the true Christian is not a life
chafed and galled with vexatious prohibitions, because pursuits which, to the
non-Christian heart are distasteful and repulsive, to the renewed heart are a
matter of intense delight. A man shall carry a bucket of water on his head and
be very tired with the burden, but that same man when he dives into the sea
shall have a thousand buckets on his head without perceiving their weight,
because he is in the element and it entirely surrounds him. The duties of
holiness are very irksome to men who are not in the element of holiness; but
when once those men are cast into the element of grace, then they bear ten times
more and feel no weight, but are refreshed thereby with joy unspeakable.
Christ's yoke is easy, for the new heart rejoices in it.The yoke of Christ is
rendered easy by the bright example of Christ, and by the blessed fellowship
with him to which his people are called. Christ himself carried it. Have you
never read in Grecian story -- I think there are one or two cases to the point
-- how the Grecian soldiers on their long marches grew exceedingly weary, and
wished that the war were closed: they felt so dispirited. But there was a man
whom they almost adored as a god -- Alexander himself -- and they saw him always
sharing their toil. If the road was rough, the monarch walked with them: if they
were short of a draught of water, Alexander would share their thirst. At the
sight of him every man grew strong. Oh! it is grand to the believer to feel
that, if there be a trial or a difficulty in the Christianity, Christ has borne
it, and Christ is with us, bearing it still. Not like the scribes and Pharisees,
who laid heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, upon men's shoulders, and they
themselves would not touch them with one of their fingers; our Lord has taken
the load himself and carried it, and he now says to the disciples, "Take my yoke
upon you -- the very yoke I carried -- and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly
in heart: I have borne the trial which you have to bear and endured to the end,
as you shall do through my grace."There is one remarkable fact about the yoke of
Christ which I should like to mention. All who have borne it have always had
grace given equal to the weight of the burden. I have never, yet discovered one
cross-bearer among the children of God who ever expressed regret that to become
a Christian and took upon himself the yoke. I have been familiar with
death-beds: I have witnessed strange scenes, for the bony hand of death pulls
back many curtains and plucks off many masks from faces that were accustomed to
wear them. One thing however, I can solemnly say I have never scene. I have
never seen a Christian weary of His Master's service. I have never heard from an
aged pilgrim a word of complaint against Christ, or against his yoke. There have
been a great many Christians beyond all suspicion of fanaticism, of whom none
would suppose that they strove to act a part inconsistent with their true
character, yet not one has had to regret that he served Christ. You know the
words so often quoted of him who regretted that he had not served his God with
half the zeal that he had served his kind; but I never remember, nor do any of
you ever remember having heard of one who, in life's latest hour, bemoaned his
allegiance to God, or bewailed the ardor with which he followed Christ. Surely,
if remorse had ever begotten such a thought, some one would have been bold to
utter it. And, verily, verily, if such an incident had ever occurred, there
would have been no lack of historians to record it.Another thing I think tells
strongly in favor of this yoke of Christ. The servants of Christ are always
anxious to get their children into the same service. Often do I hear men say, "I
don't want to bring my boy up to my trade; the work is dirty, the hours long,
and the pay small." I have heard them say, "I should not like to see my boy in
our office; there are so many temptations," and so on. Did you ever hear a pious
man say, "I should not like my boy to be a Christian"? Did you ever hear a godly
matron say, "I should deeply regret to see my daughter become a follower of
Christ"? No, but what they have possessed for themselves they have longed to
have for their children. I remember well hearing my grandfather's earnest prayer
for all his household. It always lay near his heart that his children and his
children's children might fear the Lord. I have lively recollections of his
devotions. My father, whose prayer you heard just now -- how often have I heard
him pray for his children; and I can truly say the prayer that is nearest to my
heart is for my sons, that they may serve the Lord. There is nothing I desire so
much beneath the skies. Now if Christ's yoke were hard, we could not wish to
bring our children under it. We have natural affections and common sense as well
as you, and having tried Christ so long ourselves, that is our desire for our
posterity. I have tried him now (what shall I say?) these twenty years. Had I
found him a hard master I would not beguile you or belie my own conscience. I
speak the truth, there is no lord like Christ, and no service like Christ's. I
would that every young man and every young woman here believed in his name and
submitted to his authority, and that they would take upon themselves, through
his grace, his easy peace-giving yoke. III. If not, what then? THOSE WHO REFUSE
TO WEAR THE EASY YOKE OF CHRIST WILL HAVE TO WEAR A WORSE ONE. "Thou hast broken
the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron."Observe! Adam
wore an easy yoke in Paradise: he broke it. Himself and his posterity have had
to wear yokes of iron ever since. Death has come into the world with all its
train of woes. I need not enlarge enough that it is a case in point. Whenever a
child of God, a true child of God, under pressure of temptation, turns aside
from the right path, he is always made to feel that after he has broken the yoke
of wood, he must wear a yoke of iron. John Bunyan's illustration will serve me
well here. The two pilgrims, Christian and Hopeful, when they went on their way,
came to a place where the road was full of flints that cut their feet, and there
were thorns and briers in the way; and by-and-by one of them said, "Here is a
meadow on the other side of the hedge, and if we were just to pass through the
gap we might save a corner: it would be sure to come out in the way again, and
so we should be certain to avoid the rough places." Bunyan well describes how,
when they got into By-path Meadow the night overtook them and the flood, and
they wished to find the road again -- longing for it, rough as it had been. But
Giant Despair laid hold of them, took them to his dungeon, and beat them within
an inch or their lives, and it was only by mighty grace that they escaped. Take
care, Christian, take care, though you shall not utterly perish, you may often
have to go with broken bones through a sin. David -- ah, you recollect his sin,
his repentance, and his life of sorrow -- how he went to his grave halting
still, as a consequence, an entail of his crimes. Do not, therefore, shrink from
Christian duty because it is onerous. Never, O Christian, turn aside from the
straight road, the highway of rectitude, because it threatens you with shame or
loss. That first loss will be vastly less than the after-losses you will incur
by seeking to avoid it. Jonah would resist the word of the Lord that came to
him, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh," but he had to endure the perils of a
voyage, to encounter the fury of the tempest, and at length to sink to the
bottom of the sea, and yet to Nineveh after all he must go. If you shirk a duty
you will be brought up to it yet, but it will be with bitter pain. Be ye not as
the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held
in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.The principle of our text
is very applicable to all backsliders. We have known men that set out apparently
on the road to heaven -- made a profession of being Christians, but after awhile
they tired and fainted, and walked no more with us. Christianity was to them a
yoke, and they put it off. I wonder whether they have improved their condition.
I believe not. I will single out a person here -- may his conscience single him
out. When you lived in the country, every Sabbath you went with your wife and
family to the house of God. Were you a Methodist then? Never mind: you were very
earnest, whatever place it was you attended. And you and your little family were
very happy too. But you came to London, and after awhile the general idle habits
of our London people in the morning came over you. You were content with one
service a day. You did not seek Church-membership, nor cast yourself in the way
of God's people. By-and-by it was not one service a day you attended, it was
none at all; or else you called it religion to go and hear the music and see the
religious theatricals in certain great houses in London. I know not if you
called that worshipping God when you were only whiling away the hour with
sensual gratifications. And at last you gave up all presence of being a
Christian or of frequenting places of worship. Now I will ask you a question.
You have got rid of the yoke of wood: how about your shoulders now? Your
Sundays, are they very pleasant? Your family, is it very happy? Your mind, is it
very much at ease? Oh, no! I know while I am talking to you you wish yourself
back in the little village again listening to the minister's voice once more;
for your Sundays are distasteful and comfortless, and your week days, when you
think about your condition, are wretched and reproachful, and your children are
not growing up in the way you could wish. Ah, sir! I pray God to make that yoke
of iron very heavy to you. Do you long to get rid of that and come back and take
the yoke of wood again? God of his infinite mercy, bring you back if you are his
child, or if you are not of his family may he put you among his children and
teach you to walk worthily.We have known those who have backslidden in another
way. Here you are now. Perhaps you used to be a professor of religion, but the
little shop was situated in a neighborhood where a good deal of trade was done
on Sunday; you heard it said by the neighbors: "I do not know how it is you can
shut up as you do." The wife did not like it, nor the husband either: it was,
however, done by slow degrees, and now it is always done, and you cannot both
come together: there is only one can come, and the other must stop at home.
Well, you have given up Christ's yoke; and Sabbath keeping seems to be too hard
a thing for you. Are you better off? Are you really better off? Are you happier?
Are you really happier? Something in your soul answers my question; you know you
have a yoke of iron now, instead of a yoke of wood. May God help you to break
away from your present slavery; and may you become a true heir of heaven. It may
be, I have here before me, one who was led into backsliding by a very common
occurrence. Young woman, knew you once, when your face was radiant with
happiness, while we preached Christ, and sung the hymns of Zion, but you
married, and your marriage was not in the Lord. An unbelieving husband was your
choice. You thought the yoke of Christ was hard when we reminded you of the
precept, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." You rejected the
yoke of Christ. How have you found it since? I have seen a great many such
marriages, and I have only seen one -- I have seen one, it is fair to say that,
but I assert I never saw but one -- in which I could get anything like an
acknowledgement of happiness from the ill assorted pair. Here and there it has
happened perhaps, that God has forgiven the fault, but not seldom it leads to
alienation of heart, and to utter departure from the living God, and often too,
to disappointment and heart-breaking, and to wretchedness such as I shall not
attempt to describe. Those that break Christ's yoke and become backsliders,
shall find an iron yoke given in its stead.To take another class of
illustrations. There are those in the world who will not have the yoke of Christ
in the matter of religion -- they prefer another. For instance, there are
superstitious persons who are not satisfied with the Bible, they want tradition.
They are not content with the teaching of the ancient church of Christ, as we
find it in the Acts of the Apostles, but they hanker after those modern upstart
churches, that call themselves catholic and apostolic, and amuse themselves by
raking up the grotesque fashions of the middle ages. What is the consequence? Do
these perverts, who cast off the yoke of the true Christian religion, get an
easier yoke? Ask them. Their penances and their mortifications; their fast days
and their festivals; their comminations, and their celebrations -- oh, what do
they get for them all? Is there one of them who can say he is saved? It is
usually one of their cardinal doctrines, that no man can know he is saved, so
that the only position they get in this life, is to slave on with a dim hope and
to die with a grim rite, and according to one faith to go -- even if it were the
best man in the church -- to go to purgatory. Ah, cheerless prospect! If I were
a Roman Catholic, I should turn a heretic, in sheer desperation, because I would
rather go to heaven than go to purgatory. I cannot see any advantage that is
offered to a man: if he gets all he can get, it is not worth having. Who among
you would slave his life away in voluntary humiliations, buoyed up with the
cheering faith of purgatorial fires at the goal of your days? Where is the gain
of it? And there is no church under heaven, except the true church of Christ,
that says to men, "Believe, and live: lay hold on Christ, and you are saved." We
present to you in Christ's name the greatest boon beneath the sky, and other
churches dare not pretend to offer it. They will only tell you that you may get
into a state in which you may be saved perhaps, but they do not know quite
certainly: it may be you shall fall away and perish after all, but as to an
absolute certain salvation in perpetuity, received by an act of faith, they know
not what it is. They put upon a yoke of iron grievous to their necks.And look at
self-righteous men and women who try to work their own way to heaven. The
Pharisees of old -- what a slavery their life was! Any man who is seeking to be
saved by his good works makes himself a slave. He must know in his conscience
that his good works are imperfect, and therefore he has no title, no sure, clear
title to heaven. Only the man who takes Christ to be his wisdom, his
righteousness, his justification, his redemption, his all and in all -- knows
that he is saved; but he that getteth Christ hath all that God asks of him, he
hath his sins punished in his Savior, he hath had the law fulfilled by his
Savior, and he is thus saved. Those who will not have Christ, put upon their
necks a horrible yoke. Oh, beware of superstition; beware of self-righteousness!
These are iron yokes indeed.But what remonstrance shall I address to the
unbeliever, who says: "I shall believe nothing: I am a skeptic. I will not bow
my neck to revelation"? Well, sir, you will be sure before long to bow your neck
to some tremendous absurdity. If you can once get a skeptic to tell you what he
does believe, you will generally find that his credulity is on a par with his
infidelity. What he relishes he feeds on without question; what he dislikes he
rejects, because somebody shrugged his shoulders at it. I have sometimes tried
to muddle my way through chapters of German neology. Thank God I have felt this
is not the way of life, or else certainly I should never find it, though I had a
doctor of divinity on either side to assist me. It is too hard and difficult for
any intellects, except they happen to be of the German type, to be able to find
a way through its labyrinths, and they miss it I am afraid. The men who do not
believe in God, believe that this world was not made at all, but grew. If you
were to sow some mustard and cress in your garden, in the form of the initials
of your boy, and it came up as A or B, and you took him into the garden and
said: "Now, nobody ever sowed that seed; it grew there in that way," you could
not make him believe it. But these philosophical speculators believe that this
big world, and sun, and moon, and stars, came forth without a creator. They can
believe anything. You cannot convince the simplest boy in the street that
somehow or other he was developed from an oyster, or some creature inferior to
that, and yet these profound thinkers bow themselves down to such a belief as
this. Verily, it is fulfilled in these days as of old, professing themselves to
be wise, they become fools. He that will not believe the simple revelation of
God, will presently find himself committed to systematic misbeliefs which
distract reason, oppress the heart, and trammel the conscience. He wears a yoke
of iron instead of a yoke of wood. Still giving but a word to each case, we have
hearers who, when they listen to the word, are haunted with reproach, but never
softened with repentance, because of their sins. They go on hardening their
necks and persevering in their iniquities. Impenitent sinner, mark this word.
The day will come when inasmuch as thou hast rejected the easy yoke of
repentance, thou wilt have to bear the iron yoke of remorse. A man under remorse
in this world is a dreadful sight. Horrified with the past and alarmed with the
future, yet having knees so stubborn that they will not bow, and blood-shot eyes
that will not weep; because, alas! his heart is like to adamant that cannot
feel. Of all the pangs convinced and repentant sinners bear, there are none so
dreadful as the gloomy torment of remorse. I could unfold scenes that I have
witnessed with my own eyes, paint the visage, and repeat the expressions of men
dying in fell despair, but I will spare you. God grant that you may never have
to endure that foretaste of hell upon earth, for such it is.And what shall I say
to the lover of pleasure? There are those who say, "I shall not bear the yoke of
Christ: I shall live in pleasure." Pleasure in some instances means lust, and
gaiety means crime. Have you never seen the young man who was respectably
brought up in his youth, after leading a life of pleasure shivering at your door
in rags? One I knew whom I had often clothed; I supposed that he was dead. But I
saw him return loathsome in his filthiness, squalid and tremulous, he came
begging yet again, stranger still to virtue and to shame. The poor soul still
lives -- a life more like death than life -- a prodigal whom none can help
because he does not return unto himself, nor desire to return unto his Father.
London dens have in them many hapless profligates that are terrible warnings
that men who seek their own pleasure put upon themselves a yoke of iron.Oh, what
revelations the infirmaries of our hospitals, and the wards of our lunatic
asylums might disclose of men who have played the wanton and rioted in sin, and
have worse than a yoke of iron upon their necks now! Oh, if there should have
come into this house some fallen woman, about whose neck there is that yoke of
iron, that she rejected a mother's precepts and disdained a father's counsel --
sister, that yoke of iron from thy neck may yet be taken; but beware lest it
grow heavier still! There are those who would help thee escape from thy sin in
the Christian church. Arise, and flee from this evil that hath made thee
captive, for there is hope yet. The Christ of God is willing to receive the
foulest of the foul. Persevere not in your criminal course, or that yoke of iron
will grow heavier and heavier and heavier, and be riveted to thee, till at last
thou shalt perish in it -- perish, and that for ever.All unholy persons who
break the law of God, and break away From the gospel's holiness, in the long run
get a yoke of iron about their necks. There are those in this place, perhaps,
who once used to sit with us at the Lord's table, having made a profession of
religion, but they gave way to drink. I know that if they could break away from
that habit now they would. If it could be done with a resolution they would do
it at once, for somehow they love this house, and slink in still; and when they
pass me in the streets, half-ashamed, they still remember him for whom they yet
retain a love, and who retains a love for them, and would fain see them back
again. But ah! ye drunkards, when ye once fall into this sin, how seldom are ye
restored! May God help you! May the eternal God deliver you; for this, this iron
yoke, is often hard to break. Resolve now, and pray also in God's name that you
may be free. Have done with the accursed thing. God can enable you to come clear
of it. May he do so now!Another form of the same evil not often spoken of, but
quite as bad, is that of avarice. We have known those who professed to be
Christians, who succeeded in business and from that time they grew greedy. The
gold they had stuck to their fingers burned into their flesh, yea, into their
very souls and turned their hearts to steel. They have no pity now for the poor,
and little care for the church of God. Ah, sirs; what an iron yoke avarice puts
upon a man's neck! You see a man grown old still keep scraping, yearning still
for more, afraid that he shall lose what he has, trembling in the night lest the
burglars should make a forcible entrance, and fearing we know not what. His
heart is in his iron safe, and is as hard as the iron of which it is made. O
God, forgive! for the covetous man can no more enter heaven than the drunkard.
The covetous have no place in the kingdom of God. There is a mark set upon the
covetous man. Covetousness is idolatry. It is a heavy burden -- the burden of
avarice. Happy they who wear the yoke of Christ, for all their givings are a
delight, and what they sacrifice is no loss to them, but becomes true storing --
the laying up of treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt.Enough of this. The general principle running through every case is,
that he who rejects the yoke of Christ bows his neck to something worse by far.
Mark ye! The day cometh -- I know not how soon -- perhaps as here I stand and
rudely talk of these mysterious things. Soon may this hand be stretched? and
dumb the mouth that lisps this faltering strain. Ere this service is over, the
sight of the Son of Man may be seen in the clouds of heaven, and the trumpet may
ring out loud as that of Sinai of old, "Awake, ye dead, and come to judgment.
And ye living sinners, come ye also; for the great white throne is set." And in
that day the yoke of Christ will be a chain of gold about each believer's neck.
To have served Christ will be our honor and our delight; but ah? the sin that
once was pleasure -- how it will turn to misery? How the rod of your joy will
become a serpent and seek to devour you! How will you flee away from yourselves,
and that which ye courted and ye loved, to ask the hills to hide you, and the
rocks to engulf you, that you may not see the face of the Redeemer. Come to him
now, ere yet that last tremendous day dawns. I lift him up to you now. Whosoever
looks to Christ shall live Jesus the Son of God has died, and he that trusts him
shall not die. There is life in a look at the crucified One. Pardon and peace
come at once to the soul that trusts the Savior. May ye now trust him, ere ye
leave this house, and God shall have the glory of it, both now and evermore.
Amen.


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  CHAPTER 6: FAITH'S DAWN AND ITS CLOUDS
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A Sermon (No.1033) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, January 28th, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "And straightway the father
of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine
unbelief." -- Mark 9:24. LAST SABBATH MORNING we treated upon the way by which
faith comes to the soul. "Faith cometh by hearing." It is our joyful persuasion
that on the past Sabbath faith actually came to many, and they were enabled to
rest themselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ to their soul's salvation. Now, every
good shepherd knows that he ought to look very carefully after the newborn
lambs, and, therefore, it seemed to me that it would be most expedient this
morning to search after those who have just believed in Christ, and to endeavor
to strengthen and help them against the very serious trials which are incident
to their present weak condition. When a man first lays hold upon Jesus he is
very apt to be in distress, if his joy be not always at its full height; he is
untrained in spiritual conflict, and easily dismayed; the tremor of his former
conviction is upon him, and he is prone to relapse into it. The light which he
has received fills him with intense delight, but it is not very clear and
abiding; he sees men as trees walking, and is ready to conjure up a thousand
fears. The weakness of newborn faith, therefore, calls for the compassion of all
who love the souls of men. In addition to their own weakness they are liable to
special dangers, for at such times Satan is frequently very active. No king will
willingly lose his subjects, and the Prince of Darkness labors to bring back
those who have just escaped over the confines of his dominion. If souls are
never tried afterwards, they are pretty sure to be assailed on their outset from
the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Bunyan very wisely placed the
Slough of Despond at the very commencement of the spiritual journey. The
cowardly fiend of hell assails the weak, because he would put an end to them
before they get strong enough to do mischief to his kingdom. Like Pharaoh, he
would destroy the little ones. He seeks, if possible, to beat out of them every
comfortable hope, so that their trembling faith may utterly perish. Perhaps, the
text of this morning will be suitable to many here. I trust it may, and that the
Spirit of God will give us reflections upon it which shall come home comfortably
to all troubled souls. "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." In the text
there are three things very clearly. Here is true faith; here is grievous
unbelief; here is a battle between the two. I. Very clearly in the text there is
TRUE FAITH. "Lord, I believe," says the anxious father. When our Lord tells him
that, if he can believe, all things are possible to him, he makes no demur, asks
for no pause, wishes to hear no more evidence, but cries at once, "Lord, I
believe." Now, observe we have called this faith true faith, and we will prove
it to have been so. First, it was faith in the person of Christ. It is a great
mistake to fancy that to endorse sound doctrine is the same thing as possessing
saving faith, for while saving faith accepts the truth of God, it mainly
concerns itself with the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and its
essence lies in reliance upon Jesus himself. I am not saved because I believe
the Scriptures, or because I believe the doctrines of grace, but I am saved if I
believe Christ; or, in other words, trust in him. Jesus is my creed. He is the
truth. In the highest sense the Lord Jesus is the Word of God. To know him is
life eternal. By his knowledge he justifies many. I do not know that the father
in the narrative before us had heard many sermons. I am not sure that he had
very clear notions about everything that concerned the Savior's kingdom: it was
not essential that he should have in order to obtain a cure for his son. It was
a very desirable thing that he should be an instructed disciple, but in the
emergency before us the main thing was that he should believe Christ to be both
able and willing to cast the devil out of his son. Up to that point he did
believe; and, though his faith may have been deficient as well in breadth as in
depth, yet it enabled him to realize that the Messiah who stood before him was
the Lord, and it led him to place all his reliance upon him. He did not believe
in the disciples; he had once trusted them and failed. He did not believe in
himself; he knew his own impotence to drive out the evil spirit from his child.
He believed no longer in any medicines or men, for doubtless he had spent much
on physicians; but he believed the man of the shining countenance who had just
come down from the mountain. When he heard him say, "If thou canst believe, all
things are possible to him that believeth," he at once said, "Lord, I believe."
Beloved hearer, I hope that thou hast come, at some time or other -- perhaps it
is since last Sabbath day -- to put thy trust in Jesus in the same way,
believing him to be able and willing to save thee. This is the faith that will
effectually save thee. Dost thou rest in him, in him thy God, thy brother, thy
Savior; in him as living among the sons of men; in him as bleeding and
suffering, as a substitutionary sacrifice, in thy stead; in him as risen from
the dead no more to die; in him as sitting at the right hand of the Father,
clothed with power to save? Dost thou trust him? If not, whatever thou
believest, and however orthodox thy creed, thou art short of eternal life; but,
if all thy trust is stayed in him, if thou bringest all thy help from him, if
his wounds are thine only shelter, his blood thine only plea, himself thine only
confidence, then art thou a saved man, thy transgressions are forgiven thee for
his name's sake, thou art accepted in the Beloved. Rejoice with fullness of joy,
for thou hast a right so to do, since every gladsome thing is thine. The faith
of this good man was true and saving for another reason. It was personal faith
about the matter in hand, faith about the case which he was pleading. Have you
never found it to be wonderfully easy to believe for other people? I know when I
was seeking the Savior, I had no doubt about his receiving any other penitent. I
felt certain that if the vilest sinner out of hell had come to him, he was able
to save him: and though I had no faith in him on my own account, yet had I met
with another distressed soul in a similar condition to myself, I believe I
should have encouraged him to put his trust in Jesus, though I was afraid to do
so myself. To believe for others is an easy matter, but when it comes to your
own case, to believe that sins like yours can be blotted out, that you, who have
so badly played the prodigal, may be received by your loving Father, that your
spiritual diseases can be cured, and that the devil can be cast out of you; --
here is the labor, here is the difficulty. But, beloved, we must believe this or
else we have not saving faith. O my Savior, shall I trifle in faith by believing
or pretending to believe that thou canst heal a case parallel to mine, and yet
cannot heal mine? Shall I draw a line and limit thee, thou Holy One of Israel,
and say, "Thou canst save up to me, but not so far as I have gone?" Shall I
dream that thy precious blood has some power, but not power enough to blot out
my sins? Shall I dare, in the arrogance of my despair, to set a boundary to the
merits of thy plea, and to the virtue of thine atoning sacrifice? God forbid.
Jesus is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him, -- he is
able to save me. Him that cometh unto him he will in no wise cast out; I come to
him, and he will not, cannot cast me out. Hast thou a personal faith, a faith
about thyself, about thine own sins, and thine own condition before God? Dost
thou believe that Christ can save thee? Sink or swim, dost thou cast thyself
upon him, thine own proper self? He, his own self, bore our sins in his own body
on the tree; and we, our own selves, must cast ourselves upon him. If we have so
done, then we, like the man in the narrative, have the real faith, the faith of
God's elect. Lest any, however, should think this a very small thing, let me go
on to show you that this man's faith was real, because it was faith which
triumphed over difficulties, difficulties which typify our own, and hence it was
clearly the work of the Spirit of God, for no other will endure the trial. I
shall ask thee, dear hearer, whether faith has triumphed over difficulties in
thy case. For observe, his child was grievously tormented, and the malady was of
long standing. When the Savior said to him, "How long hath this happened unto
him?" he said, "Of a child." Must it not have seemed, now that his son had grown
older, a very unlikely thing that he should be recovered. We expect our children
to outgrow some of their complaints; but here was one who, after many years, was
none the better. Years had only increased but not diminished his pains. Yet in
the teeth of that the man believed that Christ could cast that long-established
demon out of his son. Dear friend, thy case of sin is similar. The sins of thy
youth rise up before thee now: are they not in thy bones? The sins of thine
early manhood, and the sins of thy riper years, and, mayhap, the sins of thy
decaying years; all these come up before thee. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin, or the leopard his spots? If so, then he that is accustomed to do evil may
learn to do well. Can I, after lying asoak in the scarlet dye till it is
ingrained in my very nature, -- can I be washed and made whiter than snow?
Crimes so long continued, evil habits so deeply rooted, can all these be
overcome? O soul, if thou hast true faith, thou wilt say, "Yes," I believe that
since Christ is God he can deliver me from all evil, and forgive me all sin.
Even if I had lived as long as Methuselah, and had continued all that while in
the vilest of transgression, yet Jesus is so mighty to save that he could
deliver me in a moment. His word is, "All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall
be forgiven unto men." Looking to those dear wounds, those founts of love and
blood, I do believe, and will believe, that all my years of sin are gone as in a
moment, and like thick clouds before a mighty wind are blown away never to
return. Oh, this is faith, poor soul. I pray God enable thee to exercise it.
This man had for a long time considered his son's case to be hopeless. Well he
might. In addition to the fact that the child was subject to attacks of epilepsy
and to extreme fits of fury, he was deaf and dumb, so that no intelligent
expression of feeling could come from him: if at any time he felt stronger and
better, he could not give his father a word of hope, he could not utter his
gratitude for the sympathetic care that watched over him, neither could he hear
any word of consolation which his father addressed to him. The ear was closed
and the tongue was bound. Painful affliction, exceedingly painful to the parent,
and to be continued year after year! At last the father must have felt there was
no use in making any further effort. The child must be controlled, but he could
not be restored; he was a hopeless maniac. Peradventure, there is one here, this
morning, who had grown hopeless of salvation; he has felt as if his case was one
out of the catalogue of mercy; he has written bitter things against himself, and
supposed that God has sealed those bitter things and made them true; but you see
the father in the presence of Christ believed over the head of his despair, "in
hope believing against hope," and I pray that you may do the same. In the
presence of Christ the man's confidence came back to him. Hast thou, my hearer,
a hope that can do the same? I never could have believed it was possible for me
to be delivered from my sins till now I see that he who came to save me is my
Maker; he who came to redeem me is he who bears the earth's huge pillars on his
shoulders and sustaineth all things by the word of his power. With him nothing
can be impossible. I see his pierced hands and feet, and feel that if he stooped
to suffer in the sinner's stead, the merit of his sacrifice must be beyond
conception great. In Jesus the hopeless one hath hope, he who had despaired else
now bids his heart be of good cheer. Oh, that is true faith which will not
suffer itself to be any longer the slave of doubt and despondency now that it
sees Jesus the Lord drawing near. It is a mighty faith which refuses to sit any
longer in the valley of the shadow of death, but arises and shakes itself from
the dust, and puts on its beautiful garments.The father had another trial for
his faith in the fact that he had just then tried the disciples. He brought his
child to Christ, and Christ being absent, he asked the apostles who were in the
valley what they could do. They tried their best, but having lost their Master's
power they utterly failed; and this must have been a very violent trial to the
father's confidence. He knew that on other occasions Christ's power had passed
through the apostles, and he had wrought his miracles by them; but here was a
complete cessation of their healing energy. If Jesus did not choose to work by
them on this occasion, the suggestion would arise in the man's heart, "Perhaps
his own power also has become lessened." But he put the thought aside, and
believed notwithstanding all. And, O soul, hast thou tried ministers and tried
God's people, and hoped to get comfort, and hast thou found none? Hast thou gone
to the ordinances and found them like dry wells? Hast thou resorted to the
hearing of the gospel and found even it to be barrenness to thy spirit? Yes, yet
suffer no shadow of suspicion to cross thy mind as to the Lord's ability or
willingness to save thee. Come to the feet of Jesus and still believe in him.
Whatever reason may say in thy soul to excite thee to despondency on account of
past defeats, believe thou firmly that his power is still invincible; his arm is
not shortened that he cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear.
It was meet that thou shouldst see the failure of man that thou mightest glorify
the grace of God; it was meet that the servants should be unable that the
Master's ability might be the more conspicuous. May the Lord help thee to
believe that though no man can do thee good, though all the pastors and bishops
of the church, and all the martyrs and confessors of past ages, and all the
apostles, and all the prophets, are unable to find a balm in Gilead that can
meet thy case, yet there is a hand, a pierced hand, which can heal thy wounds
and bleed a balm into thy soul which shall effectually restore thee. Yes, true
faith believes over even such a discouragement as this.I would have you notice,
also, once more, while we are upon this point, that this father believed in
Christ and his power to save, though the child was at that very moment passing
through a horrible stage of pain and misery. The spirit which possessed this
poor child was accustomed to throw him sometimes into the fire, and sometimes
into the water. Just our condition; for our spirit has sometimes been thrown
into the very fire of presumption, and at another season into the floods of
despair. We have alternated between the cold of melancholy and the heat of
self-conceit. We have at one time cried, "I love pleasure, and after it I will
go;" and at another time we have said, "My soul chooseth strangling rather than
life; I would not live always." When Satan is in a man, and he is full of
despair, he goes to all extremes, and resteth nowhere, walking like the unclean
spirit himself through dry places, seeking rest and finding none. At the moment
while the father was speaking, the poor boy was on the ground wallowing in
dreadful paroxysms of his disorder, foaming at the mouth, and gnashing with his
teeth. Satan had great wrath, because he knew that his time was short. When the
Savior spoke, and bade the devil come out of him, the fiercest struggle of all
took place; for the unclean spirit rent the child, and the most terrible cries
were heard. Still the father said, "Lord, I believe." Now, it may be, dear
hearer, you are this morning yourself full of great trouble, vexed and tormented
with innumerable fears of wrath to come; a little hell burns within your soul,
anguish unutterable has taken hold upon you, your heart is like a battle field
torn by contending hosts, which rush hither and thither, destroying on every
side. You are yourself an embodied agony; you are like David when he said, "The
pains of hell get hold upon me, I found trouble and sorrow." Can you now
believe? Will now accept the word of the Most High? If thou canst, thou wilt
greatly glorify God, and thou wilt bring to thyself much blessedness. Happy is
that man who can not only believe when the waves softly ripple to the music of
peace, but continues to trust in him who is almighty to save when the hurricane
is let loose in its fury, and the Atlantic breakers follow each other, eager to
swallow up the barque of the mariner. Surely Christ Jesus is fit to be believed
at all times, for, like the pole star, he abides in his faithfulness, let storms
rage as they may. He is always divine, always omnipotent to succor, always
overflowing with lovingkindness, ready and willing to receive sinners, even the
very chief of them. Sorrowful one, do not add to thy sorrows by unbelief, that
is a bitterness which it is superfluous to mingle with thy cup. Better far is it
to say, "Though he slay me yet will I trust in him." There must be power
unbounded in him who deigned to die upon the cross. Come ye to Calvary and see!
Can you look to that head crowned with thorns, and mark the ruby drops standing
on his brow, and yet be doubtful of his power to save? Can you mark that sacred
face, more marred than that of any man -- marred with our griefs and stained
with our sins, can you gaze on it and remain an unbeliever? Survey that precious
body tortured in every part for our transgressions, and can you yet distrust him
upon whom the chastisement of our peace was laid? Can you behold those hands and
feet fastened to the ignominious wood for the guilty? Can you look upon that
spectacle of woe, and know that Christ is divine, and yet harbour doubts as to
his power to save you? As for myself, I am constrained to cry, "Lord, I believe,
I must believe; thou hast thyself compelled my faith." Let all things reel
beneath my feet, but the cross of my Lord stands fast. If the Son of God has
died for sinners, it is certain that the believing sinner cannot die, but must
be saved, since Jesus bled for him. May God grant to every one of us to stand
just there where the poor father did as to his faith, and say as he did, "Lord,
I believe."I am forced to leave this head incomplete, for the hour commands me
to hasten on. The faith before us was earnest, it led the man to tears of
repentance, it taught him to pray, it led him to open confession; in all these
points may your faith be of a like character.II. But, now, we must turn to the
second part of the subject, for HERE IS UNBELIEF. "Help thou mine unbelief,"
said he. He had doubted the power of Christ, he had said, "If thou canst do
anything for us, have compassion on us and heal us;" but yet he had faith and he
had avowed it; he had not kept it secret within himself as though he were
ashamed of it; before the scoffing scribes he had confessed, "Lord, I believe."
He avowed it, too, with remarkable earnestness, for he said it with tears, as
though his heart saturated his confession, running over at his eyes to bedew the
words, "Lord, I do believe; do not doubt it, I lie not; I do believe in thee."
But, then, he went on to make the confession at the same time there was an
unbelief lingering in his soul. "Help thou," said he, "mine unbelief." Albeit
that his faith had triumphed over the considerations which I just now mentioned,
which appeared enough to damp, if not to quench it, yet these considerations may
have had some effect upon his mind: they did not prevent his believing, but they
hampered his faith with many questions. Some unbelief lingered, though faith was
supreme. Learn from this that a measure of doubt is consistent with saving
faith; that weak faith is true faith, and a trembling faith will save the soul.
If thou believest, even though thou be compelled to say, "Help thou mine
unbelief," yet that faith makes thee whole, and thou art justified before God.I
thought I would, under this second head, mention some reflections which often
cause unbelief to trouble the heart which, nevertheless, has been enabled by the
Holy Spirit to believe.First, there are many true believers who at the first are
tried with unbelief, because they have now, more than ever they had before, a
sense of their past sins. Many a man receives a far deeper sense of sin after he
is forgiven than he ever had before. The light of the law is but moonlight
compared with the light of the gospel, which is the light of the sun. Love makes
sin to become exceeding sinful."My Sins, my Sins, my Savior!How sad on thee they
fall;Seen through thy gentle patience,I tenfold feel them all.I know they are
forgiven,But still their pain to meIs all the grief and anguishThey laid, my
Lord, on thee."The light of the promise gleaming in the soul reveals the
infinite abyss of horror which lies in indwelling sin. In the light of God's
countenance we discover the filthiness, the abomination, the detestable
ingratitude of our past conduct. We loathe ourselves in our own sight. While we
bless God that sin is pardoned, we are staggered to think it should have been
such sin as it is, and the natural feeling resulting from our discovery is a
fear that we cannot be pardoned. We ask ourselves, can it be that such sins are
forgiven? Possibly the memory of certain peculiarly heinous sins becomes very
vivid to our conscience: we had half forgotten them, but they start up with
dreadful energy, and cast suspicions into our mind as to whether forgiveness is
possible. Oh, that we could blot out those evil days! We have said, "Cursed be
the sun that it rose on such a day as that in which I so defiled myself with
iniquity." Thus, under a sense of sin, though there is the belief that we are
pardoned, there may also arise the unbelief against which we need the Lord to
help us.Some have been staggered, at times, by a consciousness of their present
feebleness. "Yes," saith one, "I trust the past is blotted out, but then how can
I hope that I am saved? What a poor creature I am. I try to pray, but it is not
worth calling prayer. I go up to God's house vowing that I will praise his name,
and I get talking on the way and forget all about it, and I am dull all through
the service. Then I was tempted yesterday, and I spoke unadvisably with my lips,
or I did not defend the cause of my Lord and Master against that skeptic as I
ought to have done. Only, just lately, I hoped that I had found peace with God,
and yet I am behaving like this. Why I must be a hypocrite, it cannot be that I
am a saved soul. Surely if my sins were forgiven me I should act very
differently from this." Now that is often the cause of unbelief. The soul still
hopes in Jesus and rests in him, and she has nowhere else to go; but for all
that the old monster unbelief gives her a desperate twitch, and she trembles
while she hopes. Some others have been made to shiver with unbelief on account
of fears for the future. "I am afraid I shall not hold on," says one. "Why, to
be a Christian you must persevere to the end. With such a heart as mine, how can
I hope to be steadfast: and in such a position as mine, surrounded by so many
ungodly associates, how can I hope to persevere? I see so-and-so made a
profession, and he is gone back; and I know such an one who said he was a
Christian, and he is a worse man than he used to be. Suppose the last end of me
should be worse than the first; suppose I should put my hand to the plough and
should look back and prove unworthy of the kingdom." Poor heart, it forgets that
word, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;" and remembers not that other
word, "I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither
shall any pluck them out of my hand." Rightly filled with a holy anxiety to hold
on to the end, it gives way to improper unbelief, for it ought to rest confident
that Jesus changeth not; and, where he has begun the good work, he will carry it
on and perfect it unto the day of Christ.I have known some, again, whose
unbelief has been excited by a consideration of the freeness and greatness of
the mercy bestowed. I recollect how this staggered me once. I had believed in
Jesus, and rejoiced in his salvation, but in meditating upon divine grace I was
overcome with fear. What, pardoned, justified, a child of God, an heir of
heaven, a joint heir with Christ, one of God's elect, secure of heaven, with a
crown waiting for me at the last, and power to win that crown daily secured to
me; -- why, it seemed altogether too good to be true. Unbelief whispered, "it
cannot be." If such great grace had been shown to others I should not have
marvelled. If men of great abilities, at high station, and of eminent character,
had received such grace, I could have believed it; or even if that holy woman,
who had so long been a patient sufferer, had been so blessed, it would have
appeared an ordinary circumstance; but for such a sinner as I was to be thus
favored appeared to be too strange a miracle of love. I do remember how the very
grandeur of the divine mercy threatened to crush me down and bury me under its
own mass of goodness. I could believe that the Lord would give me a little
mercy, but that he should give me such mercy, such unexpected favor, almost
exceeded belief. And yet, what fully is there in such ideas, for were we not
told beforehand that "as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are
his ways above our ways, and his thoughts above our thoughts?" Do we not know
that we are dealing with a great God, of whom the prophet asks, "Who is a God
like unto thee, passing by iniquity, transgression, and sin?" Do we think that
God will only give according to our stinted measure? Is God to take man for his
model? Remember ye that word, "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above what
we ask or even think." Instead of the greatness of the divine mercy staggering
us, it ought to console us and assist us to believe, seeing that it is so
congruous with his nature. Yet, ofttimes, on this sea of love poor leaky vessels
have begun to sink.I have known, too, not a few, whose unbelief has arisen
through a sacred anxiety to be right -- a most proper anxiety if not pushed
beyond its sphere. The idea has been suggested to them: "Suppose I should be
after all presumptuous, and should deceive myself, by thinking I am saved,
whereas I am not? What if I should film the wound, when it ought to be lanced,
before there can be effectual healing." How I wish that all hypocrites would be
troubled with this sort of fear. It would be a great mercy for many boastful
professors if they had grace enough to doubt. I think Cowper was right when he
said -- "He that never doubted of his state,He may, perhaps he may too late."But
yet, this anxiety may be carried too far, and the soul may slide into
despondency through it. I ought to be afraid of presumption, but it cannot be
presumptuous to believe God's word. I ought to be afraid of saying, "Peace,
peace, where there is no peace;" but if peace comes to me through the word of
Christ, I need never be suspicious of it, let it be as profound as it may. I may
doubt myself; I may go further, I may despair of self, but I must not doubt the
Lord. If he has said, "Trust in me, believe in me, and thou shalt be saved;" if
I believe in him, it is no presumption to know that I am saved. If he has
declared that he that believeth in him is justified from all things from which
he could not be justified by the law of Moses; if I have believed in him, I am
justified from all my sins. There is far more presumption in doubting the Lord
than there ever can be in trusting him. Faith is no more than God's due, it
ought never to be looked at as too daring. If I believe in Jesus I have no right
to say, "I hope I am saved," for that implies a doubt of God's declaration that
the believer is saved. I have no right to say, "I sometimes think I am safe." I
am so undoubtedly if I believe in Jesus. It is no matter of opinion, but a
matter of certainty. There is nothing in this world about which a man may be so
sure as about his own salvation, because other things come to us by the evidence
of our own fallible senses, or by the testimony of men who may be mistaken; but
the fact that the believer is saved is sealed to us by the testimony of God
himself, who cannot lie. When the Scripture says plainly, "He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved," I, having believed, and having been baptized, ought
not to question the divine declaration, but should be as sure that, if I have
believed, I am saved, as I am sure that I exist. This assurance is attainable,
and should be the common condition of the believer. Yet has it often happened, I
say, that an anxiety, which was commendable in its outset, has ended in a
censurable unbelief. Once more, I have known unbelief arise in some souls
through a most proper reverence for Christ, and a high esteem for all that
belongs to him. You remember our text a few Sabbath mornings ago told us of
John, who when he saw his Master in all his glory fell at his feet as dead. Ah,
when the soul gets near to Jesus it perceives his perfection, and becomes
conscious of its own imperfection; it sees his glory, and becomes aware of its
own nothingness; it sees his love, and blushes at its own unloveliness; and then
it is very, very apt to be tortured with mistrust, though it ought not so to
be.And I have even known when children of God just converted have come into the
church, they have had such a high esteem for their brethren and sisters, that
they have feared to be numbered with them. When they have heard some earnest
brother pray they have said, "Oh, what a prayer, I shall never be like that
man;" and, perhaps, they have listened to the preachings of some servant of God
and said, "Ah, I cannot come up to that standard; the very existence of such a
man as that condemns me." It is beautiful so see the little children loving the
elder sons of the family, and admiring what they see of the father in them; but
even this holy modesty may be turned into unbelief, though it ought not so to
be; for, O child of God, if Christ be so lovely, thou art on the way to be made
like him; and if there be anything beautiful in any of his people, that same
shall be given unto thee, for they also are as thou art, men of like passions
with thyself; and God who has done great things for them will do the like for
thee, for he loves thee with the self-same love.I have thus set before you the
unbelief which often will exist side by side with faith.III. Now, let us notice
very briefly THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE TWO.It is observable that this poor man
did not say, "Lord, I believe, but have some doubts," and mention it as if it
were a mere matter of common intelligence which did not grieve him. Oh, no; he
said it with tears; he made a sorrowful confession of it. It was not the mere
statement of a fact, but it was the acknowledgment of a fault. With tears he
said, "Lord, I believe," and then acknowledged his unbelief. Learn then, dear
hearer, always to look at unbelief in Christ in the light of a fault. Never say,
"This is my infirmity," but say, "This is my sin." There has been too much in
the Church of God of regarding unbelief as though it were a calamity commanding
sympathy, rather than a fault demanding censure as well. I am not to say to
myself, "I am unbelieving, and therefore I am to be pitied." No, "I am
unbelieving, and therefore I must blame myself for it." Why should I disbelieve
my God? How dare I doubt him who cannot lie? How can I mistrust the faithful
promiser who has added to his promise his oath, and over and above his promise
and his oath has given his own blood as a seal, that by two immutable things,
wherein it was impossible for God to die, we might have strong consolation.
Chide yourselves, ye doubters. Doubts are among the worst enemies of your souls.
Do not entertain them. Do not treat them as though they were poor forlorn
travelers to be hospitably entertained, but as rogues and vagabonds to be chased
from thy door. Fight them, slay them, and pray God to help thee to kill them,
and bury them, and not even to leave a bone or a piece of a bone of a doubt
above ground. Doubting and unbelief are to be abhorred, and to be confessed with
tears as sins before God. We need pardon for doubting as much as for blasphemy.
We ought no more to excuse doubting than lying, for doubting slanders God and
makes him a liar.Then, again, having made a confession of his unbelief as you
observe, the father, in the narrative, prayed against it, and an earnest prayer
it was. It was, "Help thou mine unbelief." It is very noticeable that he does
not say, "Lord, I believe; help thou my child." No, nor does he say, "Lord, I
believe; now cast the devil out of my boy:" not at all; he perceives that his
own unbelief was harder to overcome than the devil, and that to heal him of his
spiritual disease was a more needful work, than even to heal his child of the
sad malady under which he labored. This is the point to arrive at, to feel that
there is no deficiency in the merit of Christ; no lack of power in his precious
blood; no unwillingness in Christ's heart to save me; but all the hindrance lies
in my unbelief. There is the point. O God, bring thy power to bear where it is
wanted. It is not because the blood will not cleanse me, it is because I will
not believe; it is not because Christ's plea is not heard, but because I do not
trust that plea. If I am not in the possession of full salvation, it is not
because Christ is not mighty to save, but because I do not lean on him fully and
entirely. O God, thou seest this is the center of the difficulty, bring, thy
power to bear on that difficulty. I ask only this. No more do I cry, "Help me
here, or help me there;" but, "Help mine unbelief." That is the Slough of
Despond; I carry that in my heart; that is the weak point. "Lord, strengthen me
just there." It is well when, in addition to confession, we bring up all the
great guns of fervent prayer to bear upon that position which needs to be
carried by storm. And, lastly, this man did well in looking for the help against
his unbelief to the right quarter. He did not say, "Lord, I believe; and now I
will try to overcome my belief." No; but "Lord help," as if he felt that the
Lord alone could do it. No physician can cure unbelief but Christ. He is the
physic for it, and he is the physician too. If thou hast any unbelief, take thou
the blood of Christ to cure it with. Think of him, -- God in the glory of his
person, tabernacling among men, working out a perfect righteousness, dying a
felon's death upon the cross in the sinner's stead; think of him as rising from
the dead, no more to die: think of him as ascending into heaven amidst the
shouts of angels: think of him as standing at the right hand of God with the
keys of death and hell at his girdle: think of him as always pleading the merit
of his blood before the Father's throne; and, as thou considerest concerning
him, in the power of the Spirit, thine unbelief will die, for thou wilt say,
"Lord, the thought of thee has helped mine unbelief; while I have been studying
thee, and feeding my soul on thee, and making thee to be as bread and wine to my
soul, my unbelief has gone. I do believe in thee, and I will; for thou hast
helped mine unbelief." Go, any of you who are in trouble about this matter, go
where you gained your first faith, go there to get more. If you first obtained
your faith at the cross foot, go there again to end your unbelief. View the
flowing of his soul-redeeming blood, and continue viewing it till thou shalt by
divine assurance know; that he has made thy peace with God. God bless thee in
Christ Jesus. Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Mark 9:1-37."THE
SWORD AND THE TROWEL." Edited by C. H. SPURGEON.Contents for Febuary, 1872.The
Year of Grace, 1872. By C. H. Spurgeon.Will Shepherd's Letters. No. I.The Spring
in the Mamertine.William Tyndale and Our English Bible."Fresh Watercresses."The
London City Missionary among the Subjects of Misfortune. Part I. By G. Holden
PikeDuncan Matheson, the Scottish Evangelist. By Vernon J. Charlesworth.
(Continued.)The National Religion.The Year of Grace, 1872. By C. H.
Spurgeon.Reviews.Memoranda.Pastors' College Account.Stockwell Orphanage.Golden
Lane Mission.Colportage Association.Price 3d. Post free, 4 stamps.London:
Passmore & Alabaster, 18, Paternoster Row, and all Booksellers.


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  CHAPTER 7: THE ONLY ATONING PRIEST
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A Sermon (No.1034) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, February 4th, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "And every priest standeth
daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never
take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for
ever, sat down on the right hand of God: From henceforth expecting till his
enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever
them that are sanctified." -- Hebrews 10:11-14. WE SHALL HAVE this morning to
repeat a truth which has sounded forth from this pulpit many hundreds of times;
but we shall offer no apology for our repetitions, seeing that the truth to be
preached is one which cannot too often be proclaimed. If you lift up your eyes
at night to the stars what a wonderful variety of celestial scenery is there!
The astronomer can turn his telescope first to one quarter of the heavens, and
then to another, and find an endless change in the sublimities which meet his
gaze. Such are the doctrines of the gospel; they are full of variety and beauty,
and glory: but yet in the heavens one or two conspicuous constellations are more
often regarded by the human eye than all the rest put together. The mariner
looks for the Great Bear, the pointers, and the pole star; or, if he should
cross the equator, he gazes on the southern cross. Though these stars have been
often looked upon, it is never thought to be superfluous that practical men
should still observe them. Night by night they have their watchers; for by them
ten thousand sails are steered. I should suppose that in those days, now happily
past, when slavery reigned in the Southern States of America, the Negro if he
desired liberty for his boy would be sure, whatever else of the stars he did not
teach him, to point out to him the star of liberty. "Know well, my child, those
friendly stars which point to the lone star of liberty. Follow that light till
it leads you to a land. There fetters no longer clank on human limbs." Even so
it seems to me that certain doctrines, and especially the doctrines of atonement
and justification by faith, are like these guiding stars; and we ought
frequently to point them out, make sure that our children know them, and that
all who listen to us, whatever else they may be mistaken about, are clear about
these, the guides of men to the haven of freedom and eternal rest. I believe if
I should preach to you the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ every Sabbath-day
and that twice, and nothing else, my ministry would not be unprofitable, perhaps
it might be more profitable than it is; so we are coming to the same truth which
we handled last Sabbath evening. Many dishes are put upon the table at
intervals, but bread and salt are always placed there; and so we will have the
atonement again, and again, and again; for this is the bread and salt of the
gospel feast. I purpose, this morning, to handle the text thus. First, we will
read, mark, and learn it; and then, secondly, we will ask God's grace that we
may inwardly digest it. I. Come, then, first of all to THE READING, MARKING, AND
LEARNING OF IT; and you will observe that in it there are three things very
clearly stated. The atoning sacrifice of Jesus, our great High Priest, is set
forth first by way of contrast; then its character is described; and, then,
thirdly, its consequences are mentioned. Briefly upon each. First, it is set
forth by way of contrast -- contrast with that ancient dispensation which was of
divine origin, which conveyed much blessing to Israel, and which had the divine
approval resting upon it. In that old dispensation, the first point mentioned in
the text is, that there were many priests. "For every priest standeth" --
implying that there were several. There were many priests at the same time --
the sacrifices of the temple were too numerous to have been all of them
performed by one man: all the descendants of Aaron were set apart to this work,
and even then they required the aid of the Levites in certain inferior duties.
And as there were many priests at one time, so there were many in succession. As
a priest died, he was succeeded by his sons. By reason of infirmity, they were
not able to continue in their office even through the whole of their lifetime;
there was a certain period at which they were commanded to surrender their
office to younger men. By reason of mortality the priesthood was perpetually
changing; one high priest died, and was succeeded by another. Now the reason for
the existence of many priests was this, that no one priest had accomplished the
work of expiation. The good man has gone to his fathers and offered up the last
of the morning lambs -- but the morning lambs must still be offered. The high
priest is dead, and there shall be no more opportunity for him to enter into
that which is within the veil, but there must be a new high priest appointed,
for the work is not finished. There were many priests, and as one generation
passed away, another inherited the mitre. Now, herein is the glory of Christ
that he is but one, and to this our attention is called by the apostle; that
whereas there were many priests, and the sacrifices were hereby proved to be
incomplete, since others had to take up the work; here is but one priest for
ever, and he has finished his work, and therefore sits down at the right hand of
God. In further contrast, we observe that as there were many priests, so there
were many sacrifices for sins. The sacrifice was offered once, but sin was not
put away, and therefore had to be offered again. The great day of atonement came
every year, wherein sin was afresh brought to remembrance. There was a day of
atonement last year, but the people are unforgiven, and there must be a day of
atonement this year; and when that day is over and the priest has come forth in
his holy and beautiful apparel, with the breastplate gleaming in the light of
God, Israel may rejoice for awhile, but there is one thought that will sadden
her; there must be an atonement day next year, for sin still remaineth upon
Israel, notwithstanding all that the house of Aaron can do by all their
sacrifices. Yea, and moreover, remembrance of sin was of necessity made every
day. There was the lamb for the morning, the innocent victim was slaughtered and
burned; but the morning sacrifice did not put away the day's sin, for as the sun
began to descend in the west another victim must be brought, and so on each
morning and each night, victim, victim, victim, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice,
because the expiation was always incomplete. But our blessed Lord, "the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sins of the world," was sacrificed but once, and that
one sacrifice hath completed his expiatory work. In very truth his was a
sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than theirs. Follow the contrast a
little further, and observe the Apostle's assertion that the repeated sacrifices
of the law could never take away sin. Those must have been strangely blind who
thought they could. How could the blood of bulls and of goats put away sin? What
conceivable connection can there be, except in symbol, between the death pangs
of a beast and the sin of a man before God? The principle of substitution was by
the legal sacrifices clearly set forth, but that was all; those offerings did
not and could not provide the actual substitute. The principle of vicarious
sacrifice they plainly unfolded, but they provided no real sin-offering. How
could they? Where but in the Christ of God could a propitiation be found? Where
else is there one who could in our nature make recompense to the injured law of
God?You will observe, dear brethren, that the words used in the text are these,
"Can never take away sin." The word is, "Can never strip off sin." As if our
sins were like filthy garments -- the vestures of our disgrace -- these could
not be taken from us by the daily ministering of priests. There was no power in
their sacrifices to remove the polluted coverings. Yet the priests were very
diligent, for "every priest standeth" in the posture of activity, and they were
persevering too, for "every priest standeth daily." They were obedient too, for
they did not offer sacrifices according to their own devices, but, as the text
saith, "the same sacrifices" -- that is to say, such as were ordained of God.
The priests were both diligent, constant, and obedient, and the principle of the
truth was in their offerings -- viz., the doctrine of substitution; yet sin
still remained upon the consciences of the offerers, and none of them were made
perfect.Mark well one inference from this. If the sacrifices which were
presented reverently and perpetually, according to God's own command, and were
presented by men about whose priesthood there could be no manner of question --
for they had received it indisputably of the Lord -- if these offerings were of
no service to the taking away of sin, it is clear enough that the offerings of
so-called priests in these modern times cannot have any efficacy. Here is a
priesthood, certainly appointed of God, offering victims ordained by divine
order, and yet their service does not put away sin. How much less, then, can it
be wise to trust in doubtful priests, who present sacrifices unwarranted by the
word of God. Their descent cannot be proved, their title their pretensions of
one sect are ridiculed by another, they are all alike deceivers; have done with
them and rest alone in Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our profession.If
Jerusalem has no sacrifice in all her flocks, what use can it be to look to
Rome? If Aaron's seed cannot put away sin, to what end shall we look to the
shavelings of Antichrist?Following the apostle's words, we come to the character
of our Lord's sacrifice, and we perceive, in reading, that his priesthood was
personal, and entirely within himself. There is but one true atoning priest. The
twelfth verse says, "this man." The word "man" is not in the original; it is
"this," "this priest," if you will; "this man," if you please; but its vagueness
may make us think that the apostle scarcely knew what to say. You see the stars
and the moon in their brightness, but suddenly they are all eclipsed and lost in
a superior light. What can this glory be which has paled their fires? It is the
sun rising in his strength. So, while we are beholding the priesthood of Aaron
with all its excellence, it suddenly ceases to shine, because of the glory which
excelleth, the radiant presence of one, for whom, like heaven's manna, it is not
easy to find one fully descriptive name. Shall we call him "man?" Blessed be his
name; he is so, our near kinsman, the "Son of Man." Shall we call him "priest?"
He is so. Blessed be his name; he is the true Melchisedec. Shall we call him
"God?" Well may we do so, for he counts it not robbery to be equal with God. But
this one divinely mysterious person -- this unique and solitary high-priest,
accomplishes what the many priests of Aaron's race could not compass. They were
weak, but he is allsufficient. He has wrought out eternal redemption, and made
an end of sin.Note well, that none stand with him at the altar; none is
appointed to aid him, neither before him nor after him is there one to share his
office. He is without father, without mother, without predecessor, and without
successor. He stands alone and by himself, this glorious one who looked and
there was no man, and therefore his own arm brought salvation; he trod the
wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with him. Jesus, the sole
sacrificing priest of our profession, has completed what the long line of the
Levitical priesthood must have left for ever incomplete.And we are told further,
by the apostle, that as there was but one priest, so there was only one
sacrifice. He "offered one sacrifice for sins." He himself was the sacrifice;
his body the altar, himself the priest, himself also the victim. On Calvary's
tree he presented himself a substitute for human guilt, and there he bore the
crushing weight of Jehovah's wrath in his own body, on the behalf of all his
people. On him their sins were laid, and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and there he, in their stead, suffered what was due to the righteousness of God,
and made atonement to divine justice for the sins of his people. This was done,
not by many offerings, but by one sacrifice, and that one alone. Jesus offered
no other sacrifice: he had never made one before, nor since, nor will he present
another sacrifice in the future. His sin offering is one. The text adds further
that, as there was but one sacrifice, so it was but once offered for ever, or,
as puts it, "Once for all." "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many."
There is in the Scriptures no such idea as that of Christ perpetually offering
himself; it is a childish invention of superstition. We are expressly told that
he offered himself "once." Under the law the lamb was offered many times, the
same sacrifices were repeated; but our Lord exclaimed, "It is finished," and
concluded all his sacrificing works. He "offered one sacrifice for sins for
ever." I do not know how your Bibles happen to be marked as to the comma in the
passage; mine, now before me, reads thus: -- "After he had offered one sacrifice
for sin for ever sat down;" but that which I use at home is marked in the other
way -- "After he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down." We do
not quite know where the comma should be; some of the best scholars maintain
that it should be joined to the preceding words, others that it belongs to the
succeeding. It does not involve any point of doctrine; and it may be read
whichever way you please, without error. I think, however, the preponderating
testimony is in favor of its being read, "he offered one sacrifice for sins for
ever;" at any rate those words express a great and precious truth. Look back as
far as you can, there was no sacrifice for sins, except the "lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world;" look on as far as you will, till this
present dispensation shall have completed its circle, and men shall have passed
the judgment-seat, and you shall find no atonement for sin except this one -- it
stands alone, shining as a lone star, or a solitary rock in the midst of a
raging sea. The propitiation which God has set forth was and ever must be one.
The Lord Jesus offered himself once, once only, once only for ever: there is no
other atoning priest, no other sacrifice, and there is no repetition of that one
sacrifice.Now we go on to notice the results of Christ's one offering, which
are, in the text, described as threefold -- towards himself, his enemies, and
his people.Towards himself: After he had offered one sacrifice for sins he for
ever sat down at the right hand of God. Every priest, under the old
dispensation, stood; but this man sat down, and the posture is very instructive.
The typical priests stood because there was work to do; still must they present
their sacrifices; but our Lord sits down because there is no more sacrificial
work to do; atonement is complete, he has finished his task. There were no seats
in the tabernacle. Observe the Levitical descriptions and you will see that
there were no resting-places for the priests in the holy place. Not only were
none allowed to sit, but there was nothing whatever to sit upon. According to
the rabbis, the king might sit in the holy places, and, perhaps, David did sit
there; if so, he was a striking type of Christ sitting as king. A priest never
sat in the tabernacle, he was under a dispensation which did not afford rest,
and was not intended to give it, a covenant of works which gives the soul no
repose. Jesus sits in the holy of holies, and herein we see that his work is
finished.There is more teaching in the passage. He "sat down;" this shows that
he took possession of the holy place. Under the law, when the priest had done
his work, what did he do? He went home. Neither the temple nor the tabernacle
was his home. If you had asked a priest, "Where dwellest thou?" he would have
said, "amongst the tribe of Levi yonder I have my abode." But this man, when he
had finished his work, sat down in the holy place, because he was at home, not a
servant only but a son, yea, and Lord of the whole house; and, therefore, he
took his own seat therein by right. It is a joyful truth that he did this
representatively, to show us that while the law gave no permanent possession,
and could not establish the seed of Israel in possession of sacred privileges,
the gospel gives us an abiding place amongst the children of God, who dwell in
his house for ever.The apostle tells us where this seat of Christ was. He says,
he "sat down at the right hand of God." This indicates the highest glory
possible; our poet calls it"The highest place that heaven affords."There was no
nobler position, or Jesus should have had it. Note the remark of this same
apostle in the first chapter of this epistle: "Unto which of the angels said he
at any time, sit thou at my right hand?" Angels do not sit at the right hand of
God; they are constantly in the place of service, and therefore they stand ready
to fly on their Master's commands; but Jesus sits in the highest seat as Lord
over his own house, clothed with honor and dignity, enthroned in the place of
favor at the right hand of God. Sitting there he is to be viewed as clothed with
everlasting power, "able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by
him." "Exalted to be a Prince and a Savior to give repentance unto Israel, and
remission of sins;" no more the "despised and rejected, the Man of Sorrows, and
acquainted with grief," no more in weakness and dishonor taken out to die; he
sits as a king upon his throne, distributing royal bounties, coequal with
Jehovah himself. As King of kings, Jesus Christ is exalted at the right hand of
the Father. So much with regard to the result of the Redeemer's passion in
reference to himself. Now, observe carefully the result of his offering with
regard to his enemies. He sits there "expecting till they be made his
footstool." They are crushed already; sin which is the sting of death has been
removed, and the law which was the strength of sin has been satisfied. Sin being
put away by Christ's death, he has effectually broken the jawteeth of all his
enemies. When Jesus Christ offered himself unto God he fulfilled that ancient
promise, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Christ has set
his foot upon the old dragon's head, and crushed out his power. Still, however,
a feeble fight is kept up; feeble, I say, for so it is to Christ, though to us
it seems vigorous. Sin and Satan within us, and all Christ's enemies without us,
including death itself, are vainly raging against the Christ of God, for every
day they are being put beneath his feet; every day as the battle rages the
victory turns unto the enthroned Christ. In us I trust sin has been put beneath
Christ's feet; in thousands of others it shall yet be so. Jesus upon the throne
expects the growth of that victory till all his enemies shall be utterly and
ignominiously beaten. "O long expected day, begin!" Father, fulfill thy Son's
expectations, for thy saints expect it in him. Let the time come when every
enemy shall be beneath his feet.We will not tarry, however, on that, but close
this exposition of the words of the text by noticing the effect of Christ's
death upon his own people. We are informed that he hath "perfected" them. What a
glorious word! Those for whom Christ has died were perfected by his death. It
does not mean that he made them perfect in characters so that they are no longer
sinners, but that he made those for whom he died perfectly free from the guilt
of sin. When Christ took their sins upon himself, sin remained no longer upon
them, for it could not be in two places at one and the same time; if it was on
Christ it was not upon them; they were acquitted at the bar of God when Christ
was, on their behalf, "numbered with the transgressors." When Jesus suffered the
penalty due to his people's sins to the last jot and tittle, then their sins
ceased to be, and the covenant was fulfilled: "Their sins and iniquities will I
remember no more for ever." There was a clean sweep made of sin: "He hath
finished transgression, and made an end of sin;" and that for all his people.
They want no other washing, no further purging, as far as pardon of sin and
acceptance with God in the matter of justification are concerned, for they are
all perfected by his sacrifice.His people are described in the text as "them
that are sanctified," and you must beware of misunderstanding that word as
though it meant those who are made perfectly holy in character. The word implies
an inward work of grace, but it means a great deal more. The passage should be
read "He hath perfected for ever them that are being sanctified," for it is in
the present in the Greek. The text is not to be made to say that those who are
perfectly sanctified are perfected, that would be a common-place, self-evident
truth; but the great high priest perfected for ever those who are being
sanctified. Now, sanctification means, primarily, the setting apart of a people
by God to be holy to himself. Election is sanctification virtually; all God's
people were sanctified -- set apart and made holy to the Lord -- in the eternal
purpose and sovereign decree or ever the earth was. Christ has by his death
perfected all who were sanctified or set apart in election. This purpose of
sanctification is carried out further when those set apart are called out by
grace. When effectual grace separates men from the world by conversion and
regeneration, then they become, in another sense, the sanctified; they are set
apart even as Christ set apart himself, dedicated to God's service, and
separated from sinners. As the work which began at regeneration is continued and
carried on in them, they are in another aspect sanctified; they are realising in
themselves that sanctification or dedication to God, which was theirs from
before the foundation of the world. The text relates not only to those in heaven
who are perfectly sanctified, but it relates to all who were set apart in the
purposes of grace, that as far as their pardon and justification are concerned,
Christ perfected them for ever when he offered up himself without spot unto
God.II. We have thus studied the interpretation of the words, reading, marking,
and learning them. Now, I ask your earnest attention while we try to DIGEST
THESE TRUTHS. It is in the digestion that the real nutriment shall come to our
hearts.All ye who desire eternal life lend me your ears, for this matter
concerns you -- observe that the whole business of this passage concerns
sinners. The verse speaks about the Jewish priests who offered sacrifices for
sins, and then it further speaks concerning Christ Jesus who has put away sin. O
ye guilty, the gospel is meant for you. If there be any of you who are innocent
and pure, and without spot, for you I have no words of consolation; but oh, ye
sinners, the gospel is for you, for you the priesthood and the substitution of
Jesus, for you his death on earth, for you his reign and power in heaven. This
fact ought to encourage every trembling conscience. Are any of you saying, "Ah,
I shall never be saved, I am so guilty?" Believe not that lie of Satan. "The Son
of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." The gospel has for its
special aim and intent the putting away of sin, and therefore it is suitable to
your case. Hearken then further to me. See in the text the position out of which
you should labor to escape. It is the position of those who stand daily
ministering and daily offering sacrifices which can never put away sin. You are
seeking mercy and I know what you are doing; you are going about to establish a
righteousness of your own. You thought, "I will pray very regularly," -- you
have done so for months, but prayers can never put away sin. What is there in
prayer itself that can have merit in it to make atonement for sin? You have read
the Scriptures regularly, for which I am most glad, but this you always ought to
have done, and if you now do it most commendably, in what way will that put away
sin? "Ah, but I have been a regular attendant at a place of worship." It is well
you should, for "faith cometh by hearing;" but I see no connection between the
mere fact of your sitting in a place of worship and the putting away of sin; you
know it has not eased your conscience yet, but has even increased your sense of
sin. Perhaps some of you have for years been trying to save yourselves, and you
have got no further; you feel as if you were further off than ever you were.
"Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor
for that which profiteth not?" Why stand you daily at the altar offering that
which can never put away sin? It would be infinitely wiser to flee to the
sacrifice which can atone.Now, follow on the text, and, oh, may it come into
your very soul, for its practical teaching is that the one sole object of faith
for the pardon of sin, is the man, the priest, Christ Jesus. "This man," says
the Apostle, "offered one sacrifice for sins for ever." If thou wouldst have
peace of heart, thou must get it only from this one glorious person, the Christ
of God. I tell thee solemnly, thou wilt damn thyself by thy prayers, and thy
tears, and thy repentings, and thy church goings, and thy chapel goings, as
easily as by blasphemy and fornication, if thou trustest in them; for if thou
makest a Savior and an idol of thy best works, they are accursed. Though thine
idol be of purest gold, it is as much an abomination unto the living God as if
thou hadst made it of filth. There must be no looking anywhere but to Jesus, not
in any measure or degree. He who looks partly to Jesus, and partly to himself,
looks not to Christ at all. If a man shall put one foot upon the land and the
other on the sea -- the foot that is on the land will not avail him, he must
certainly fall, because his other standing place is weak. If a chain be made
strong enough to bear huge weights in every portion except one link, yet as we
all know its strength is not to be measured by the stronger portions, but by the
weak link; and if you have one weak link in your hope, if you are resting in
anything you are or hope to be, or can do or feel, that one weak link will snap
and ruin you for ever."None but Jesus, none but Jesus,Can do helpless sinners
good."From top to bottom, from foundation to pinnacle, our hopes must be in the
work of Jesus, and we must trust in him alone, or else we shall build in vain.
"Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid." Other hope beneath
the skies there is none. O soul, learn the uselessness of looking to anything
but Christ; but, be thou assured of this, if thou wilt look to him, and to him
alone, he will put away thy sin, nay, he has done it by the sacrifice of
himself.Furthermore, here is another thought -- I would that you would drink it
in as Gideon's fleece drank in the dew -- it is this: the efficacy of the
atonement of Christ for sin is as great to-day as ever it was. He "offered one
sacrifice for sins," for what? for a thousand years? No! But the text says "for
ever!" -- for ever!"The dying thief rejoiced to see,That fountain in his
day,Anal there may I, though vile as he,Wash all my sins away.Dear dying Lamb,
thy precious blood,Shall never loose its power;Till all the ransomed church of
God,Be saved to sin no more.""One sacrifice for sins for ever." The devil tells
you it is of no use for you to believe in Christ, there is not efficacy for you,
you have sinned away your day of grace; tell him he is a liar, Christ has
offered one sacrifice for sins for ever; and while a man lives beneath the
covenant of mercy, where the gospel is sounded in his ears, there is efficacy in
the atonement for ever. The atoning sacrifice has no limit in its merit, the
salvation of some has not drained it of even the smallest degree of its power.
As the sunlight, though it be seen by millions of eyes, is as bright as ever it
was, so is it with Jesus. Perhaps the Sun's fires may grow dull, and become
dimmed in the course of ages, but it is certain that the eternal fount of mercy,
the Sun of Righteousness, will never fail. He will continue to flood his people
with the golden sunlight of his forgiving grace. He has made one sacrifice for
sins for ever. I will come to him then. He is able to save me -- he is able to
save me even though I were a sinner of seventy years of age. I will come to him,
I will rest in him -- in him alone. Oh, believe me, if you do this you have
eternal life abiding in you. A further thought. The text leads me to say to you
that it is utterly hopeless, if you desire salvation, for you to expect Jesus
Christ to do anything more than he has already done. Many are waiting for a
something, and they scarce know what. Now Jesus, when he died and went to
heaven, perfected for ever all his work; and if you do not believe to-day in
what he has done, there will be no surer grounds for belief to-morrow. If faith
be difficult to me to-day, I must not expect that I shall have any more
evidence, or that there will be any more truth for me to rely upon, if I live
another twenty years. God has set forth Christ for you as guilty sinners to rest
on; and if that is not enough for you, what more would you have? Christ has
offered himself, and died and suffered in our stead, and gone into his glory;
and, if you cannot depend upon him, what more would you have him do? Shall he
come and die again? You have rejected him once; you would reject him though he
died twice. But that cannot be done; there is enough in his sacrifice to answer
all the purposes of mercy, and if you sin wilfully by rejecting him, "there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judgment and
of fiery indignation." This is the point; all the atonement that could save me
in ten years time is here now; all that I can ever rely upon if I postpone all
thoughts of faith, all is here already. There will be no improvement in Christ.
He has perfected his work. Oh, poor troubled soul, rest thou on him now. While I
put these words, as it were, into your mouths, how I wish I could put them into
your hearts! How foolish you are who are looking for signs and wonders or else
you will not believe. May the Spirit of God show you that Jesus is now able and
willing to save you, and that all you have to do is to take what he has done,
and simply trust him, and you shall be saved this morning, completely saved,
perfected through his one sacrifice. There remaineth no more to be done by the
Redeemer. He sits down, and he will not rise for any further sacrifice. He has
finished his atonement and perfected those he means to save; and if you believe
not in him, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.Yet, again, I want you,
dearly beloved brethren, to gather from the text before us the true posture of
every believer in Christ. "This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins
for ever, sat down." If I am a believer that is my posture, if you are a
believer that is yours, -- you are to sit down. Under the law there was no
sitting down. Even at the Passover the Israelites stood with their loins girt
and their staves in their hands. There was no sitting down. It is only at the
gospel supper that our proper posture is that of recumbency, reclining, or
sitting down, because our warfare is accomplished. They that have believed have
entered into rest. Jesus hath given us rest, we are not traversing the
wilderness, we are come unto mount Zion, unto the glorious assembly of the
church of the first born whose names are written in heaven. Our justifying work
is finished, finished by Christ. Sit down Christian, sit down and rest in thy
Lord. There is much to be done as to fighting your sins, much to be done for
Christ in the world, but so far as justification and forgiveness are concerned,
rest is your proper place, peace in Christ Jesus your lawful portion.Your
position is also to be one of expectancy. Christ, when he sits down, expects his
enemies to be made his footstool. Expect, O believer, the time when you shall be
rid of all sin. Fight manfully against your inbred corruptions, struggle against
sin as you see it in the outside world, and expect every day with holy faith
that you shall get the victory. As Christ sits there expecting, he hath raised
us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in himself; and
we will sit there and look down upon this erring world, and expect the time when
all evil shall be beneath our feet as it is beneath his.Meanwhile, our posture
is, once again, that of those who are perfected in Christ Jesus. How I wish that
we could all realize this, and live in the power of it. If I am, indeed, a
believer, I have nothing whatever to do in order to put away the guilt of my
sins. I have much to do by faith to overcome the power of sin in me, and to seek
after holiness; but so far as the guilt of transgression is concerned, Jesus
Christ's one offering hath perfected all his people, there is not a sin
remaining upon them, nor a trace of sin; they are "without spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing;" before God's sight they are perfectly lovely; they are not
somewhat beautiful, but they are altogether lovely in Christ; they are accepted
not in part but altogether, "accepted in the Beloved." When I get upon this
strain, words are quite inadequate to express the emotions of my soul. This
truth might well make David dance before the ark of the Lord -- to think that
though black in ourselves, we are comely in Christ; though like the smokedried
tents of Kedar we are foul, yet clothed in our Savior's beauties we are like the
curtains of Solomon for glory. The glory of the text is that we are perfected
for ever; not for to-morrow, and then suffered to fall from grace; not for the
next twenty years, and then turned out of the covenant; but he hath perfected
"for ever" those that are set apart. It is a work which abides like the worker
himself, and while Christ sits on the throne his people cannot die; while his
work remains for ever perfect, they are also for ever perfect in him. Now,
brethren, another practical point is this, that it becomes us to make the
evidence of our interest in this gracious work more and more clear to others.
The text says, "Hath perfected them that are sanctified," or set apart as holy
unto God. We must be more and more set apart every day, we must labor after
holiness; this must be our object, not in order that we may be saved, for we are
saved already, but in order that by others it may be clearly seen that we are
saved, and they seeing our good works may glorify our Father which is in heaven.
If I have in myself no measure of holiness, how shall I be recognized as
belonging to Christ? Is it not foolish presumption to say "I am perfect in
Christ," if still my soul lives in sin, and loves it? May the Lord, by his
Spirit, lead us in the ways of holiness, and then, walking in the light as he is
in the light, we shall have fellowship one with another; and the blood of Jesus
Christ his Son shall cleanse us from all sin.Finally, brethren, it remains for
us to recollect that Christ will be one of two things to every one of us here
present: either we shall see him at the right hand of God and rejoice that he is
lifted so high, or else we shall behold him there with horror as we writhe
beneath his feet. For his people, perfected for ever, it is their heaven to
think that Christ is highly exalted. Oh, would we not exalt him if we could! Is
there anything in this world that we would keep back from him? Is there any
suffering from which we would shrink if we could lift him high? I hope I can
speak for all of God's people and say, the dearest object of our life is to
honor him. Oh for high thrones for Jesus and bright crowns for Jesus!"Let him be
crowned with majestyWho bowed his head to death!And be his honors sounded highBy
all things that have breath!"Let him have the highest place that heaven can
yield him.But, if we will not believe his Godhead, if we will not trust him as
the Mediator, if we have no part in his sacrifice, if we oppose his gospel, if
we reject his claims to our obedience, there is another position we shall have
to take up, and that is, beneath his feet. Those feet will be heavy indeed! They
were pierced once; but if ever those pierced feet come upon you, they will crush
you to powder. Nothing is so terrible as love when once it is turned to anger.
Oil is soft, but how it burns. Inflame love into jealousy and it is cruel as the
grave. Beware, ye that reject the Savior, for in the day when he cometh he will
smite you with a rod of iron, and even his face, which is full of tenderness
to-day, shall then be full of terror, and this shall be your cry, "Hide us ye
mountains, ye rocks conceal us, from the face of him that sitteth upon the
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." What a wonderful mixture of words, "The
wrath of the Lamb." It is one of the most dreadful expressions in Scripture. The
Lord grant we may never feel its terrible meaning. May his blood cleanse us.
Amen.


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  CHAPTER 8: THE REAL PRESENCE, THE GREAT WANT OF THE CHURCH
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A Sermon (No.1035) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, February 11th, 1872, by C.
H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "It was but a little that
I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would
not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the
chamber of her that conceived me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by
the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
till he please." -- Song of Solomon 3:4-5. IS IT NECESSARY to say that the Lord
Jesus Christ is no longer corporeally present in his church? It ought not to be
needful to assert so evident a truth; and yet it is important to do so, since
there are some who teach that in what they are pleased to call "the Holy
Sacrament." Christ is actually present in his flesh and blood. Such persons
unwittingly deny the real humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, for if he has
indeed assumed our humanity, and is in all points made like unto his brethren,
his flesh and blood cannot be in two places at one time. Our bodily humanity
could not be present in more places than one at one time, and if Christ's
humanity be like ours it cannot be in an unlimited number of places at once; in
fact, it can only be in one place. Where that place is we know from Scripture,
for he sitteth at the right hand of God, expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. Unless you are to suppose that the humanity of Christ is something
altogether different from ours, it cannot be here and there and everywhere; but
to suppose that it is a different humanity from ours is to deny that he is
Incarnate in our nature. Our Lord Jesus told his disciples that he would go
away, and he has gone away. He ascended into heaven, bearing humanity up to the
throne of God. "He is not here, for he is risen." Remember, also, that because
the Lord Jesus is absent corporeally, the Holy Spirit the Comforter is with us,
for he especially said, "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you:
but if I depart, I will send him unto you." Those who believe that Christ's
flesh and blood are or can be present on earth, deny the presence of the Holy
Spirit; for the Scripture is plain enough upon that point -- that the bodily
absence of our Lord is the cause and condition of the presence of the Comforter.
If Jesus dwells still corporeally upon the earth, then the Spirit of God is not
upon the earth. Many other most serious errors follow from the supposition that
the humanity of the Redeemer is present anywhere except at the right hand of
God, even the Father; yet it is an imagination which lies at the basis of the
sacramental system, and thousands are greatly enamoured of it. No word of mine
this morning is intended to have the remotest connection with any sacramental
presence of the corporeal nature of our Lord; our mind has a far other matter
before it. Let us, therefore, having guarded ourselves so as not to be
misunderstood, proceed to speak of another presence of our blessed Lord. The
fact is, that Christ Jesus, the Lord, is present in his church by the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit is this day the representative of Christ in the midst of
the church, and it is in the power and the energy of the Holy Ghost that Christ
is with us always, and will be even to the end of the world. As God, Jesus is
everywhere; as man, he is only in heaven; as God and man in one person, Mediator
and Head of the Church, he is present with us by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter,
whom the Father has sent in his name. It is by the working of the Spirit of God
that Christ's presence in the church is manifested; and we are to expect no
other presence than that: we have the spiritual divine presence of the second
person of the blessed Trinity, and the presence of Christ Jesus also in the
power of his representative on earth, the Holy Ghost. This presence, not a
bodily but a spiritual presence, is the glory of the church of God. When she is
without it she is shorn of her strength; when she possesses it all good things
ensue. Brethren, if a church be without the Spirit of God in it, it may have a
name to live, but it is dead, and, you know, that after death there follows
corruption, corruption which breeds foulness and disease. Hence, those churches
which have turned aside unto error, have not only lost all power to do good, but
they have become obnoxious and the causes of great evil in the midst of the
world. If any professing church abides not in Christ it is cast forth as a
branch and is withered; and while it is decaying, it is injurious, and there is
need for the world's welfare that it be utterly destroyed. We must have Christ
in the church, or the body which was meant to be the medium of the greatest good
becomes the source of the grossest evil. Let the Spirit of God be in the church,
then there is power given to all her ministries; whether they be ministries of
public testimony in the preaching of the word, or ministries of holy love
amongst the brethren, or ministries of individual earnestness to the outside
world, they will all be clothed with energy, in the fullness of the power of the
Lord Jesus. Then her ordinances become truly profitable, then baptism is burial
with the Lord, and the sacred supper is a feast of love; then the communion of
the brethren in their solemn prayer and praise becomes deep and joyful, and
their whole life and walk are bright with the glow of heaven. In the presence of
the Lord the graces of the saints are developed; the church grows rich in all
spiritual gifts; her warfare becomes victorious, and her continual worship sweet
as the incense of the golden censor. What the moon is to the night, or the sun
to the day, or the Nile to Egypt, or the dew to the tender herb, or the soul to
the human frame, that is the presence of Jesus to his church. Give us the Spirit
of God and we will ask no endowments from the State, nor sigh for the prestige
of princely patronage. Endow us, O God, with the Holy Ghost, and we have all we
need. The poverty of the members, their want of learning, their want of rank,
all these shall be as nothing. The Holy Ghost can make amends for all
deficiencies, and clothe his poor and obscure people with an energy at which the
world shall tremble. This made the apostolic church mighty, she had the Holy
Ghost outpoured upon her: the lack of this made the medieval ages dark as
midnight, for men contended about words and letters, but forgot the Spirit: the
return of this inestimable blessing has given us every true revival: the working
of the eternal Spirit, the presence of Christ in the midst of his people is the
Sun of Righteousness arising with healing beneath his wings. This has been our
confidence, as a church, these eighteen years, and if we are yet to see greater
and better things, we must still rely on this same strength, the divine presence
of Jesus Christ by the wonder-working Spirit. "Not by might, nor by power, but
by my Spirit, saith the Lord." It becomes then the great desire of every earnest
Christian who loves the church of God, that Christ should be in the church, and
that by his Spirit he should work wonders there, and I have selected this text
with the view of stirring up the spiritual-minded among you to seek so great a
blessing. Let me endeavor, in opening up this blessed text, to show the means
and the course of action necessary if we would see the church revived by her
Lord's presence. I. And first, we learn from the text that before ever we can
bring the Well-Beloved into our mother's house, the church, WE MUST FIND HIM
PERSONALLY FOR OURSELVES. We begin with that. "It was but a little that I passed
from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth." How can we bring into the
chamber of the church him whom we have not yet met with ourselves? How can we
communicate grace to others instrumentally, unless, first of all, we have
received it into our own hearts? I am not now about to speak of the need of
conversion; we all know that no spiritual act can be performed until we become
spiritual men; but I am now speaking about something higher than bare
conversion. If we would bless the church, we must ourselves occupy a higher
platform than that of being merely saved; we must be believers, walking in
fellowship with Christ, and having, in that respect, found him whom our soul
loveth. There are many believers who have only just enough grace to enable us to
hope that they are alive; they have no strength with which to work for God's
cause, they have not an arm to lend to the help of others, neither can they even
see that which would comfort others, for they are blind, and cannot see afar
off, they want all their sight, and all their strength, for themselves. Those
who are to bring the Well-Beloved into our mother's house, must be of another
kind. They must get beyond the feebleness which is full of doubting and fearing,
into the assurance which grasps the Savior, and the fellowship which lives in
daily communion with him. I know there are some such in this church, and I would
single them out, and speak to them thus: "Brother, if thou wouldst bring Christ
into the church which thou lovest, then, first of all, thine inmost soul must so
love Christ, that thou canst not live without his company. This must be thy cry:
"Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?" and this must be the goal of thine
aspirations: "I have found him whom my soul loveth." It must not be talk, it
must be soul-love; it must not be a profession of affection for Jesus, but the
inmost bowels of our being must be moved by his name. The words are very strong,
"him whom my soul loveth;" as if though the spouse might love the daughters of
Jerusalem, might love the watchmen of the city, might love them all in their
place, yet her soul's love, the essence of her love, her deepest, fondest,
purest, and most real love, was all for him. Are there not such hearts here,
virgin minds in whom Christ is first, last, midst, chief, and all in all? Oh, if
there be, ye are the men, ye are the women, who, finding your Beloved, can bring
him into the church. May God multiply your number, and may each of you have
compassion on the languishing church of this chill age, and labor to restore to
her the glory which has faded from her brow. Pray ye for Laodicea in her
lukewarmness, and Sardis in her spiritual death; but you will only prevail in
proportion as your inmost soul loves the Redeemer and abides in his love.These
ardent lovers of Jesus must diligently seek him. The chapter before us says that
the spouse sought him, sought him on her bed, sought him in the streets, sought
him in the broadways, sought him at last at the lips of the watchmen, sought him
everywhere where he was likely to be found. We must enjoy the perpetual
fellowship of Jesus. We who love him in our souls cannot rest until we know that
he is with us. I fear that with some of us our sins have grieved him, and he has
betaken himself to the far-off "mountains of myrrh and hills of frankincense."
It may be our lax living, our neglect of prayer, or some other fault, has taken
from us the light of his countenance. Let us resolve this morning that there
shall be no rest unto our souls until once again he has returned unto us in the
fullness of his manifested love, to abide in our hearts. Seek him, brother, seek
him, sister. He is not far from any of you, but do seek him with an intense
longing for him, for until thou dost thou art not the man to bring him into the
assembly of the brethren. Labor to bring Jesus into the chambers of the church,
but first be sure that thou hast him thyself, or thy zeal will be hypocrisy.In
seeking our Lord we must use all ministries. The spouse enquired of the
watchmen. We are not to despise God's servants, for he is usually pleased to
bless us through them, and it would be ungrateful both to him and to them to
pass them by as useless. But, while we use the ministries, we must go beyond
them. The spouse did not find her Lord through the watchmen; but she says, "it
was but a little that I passed from them, that I found him whom my soul loveth."
I charge you, my dear hearers, never rest content with listening to me. Do not
imagine that hearing the truth preached simply and earnestly will of itself be a
blessing to your souls. Far, far beyond the servant, pass to the Master. Be this
the longing of each heart, each Sabbath-day, "Lord, give me fellowship with
thyself." True, we are led to see Jesus sometimes, and I hope often, through
listening to the truth proclaimed, but, O Lord, it is no outer court worship
that will satisfy us we want to come into the holy of holies and stand at the
mercy-seat itself. It is no seeing thee afar off and hearing about thee that
will content our spirits, we must draw nigh unto thee, and behold thee as the
world cannot. Like Simeon, we must take thee into our arms or we cannot say that
we have seen God's salvation: like John, we must lean our heads upon the bosom
or we cannot rest. Thine apostles are well enough, thy prophets well enough, thy
evangelists well enough; but oh, we feel constrained to go beyond them all, for
we thirst after fellowship with thee, our Savior. Those who feel thus will bless
the church, but only such. Note, that we must search to the very utmost till we
find our Beloved. The Christian must leave no stone unturned till he gets back
his fellowship with Christ. If any sin obstructs the way, it must be rigorously
given up; if there be any neglected duty, it must be earnestly discharged; if
there be any higher walk of grace, which is necessary to continuous fellowship,
we must ascend it, fearing no hill of difficulty. We must not say, "there is a
lion in the way" -- if there be lions we must slay them; if the way be rough we
must tread it; we must go on hands and knees if we cannot run; but we must reach
to fellowship with Jesus; we must have Christ or pine till we do. Sacrifices we
must make and penalties we must endure, but to Christ we must come, for we are
feeble when we are absent from him, and quite incapable of rendering any great
service to the church, till once for all we can say, "I found him, I held him,
and I would not let him go." O dear brethren and sisters, I know there are some
of you who can enter into what I mean; but I would to God there were many more
to whom the first thought of life was Christ Jesus. Oh, for more Enochs, men who
walk with God, whose habitual spirit is that of close communion with Jesus,
meditating upon him, yea, more than that, sympathizing with him, drinking into
his spirit, changed into his likeness, living over again his life, because he is
in them the monarch of their souls. O that we had a chosen band of elect spirits
of this race, for surely the whole church would be revived through their
influence; God, even our own God, would bless us; and we should see bright,
halcyon days dawning for the bride of Christ. Here, then, is the first point: we
must find the Lord Jesus for ourselves, or we cannot bring him into our mother's
house.I would beg every believer here to ask himself a few questions, such as
these: "Am I walking in constant fellowship with Christ? If I am not, why not?
Is it that I am worldly? Is it that I am proud, or indolent, or envious, or
careless? Am I indulging myself in any sin? Is there anything whatever that
divides me from Christ my Lord?" Let this be the resolution of every one of the
Lord's people: "From this time forth I will seek unto the Lord my Savior, and I
will not be satisfied until I can say, I am coming up from the wilderness
leaning upon the Beloved.'"II. This brings us to the second point of the
subject. If we would be a blessing to the church, and have already found Christ,
WE MUST TAKE CARE TO RETAIN HIM. "I found him whom my soul loveth; I held him,
and I would not let him go." From this I learn that in order to be of great use
to the church of God, it is needful for those who commune with Christ to
continue in that communion. How comparatively easy it is to climb to the top of
Pisgah! It needs but a little effort; many bold and gracious spirits are fully
equal to it. But to keep there, to abide in that mountain, this is the
difficulty. To come to Christ, and to sit down at his feet, is a simple thing
enough for believers, and many of us have attained to it; but to sit day after
day at the Master's feet is quite another matter. Oh, could I always be as I
sometimes am! Could I not only rise above but remain there! But, alas, our
spiritual nature is too much like this weather -- it is balmy to-day; one would
think that spring or summer had come; but, perhaps, to-night we may be chilled
with frost and tomorrow drenched with rain. Ah, how fickle are our spirits. We
are walking with Christ, rejoicing, leaping for joy; and anon the cold frosts of
worldliness come over us, and we depart from him. Ye will never be strong to
impart great blessings to others till you cease to wander, and learn the meaning
of that text: "Abide in me." Note well, it is not "Look at me;" nor "Come near
to me, and then go away from me," but "Abide in me." The branch does not leave
the vine and then leap back again to the stock; you never saw a living branch of
the vine roaming into the corners of the vineyard, or rambling over the wall; it
abides in connection with the parent stem at all times, and even so should it be
with the Christian.Mark, that according to the text, it is very apparent that
Jesus will go away if he is not held. "I held him and I would not let him go;"
as if he would have gone if he had not been firmly retained. When he met with
Jacob that night at the Jabbok, he said, "Let me go." He would not go without
Jacob's letting him, but he would have gone if Jacob had loosed his hold. The
patriarch replied, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." This is one
of Christ's ways and manners; it is one of the peculiarities of his character.
When he walked to Emmaus with the two disciples, "he made as if he would have
gone further:" they might have known it was none other than the Angel of the
Covenant by that very habit. He would have gone further, but they constrained
him, saying, "Abide with us for the day is far spent." If you are willing to
lose Christ's company he is never intrusive, he will go away from you, and leave
you till you know his value and begin to pine for him. "I will go," says he,
"and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face:
in their affliction they will seek me early." He will go unless you hold him.
But note, next, he is very willing to be held. Who could hold him if he were
not? He is the omnipotent Savior, and if he willed to withdraw he could do so:
let us hold him as we might. But, mark his condescension. When his spouse said,
"I held him, and I would not let him go," he did not go, he could not go, for
his love held him as well as her hands. Christ is willing to be held. He loves
that sacred violence which takes him by force, that holy diligence which leaves
not a gap open by which he may escape, but shuts every door, bars every bolt,
and saith, "I have thee now and I will take care that if I lose thee it shall be
through no fault of mine." Jesus is willing enough to be retained by hearts
which are full of his love.And, brethren, whenever you have Christ, please to
remember that you are able to hold him. She who held him in the Song was no
stronger than you are; she was but a feeble woman, poorly fed under the Old
Testament dispensation; you have drunk the new wine of the new covenant, and you
are stronger than she. You can hold him, and he will not be able to go from you.
"How," say you, "shall I be able to hold him?" Oh, have you grasped him? Is he
with you? Now, then, hold him fast by your faith; trust him implicitly, rest in
him for every day's cares, for every moments. Walk by faith and he will walk
with you. Hold him also with the grasp of love. Let your whole heart go out
towards him. Embrace him with the arms of mighty affection, enchain him with
ardent admiration. Lay hold upon him by faith, and clasp him with love. Be also
much in prayer. Prayer casts a chain about him. He never leaves the heart that
prays. There is a sweet perfume about prayer that always attracts the Lord;
wherever he perceives it rising up to heaven there will he be. Hold him, too, by
your obedience to him. Never quarrel with him. Let him have his way. He will
stop in any house where he can be master; he will stay nowhere where some other
will lords it over his. Watch his words; be careful to obey them all. Be very
tender in your conduct, so that nothing grieves him. Show to him that you are
ready to suffer for his sake. I believe that where there is a prayerful,
careful, holy, loving, believing walk towards Jesus, the fellowship of the saint
with his Lord will not be broken, but it may continue for months and years.
There is no reason, except in ourselves, why fellowship with Jesus should not
continue throughout an entire life and oh, if it did, it would make earth into
heaven, and lift us up to the condition of angels, if not beyond them, and we
should be the men who would bring Christ into the church, and through the church
into the world. The church would be blest, and God would be glorified, and souls
would be saved, if there were some among us who thus held him, and would not let
him go.I want to call your attention to one thought before I leave this, and
that is, the spouse says, "I held him." Now, a great many persons in the world
are holding their creed, and if it is a correct one I hope they will hold it;
but that is the main business of their religious life; they do nothing else but
hold this doctrine or that. Hold it, brother, hold it: it would be a pity you
should let it go if it be the truth, but still it is more important to hold your
Lord. Certain others are engrossed in holding scriptural ordinances, and saying,
"I hold this and I hold that." Well, hold it brother; if it is God's ordinance
do not let it go. But, after all, if there be anything I hold above all else, I
hold him. Is not that the best grip a soul ever gets, when she lays hold of
Christ? "I held him and I would not let him go." Ah, Lord, I may be mistaken
about doctrine, but I am not mistaken about thee. I may, perhaps, be staggered
in my belief of some dogma which I thought was truth, but I am not staggered
about thee. Thou Son of God made flesh for me, thou art all my salvation and all
my desire: I rest on thee only, without a shadow of mixture of any other hope,
and I love thee supremely, desiring to honor thee and to obey thee in life and
until death. I hold thee, thou Covenant Angel, and I will not let thee go.Dear
friends! make this the mark of your life, that you hold him and will not let him
go. You will be the kind of men to bless the church by leading the Well-Beloved
into her chambers, if you know how to abide in him yourselves.III. It appears
from the text that, after the spouse had thus found Christ for herself and held
him, SHE BROUGHT HIM INTO THE CHURCH -- "I brought him to my mother's house." We
ought lovingly to remember the church of God. By the Holy Spirit we were
begotten unto newness of life, but it was in the church, and through the
preaching of the word there that we were brought into the light of life. We owe
our conversion, the most of us, to some earnest teacher of the truth in the
church of God, or to some of those godly works which were written by Christian
men. Through the church's instrumentality the Bible itself has been preserved to
us, and by her the gospel has been preached to every age. She is our mother and
we love her. I know that many of you, dear friends, the members of this church,
love the church, and you can say, "If I forget thee, let my right hand forget
her cunning." When you are away from this place, and cannot mix in our solemn
assemblies, your heart mourns like one in banishment. Have not I heard you cry,
"Ziona, Ziona, our holy and beautiful house, wherein we have worshipped our God,
the house which is built of living stones, among whom Christ himself is the
corner-stone, even thy church, O Jesus: would God I were in her midst again, and
could once more unite my praises with those that dwell within her." Yes, and
because we love our mother's house and the chamber of her that conceived us, we
desire to bring Christ into the church more and more. Did I hear a harsh but
honest voice exclaim, "But, I find much fault with the church?" Brother, if thou
lovest her, thou wilt go backward and cast a mantle over all. But, suppose thy
candour is compelled to see faults in her; then there is so much the more need
of her Lord's presence in her to cure those faults. The more sickly she is, the
more she wants him to be her strength and her physician. I say, therefore, to
thee, dear friend, above all things, seek to bring Christ into an imperfect
church, and a weak church, and an erring church, that she may become strong in
the Lord and in the power of his might. I have shown you by whom it must he --
by those who have found him, and who hold him; and now we will mention the
methods by which our blessed Lord can be brought into his church. The saints can
bring him in by their testimony. I hope that often Christ is here when I have
borne testimony to you of his power to save, of his atoning blood, of his
exaltation in heaven, of the perfection of his character, and of his willingness
to save. Many a Sabbath day his name has been like ointment poured forth in this
place. Is there any subject that so delights you as that which touches upon
Christ? Is not that the rarest string in all the harp of scriptural truth? Well,
every true minister, by bearing witness for Christ, helps to bring him into the
church.But, others can do it by their prayers. There is a mysterious efficacy in
the prayers of men who dwell near to God. Even if they were compelled to keep
their beds, and do nothing but pray, they would pour benedictions upon the
church. We want our dear sick friends to get well and come among us at once in
full health; but I do not know, I do not know; they may be of more service to
the church where they are. "Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence,
and give him no rest day nor night, till he establish and make Jerusalem a
praise in the earth." Now, there were not some saints kept awake at night by
sickness to pray, we should not so fully realize that word, "Give him no rest
day nor night." Some of those dear ones, whose faces we miss from among us, keep
up the perpetual ministry of intercession. Their incense of prayer goes up at
all hours; when the most of us are rightly enough at sleep they are compelled to
wake, and therefore are led still to pray. How many blessings come down upon the
church of God through the prayers of his feeble saints it is not possible for us
to tell; but I believe if all of us were to set apart a special time for praying
and pleading with Christ that he would come into his church, we should not be
long before we saw a wonderful effect resulting from those pleadings. Wrestling
prayers bring Christ into the innermost chambers of the church of God. Let us
try the power of prayer.And, there is no doubt, dear brethren, that Christ is
often brought into the church by the example of those eminent saints who abide
in Christ. You know what I mean. There is a very manner and air about some
Christian men which honors Christ, and benefits his people. They may not be
gifted in speech, but their very spirit speaks, they are so gentle, loving,
tender, earnest, truthful, upright, gracious. Their paths, like the paths of God
himself, drop fatness. They are the anointed of the Lord, and you perceive it.
Perhaps you could not say that this virtue or that is very prominent, but it is
the altogether; it is their life at home, their life in public, their church
life, their private life, their entire conduct makes you see that the Holy Ghost
is in them, and when they come into the church they bring the Spirit of God with
them, and are thus a great means of blessing to all with whom they associate. I
do pray, brethren, that in some way or other, each one of us may try to bring
Jesus Christ into the midst of his own people. I am afraid there are some who on
the contrary are driving him away -- church members that, instead of blessing
the church, are a curse to it. I see a great heap before me -- a vast heap that
God has gathered through my instrumentality; but the winnowing fan is going, and
the chaff is flying. Are you, dear friends, among the chaff or the wheat? Are
you seed for the sower, or fuel for the flame unquenchable? Oh! live near to
Christ; live in Christ; may Christ live in you; then will you enrich the church
of God; but if you do not, but only make a profession of love with your lips,
what shall I say unto you? I mourn over you. Take heed of living a weak life --
a life without God in it -- a life without Christ in it -- a life which a
Pharisee might live. Seek to live the life of a trueborn child of God, lest you
hinder the church's usefulness, and deprive her of her Lord's presence.IV. This
leads me to the last point, which is this, to CHARGE THE CHURCH THAT SHE BE
CAREFUL NOT TO DISTURB THE LORD'S REPOSE, if we have been enabled by divine
grace to bring the Lord into the chambers of our mother's house. "I charge you,
O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye
stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please." Observe, then, that the Lord
Jesus in his church is not indifferent to the conduct of his people. We are not
to suppose that because the sin of all God's elect is pardoned, therefore it is
of small consequence how they live. By no manner of means. The Master of this
great house is not blind nor deaf, neither is he a person who is utterly
careless as to how the house is managed; on the contrary, as God is a jealous
God, so is Christ a jealous husband to his church. He will not tolerate in her
what he would tolerate in the world. She lies near his heart, and she must be
chaste to him. What a solemn work the Lord did in the early church. That story
of Ananias and Sapphira -- it is often used most properly to illustrate the
danger of lying; but that is not the point of the narrative. Ananias and
Sapphira were members of the church at Jerusalem, and they lied not unto men,
which would have been sin enough, but in lying to the church officers they lied
unto God, and the result was their sudden death. Now, you are not to suppose
that this was a solitary case. Wherever there is a true church of God, the
judgments of God are always going on in it. I speak now not only what I have
read, but what I have known and seen with mine eyes; what I am as sure of as I
am sure of any fact in history. The apostle Paul, speaking of the same in his
day, said that in a certain church there was so much sin that many were weak and
sickly among them, and many slept; that is to say, there was great sickness in
the church, and many died. Judgments are begun in the house of God and are
always going on there. I have seen men in the church who have walked at a
distance from God, who have been visited with severe chastisements; others who
have been of hot and proud spirit, have been terribly humbled; and some who have
arrogantly touched God's ark, and the doom of Uzzah has befallen them. I have
seen it and do know it. And so it always will be. The Lord Jesus Christ looking
around his church, if he sees anything evil in it, will do one of two things;
either he will go right away from his church because the evil is tolerated
there, and he will leave that church to be like Laodicea, to go on from bad to
worse, till it becomes no church at all; or else he will come and he will trim
the lamp, or to use the figure of the fifteenth of John, he will prune the
vinebranch and with his knife will cut off this member, and the other, and cast
them into the fire; while, as for the rest, he will cut them till they bleed
again, because they are fruit-bearing members, but they have too much wood, and
he wants them to bring forth more fruit. It is not a trifling matter to be in
the church of God. God's fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem. "His fan
is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge" -- what? The world. O no, "his
floor," the church. And then, again, "he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of
silver, and he shall purify" -- what? The heathen nations. No, "the sons of
Levi" -- his own people. So that Christ is not indifferent to what is going on
in the church, and it is needful that when he comes to the church to take his
repose, and solace himself there, we should not stir him up nor awake him till
he please. But many things will drive our Lord away, and these shall have our
closing words. Dear fellow members of this church, may we each one be more
watchful lest the Bridegroom should withdraw from us. He will go away if we grow
proud. If we are boastful, and say, "There is some reason why God should bless
us," and should begin to speak hectoringly towards weaker brethren, the Lord
will let us know that "not unto us, not unto us, but unto his name shall be all
the glory."Again, if there be a want of love among us, the Lord of love will be
offended. The holy dove loves not scenes of strife; he frequents the calm still
waters of brotherly love. There the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for
evermore, where brethren dwelt together in unity. If any of you have half a hard
thought towards another, get rid of it; if there be the beginnings of anything
like jealousy, quench the sparks. "Leave off strife," says Solomon, "before it
be meddled with," as if he said, "End it before you begin it," which, though it
seems strangely paradoxical, is most wise advice. "Little children love one
another." "Walk in love as Christ also has loved us." May discord be far from
us.Notice the beautiful imagery of the text. "I charge you by the roes and the
hinds of the field." In ancient times gazelles were often tamed, and were the
favourite companions of Eastern ladies: the gazelle might be standing near its
mistress, fixing its loving eyes upon her, but if a stranger clapped his hands
it would hasten away. The roes and hinds "of the field" are even yet more
jealous things, a sound will startle them, even the breath of the hunter
tainting the gale puts them to speedy flight. Even thus is it with Jesus. A
little thing, a very little thing, will drive him from us, and it may be many a
day before our repentance shall be able to find him again. He has suffered so
much from sin that he cannot endure the approach of it. His pure and holy soul
abhors the least taint of iniquity.Let us gather from the text that there are
some things in the true church which give our Lord rest. He is represented here
as though he slept in the church, "That ye stir not up nor awake my love till he
please." Wherever he sees true repentance, real faith, holy consecration, purity
of life, chastity of love, there Christ rests. I believe he finds no sweeter
happiness even in heaven than the happiness of accepting his people's prayers
and praises. Our love is very sweet to him; our deeds of gratitude are very
precious, the broken alabaster boxes of self-sacrifices done for him are very
fair in his esteem. He finds no rest in the world, he never did; but he finds
sweet rest on the bosoms of his faithful ones. He loves to come into a pure
church, and there to say, "I am at home. I will declare thy name unto my
brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee."Let us be very
watchful, too, against all impurity. Anything like uncleanness in a Christian
will soon send the Master away from the church. You know what it was that
brought the evil upon the house of Eli. It was because his sons made themselves
vile even at the tabernacle door. The young people in that case were the
immediate cause of the mischief, but it was the fault of the elder ones that
they restrained them not. Watch against all evil passions and corrupt desires.
Be ye holy even as your Father which is in heaven is holy.And then, again, a
want of prayer will send him away. There are members of some churches who never
come to the prayer-meetings, and I should be afraid that their private prayers
cannot be any too earnest. Of course we speak not of those who have good excuse;
but there are some who habitually and wilfully neglect the assembling of
themselves together; these are worthy of condemnation. Oh, let us continue a
prayerful church as we have hitherto been, otherwise the Master may say, "They
do not value the blessing, for they will not even ask for it; they evidently do
not care about my Spirit, for they will not meet together and cry for him." Do
not grieve him by any such negligence of prayer.So, too, we may grieve the
Spirit by worldliness. If any of you who are rich get to imitate the fashions of
the world and act as worldlings do, you cannot expect the Lord to bless us. You
are Achans in the camp, if such is the case. And if you who are poor get to be
envious of others and speak harshly of others to whom God has given more
substance than to you, that again will grieve the Lord. You know how the
children of Israel in the wilderness provoked him, and their provocation mostly
took the form of murmuring; they complained of this and of that: if they had the
manna they wanted flesh, and if they had water gushing from the rock they must
needs have more. I pray you by the bowels of mercies that are in Christ Jesus,
by all the compassion he has manifested towards us, by the high love he deserves
of us, since he laid down his life for us, by your allegiance to him as your
King, by your trust in him as your Savior, by your love to him as the Bridegroom
of your souls, "stir not up nor awake my love till he please." Let me ask you to
be more in prayer; let me pray you to live nearer to him; let me entreat you for
the church's sake, and for the world's sake, to be more thoroughly Christ's than
you ever have been and may the power of the Holy Spirit enable you in this. I do
not fear lest I should lose that which I have wrought, for God will establish
the work of our hands upon us, but yet I do put up to him daily the prayer that
this church may not be found in years to come to be a building of wood, and hay,
and stubble, that shall be consumed in the fire of heresy or discord, or some
other testing flame which God may suffer to come upon it; but oh, may you, my
beloved brethren and sisters, be gold, and silver, and precious stones, that the
workman at the last, saved himself, may not have to suffer loss, nor the Master
be dishonored in the eyes of men. May you stand as a sparkling pile of precious
gems, inhabited by the eternal Spirit, to the praise and the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ
BEFORE SERMON -- John 15; Solomon's Song 3.


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  CHAPTER 9: PRECIOUS DEATHS
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A Sermon (No.1036) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, February 18th, 1872, by C.
H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "Precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death of his saints." -- Psalm 116:15. DAVID SOUGHT DELIVERANCE
from imminent peril, and he felt sure of obtaining it; for being a servant of
the Lord he knew that his life was too precious in the sight of God for it to be
lightly brought to an end. It should be a source of consolation to all tried
saints that God will not deliver them over to the hands of their enemies; it is
not the will of their Father who is in heaven that one of his little ones should
perish. A shepherd who did not care for his sheep might suffer the wolf to
devour it, but he who prizes it highly will put his own life in jeopardy to
pluck the defenseless one from between the monster's jaws. The text informs us
that the deaths of God's saints are precious to him. How different, then, is the
estimate of human life which God forms from that which has ruled the minds of
great warriors and mighty conquerors. Had Napoleon spoken forth his mind about
the lives of men in the day of battle, he would have likened them to so much
water spilt upon the ground. To win a victory, or subdue a province, it mattered
not though he strewed the ground with corpses thick as autumn leaves, nor did it
signify though in every village orphans and widows wailed the loss of sires and
husbands. What were the deaths of conscript peasants when compared with the fame
of the Emperor? So long as Austria was humbled, or Russia invaded, little cared
the imperial Corsican though half the race had perished. Not thus is it with the
King of kings; he spares the poor and needy, and saves the souls of the needy,
and precious shall their blood be in his sight. Our glorious Leader never
squanders the lives of his soldiers; he values the church militant beyond all
price; and though he permits his saints to lay down their lives for his sake,
yet is not one life spent in vain, or unnecessarily expended. How different also
is the Lord's estimate from that of persecutors! They have hounded the saints to
death, considering that they did God service. They have thought no more of
burning martyrs than destroying noxious insects, and massacres of believers have
been to them as the slaying of wild beasts. Did they not strike a medal to
celebrate the massacre of the Huguenots in France? and did not the infallible
Pope himself consider it to be a business for which to offer Te Deums to God?
What if murder made the streets of Paris run with blood, the slaughtered ones
were only Protestants, and the world thought itself well rid of them. Foxes and
wolves, and Protestants were best exterminated. As for so-called Anabaptists
they were counted worse than vipers, and to crush them utterly was reckoned to
be salutary Christian discipline. The enemies of the church of God have hunted
the saints as if they were beasts of the chase. They have let loose upon them
the dogs of war, and the hell-hounds of the Inquisition, as if they were not fit
to live. "Away with such a fellow from the earth" has been the general cry of
persecutors against the men of whom the world was not worthy. But, precious is
their blood in his sight. Though they have been cast to the beasts in the
amphitheatre, or dragged to death by wild horses, or murdered in dungeons, or
slaughtered amongst the snows of the Alps, or made to fatten Smithfield with
their gore, precious has their blood been, and still is it in his sight, who
will avenge his own elect when the day shall come for his patience to have had
her perfect work, and for his justice to begin her dread assize. The text, also,
corrects another estimate, namely, our own. We love the people of God, they are
exceedingly precious to us, and, therefore, we are too apt to look upon their
deaths as a very grievous loss. We would never let them die at all if we could
help it. If it were in our power to confer immortality upon our beloved
Christian brethren and sisters, we should surely do it, and to their injury we
should detain them here, in this wilderness, depriving them of a speedy entrance
into their inheritance on the other side the river. It would be cruel to them,
but I fear we should often be guilty of it. We should hold them here a little
longer, and a little longer yet, finding it hard to relinquish our grasp. The
departures of the saints cause us many a pang. We fret, alas! also, we even
repine and murmur. We count that we are the poorer because of the eternal
enriching of those beloved ones who have gone over to the majority, and entered
into their rest. Be it known that while we are sorrowing Christ is rejoicing.
His prayer is, "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me
where I am," and in the advent of every one of his own people to the skies he
sees an answer to that prayer, and is, therefore, glad. He beholds in every
perfected one another portion of the reward for the travail of his soul, and he
is satisfied in it. We are grieving here, but he is rejoicing there. Dolorous
are their deaths in our sight, but precious are their deaths in his sight. We
hang up the mournful escutcheon, and sit us down to mourn our full, and yet,
meanwhile, the bells of heaven are ringing for "the bridal feast above," the
streamers are floating joyously in every heavenly street, and the celestial
world keeps holiday because another heir of heaven has entered upon his
heritage. May this correct our grief. Tears are permitted to us, but they must
glisten in the light of faith and hope. Jesus wept, but Jesus never repined. We,
too, may weep, but not as those who are without hope, nor yet as though
forgetful that there is greater cause for joy than for sorrow in the departure
of our brethren. I. Coming now to the instructive text before us, we shall
remark, in the first place, that THE STATEMENT HERE MADE IMPLIES A VIEW OF DEATH
OF A PECULIAR KIND. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his
saints." Death in itself cannot be precious; it is terrible. It cannot be a
precious thing to God to see the noblest works of his hand torn in pieces, his
skillful embroidery in the human body rent, defiled, and given over to decay.
Death in itself cannot be a theme for rejoicing with God. But death in the case
of believers is another matter. To them, it is not death to die; it is a
departure out of this world unto the Father, a being unclothed that we may be
clothed upon, a falling asleep, an entrance into the Kingdom. To the saint death
is by no means such a thing as happeneth unto the unregenerate.And, observe
wherein this change lies. It lies mainly in the fact that death is no more the
indiction of a penalty for sin upon the believer. One great cardinal truth of
the gospel is that the sins of believers were laid upon Christ, and were
punished upon Christ, and that, consequently, no sin is imputed to the believer,
neither can any be penally visited upon him. His sin was punished in his
substitute. The righteous wrath of God has altogether ceased towards those for
whom Christ died. It could not be consistent with justice that the death penalty
should be executed upon Christ, and then should be again visited upon those for
whom Christ was a substitute. Death, then, does not come to me as a believer
because I deserve it and must be punished by it: it comes so to the ungodly, it
is upon them a fit visitation for their iniquities, the beginning of an unending
death, which shall be their perpetual portion. To the saints the sting of death
is gone, and the victory of the grave is removed; it is no more a penalty but a
privilege to die. What if I say it is a covenant blessing: so Paul esteemed it,
for when he said "All things are yours, things present or things to come," he
added, "or life, or death, all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is
God's:" as if the believer's death came to him amongst other good and precious
things by the way of his being Christ's; and Christ's being God's. To fall
asleep in Jesus is a blessing of the covenant; it is a grace to be asked for,
"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word." I
would not miss it; if I might make my choice between living till Christ comes,
so as to be changed only, and not to die, or of actually sleeping in the dust, I
would prefer to die, for in this the believer who shall fall asleep will be the
more closely conformed to Christ Jesus. He will have passed into the sepulcher
and slept in the tomb as his master did; he will know, as Jesus knows, what
death pangs mean, and what it is to gaze upon the invisible, while the visible
retreats into the distance. Nay, let us die. The Head has traversed the valley
of death-shade, and let the members rejoice to follow."As the Lord their Savior
rose,So all his followers must."And, therefore, as the Lord the Savior slept, so
let us sleep. When we think of our Master in the tomb, our hearts say, "Let us
go that we may die with him." We would not be divided from him in life or in
death. We are so wedded to him that we say, "Where thou goest I will go, where
thou diest I will die, and with thee would I be buried, that with thee in the
resurrection morning I may be partaker of the resurrection." Death, then, is so
far changed in its aspect as it respects the saints, that it is no longer a
legal infliction, but it comes to us as a covenant blessing conforming us to
Christ.The statement of the text refutes the gloomy thought that death is a
ceasing to be. It is not the annihilation of a man, nor ought it ever to be
regarded as such. In all ages there has fingered upon mankind the fear that to
die may involve ceasing to be; and of all thoughts this is one of the most
gloomy. But, when God says that the death of a believer is precious to him, it
is clear that no tinge of annihilation is in the idea, for where would be the
preciousness of a believer ceasing to exist? Oh, no, the thought is gone from
us. We know that to die is not to renounce existence; we understand that death
is but a passage into a higher and a nobler existence. The soul emancipated from
all sinfulness passes the Jordan, and is presented without fault before the
throne of God. No purgatorial fires are needed to cleanse her; the self-same day
she leaves the body she is with Christ in paradise, because fit to be there. The
body in death, it is true, undergoes decay, but even for that meaner part of our
manhood there is no destruction. Let us not malign the grave, it is no more a
prison, but an inn, a halting place upon the road to resurrection. As Esther
bathed herself in spices that she might be fit for the embraces of the king, so
is the body purged from its corruption that it may rise immortal."Corruption,
earth, and wormsShall but refine this fleshTill my triumphant spirit comesTo put
it on afresh."The body could not rise if it had not first died; it could not
spring up like a fair flower unless it had first been sown. If a grain of wheat
fall not into the ground and die, how springeth it up again? but the body is
sown in dishonor that it may be raised in glory; it is sown in weakness that it
may be raised in power; it is laid in the grave as a natural body, that it may
arise therefrom by the infinite power of the almighty a spiritual body, full of
life, and glory, and majesty. Let this mortal body die, aye, let it moulder into
dust! What more fit than earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Let the
gold go into the fining pot, it will lose none of its preciousness, it will only
be delivered from its dross. Let the gem go to the lapidary's house, for it
shall glitter the more brightly in the royal crown, in the day when the Lord
shall make up his jewels. Death, too, we may be sure from this statement cannot
be any serious detriment to the believer after all; it cannot be any serious
loss to a saint to die. Looking upon the poor corpse, it does seem to be a
catastrophe for death to have passed his cold hand across the brow, but it is
not so, for the very death is precious; therefore, it is no calamity. Death if
rightly viewed is a blessing from the Lord's hand. A child once found a bird's
nest in which were eggs, which it looked upon as a great treasure. It left them,
and by-and-by, when a week or so had passed, went back again. It returned to its
mother grieving: "Mother," said the child, "I had some beautiful eggs in this
nest, and now they are destroyed; nothing is left but a few pieces of broken
shell. Pity me, mother, for my treasure is gone." But the mother said, "Child,
here is no destruction; there were little birds within those eggs, and they have
flown away, and are singing now among the branches of the trees; the eggs are
not wasted, child, but have answered their purpose. It is better far as it is."
So, when we look at our departed ones, we are apt to say, "And is this all thou
hast left us? Ruthless spoiler, are these ashes all?" But, faith whispers "No,
the shell is broken, but amongst the birds of paradise, singing amid unwithering
bowers, you shall find the spirits of your beloved ones; their true manhood is
not here, but has ascended to its Father, God." It is not a loss to die, it is a
gain, a lasting, a perpetual, an illimitable gain. The man is at one moment
weak, and cannot stir a finger; in an instant he is clothed with power. Call ye
not this a gain? That brow is aching; it shall wear a crown within the next few
tickings of the clock. Is that no gain? That hand is palsied; it shall at once
wave the palm branch. Is that a loss? The man is sick beyond physician's power;
but he shall be where the inhabitant is never sick. Is that a loss? When Baxter
lay a dying, and his friends came to see him, almost the last word he said was
in answer to the question, "Dear Mr. Baxter, how are you?" "Almost well," said
he, and so it is. Death cures; it is the best medicine, for they who die are not
only almost well, but healed for ever. You will see, then, that the statement of
our text implies that the aspect of death is altogether altered from that
appearance in which men commonly behold it. Death to the saints is not a
penalty, it is not destruction, it is not even a loss.II. But now, secondly, I
want your earnest thought to a further consideration of the text. THE STATEMENT
HERE MADE IS OF A MOST UNLIMITED KIND."Precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of his saints." It is a broad statement, wide and comprehensive, and I
want you to observe that there is no limit here as to whom. Provided that the
dying one be a saint, his death is precious. He may be the greatest in the
church, he may be the least: he may be the boldest confessor, he may be the most
timid trembler; but if a saint, his death is precious in God's sight. I can well
conceive the truth of this in respect to martyrs; to see a man enduring
torments, but refusing to deny his Lord; to behold him offered life and wealth
if he will recant, but to hear him say, "I cannot and I will not draw back by
the help of God:" to mark every nerve throbbing with anguish, and every single
member of his body torn with torment, and yet to see the man faithful to his God
even to the close, -- why, this is a spectacle which God himself might well
count precious. The church embalms the memories of her martyrs wherever they die
-- precious in God's sight must their deaths be. The deaths too of those who
work for Christ, until at last weary nature gives out, when body and brain are
both exhausted, and the man can no longer continue in his beloved labor, but
lays down his body and his charge together, never putting off harness until he
puts off his flesh -- methinks the deaths of such men must be precious in God's
sight. But, not more so, mark that not more so than the departure of the patient
sufferer, scarcely able to say a word, solitary and unknown, only able to serve
God by submissively enduring pains which make night weary and day intolerable.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the consumptive girl who
gradually melts into heaven; the death of the pauper in the workhouse, without a
friend, but uncomplainingly bearing God's will, is as precious (not perhaps
under some aspects), but as truly precious in the sight of the Lord as that of
the most useful preacher of the word. Precious to Jehovah is the death of the
least in the ranks, as the death of those who rush to the front and bear the
brunt of the battle well. There are no distinctions in the text; if you be a
saint no one may know you, you may be too poor and too illiterate to be of much
account in the world, you may die and pass away, and no record may be among the
sons of men, no stone set up over your lonely grave, but precious in the sight
of the Lord in every case is the death of his saints. There is no limit as to
whom. And, mark you, there is no limit at all as to when. It matters not at what
age the saint dies, his death is precious to God. Very delightful to those who
observe them are the deathbed scenes of young children who have early been
converted to God. There is a peculiar charm about the pious prattler's departing
utterances. He can hardly pronounce his words aright, but he seems illuminated
from above, and to talk of Jesus and his angels, and the harps of gold, and the
better land, as if he had been there. Some of you have had the privilege to
carry in your bosoms some of those nurselings for the skies, unfledged angels
sent here but for a little while, and then caught away to heaven, that their
mothers' hearts might follow them, and their fathers' aspirations might pursue
them. I confess to a great liking for such books as "Janeway's Token for
Children," where the deaths of many pious boys and girls are recorded with the
holy sayings which they used. The Lord sets a high value on his little ones,
and, therefore, frequently gathers them while they are like flowers in the bud.
When these favored children die, Jesus stands at their little cots, and, while
he calls them away, he whispers, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." Equally
precious, however, are the deaths of those who depart in middle life. These we
usually regret most of all, because of the terrible blanks which they leave
behind them. What, shall the hero fall when the battle wants him most? Shall the
reaper be sent home and made to lay down his sickle just when the harvest is
heaviest, and the day requires every worker? To us it seemeth strange, but to
God it is precious. Oh, could we lift the veil, could we understand what now we
see not, we should perceive that it was better for the saints to die when they
died, than it would have been for them to have lived longer lives. Though the
widow mourns, and the orphans are left penniless, it was good that the father
fell asleep. Though a loving church gathered round the hearse and mourned that
their minister had been taken away in the fullness of his vigor, it was best
that God should take him to himself. Let us be persuaded of this, that no
believer dies an untimely death. In every consistent Christian's case that
promise is true, "With long life also will I satisfy him, and show him my
salvation;" for long life is not to be reckoned by years as men count them. He
lives longest who lives best. Many a man has crowded half a century into a
single year. God gives his people life, not as the clock ticks, but as he helps
them to serve him; and he can make them to live much in a short space of time.
There are no untimely figs gathered into God's basket; the great Master of the
vineyard plucks the grapes when they are ripe and ready to be taken, and not
before. Saintly deaths are precious in his sight.And, dear brethren, if the
Lord's providence permits the saint to live to a good old age, then is his death
precious too. The decease which has lately occurred among us will abide in my
memory as one of my choice treasures. I say but little of it to-day, for on
another Sabbath morning I may be able to tell you some of those choice things
which our dear brother and venerated elder uttered which charmed and gladdened
us all as we lingered about his bed. You knew him; you knew what a man he was in
life; he was just such a man in death. But a day or so before he died, while he
could scarcely draw his breath, he told me with a smile that it was the happiest
day of his life. As he was always wont to rejoice in God while he was here among
us, so he was kept in the same blessed spirit even to the end. "See," said he,
"what a blessed thing it is to be here." "Here!" I said. "What, on a dying bed?"
"Yes,' said he, "for I am Christ's, and Christ is mine; I am in him, and He is
in me; what more would I have? It is the happiest day of my life," and again he
smiled serenely. It was all joy with him, all bliss with him. Pain might rack
him, or weakness might prostrate him, but ever did his spirit magnify the Lord,
and rejoice in God his Savior. Yes, these ripe ones, like the fruits of autumn,
fall willingly from off the tree of life when but a gentle breeze stirs the
branches. The deaths of these are precious unto God. There is no limitation as
to when.And, again, there is no limitation as to where. Precious shall their
deaths be in his sight, let them happen where they may. Up in the lonely garret
where there are none of the appliances of comfort, but all the marks of the
deepest penury, up there where the dying workgirl or the crossing sweeper dies
-- there is a sight most precious unto God; or yonder, in the long corridor of
the hospital, where many are too engrossed in their own griefs to be able to
shed a tear of sympathy, there passes away a triumphant spirit, and precious is
that death in God's sight. Alone, utterly alone in the dead of night, surprised,
unable to call in a helper, saintly life often has passed away; but in that form
also precious is the death in God's sight. Far away from home and kindred,
wandering in the backwoods or on the prairie, the believer has died where there
was none to call him brother; but it mattered not, his death was precious in the
sight of the Lord. Or, a bullet has brought the missive from the throne which
said, "Return and be with God," and falling in the ditch to die amongst the
wounded and the dead, with no onlooker but the silent stars and blushing moon,
amidst the carnage the death of the believing soldier has been precious in the
sight of Jehovah. Ah, and run over in the street, or crushed, and bruised, and
mangled in the railway accident, or stifled in the pit by the coal damp, or
sinking amidst the gurgling waters of the ocean, or falling beneath the
assassin's knife, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
They are everywhere in the sight of God when they die, and he looks upon them
with a smile, for their death is precious to his heart. There is no limit as to
where, and, dear brethren, there is no limit as to how. "Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of his saints." Their deaths may happen suddenly; they
may be alive, and active, and in a moment fall down dead, but their death is
precious. I could never understand that prayer which is put into the
prayer-book, that God would deliver us from sudden death. Why, methinks, it is
the most desirable death that a person could die, not to know you die at all, to
have no fears, no shiverings on the brink, but to be busy in your Master's
service here, and suddenly to stand in the white robe before his throne in
heaven, shutting the eye to the scenes below, and opening it the scenes above. I
know, if I might ask such a favor, I would covet to die as a dear brother in
Christ died, who gave out this hymn from his pulpit: -- "Father, I long, I faint
to seeThe place of thine abodeI'd leave thine earthly courts, and fleeUp to thy
seat, my God."Just as he finished that line in the pulpit he bowed his head, and
his prayer was answered, he was immediately before the throne of God. Is there
anything in that to pray against? It seems to us much to be desired; but at any
rate, such a death as that is precious in God's sight. But if we linger long, if
the tabernacle be taken down piece by piece, and the curtains be slowly folded
up, and the tent pins gently put away, precious in the sight of the Lord is such
a death as that. Should we die by fierce disease, which shakes the strong man,
or by gentle decline, which slowly saps and undermines, it matters not. Should a
sudden stroke take us, and men call it a judgment, it is no judgment to the
believer, for from him all judgments are past, and the true light of love
shineth on him. Die how he may, and where he may, and when he may, and let him
be in what position he will when he dies, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the death of his saints."III. And now, thirdly, coming to the very soul and
marrow of the text, we notice that THE STATEMENT OF THE TEXT MAY BE FULLY
SUSTAINED AND ACCOUNTED FOR, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of
his saints," is a most sober and truthful declaration.First, because their
persons were, and always will be, precious unto God. His saints! Why, these are
his elect; these are they upon whom his love was set before the mountains lifted
their heads into the clouds; these are they whom he bought with precious blood,
cheerfully laying down his life for their sakes; these are they whose names are
borne on Jesus' breast, and engraved upon the palms of his hands; these are his
children; these are members of his body; these are his bride, his spouse; he is
married unto them: therefore, everything that concerns them must be precious. Do
I not look with interest upon the history of my child? Do I not carefully
observe everything that happens to my beloved spouse? Where there is love the
little becometh great, and what would seem a matter of no concern in a stranger
is gilded with great importance. The Lord loves his people so intensely that the
very hairs of their heads are numbered: his angels bear them up in their hands
lest they dash their foot against a stone, and because they are the precious
sons of Zion, comparable unto fine gold, therefore their deaths are precious
unto the Lord.Precious are the deaths of God's saints next, because precious
graces are in death very frequently tested, and as frequently revealed and
perfected. How could I know faith to be true faith if it would not stand a
trial? The precious faith of God's elect is proved to be such when it can bear
the last ordeal of all; when the man can look grim death in the face, and yet
not be staggered through unbelief, when he can gaze across the gulf, so often
veiled in cloud, and yet not fear that he shall be able to overleap it, and land
in the Savior's arms. Believe me, the faith which only plays with earthly joys,
and cannot endure the common trials of life, will soon be dissipated by the
solemn trial of death; but that which a man can die with, that is faith indeed.
Faith, moreover, brings with it, as its companions, an innumerable company of
graces, amongst which chiefly are hope and love. Blessed is the man who can hope
in God when heart and flesh are failing him, and can love the Lord even though
he smite him with many pains, yea, even though he slay him. The death of the
body is a crucible for our graces, and much that we thought to be true grace
disappears in the furnace heat; but God counts the trial of our faith much more
precious than that of gold, and therefore he counts deathbeds precious in his
sight. Besides, how many graces are revealed in dying hours. I have known plants
of God's right hand planting that had always been in the shade before, and yet
they have enjoyed sunlight at last; silent spirits that have laid their finger
on their lips throughout their lives but have taken them down, and have declared
their love to Jesus just when they were departing. Like the swan, of whom the
fable hath it, that it singeth never till it comes to its end, so many a child
of God has begun to sing in his last hours; because he has done with the glooms
of earth, he begins to sing here his swan song, intending to sing on for ever
and ever. You cannot tell what is in a man to the fullness of him till he is
tried to the full, and therefore the last trial, inasmuch as it strippeth off
earth-born imperfections and developes in us that which is of God, and brings to
the front the real and the true, and throws to the back the superficial and the
pretentious, is precious in God's sight. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the death of his saints," for a third reason, because precious attributes are in
dying moments gloriously illustrated. I refer now to the divine attributes. In
life and in death we prove the attribute of God's righteousness, we find that he
does not lie but is faithful to his word. We learn the attribute of mercy, he is
gentle and pitiful to us in the time of our weakness. We prove the attribute of
his immutability, we find him "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." There
is scarcely a single characteristic of the divine being which is not set out
delightfully to the child of God and onlookers when the saint is departing. And
the same is true of the promises as well as the attributes. Precious promises
are illustrated upon dying beds. "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Who
would have known the meaning of that to the full, if he had not found that the
Lord did not leave him when all else was gone? "When thou passeth through the
river I will be with thee." Who could have known the depth of truth in that
word, if saints did not pass through the last cold stream. "As thy days so shall
thy strength be." Who could have known to the full that word, if he had not seen
the believer triumphant on his dying day? "Yea, though I pass through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and
thy staff comfort me." You may read commentaries upon that psalm, but you will
never value it so well as when you are in the valley yourself. My dear departed
friend said to me, ere I came away on one of my last visits, "Read me a psalm,
dear pastor," and I said, "which one?" "There are many precious ones," said he,
"but as I get nearer to the time of my departure, I love the 23rd best, let us
have that again." "Why," I said, "you know that by heart." "Yes," said he, "it
is in my heart too, it is most true and precious to me." And is it not so? Yet
you had not seen the 23rd Psalm to be a diamond of the purest water, if you had
not beheld its value to saints in their departing moments."Precious," again, "in
the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," because the precious blood is
glorified. It is memorable how saints turn to the cross when they die. Not very
often do you hear them speak of Christ in his glory then, it is of Christ the
sufferer, Christ the substitute that they then speak. And how they delight to
roll under their tongue as a sweet morsel, such texts as that one, "The blood of
Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." With what delight do they
speak about having trusted in him years ago, and how gladly will they tell you
that they have not been confounded. All their hope and all their confidence lie
in the crucified one alone, and they are persuaded that he is able to keep that
which they have committed to him. It ought to be the object of our lives to
magnify the blood of Jesus, and to speak well of it, and to recommend it to
others. But oh, dear soul, if thou hast no faith in Christ's blood, one argument
that ought to convince thee of the sin of unbelief above all others, is this, --
that blood has afforded comfort when pains have been bitter, and consolation
when death has been imminent, not in one case or a thousand, but in countless
cases. Saints by myriads have died singing, for they have overcome the last
enemy by the blood of the Lamb. Oh, you that were never washed in Jesus' blood,
I dread to think of your dying. What will you do without the Savior? Oh, how
will you pass the terrors of that tremendous hour, with no advocate on high
pleading for you there, and no blood of Christ upon you pleading for you here.
Oh, fly to that cross, rest in that cross, then will you live well and die well;
but, without the blood, you shall live uneasily and die wretchedly. God prevent
it, for his name's sake!Again, the deaths of believers are precious to God,
because oftentimes precious utterances are given forth in the last moments.
There are little volumes extant of the death bed sayings of saints, and if ever
I have mistaken the utterances of man for inspiration, it has been when I have
read some of these dying speeches. No one ever mistook the brilliant utterances
of Shakespeare, or the wise sayings of Bacon, or the profound thoughts of
Socrates, for Scripture -- everyone could see that they were earthy and of the
earth; but have you never caught yourself imagining that the saying of a dying
man must have been borrowed from the Scriptures, and if you have searched for it
you have not found it in Cruden, nor have you discovered it anywhere in the
sacred page; the voice has been so near akin to inspiration, and so true, that
if it had been permitted, you would have written it in your Bibles, and made a
new chapter there. Oh, what brave things do they tell of the heavenly world!
What glorious speeches do they make! To some of them the veil has been thrown
back, and they have spoken of things not seen as yet. They have almost declared
things which it were not lawful for men to utter, and, therefore, their speech
has been broken, and mysterious, like dark sayings upon a harp. We could hardly
make out all they said, but we gathered that they were overwhelmed with glory,
that they were confounded with unutterable bliss, that they had seen and fain
would tell but must not, they had heard and fain would repeat but could not.
"Did you not see the glory?" they have said, and you have replied, "The sun
shines upon you through yonder window;" they have shaken their heads, for they
have seen a brightness not begotten of the sun. Then have they cried, "Do you
not hear it?" and we should have supposed that a sound in the street attracted
them, but all was the stillness of night; silent all, except to their ear, which
was ravished with the voice of harpers, harping with their harps. I shall never
forget hearing a brother, with whom I had often walked to preach the gospel,
say, -- "And when ye hear my eyestrings break,How sweet my minutes roll;A mortal
paleness on my cheek,But glory in my soul."It must have been a grand thing to
hear good Harrington Evans say to his deacons, "Tell my people, tell them I am
accepted in the Beloved;" or, to hear John Rees say, "Christ in the glory of his
person, Christ in the love of his heart, Christ in the power of his arm, this is
the rock I stand on, and now death strike." Departing saints have uttered brave
things and rare things, which have made us wish that we had been going away with
them, so have they made us long to see what they have seen, and to sit down and
feast at their banquet.The last reason I shall give why the death of a saint is
precious is this -- because it is a precious sheep folded, a precious sheaf
harvested, precious vessel which had been long at sea brought into harbour, a
precious child which had been long at school to finish his training brought home
to dwell in the Father's house for ever. God the Father sees the fruit of his
eternal love at last ingathered: Jesus sees the purchase of his passion at last
secured: the Holy Spirit sees the object of his continual workmanship at last
perfected: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rejoice that now the bloodbought ones
are free from all inbred sin, and delivered from all temptation. The battle's
fought, the battle's fought, and the victory is won for ever.The commander's
eagle eye, as he surveys the plain, watches joyously the shock of battle as he
sees that his victory is sure; but when at the last the fight culminates in one
last assault, when the brave guards advance for the last attack, when the enemy
gathers up all the shattered relics of his strength to make a last defense, when
the army marches with sure and steady tramp to the last onslaught, then feels
the warrior's heart a stern o'erflowing joy, and as his veterans sweep their
foes before them like chaff before the winnower's fan, and the adversaries melt
away, even as the altar fat consumes away in smoke, I see the commander exulting
with beaming eye, and hear him rejoicing in that last shock of battle, for in
another moment there shall be the shout of victory, and the campaign shall be
over, and the adversary shall be trampled for ever beneath his feet. King Jesus
looks upon the death of his saints as the last struggle of their life-conflict;
and when that is over, it shall be said on earth, and sung in heaven, "Thy
warfare is accomplished, thy sin is pardoned, thou hast received of the Lord's
hand double for all thy sins.""Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of
his saints." Sirs, are you his saints? Preacher, thou speakest to others, hast
thou been sanctified unto God? Answer this in the silence of thy soul. Officers
of this church, are you saints or mere professors? Members of this church, are
you truly saints, or are you hypocrites? You who sit in this congregation
Sabbath after Sabbath, have you been washed in the blood of Jesus? are you made
saints, or are you still in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity?
Casual visitors to this house of prayer, the same question would I press on you,
are you saints of God? If not, earth and hell combined, though they are both
full of anguish, could not utter a shriek that should be shrill enough to set
forth the woe unutterable of the death that shall surely come upon you. Oh I ere
that death overtakes you, fly to Jesus. Trust Him, trust Him now! Ere this day's
sun goes down cast yourself at the feet of the crucified Redeemer, and live! The
Lord grant it, for his name's sake. Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON
-- Psalm 116; Revelation 7:9-17.* Rev. W. Dransfield, a beloved elder of the
church at the Tablernacle, died February 15th, full of years.


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  CHAPTER 10: THE POOR MAN'S FRIEND
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A Sermon (No.1037) Delivered by C. H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle,
Newington "For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him
that hath no helper." -- Psalm 72:12. THIS IS A ROYAL PSALM. In it you see
predictions of Christ, not upon the cross, but upon the throne. In reference to
his manhood as well as to his godhead, he is exalted and extolled and very high.
He is the king -- the king's son, truly with absolute sway, stretching his
scepter from sea to sea, and "from the river even unto the ends of the earth."
It is remarkable that in this psalm which so fully celebrates the extent of his
realm and the sovereignty of his government, there is so much attention drawn to
the minuteness of his care for the lowly, his personal sympathy with the poor,
and the large benefits they are to enjoy from his kingdom. Where Christ is
highest and we are lowest, and the two meet, there is "glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men." I might almost raise the
question whether this psalm is more a tribute of homage to the Messiah, or a
treasury of comfort for his poor subjects. We will compound the controversy by
saying that as Christ here is highly exalted, so his poor needy ones are highly
blessed, and while it is a blessing to them that he is exalted, it is an
exaltation to him that they are blessed. Turning to our text without further
preface, we shall note in it the special objects of great grace. "He shall
deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper;"
then, the special blessings which are allotted to them. Here it is said that he
shall deliver them, but all through the psalms there are scattered promises full
of instruction and consolation all meant for them. And, lastly, the special
season which God has appointed for the dispensing of these favors. "He shall
deliver the needy when he crieth." That shall be God's time. When it is our time
to cry, it shall be God's time to deliver. I. First, then, notice THE SPECIAL
OBJECTS OF GREAT GRACE. There is a three-fold description -- they are needy,
they are poor, they have no helper. They are needy. In this they are like all
the sons of men. We begin life in a needy state. We are full of needs in our
infancy, and cannot help ourselves. We continue throughout life in a needy
state. The very breath in our nostrils hath to be the gift of God's goodness. In
him we live, and move, and have our being. And, as we grow old our needs become
even more apparent. The staff on which we lean reveals to us our needs, and our
infirmities all tell us what needy creatures we are. We need temporal things and
we need spiritual things. Our body needs, our soul needs, our spirit needs. We
need to be kept from evil; we need to be led into the paths of righteousness; we
need on the outset that grace should be implanted; when implanted, we need that
it be nurtured; when nurtured, we need that it be perfected and made to bring
forth fruit. We are never a moment without need. We wake up, and our first
glance might reveal our needs to us, and when we fall asleep it is upon a poor
man's pillow, for we need that God should preserve us through the night. We have
needs when we are on our knees, else where would be the energy of our prayers?
We have needs when we try to sing, else how should our uncircumcised lips praise
him aright? We have needs when we are relieving the needs of others, lest we
become proud of our almsgiving. We have need in preaching, need in hearing; we
have need in working, need in suffering, need in resting. What is our life but
one long need? All men are full of needs. But God's peculiar people feel this
need -- they not only confess it is so, but they know it experimentally. They
are full of needs. Once they thought that they were rich and increased in goods,
and had need of nothing, but now, through the enlightenment of God's Spirit,
they feel themselves to be naked, and poor, and miserable. Their needs were
great before, but they appear now to be incalculable, more in number than the
hairs of their heads. They have need of a covering for the sin of the past; they
have need of help against the temptation of the present; they have need of
perseverance as to the entire future. If there are any people under heaven who
could claim the title of "needy," above all others, it is not the pauper in the
workhouse, nor the mendicant who asks alms in the streets, but it is the child
of God, for he feels himself to be so dependent that the more he gets from his
great Benefactor the more he requires, and the more he must have to satisfy the
enlarged desires of a heart that begins to know the will of God concerning us.
Our needs are great and constant. The second description given is that he is
poor -- "the poor also." A man might be needy, and be able to supply his own
need. As fast as his needs arose, he might have sufficient wealth to be able to
procure what he wanted. I speak merely of his temporal wants. But, with regard
to us in spiritual things, we are not only needy, but we are poor to utter
destitution -- there is nothing within our reach that we can help ourselves
with. We have need of water for our thirst, but nature's buckets are empty, and
her cisterns are broken. We have need of bread, but nature's granary is bare.
Like the prodigal son in a far off country, there is a famine, a mighty famine,
in that land, and we are in want. We have need of clothing; we have found that
we are naked, and we are ashamed, but our fig leaves will not serve us, and we
are too poor to buy a garment for ourselves. We are so poor that when a want
comes it only shows us how empty the treasury is; and every want while it draws
upon us meets with no fitting response; there is nothing, nothing, nothing, in
human nature at its very best, that can keep pace with its own needs. Speak of
self-reliance! -- tis well enough in matters of the world, but self-reliance is
absolutely madness in the things of God. We have heard of self-made men, but if
any man would enter heaven, he must be a God-made man from first to last, for
all that can come out of human nature will still be defiled. The stream shall
never mount higher than the fountain-head, and the fountain-head of human nature
is pollution, total depravity. It cannot rise higher than that, let it do its
best. We are very needy, and very poor. If there be any poor in all the world,
who have tasted the bitter ingredients of this cup of sorrow, it is God's
people. We are very needy and very poor, though we did not always think so. When
the discovery was first made to us, we felt the smart as those do "who have seen
better days." Once we fancied ourselves able to do our work and sure to get our
wages; we did hope to merit a reward for our good conduct; and we thought it was
only for us to add a little piety to our decent morals in order to be well
pleasing to God and our own conscience. Ah, sirs! when we woke from these
foolish dreams, and faced our own abject poverty, how ashamed we were; how we
shunned the light; how we sat alone and avoided company; how fear preyed on our
heart; with what anguish we chattered to ourselves, saying, "What shall I do?
What shall I do?" Poor indeed we are and we know it. Moreover, it is said they
have no helper. Now, until God enlightens us, we seem to have a great many
helpers. We fancy -- perhaps we once fancied -- that a priest could save us. If
we have a grain of grace we have given up that idea. Perhaps we imagined that
our parents would help us, that our godly ancestry might stand us in some stead:
-- but we have long ago been brought to the conviction that we must each stand
personally before God, for only personal religion is of any value. At one time
we placed some dependence upon the ministry we attended, and hoped that in some
favored hour that ministry might be of use to us; but, if God has awakened us,
we look higher than pulpits and preachers now. Our eyes are up towards the hills
whence cometh our help, and as to all earthly things, we see no help in them.
"Cursed is he that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm." "He shall be like
the heath in the desert -- he shall not see when good cometh." The Lord grant us
all to be reduced to this -- that we have no helper, because when we have no
helper here, he will become our helper and our salvation. Put the three words
together and you have a very correct description of the awakened people of God
-- needy, poor, and having no helper.We have felt this, beloved, very keenly
some of us just before we looked to Christ. Oh! we can remember now when we
wanted to have our sins forgiven us, we would have given all we had if we could
but have found mercy; -- we were full of needs. We turned all our good works
over, but they had all become mouldy and worm-eaten, and they stank in our
nostrils. We tried our prayers. We used to fancy if we began to pray earnestly
it would all be well with us, but alas! alas! we found our prayers to be poor
comforts -- broken reeds. We looked all around us, and we could get no
consolation. Even Scripture did not seem to cheer us; the very promises seemed
to shut their doors against us. We had no helper. Oh, do you remember then when
you cried to God in your trouble, and he delivered you? I know you verified the
truth of the promise in our text, "He shall deliver the needy when he
crieth."Since that time, we have been equally needy; we have been making fresh
proof of our indigence; and getting into straits from which we could by no means
extricate ourselves. Indeed, when a Christian is richest in grace he is poorest
in himself. The way to grow rich in grace is to feel your poverty. Whenever you
think you have stored up a little strength, a little comfort, a little provision
against a rainy day, you are pretty sure to have the trouble you bargained for,
and to miss the resources you counted on. Estimate your true wealth before God
by your entire dependence on him. The more you have, the less you have, and the
less you have, the more you have. When you have nothing at all in yourself, then
Christ is all in all to you. The perpetual condition of every child of God in
himself is that of a needy and a poor and a helpless one -- on the high
mountains with his Lord, rejoicing in his love, yet is he even there in himself
less than nothing and vanity -- still poor and needy.There have been times when
we felt this very powerfully, perhaps, very painfully. Has Satan ever beset you,
my brethren, with his fierce temptations? No doubt many of you have had to feel
the ferocity of his attacks. Perhaps, blasphemous thoughts have been injected
into your mind -- dark forebodings, such as these, "God has forsaken me."
Perhaps, he has said, "He has sinned himself out of the covenant -- he is a
castaway," and your poor little faith has tried to hold on to Christ, but it
seemed as if she must be driven from her hold. While others found it as you
thought easy to get to heaven, you realised the truth of the text -- "The
righteous scarcely are saved." You have had to fight for every inch of ground,
and it seemed to you often as though you had not a spark of grace in you, not a
ray of hope, and not so much as a single grain of the grace of God within your
heart. Ah! and at such times you have been poor and needy, and you have had no
helper. And, perhaps, at such seasons, too, temporal trouble may have come in.
Whoever may go through the world without trouble, God's people never do."The
path of sorrow, and that path alone,Leads to the place where sorrow is
unknown.""In the world ye shall have tribulation" is as sure a promise as that
other, "In me ye shall have peace." The trials of God's servants are sometimes
extremely severe. Not a few are literally as well as spiritually poor. Hunger,
privation, and embarrassment haunt their steps. And when you once come to be
poor, how often does it happen that you have no helper. In the summer of
prosperity your friends and acquaintances are numerous as the leaves of the
forest, but in the winter of your losses and distresses, your friends are few
indeed; your neighbors stand aloof, your old mates desert you, for like the wind
your trials have borne them all away as sere leaves, and you cannot find
them.But, do not think that the Lord has cast you off, because he is thus
chastening you with the rod of men; take it as an exercise of your faith, and go
to him and plead this promise, "He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the
poor also, and him that hath no helper." Thus I have set before you the
character of God's especial objects of sovereign grace; they are poor and needy
spiritually. Do you ask why is it that God selects these? Our first answer is,
he giveth no account of his matters; he doeth as he will. He is a sovereign; who
shall say unto him, "What doest thou?" And, in order that he may make that
sovereignty clear to the sons of men, he is pleased to select those whom
naturally we might expect him to pass by. Did not Jesus lift his eyes to heaven
full of gratitude and say, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." Not many
great men after the flesh, not many mighty are chosen, but God hath chosen the
poor of this world, he hath chosen the things that are despised, (and as the
Apostle puts it) "Things that are not hath God chosen to bring to nought the
things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." When the chariot
of the Eternal comes from above, he bids it roll far downward from the skies; he
passes by the towers of haughty kings; he leaves the palaces of princes and the
halls of senates, and down to the hovels of cottagers the chariot of his grace
descends, for there he sees with joy and delight the objects of his everlasting
love. "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion," is the word of divine sovereignty, and God
makes it true by taking the poor and the needy, and them that have no
helper.Still, if we may enquire into the reason, we see in the poor, and the
needy, and the helpless, a reason for God's grace. They are the persons who are
most willing to accept it, for they are the persons who most require it. Your
generosity will not stand to be dictated to, but, at the same time, you usually
prefer to give to those who want most. Wise mercy seeks out chief misery, and
God therefore delights to give his blessings to those who need them most, not to
those who fancy they deserve them -- they shall have none of them, but those who
need them, they shall have all of them.When a soul is made to feel its own
poverty, it does not set itself up in rivalry with Christ; it does not pretend
to be able to help itself; it has no disputing about the terms of the gospel. A
sinner, when he is thoroughly famished, has such an appetite that he eats such
things as God's mercy sets before him, and he raises no question. A proud
Pharisee will say, "I will not submit to this, to be saved by faith alone -- I
will not have it. To accept mercy as the absolute gift of heaven, irrespective
of my character, I cannot endure it." The high soul of a Pharisee, I say, kicks
at it. But when God has brought a man low, till like the publican he cries, "God
be merciful to me a sinner," he is glad to be saved in God's way, and no matter
however humbling the plan of grace, nor how the sinner is debased and Christ
exalted, the poor sinner loves to have it so. It is a way suitable to his own
wants, a way which he accepts for the very reason that God has adapted it to his
position. Hence, if there be reasons they lie here, not in man's merit but on
the Lord's mercy. The fact that bare misery, when touched and guided by the
Spirit of God, makes the soul to open its mouth like the hard chapped soil to
drink in the rain, as soon as the rain descends from above, is an argument why
grace so commonly flows in this course.In choosing to bless the poor and needy
by his grace, the Lord finds for himself warm friends, those who will give him
much praise, contend earnestly for his reign and for his sovereignty, and endure
much obloquy for very love to his dear name. Why if the Lord were to save the
Pharisees, they would hardly say, "thank you," they are so good themselves. They
reckon themselves to be so excellent, that if they had salvation they would take
it as a matter of course, and, like the lepers, they would never return to thank
him that healed them. But when the Lord saves a great sinner, a man that feels
there is nothing good in him; oh, how that man talks of it and tells it to
others. He cannot take any praise to himself, he knows that he had nothing to do
with it, that it is all of the grace of God. And, oh, see that man how he will
stand up for the doctrines of grace! He is as the valiant men in Solomon's song,
"each man with a sword on his thigh because of fear in the night;" for the
doctrines of grace are not to him matters of opinion, but matters of experience.
They are dear to him as his own life. "What," says he, "is not God the giver of
salvation? Is not salvation all of God, from first to last? I know it is," saith
he. "Don't tell me. Whatever your arguments, however smooth may be the form and
fashion of your theology, it does not tally with what I have tasted and handled
and felt; for unless it is grace from first to last, I am a lost man; and, if I
be indeed a child of God, then can I contend for the doctrines of grace, and
will do till I die." I know I felt myself last Sunday night, after I had talked
to you about the difficulties of salvation, that if ever I got to heaven, I
would praise and bless God with all my soul. I felt like that good old woman who
said, that if the Lord ever saved her he should never hear the last of it, for
she would tell it everywhere, and publish it abroad throughout all eternity,
that the Lord had done it, that he was a good and gracious God to have mercy on
such a soul as she was. Now, since one object of God in bestowing his mercy is
to glorify himself, he does wisely in bestowing his mercy upon the poor and the
needy, and such as have no helper. The Lord give to you, my dear hearer, to be
brought down to this tonight. I know many of you have been brought there and are
there now. Let my text encourage and cheer you. Dear objects of Almighty love,
he finds you on the dunghill, but he lifts you from it. He finds you in the
dust, but is not this the song of Hannah and the song of Mary too -- "He hath
put down the mighty from their seat, and he hath exalted them of low degree: he
hath filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he hath sent empty away?"
It is God's way of dealing with the poor and lost; rejoice at it, it is full of
encouragement to you. But I say to any of you that have never been humbled, good
people, who have always been good people, you that have always kept the law from
your youth up, and gone to church regularly, or to chapel regularly, very people
-- The Lord have mercy upon you, and let you see that your goodness is
filthiness, that your righteousness is unrighteousness, and that the best that
is in you is bad, and that the bad that is in you that you have never seen as
yet will be your ruin, your eternal destruction, unless God set it before your
eyes, and bring you down to loathe yourself, and feel yourself to be abominable
in his sight, and abominable also in your own sight, when his law comes with
power home to your souls. Thus I have spoken upon the special objects of divine
grace. II. Now, a few words upon THE SPECIAL BLESSING WHICH THE GREAT KING HAS
STORED UP FOR THESE PEOPLE. Kindly look at the second verse. "He shall judge thy
people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment;" so that one of the
special blessings for God's poor is that they shall be judged with judgment.
Alas! they are often judged with harshness; or they are judged in ignorance; or
they are judged by malice -- not judged by righteousness, nor by judgment. When
their enemies see them, they say, "These are a broken-spirited people; they are
moping and melancholy, wretched and sad." Thus hard things are spoken against
them, and unkind stories are told of them. Sometimes they say they are out of
their minds, and then they will insinuate that they are only hypocrites and
pretenders. Slander is very busy with the children of God. God had a Son that
had no fault; but he never had a son that was not found fault with. Ay, God
himself was slandered in paradise by Satan: let us not expect, therefore, to
escape from the venomous tongue.One blessing, however, that will always come to
God's needy ones is this -- Christ will right them, he will judge them with
judgment. Are you harshly spoken of at home? Don't be angry, don't provoke in
return, don't answer railing with railing. "He shall judge his poor with
righteousness." Leave it to him. Wait, wait, till the judgment sits, for who are
these that they should judge you? Their opinion, though it is bitter as gall to
your spirit, does not really affect your character or your destiny. If you are
right before the Lord, through faith in Christ, they cannot make you wrong by
anything they say. God judges and God knows. "He searcheth the heart and tries
the reins." You remember how David, among his brethren, was much despised. He
had not the appearance and the carriage that his elder brethren had, and even
Samuel, the Lord's prophet, thought the others to be better than David, and said
of them, "Surely the Lord hath chosen these." David was therefore despised of
his brethren, but what mattered it? The Lord looked not as man looks, for man
looked upon the outward appearance, but God looketh at the heart. Bide your time
you that are one of a family and alone. Or, if for Christ's sake you have been
despised, have courage to-night and let not your spirit be bowed down. "Rejoice
ye in this day and leap for joy, for so persecuted they the prophets that were
before you." The King will speedily come, and when he cometh then will this word
be verified. "He shall judge his people with righteousness and his poor with
judgment." There is one mercy for you -- to have your wrongs righted and your
character cleared.God's poor and needy ones, you will perceive, if you turn a
little further down, shall be saved from oppression. Fourth verse: "He shall
judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall
break in pieces the oppressor." The Lord's people are like sheep among wolves,
the wolves treat them injuriously. Christ himself was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. His people may expect to be oppressed too; but they
have this for their comfort, that Christ will surely deliver them, and he will
break their oppressors in pieces. Are you to-night oppressed by Satan? Have you
things laid to your charge by him that you know not of, and doth conscience
oppress you with the remembrance of sins which have been forgiven? Have you ever
believed concerning them in the atonement of Christ? Well, bow your head meekly,
and go to the mercy-seat once again, pleading the precious blood, and he shall
break in pieces the oppressor. There is no answer for Satan like the blood! and
there is no answer for conscience but the blood. Plead it before God, plead it
in your own soul, and you shall find that the great and glorious King in Zion
shall, in your hearts, break in pieces the oppressor. There is another special
mercy, then -- help against the oppressor.The third blessing is that of our
text: "He shall deliver the needy." Deliver them! You are brought into great
troubles; you shall be delivered out of them. You are just now the subject of
many fears: you shall be delivered from your fears. It seems as though the enemy
would soon exult over you, and put his foot upon your neck, and make an end of
you; you shall be delivered. You are like a bird taken in the fowler's net, and
he is ready to wring your neck and take the breath out of you; but you shall be
delivered out of the hand of the fowler, and brought safely through the perils
that threaten you. Oh, that we all had faith! Oh, that we all could exercise
faith when in deep waters. It is a fine thing to talk about faith on land, but
we want faith to swim with when we are thrown into the flood. May you, tonight,
get such a grip of this precious word that you may take it before the Lord and
say, "I am poor and needy, and have no helper. O God, deliver my soul now."But,
we have not exhausted the string of blessings. A little further down in the
psalm, at the thirteenth verse, you will notice it is said of the King: "He
shall spare the poor and needy." If he lays heavily upon them apparently, yet
will he by-and-by stay his hand; if he bids one of his rough winds blow, he will
save the other. As he is said to temper the wind to the shorn lamb, so will he
certainly temper it to his people; they shall be afflicted, but it shall be in
measure; he shall spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him: the
rod shall make them smart, but shall not make them bleed; they shall be made to
suffer, but they shall not be called to die. Perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; there shall always be a gracious limit put to the
blows that come from Jehovah's hand for his own people. Oh, what a mercy to be
amongst his poor ones, and to feel that he will spare us; he spared not his own
Son, but he will spare us, the poor and needy; he smote him with the blows of
avenging justice, but concerning us it is written, "The mountains shall depart,
and the hills be removed, but the covenant of my love shall not depart. As I
have sworn that the waters shall no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that
I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee." He wilt spare his people; he
will bring them safely through, and, meanwhile, he will not let the waters be
deep enough to overwhelm them. There is one other blessing which sums up all the
rest; you find it in the fourteenth verse: "He shall redeem their souls from
deceit and violence." Redemption belongs to the Lord's poor people. He bought
with a price his poor ones, and as the ransom has all been paid, they belong to
Christ, and none shall take them out of his hand. He that redeemed them by price
will redeem them by power. He will, if it be needful, divide the Red Sea again
to redeem his people; and, if by no usual means his servants can be preserved,
he will bring unusual means into the field. There are no miracles now, we say,
but if they are ever wanted for the safety of God's people, there shall be
miracles as timely and as plentiful as of yore. "Heaven and earth may pass away,
but his word shall never pass away." He would sooner shake the heavens
themselves than suffer one of his children to famish, or utterly to perish, rest
assured of that. Oh, what glorious comfort there is in all this! We shall be
spared, we shall be redeemed, we shall be delivered, we shall be saved, we shall
be revenged and cleared before the judgment-bar of God; and, all because the
great King has made the poor and needy the special objects of his love. Oh! my
soul revels in this. I cannot speak out the thoughts I feel, much less the joy
that arises out of them; but what a mercy it really is, that the great King, the
King who rules from the river to the ends of the earth, is the poor man's
friend. I am very poor and needy and helpless to-night, but the king has made me
his favourite, counts me one of his courtiers: it is the same with you, dear
brother, if you too are poor and needy, he rules, and he rules on the throne for
us; he is great and hath dominion, but he uses all his greatness and his
dominion for us. As Joseph in Egypt was invested with power for the good of his
brethren, or at least such sovereignty as he held of Pharaoh he laid out for the
welfare of his father's house, so Jesus has all power and authority in heaven
and earth; all might, majesty, and dominion for the good of his people. He has
the king's signet ring upon his finger, but he uses it for his own beloved ones
that he may enrich, and honor, and cheer, and perfect them. His glory is
concerned in every one of us. If one of the least of his people should perish,
his crown would suffer damage. He is the shepherd and surety of the flock, and
at his hand will the Father require all those who are committed to him. He
cannot, therefore, let us perish, for then he would not be able to say at the
last, "Of all that thou hast given me I have lost none." He must and will
preserve us. We are wrapped up in his honor. His power, I say, his crown, his
glory, his very name, as the Christ of God anointed to save sinners, all are
wrapped up and intertwisted in the salvation of every poor and needy soul that
is brought to rest in him.III. And, now, our closing word is, THE SPECIAL SEASON
WHEN ALL THIS SHALL BE TRUE. He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.Ah! while
I have been preaching there may have been some poor child of God here who has
said, "I am poor and needy, and I am in great distress, but I have not been
delivered." And there may be some sinner here who has said, "God has taught me
my poverty and need, and I know I have no helper, but I cannot find I have been
delivered." Perhaps, dear friends, you have been praying for months, praying
very bitterly too, after a sort, and you have been desirous that you might find
mercy. God's time, when will it come? Well, it will come when you cry. That is
something more, I take it, than a mere ordinary prayer. A child asks you for
something, and you may perhaps deny it; but you know there is a difference
between asking for a thing and crying for a thing. Oh, when you get so that you
must have it, and your heart breaks for it, when your needs are so extreme that
you cannot stand up under them -- well, now, it comes to this, that you must
have Christ or perish. "Give me Christ or else I die," when it seems as if you
could not put your prayer into words any more, that you could only fall at the
foot of the cross, and say, "O God, I cannot pray, but my very soul groans after
thee, to have mercy upon me," then is the time, then is the time, but not till
then, when God will deliver you. The Lord loves to hear the prayers of his
people, and he sometimes keeps them waiting at the posts of his door, that they
may pray more. It is always a blessing for us to pray as well as to get the
answer to prayer. Prayer is in itself a blessing. When the Lord hears us knock
faintly at the door, he does not open; we may knock and knock again -- he likes
us to knock; it does us good to knock. But when it comes to this, that it is all
knocking with us, and our very soul and body seem to knock, and our heart and
flesh cry after God, the living God: when we shall thus come to appear before
God, and open our mouth and pant vehemently for the mercy he has promised, then
it will come. When thou canst not take a denial, thou shalt not have a denial.
The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
There is none so violent as the man who is in desperate need. There is a person
who has been without bread many hours, and he asks you for charity in the
street. You would pass him by, but he is famished, and he says, "Oh give me
bread! I die." He compels you to it. And such is the prayer that prevails with
God. When the soul cannot wait, dare not wait, fears lest it should shut its
eyes and open them in hell. Oh! God will not keep such a soul long waiting. I am
always glad when I hear of convinced souls saying, "I went up into my chamber
with the resolution that I would never come down again till I had found the
Savior." I always delight to hear of men and women who say, "I went upon my
knees and cried to him, saying, I will not let thee go except thou bless me." He
will bless thee. If thou wilt let him go, he will go, but if thou wilt not let
him go, thou shalt have thy request of him. "But who am I," saith one, "that I
should plead thus? I have no right to hold him thus." Tis true, but when a man
is hungry, when a man is dying, he does not think of rights. He holds you right
or wrong. His need is his right. Poor soul, go and plead your need before God.
Plead your sin, tell him you are wretched and undone without his sovereign
grace. Use the strange argument which David used, the strangest in all the
world, "For thy name's sake, O Lord! pardon mine iniquity, for it is great."
Plead the very greatness of your sin as a reason for mercy; the damnable
character of your sin; the certainty that you will soon be cast into hell, the
fact that he might justly drive you from his presence for ever; plead all that
before him; and say, "Lord, if ever the heights and depths of thy grace might be
seen in saving an undeserving soul, I am just that one. If thy mercy wants to
honor itself by saving the most undeserving, ill deserving, hell deserving
sinner that ever lived, Lord, I am the man. If thou wantest a platform on which
to erect a monument of infinite grace, that men shall stand and wonder, and
angels shall gaze on it with astonishment, Lord, here am I. If thou wantest
emptiness, here is one who is all emptiness. If thou as the good physician
wantest a bad case, a glaring case, a desperate case, to operate on, thou wilt
never have a worse case than mine. O God, turn aside and have pity upon me, and
show thy mighty power." This is the way to plead. Not your merits -- they will
never get a hearing, but your misery, your sin, your guiltiness before God --
these are the arguments. And then if faith can come in and plead the blood, and
say, "Didst thou not send thy Son to save sinners?" has he not said he came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance? Is it not written that the Son
of Man is come to seek and to save not the good, but that which was lost? Oh! if
you can plead the blood in that fashion, you will not fail. His name is the
Savior -- he came to save his people from their sins. He died for the ungodly,
he justifieth the ungodly -- the unrighteous he makes righteous through his own
merits. If you can plead this, oh, then, you shall not long wait, for though God
does not deliver till we cry, yet he does deliver when we cry. "He will deliver
the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper." Oh, what
a mercy it is when the tide is ebbed right out, and there is nothing left. It
will turn now, it will turn now. The streams of grace will turn now. When you
are empty, when you are overwhelmed, when you are like a dish wiped out, and
there is not anything good left in you -- now will God come to you. The darkest
part of the night is that which precedes the dawn of the day. When God has
killed you, he will make you live. When he has wounded you through and through,
he will come to your healing. "Tis perfect poverty alone,That sets the soul at
large;While we can call one mite our own,We get no full discharge.But let our
debts be what they may,However great or small;As soon as we have nought to
pay,Our God forgives us all."May it be so now, for his name's sake. Amen.


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  CHAPTER 11: ANOTHER ROYAL PROCESSION
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A Sermon (No.1038) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, 3rd, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "Tell ye the daughter of
Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a
colt the foal of an ass." -- Matthew 21:5. IT IS NOT OUR INTENTION to preach
alone from this verse, but from the combined narrative of our Savior's
triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem, as contained in the four
evangelists. When our Lord was here on earth, he was a humble man before his
foes, a weary man and full of woes, and only now and then did some glimpses of
his native royalty burst forth from him; he had now and then a day in which his
regal rights were assumed and his royal position was claimed. He is gone from us
now as to his actual presence, but he is with us spiritually, and his spiritual
presence here is not unlike what his bodily presence was in the days of his
flesh. For the most part, the glory of his gospel presence is unobserved, except
among his own disciples, and when perceived by others he is still despised and
rejected of men. He moves up and down among our assemblies, hearing our prayers
and accepting our praises, but still his honor as a prince lies concealed from
the eyes of the many who know him not as king by right divine. Yet, as in those
days, he had his times of clearer display and his hours of partial
manifestation, even so he has now. He gives to his church her glory periods, her
days of thanksgiving, her court days, and her times of exultation; and I pray
God that he may grant such times as these to his church now, that in the midst
of these dull years he may gird his sword upon his thigh, and ride forth
gloriously in his majesty. Oh, that the streets of his Jerusalem could be
gladdened by the holy pomp and sacred splendor of his gracious and triumphal
presence, beloved, the world doth well to salute righteous kings with all
homage; our nation doth well to honor their well-beloved queen, whom may God
long preserve! but shall Christ the King of kings be without his homage? I must
confess I am jealous for him, jealous with a burning jealousy that the streets
should blaze with splendor for the Queen of Britain, and that so little should
be done in honor of the King immortal, eternal. Lo, the shouts of the multitude
rend the skies for earthly princes, and I grudge them not; but, should there be
no upliftings of joyful voices for the Prince of Peace? Why this lethargy in his
church? Why such slender zeal for the Chief among, ten thousand? Why should not
earth and heaven ring with His praises? If I might say so much as a sentence
to-day that should lead the tribes to speak a word to bring the King back again
to his own; if I might excite in any soul a fervent desire that Christ's kingdom
should more speedily come, and his throne should be exalted more on high in the
midst of his people, I should be thrice happy. To that end shall I endeavor to
speak this day. Oh, for the anointing of the Holy Ghost to aid me therein. Our
points of consideration this morning will he, first, that Christ hath even now
his glorious days among men; and secondly, that when those glorious days come
honors are paid to him similar to those described by the evangelists on the
occasion of his entrance into Jerusalem. In the third place I shall remind you
that he is wont on such occasions to perform the same mighty deeds; and in the
close of our discourse we shall have to observe that even on those brilliant
occasions, "all is not gold that glitters." I. First, then, here is a very
pleasant consideration, that THE LORD JESUS HAS, EVEN NOW, BRIGHT AND GLORIOUS
DAYS OF SPECIAL MANIFESTATION IN HIS CHURCH. He has ridden into his Jerusalem
again and again in the history of the gospel. We call these times revivals; and
in yet more scriptural language they are known as "times of refreshing from the
presence of the Lord." They usually occur -- (and I shall try to follow the
narrative in all the remarks I make), they usually occur after the Lord has
visited his beloved and quickened them. He came into Jerusalem after he had
raised Lazarus from the dead. His omnipotent voice had said, "Lazarus, come
forth!" and Lazarus came forth, and the grave clothes were loosed from him; then
and for that cause did the people come to meet our Lord with palm branches.
First doth the Lord speak to his Church and he saith to her, "Come forth out of
the grave of thy sloth and thine indifference." He saith, "Loose her, take away
the bands of her sloth and her conventionalism, and set her free," and then when
he hath restored among his church a people whom he loves, and granted to them
renewed vigor of spiritual life in the power of his resurrection, then it is
that the sign of the glory of the Son of Man is revealed. I despair, beloved, of
any revival being of the slightest value which does not begin with the church of
God. It never can originate outside and work into the interior, this is not the
rule of spiritual life; it must commence with the spiritual in the midst of the
church, it must next quicken the mass of the discipleship, and then it shall
spread to those who are without, and in ever widening circles its power shall be
felt. But, revival must begin at home. Hear ye this ye professors, and take heed
lest ye hinder Christ of his glory. Hear this ye who profess to be members of
his church, and beware lest ye be like the damp wood which will not kindle, and
therefore no fire burneth among the sons of men. Oh, let not the Well-beloved
find his worst hindrances in his own household; let not the glory of Christ be
obscured most by those who stand nearest to him, and ought therefore to be most
jealous for his holy name. Yet so I fear full often it is; the children Ephraim
being armed and carrying bows turn back in the day of battle, and so Israel's
God is dishonored. Lazarus must arise; our death must be shaken off, and then
shall the Lord Jesus greatly triumph. The Lord was pleased to ride in state when
his disciples were obedient to him. Note well their implicit obedience, for it
is a sure prophecy of glorious displays in the church. He said to two of his
disciples, "Go," and they went; and others of them having his commission
performed their errands without hesitation. Alas! I fear the disobedience of the
church often hinders the advance of the gospel. The disciples do not at this
day, as they did then, the things which Jesus commanded them. One of them saith,
"I will follow Paul, another I will follow Cephas" -- would God we laid aside
all party leadership, and were only led by the master himself! One saith, "This
institution is venerable if it be not scriptural," and another saith, "I believe
this ritual to be impressive and instructive, even if it be not ordained of
God;" and so men excuse their will-worship. Oh, that we could lay all these
things aside, and recognize that the law of the house is the law which the
Master makes, and not the law which the servant may invent. It is time that we
laid our perverse likes and our dislikes, our whims and our fancies, our
opinions and even our more sober judgments, at the foot of him who is the only
King of Zion; for be assured of this, his sacred majesty will not manifest its
glory to disobedient disciples, except it be in a way of terror. Take heed,
then, O ye who stand in his courts by your profession, and are his servants in
name, that ye labor to do his will on earth as it is done in heaven, cheerfully,
speedily, exactly, and with reverence to his every word, for otherwise he will
veil his glory, and do but few mighty works among you. Another indication of our
Lord giving us glory days will be found in the prompt and cheerful sacrifice
which his disciples will make. On the day of his entrance into Jerusalem, the
owner of the ass and its colt cheerfully surrendered them when he heard that the
Lord had need of them: the disciples who brought the ass did not spare their own
contributions, for they took their garments and piled them on the ass; and
others would not be debarred from their share of homage, for they spread their
garments in the way, counting it their greatest honor to be bare-backed for
Christ. All hands contributed, for all hearts were warm. The willing offerings
of the people carpeted the road for the Son of David when he went through his
metropolis to his cathedral. None appeared before him empty; there was no
withholding on that day. A generous spirit had seized upon all his followers,
and mark this word, for there is more of solemn truth in it than some will
think, Christ Jesus hath often taken away the power of his Spirit from the
church because of the covetousness of many professors, who have grudged the
cause of God what they ought spontaneously and cheerfully to have offered. They
have said of sacrifice to the Lord, "what a weariness it is!" They have robbed
God in tithes and in offerings. They have counted the free-will offering to be a
tax, when they ought to have considered it to be an honor and a privilege to be
allowed to give to the Lord's cause. God has been insulted by miserly gifts and
penurious contributions. What they would have been ashamed to offer to the
meanest among princes they have presented to the Lord. How often have I blushed
as I have heard in prayer that text, "Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of
hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a
blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Why have you
blushed? say you. Because seldom or never do I hear that text quoted correctly,
its point is dexterously turned aside. What is the proof which the Lord puts
before his people in that text? How doth he say, "Prove me now?" By your
prayers? No. By your good works? No. But the text is, "Bring ye all the tithes
into the store-house that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now
herewith, saith the Lord of hosts," and so on. That is the peculiar test to
which God brings his people, and in that test, alas, how many fail therein. They
buy him no sweet cane with money, neither is he filled with their sacrifices.
They will give their words in plenty, their lip homage in floods, but if it,
comes to their substance they will have none of it. How few Christians have ever
read this text and understood it, "Sell what thou hast and give alms." Their
almsgiving has never come to that; they have given but the cheese parings and
the candle ends to Christ; they never knew they had given them, they made no
sacrifice to do so. Many do not give to Jesus so much in a year as it costs to
clean their shoes. Christ's cause costs them not half the hire of the most
menial servant in their kitchens. Is not this a crying evil, to be answered for
by those who are guilty of it? How can we expect the kingdom to come and the
cause of Christ to grow while in these days of unreal profession Christ's
followers deny him his due, and straiten the exchequer of his church. If no
garments strew the road, and no man gives up his colt, how shall the prince
celebrate a triumph?But we must pass on from that; those three things are,
however, very significant signs of Christ's glory days; a quickened people, an
obedient discipleship, and a general self-sacrifice. Let us see these, and we
shall be sure that one of Christ's glory days has come.Furthermore, the glory of
Christ is seen when Jesus Christ is publicly proclaimed as King. Evermore,
beyond doubt, we acknowledge Christ to be King in the church; I hope all
believers are sound upon that point: but in what holes and corners doth the
church whisper out the truth, which he hath told us in the closet. Years ago,
many of the churches were quite content to hide their light under any bushel,
meeting in the queerest courts, and lanes, and alleys, where nobody but an angel
and themselves could ever find them out. This content with obscurity is contrary
to the genius of the gospel; let moles and bats seek out the hidden places and
dwell therein; the children of light are not ashamed, but make it their glory
that these things are not done in a corner. It is a grand day for the kingdom of
Christ when the King is proclaimed in the streets, when the great trumpet is
sounded, when the disciples stand in the highways, and the voice of wisdom is
lifted up in the chief places of concourse, at the going in of the gates. Then
are things well ordered when Zion lifts up her voice, yea, lifts it up with
strength, and saith unto the cities of Judah, "Behold your God." Our commission
as preachers is to every creature, and, therefore, the more public the teaching
of the gospel the better. Truly, there was grace in the earth when in popish
times God was loved by men in quiet, and when Christ was worshipped by little
knots in secret; but that was a grander day when Luther stood out in the open
air and said that Christ was King, and salvation was by his blood. Then, when
all over Europe the crowds began to gather in the fields, or beneath the gospel
oak, or in the public squares, to listen to the men who not in a corner, not
with bated breath, but aloud and boldly, before them all declared that
antichrist must come to an end and that the Lord Jesus Christ must be exalted,
and faith in him must be declared to be the salvation of the sons of men, oh, it
was then that Christ and his church behests a glorious day. Blessed be God for
the Reformation, but we must not rest in faded laurels, we need new victories.
We desire the blessings of the gospel to be extended; and we ought to pray that
the gospel may have free course and be glorified, that every street may ring
with its charming music, that every alley and court may brighten with salvation,
ay, and that not a house in London may he left without knowing that "Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." It is a notable day when in the
great gatherings of the people the Lord Jesus is declared to be the Lord of all.
On such days, one part of the glory consists in many going forth to meet Christ.
I wish I might live to see the facts of the gospel narrative fulfilled
spiritually before our eyes. The people in Jerusalem took branches of palm trees
and went forth to meet Jesus, glad that he was coming into the city, willing to
swell the pomp of his entrance; and even thus God moves often on bright days
upon the mass of the people making them willing to receive the gospel. There are
times when the preacher feels that he is sowing on stony ground, but on other
days when God's Spirit is abroad, the soil seems broken up, friable, ready to
receive the grain, and the seed suddenly springs up, and a speedy harvest is
produced. Pray, my brethren, that God would move our fellow countrymen to go
forth to meet King Jesus. Pray that there may come a great cave of religious
thought over the minds of the people. God can cause it; he has the keys of human
hearts, and can secretly guide them according to his will. Pray that there may
be a great religious movement among the people, for then we may look for one of
the days of the Son of Man, as the days of heaven upon earth.Then, too, as
another sign, we shall see enthusiasm prevailing on all sides. When Christ rode
through Jerusalem, it was not possible for men to be cold at the sight of his
majesty. Those who hated burned with malignity, but those who loved him were
full of flaming affection towards him. It is one speciality of Christ's
character that men can scarcely be indifferent in his presence; he that is not
with him is against him. What enthusiasm there was in the crowd that day when
the city rang again. The children climbed the trees and threw down the branches;
their parents waved them in triumph and then cast them in the roadway that the
Savior might ride over them. The shouts were loud and long, the day was full of
gladness to the many. Ah, and it is a mark of Christ's presence when the church
becomes enthusiastic. We sometimes hear complaints about revivals being too
exciting, perhaps the censure is deserved, but I would like to see a little of
the fault. This age does not generally sin in the direction of being too excited
concerning divine things. We have erred so long on the other side that, perhaps,
a little excess in the direction of fervor might not be the worst of all
calamities; at any rate, I would not fear to try it. Doubtless our Lord's
presence, like the rising of the sun scatters heat as well as light on all
sides. Oh to be scorched by that sun, to be parched with that heat. Blessed
would they be who should be guilty of too great a love for him, convicted of too
consuming a zeal for the glory. I would gladly die of that heavenly malady.On
that triumphal day, beloved brethren, where there was no enthusiasm, there was
inquiry, for all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?" When our Lord grants
revivals to his church, the congregations and the multitude outside begin to
ask, "Wherefore this stir? what meaneth all this? Who is this Christ, and what
is his salvation?" This spirit of inquiry is eminently desirable. It is just now
a matter to be sought for by importunate prayer. Would God that all this vast
metropolis were stirred by the inquiry, "Who is this?" and that everywhere men
said, "What is this gospel about which so much noise is made?" May the Lord in
his mercy move men's hearts as the trees of the wood are shaken with the wind.
This is that shaking which the prophet saw in the valley of vision when bone
came together to its bone, before the breath of the Spirit made the slain to
live. Be instant day and night O ye chosen men of God, and pray that like
Nineveh in the days of Jonah this whole city may be moved by the preaching of
the word.The strange thing about the matter was that when Jesus entered
Jerusalem, all his enemies were quiet. He rode publicly through the streets
where Herod and Pilate held their courts, yet they did not attempt to molest
him. The Romans were very jealous of their authority, they were always prompt to
seize upon any person who pretended to be a king, and yet not a solitary
pretorian guard laid his rough hand upon the King of the Jews, neither did
Herod's men of war appear upon the scene. It does not appear that any
information was carried to head quarters concerning this singular procession,
neither was it laid to the Lord's charge by his enemies on his trial. As for the
scribes and Pharisees, they did no more than bark a little, but bite they could
not, for they feared the people. That day every foeman cowered down before the
Lord, like dogs when a lion roareth. When he entered the temple he was
unattended by armed followers, he took with him no sword, but simply a scourge
made of small curds, and yet with that slight weapon he chased out the buyers
and sellers, overturning their tables, and overthrowing the seats of them that
sold doves; and yet it does not appear that any resistance was made to him; he
was Lord of the hour. Against him durst not a dog move his tongue; in the
presence of the King of Zion the enemy was as still as a stone till he and his
people had passed through the city, and the day of the royal pomp was over. In
like manner it is remarkable that, in times when the Lord is blessing his
church, he restrains the wrath of his enemies or causes it to praise him. He
hath power to make the proudest humble themselves, and the most stout-hearted
bow their necks, and he uses that power to the glory of his name. While I am
thus describing what the glorious days of Christ are when they dawn upon us,
surely you, my dear fellow members, are all pleading with God and earnestly
praying, "O king of grace, Grant us one of these royal days in this church;" and
you, the members of other churches, are crying, "would God that Jesus would come
to our town in that fashion, and that he would rule in our church, after that
manner." Let us pray for it unanimously and continually, and let us be of good
cheer, for Jesus loves his church and he will give her what her heart is set
upon. Let us plead with him for it, and we shall yet see the day in which the
many shall cry, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."II. But,
time could fail us if we lingered here, and therefore we pass to the second
head, which is this, that ON THESE GLORY DAYS OF JESUS CHRIST IN HIS CHURCH,
LIKE HONORS ARE PAID TO HIM NOW AS THEN.And first, he is at this time as loudly
praised and as greatly rejoiced in among his people as he was then. They clapped
their hands and called him "Blessed;" and the whole multitude of his disciples
rejoiced with an exceeding loud voice, and cried, "Hosanna, Hosanna." Oh,
beloved, we are dull enough when Christ is away; how can the children of the
bridechamber rejoice when the bridegroom is gone from them; but when his Spirit
comes with power into our midst how can we fast? Oh, then our hearts rejoice,
and leap along in glee like the long frozen brooks when the soft breath of
spring hath set them free. Send us but a revival, O God, and Ready-to-halt shall
leap upon his crutches, and Much-afraid, and Fearing, and Despondency, shall
sing with holy mirth. No joy is like the joy of Christ's presence with his
people. Oh, that we might have it! Bickerings soon cease, murmurings come to an
end, complaints of one another, and of God's providence are all hushed; the
sense that Jesus Christ is with his people drowns every note of sorrow, and
every heart is tuned to loudest notes of thankfulness. O thou, my soul, bless
God the Lord, and all that in me is be stirred up, his holy name to magnify and
bless, on that auspicious day, when the power of Jesus Christ is revealed in the
city of his choice. It is a gladsome time, a time of singing, a time of
shouting, a time of exultation, and of intense delight when we go forth to meet
our King Solomon to crown him anew. I need not say to you, should he favor us
with such a delightful period, let us rejoice and be glad in him, for you would
be sure to do it. When the Lord turns again the captivity of Sion, then is our
mouth filled with singing and our tongue with laughter.The point that I shall
dwell upon here would be that Christ's peculiar honor lay not only in the joy
and rejoicing which flowed around him, but in the multitude who felt the
contagion of that joy. It was said by those who saw the pageant of last week
that the great sight of all was the multitude; the thing to look at and to
wonder at was the crowd the dense, far-reaching, eager, surging crowd. And,
surely, in Christ's glory days the thing which brings him much honor is the
crowd, the multitude; for when he makes bare his arm, and his gospel is preached
with power, the multitude are sure to listen to his gospel, and men say, "Behold
the whole world is gone after him." It may seem strange and unaccountable, but
so it is, that the very gospel which is opposed by men has a strange attraction
for their ears, they cannot help hearing it; and though to this day there is an
opposition in the human heart to the truth as it is in Jesus, yet is it a
remarkable fact that men love to hearken to it. The numerical strength of
Christ's church lies still in the multitude; the common people hear him gladly.
Though it was known that Christ was coming, the princes did not go to meet him,
the priests did not go to meet him; there were no long files of Jewish nobility
to greet their King; but the people went in their thousands, the masses cheered
him. I dare say the Pharisees called them the mob, the rabble, the unwashed.
Yes, and let it stand for fact, "this man receiveth sinners;" he is the people's
King, the helper of the poor and needy. The poor of this world have been rich in
faith in him. In the old days of persecution, and of burning, who were the men
that played the man most nobly at the stake? Here and there a bishop and a noble
did so, but the rank and file of the heroes were from the poor or the middle
class. There was one great man, with an unworthy right hand that recanted, and
yet did well at the last; but the poor weavers of Colchester, and the cobblers
of Bow, never recanted at all, but gloried in being made a burnt-offering for
the truth. Wherever the gospel has been mainly upheld by the great ones of the
earth it has had little success. Take, for instance, Spain and Italy, the
converts of the Reformation there nearly all belonged to the higher ranks, and
ere long its doctrines became extinct, but it lived among German peasants and
British artisans. The valiant of Israel still come from the loom, the smithy,
the plough, and the bench. Wherever the gospel entrenches itself among the
common people, the devil himself cannot destroy it: it is then like a lion in
its own forest, and none can drive it forth. The priests and the mighty ones may
uphold what cause they will, but if the people are for King Jesus, his advocates
have no need to blush. It is this day the glory of Christ that he doth save the
poor and the needy, and that he is the prince of the multitude. "I have
exalted," saith the Lord, "one chosen out of the people" -- Jesus is the
people's Christ, the people's man. He still hath honor out of the mouth of those
whom others despise, for he hath chosen the base things of the world and the
things that are not to bring to nought the things that are. Here was a part of
Christ's glory. And then, observe, that, on that day it was Christ's glory that
he received all sorts of homage from all kinds of people. As I have already
said, he who had a beast that Christ might ride upon cheerfully surrendered it:
he who had no beast had at least a garment, and he gave it; and he who was so
poorly clad, that his best garment when spread in the way might seem rather to
insult than to honor the king, gave a branch from the tree. He who could brought
a palm, which probably he had to purchase with money; but those who could not
buy palm branches, climbed the trees that were common and grew by the highway,
and threw the branches down. I suppose these were branches of olives, for they
were hard by the Mount of Olives: let the fatness of the earth honor him! There
were also branches of the figtree, for Bethphage was the house of figs: let the
sweetness of the earth honor him! Doubtless there were branches of the cedars:
let the honor and strength of the earth adore him! There were branches of the
myrtle: let all earth's honor and victory glorify him! I do not read that Christ
rejected so much as one attempt to do him honor. He rebuked no disciple and
silenced no child. Oh, in the day when Christ is glorious all his people try to
serve him, each one brings his portion; the prince brings much, but the peasant
brings his share, and the Lord accepts them all. No Christian when the Lord is
abroad shirks his duty or forgets to bring his sacrifice, nor doth the Lord
reject so much as one honest gift of a sincere heart.And, on that day, oh, it
was a sweet thing to notice and delightful to remember, it will always be so
when Christ is glorious, the little ones were conspicuous. Did not the boys in
the Temple cry "Hosanna! Hosanna!" and their throats here not hoarse half so
soon as their fathers' were. They kept up the mirth of that gladsome day -- a
joyful holiday was it for them. Even thus where there is true grace working
powerfully in a church I always expect to see young converts, boys and girls
will be brought to Christ in any true revival, and where they are not, methinks
we have good reason to suspect that the movement is not genuine, for had it been
the work of the Spirit of God, the little ones would have been suffered to come
unto him as well as those of older growth. Oh, may such honors be heaped on
Christ in this Tabernacle! Would God I could hear the little ones say,
"Hosanna!" while their fathers and their mothers join the song. The Lord grant
that the Sabbath-school may send up a noble regiment for the King's army. Oh,
that on all sides, you men with wealth, and you men with none, you with great
gifts, and you with few, you with much time and leisure, and you with scarce an
hour to call your own, you aged men and you youngsters, would unite in
magnifying the Redeemer. Oh, that I could see you all strewing somewhat in the
way of Christ to glorify him in the midst of his church.III. But, I must not
dwell there, though the theme is very tempting, but notice that when Christ
comes into the church HE EXECUTES THE SAME DEEDS AS HE DID THEN.What was the
first thing he did that we observe? He was seated on the colt, and as he rode
along and heard the shouts of the people, I have no doubt that a smile was over
his face, and when he saw the little ones in all their ardor, he looked at them
with love; but, on a sudden, just as he came where he could see Jerusalem,
though it was the day of his triumph he stopped, and all around could see that
some mighty emotion was swelling his heart to bursting, and at last the tears
coursed adown those cheeks, and he burst into this lament, "O that thou hadst
known, even thou, in this thy day." I know that everywhere Christ is in the
church in the power of his Spirit, compassion for souls becomes very prominent.
Christ weeps through his people's eyes, and yearns through his children's
hearts. He makes them pitiful and full of compassion. They cannot bear it that
men should be damned, it grieves them that the day of a gracious visitation
should come, and yet so many should reject Christ. Oh, my brethren, you who live
near to Christ, and feel a sympathy with him, ask the Lord to give you
heart-ache over dying souls; ask him to make you feel an anguish because men
will not come unto him that they might have life, but will persist in committing
spiritual suicide, by putting far from them life eternal. Oh, that we might see
a holy passion for souls in the church. For that would be a blessed sign of rich
grace.At the same time, on that very same occasion, there was conspicuous the
judgments of Christ, for his compassion did not permit him to keep back the
tidings of future punishment. He said, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least
in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid
from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast
a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side. And
shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they
shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the
time of thy visitation." I have noted that in genuine revivals, the preachers of
Gods truth are not backward in preaching the threatenings, as well as the
promises. We are told that men are drawn to Christ by love, and the statement is
true; but, at the same time, "knowing the terrors of the Lord," we are to
persuade men, and not to keep back from them the evil tidings. Even Christ with
weeping eyes and tender heart does not hesitate to tell Jerusalem of its coming
destruction, and I believe it is a token that Christ is in the church when those
terrible things of his are not kept back to please the popular taste; when there
is no trying to cut them down and moderate them, in order to make the wrath to
come look less terrible than it is. It must be thundered out again and again,
"except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." It must be told the sinner
that if he goeth on in his iniquity, he shall be driven away from hope and
salvation, "where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched." Christ
is not present in an unfaithful church, and this is a point upon which some
churches are very apt to grow unfaithful. We must deliver the whole truth, even
the dark side of it as well as that which smiles with mercy and Christ is not
present unless it be so. The sympathy of Jesus led him, as it should lead us, to
be lovingly honest with the sons of men. But, you notice in the reading that our
Lord, when he rode through the streets of his metropolis, went straight away to
the cathedral gate, and when he entered there he began to purge the temple. With
the scourge in his hand he smote right and left, and he overthrew the tables of
those that were changing the shekels, and he cast out the cages of doves that
were stored there for merchandise. Even thus doth Christ do. No church can
remain long impure with Jesus in her midst; his presence brings reformation,
things tolerated before become intolerable where he is. While a church is
without the Spirit of God it will keep in its old way, it will plead precedent,
it will endure grievous abuses, it will make excuses for this, and excuses for
that; but, let the Lord once come, and out the hawkers and hucksters must go,
tables, money-bags, doves, and all. He will not have them in his house of
prayer; bag and baggage they must go when he comes in, and he only in his truth
and power must reign in the midst of his own church. I do not believe we shall
thoroughly purify any church by Acts of Parliament, nor by reformation
associations, nor by agitation, nor by any merely human agency. No hand can
grasp the scourge that can drive out the buyers and sellers, but that hand which
once was fastened to the cross. Let the Lord do it and the work will be done,
for it is not of man, nor shall man accomplish it.Then, when Christ had purged
the church, the next thing was to heal the sick who came to him in the temple.
The place which might not be a mart was allowed to be an hospital. So the glory
days of Christ are always notable for the great cures that he works; the sons of
men receive lasting benefits, and are relieved of grievous maladies. Eyes are
opened, understandings are enlightened. Infirmities are removed, the lame walk.
Wills are subdued; hearts are cleansed; and natures are changed. Where Jesus
comes, salvation follows with all the train of blessings which it includes.And,
then, we find that that day his foes were all confounded. They came to meet him
with their questions, but he soon answered them; and what did they say the one
to the other? "Perceive ye how we prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone
after him." O master, give us to see such times as these: our soul now longeth
for them. Cause thou our enemies to lament, and say, "We thought we had put down
these old doctrines, but we have prevailed nothing, behold the multitude is
moved by them." The devil thought in England years ago that the gospel light was
put out; he had lulled the Church of England and Dissenters too into a deep
sleep, and Arianism and all sorts of errors had spread all over the land: but
the Lord touched the heart of Whitefield, and Wesley, and the godly ones; the
Spirit of God came down, the multitude heard the Gospel gladly, and many an
enemy of Christ as he stood at his window and saw the streets thronged to hear
those men as they never had been thronged before, and heard the song borne on
the distant breezes of the wide open spaces outside the towns and villages,
said, "Why, after all, no have not put this thing down: though we fancied we had
destroyed it." There is hope of this celestial tree; if it be cut down it will
sprout again; at the scent of water it will bud. This child is not dead, but
sleepeth. A certain vainglorious party of Pretenders to intellect and culture
tell us now that the old Puritanic faith is nearly extinct; there are only a few
of us ignorant people who now hold the same truths as John Owen, John Bunyan,
Goodwin, and Charnock; but all the elite of the world, those who have all the
"sweetness and light" to themselves, the thinkers, the mental gentility have all
been sensible enough to give their votes for something more suitable to the
times. In the name of God, we shall show them the difference yet, and by his
Spirit He will din their ears with the gospel ram's horn till they and their
Jericho come down in a common ruin. The evangelical doctrine which shook Europe
will shake it yet again, and England shall yet know that the self-same truth,
for which her martyrs died and for which her Puritans fought on many a
wellcontested field, shall break the rationalism and ritualism of this land in
pieces yet, and all else that standeth in the way of the true gospel of the
living God. We are not afraid nor discouraged, but we cry mightily unto the King
that we may once more lift up a shout because of his presence, for then human
philosophy shall be ashamed, and old Rome shall know, and all the cubs of the
beast of Rome shall know, that the Lord liveth, and his invincible truth shall
win the day.IV. Now lastly, I said that even on the occasion, when Christ came
into Jerusalem, ALL WAS NOT GOLD THAT GLITTERED, and so we must not expect it to
be in any revival of religion. They said, "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!" till the
heavens rang again, but there was an undercurrent, there were Pharisees and men
of other classes with them, grizzling and snarling, trying there and then to
devise a plan by which to destroy the Lord, and there was Judas at that very
time plotting, planning, ready to sell his Master. However, what did that
signify? The worst thing of all was this, that those same tongues which were
that day crying "Hosanna!" -- oh, shame to our humanity that we should have to
mention it! -- those same tongues which cried "Blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord," within that self-same week said, "crucify him! crucify him!"
I say not all, but some. It was the mob of Jerusalem that brought him in as
their King, but when they found that he would not assume the throne, and that he
spoke of a spiritual kingdom, and not an earthly one, then they were instant
with loud voices, saying, "Let him be crucified! let him be crucified!" Expect
not, therefore, when many hearts are impressed with the gospel, that all will be
steadfast towards Christ. Do not reckon that every pious feeling will end in
genuine conversion. The florist does not expect all his slips to become shrubs.
Look ye at the trees which, in a few short days, will be smothered with blossoms
and glorious with beauty; do you expect those blossoms all to become fruit? No
gardener thinks that such a thing can be. He understands that full many of those
flowers will wither, will be blown off in the March gales, or smitten by the
evening's frost. He looks for fruit proportionate to the blossoming, but not to
a fruit that shall be equal to the full promise of the bloom. And so, think not
ill of Christ's great days, because they seem to inexperienced eyes greater on
the surface than they are. Thank God there is a residuum of reality, be thankful
for that; but, do not be disappointed, much less scoff, because it is not all
that you had hoped it was. If some be saved we are glad; if I had a thousand
professed converts, and only a hundred of them turned out to be genuine, I would
be more grateful than if all my converts were genuine, and there was only half a
dozen of them. Large dealers look for some losses and bad debts, and yet hope to
gain much in the long run. So long as I do but get the number of real converts,
I will forget, and my heart shall outlive, the disappointment of having expected
more. Go on; brethren, go on praying, hoping, working, for the Lord will bless
his people, the Lord will bless his people with peace. Amen and amen. As a very
large number of friends from a distance desire occasionally to attend the
Tabernacle, but do not like to encounter the crowds at the doors, the deacons
have resolved to issue early admission tickets, which will admit the holder
before the general public, during the month of issue. They will be purchasable
at the price of one shilling, and can be had by letter, enclosing twelve penny
stamps, and one half-penny stamp for postage, of Mr. C. Blackshaw, Tabernacle,
Newington Butts.


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  CHAPTER 12: |PRAY WITHOUT CEASING|
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A Sermon (No.1039) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, March 10th, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "Pray without ceasing." -- 1
Thessalonians 5:17. THE POSITION OF OUR TEXT is very suggestive. Observe what it
follows. It comes immediately after the precept, "Rejoice evermore;" as if that
command had somewhat staggered the reader, and made him ask "How can I always
rejoice?" and, therefore, the apostle appended as answer, "Always pray." The
more praying the more rejoicing. Prayer gives a channel to the pent-up sorrows
of the soul, they flow away, and in their stead streams of sacred delight pour
into the heart. At the same time the more rejoicing the more praying; when the
heart is in a quiet condition, and full of joy in the Lord, then also will it be
sure to draw nigh unto the Lord in worship. Holy joy and prayer act and react
upon each other. Observe, however, what immediately follows the text: "In
everything give thanks." When joy and prayer are married their first born child
is gratitude. When we joy in God for what we have, and believingly pray to him
for more, then our souls thank him both in the enjoyment of what we have, and in
the prospect of what is yet to come. Those three texts are three companion
pictures, representing the life of a true Christian, the central sketch is the
connecting link between those on either side. These three precepts are an
ornament of grace to every believer's neck, wear them every one of you, for
glory and for beauty; "Rejoice evermore;" "Pray without ceasing;" "in everything
give thanks." But we cannot spare any time for the consideration of the context,
but must advance to the precept in hand. Our text though exceedingly short is
marvellously full, and we will discuss it under the following heads. We shall
ask and answer four questions. What do these words imply? Secondly, What do they
actually mean? Thirdly, How shall we obey them? And, fourthly, Why should WE
especially obey them? I. WHAT DO THESE WORDS IMPLY? "Pray without ceasing." Do
they not imply that the use of the voice is not an essential element in prayer?
It would be most unseemly even if it were possible for us to continue
unceasingly to pray aloud. There would of course be no opportunity for preaching
and hearing, for the exchange of friendly intercourse, for business, or for any
other of the duties of life; while the din of so many voices would remind our
neighbors rather of the worship of Baal than that of Zion. It was never the
design of the Lord Jesus that our throats, lungs, and tongues should be for ever
at work. Since we are to pray without ceasing, and yet could not pray with the
voice without ceasing, it is clear that audible language is not essential to
prayer. We may speak a thousand words which seem to be prayer, and yet never
pray; on the other hand, we may cry into God's ear most effectually, and yet
never say a word. In the book of Exodus God is represented as saying to Moses,
"Why criest thou unto me?" And yet it is not recorded that Moses had uttered so
much as a single syllable at that time. It is true that the use of the voice
often helps prayer. I find, personally, that I can pray best when alone if I can
hear my own voice; at the same time it is not essential, it does not enter at
all into the acceptability, reality, or prevalence of prayer. Silence is as fit
a garment for devotion as any that language can fashion. It is equally clear
that the posture of prayer is of no great importance, for if it were necessary
that we should pray on our knees we could not pray without ceasing, the posture
would become painful and injurious. To what end has our Creator given us feet,
if he desires us never to stand upon them? If he had meant us to be on our knees
without ceasing, he would have fashioned the body differently, and would not
have endowed us with such unnecessary length of limb. It is well to pray on
one's knees; it is a most fitting posture; it is one which expresses humility,
and when humility is truly felt, kneeling is a natural and beautiful token of
it, but, at the same time, good men have prayed flat upon their faces, have
prayed sitting, have prayed standing, have prayed in any posture, and the
posture does not enter into the essence of prayer. Consent not to be placed in
bondage by those to whom the bended knee is reckoned of more importance than the
contrite heart. It is clear, too, from the text, that the place is not essential
to prayer, for if there were only certain holy places where prayer was
acceptable, and we had to pray without ceasing, our churches ought to be
extremely large, that we might always live in them, and they would have to
comprise all the arrangements necessary for human habitations. If it be true
that there is some sanctity this side of a brick-wall more than there is on the
other side of it, if it be true that the fresh air blows away grace, and that
for the highest acceptance we need groined arches, pillars, aisle, chancel, and
transept, then farewell, ye green lanes, and fair gardens, and lovely woods, for
henceforth we must, without ceasing, dwell where your fragrance and freshness
can never reach us. But this is ridiculous; wherefore I gather that the
frequenting of some one particular place has little or nothing to do with
prayer; and such a conclusion is consistent with the saying of Paul upon Mars'
Hill, "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of
heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.""Pray without
ceasing." That precept at one stroke overthrows the idea of particular times
wherein prayer is more acceptable or more proper than at others. If I am to pray
without ceasing, then every second must be suitable for prayer, and there is not
one unholy moment in the hour, nor one unaccepted hour in the day, nor one
unhallowed day in the year. The Lord has not appointed a certain week for
prayer, but all weeks should be weeks of prayer: neither has he said that one
hour of the day is more acceptable than another. All time is equally legitimate
for supplication, equally holy, equally accepted with God, or else we should not
have been told to pray without ceasing. It is good to have your times of prayer;
it is good to set apart seasons for special supplication -- we have no doubt of
that; but we must never allow this to gender the superstition that there is a
certain holy hour for prayer in the morning, a specially acceptable hour for
prayer in the evening, and a sacred time for prayer at certain seasons of the
year. Wherever we seek the Lord with true hearts he is found of us; whenever we
cry unto him he heareth us. Every place is hallowed ground to a hallowed heart,
and every day is a holy day to a holy man. From January to December the calendar
has not one date in which prayer is forbidden. All the days are red-letter days,
whether Sabbaths or week days they are all accepted times for prayer. Clear,
then, is it from the text, that the voice, the posture, the place, the time --
none of them enter into the essence of prayer, or else, in this case, we should
be commanded to perform an impossibility, which we are quite certain is not
after the manner of the Lord our God.There is one other thing implied in the
text, namely, that a Christian has no right to go into any place where he could
not continue to pray. Pray without ceasing? Then I am never to be in a place
where I could not pray without ceasing. Hence, many worldly amusements without
being particularized may he judged and condemned at once. Certain people believe
in ready-made prayers, cut and dried for all occasions, and, at the same time,
they believe persons to be regenerated in baptism though their lives are any
thing but Christian; ought they not to provide prayers for all circumstances in
which these, the dear regenerated but graceless sons and daughters of their
church, are found? As, for instance, a pious collect for a young prince or
nobleman, who is about to go to a shooting-match, that he may be forgiven for
his cruelty towards those poor pigeons who are only badly wounded and made to
linger in misery, as also a prayer for a religious and regenerated gentleman who
is going to a horserace, and a collect for young persons who have received the
grace of confirmation, upon their going to the theater to attend a very
questionable play. Could not such special collects be made to order? You revolt
at the idea. Well, then, have nothing to do with that which you cannot ask God's
blessing upon, have nothing to do with it, for if God cannot bless it, you may
depend upon it the devil has cursed it. Anything that is right for you to do you
may consecrate with prayer, and let this be a sure gauge and test to you, if you
feel that it would be an insult to the majesty of heaven for you to ask the
Lord's blessing upon what is proposed to you, then stand clear of the unholy
thing. If God doth not approve, neither must you have fellowship therewith.These
matters are clearly implied in the precept, "Pray without ceasing."II. But now,
WHAT DOES THIS ACTUALLY MEAN? If it does not mean we are to be always on our
knees, nor always saying prayers nor always in church or in meeting and does not
mean that we are to consider any day as unfit for praying what then? The words
mean, first, a privilege; secondly, a precept -- "Pray without ceasing." Our
Lord Jesus Christ in these words assures you that you may pray without ceasing.
There is no time when we may not pray. You have here permission given to come to
the mercy-seat when you will, for the veil of the Most Holy place is rent in
twain from the top to the bottom, and our access to the mercy-seat is undisputed
and indisputable. Kings hold their levees upon certain appointed days, and then
their courtiers are admitted; but the King of Kings holds a constant levee. The
monarch whose palace was in Shushan would have none approach him unless he sent
for them, but the King of kings has called for all his people, and they may come
at all times. They were slain who went in unto the king Ahasuerus, unless he
stretched out his scepter to them; but our King never withdraws his scepter, it
is always stretched out, and whosoever desires to come to him may come now, and
come at any time. Among the Persians there were some few of the nobility who had
the peculiar and special right of an audience with the king at any time they
chose. Now, that which was the peculiar right of a very few and of the very
great is the privilege of every child of God. He may come in unto the King at
all times. The dead of night is not too late for God; the breaking of the
morning, when the first grey light is seen, is not too early for the Most High;
at midday he is not too busy; and when the evening gathers he is not weary with
his children's prayers. "Pray without ceasing," is, if I read it aright, a most
sweet and precious permit to the believer to pour out his heart at all times
before the Lord. I hear its still small voice saying, "Come to the mercy seat, O
my child, whenever thou wilt; come to the treasury of grace whenever thou
desirest -- "The happy gates of gospel graceStand open night and day."The doors
of the temple of divine love shall not be shut. Nothing, can set a barrier
between a praying soul and its God. The road of angels and of prayers is ever
open. Let us but send out the dove of prayer and we may be certain that she will
return unto us with an olive branch of peace in her mouth. Evermore the Lord
hath regard unto the pleadings of his servants, and waiteth to be gracious unto
them.Still, however, it is a precept, "Pray without ceasing." And what does it
mean? It means a great truth which I cannot very well convey to you in a few
words, and, therefore, must try and bring out under four or five points.It
means, first, never abandon prayer. Never for any cause or reason cease to pray.
Imagine not that you must pray until you are saved, and may then leave off. For
those whose sins are pardoned prayer is quite as needful as for those mourning
under a sense of sin. "Pray without ceasing," for in order that you may
persevere in grace you must persevere in prayer. Should you become experienced
in grace and enriched with much spiritual knowledge, you must not dream of
restraining prayer because of your gifts and graces. "Pray without ceasing," or
else your flower will fade and your spiritual fruit will never ripen. Continue
in prayer until the-last moment of your life."Long as they live must Christians
pray,For only while they pray they live."As we breathe without ceasing, so must
we pray without ceasing. As there is no attainment in life, of health, or of
strength, or of muscular vigor which can place a man beyond the necessity of
breathing, so no condition of spiritual growth or advance in grace will allow a
man to dispense with prayer."Let us pray! our life is praying;Prayer with time
alone may cease:Then in heaven, God's will obeying,Life is praise and perfect
peace."Never give up praying, not even though Satan should suggest to you that
it is in vain for you to cry unto God. Pray in his teeth; "pray without
ceasing." If for awhile the heavens are as brass and your prayer only echoes in
thunder above your head, pray on; if month after month your prayer appears to
have miscarried, and no reply has been vouchsafed to you, yet still continue to
draw nigh unto the Lord. Do not abandon the mercy-seat for any reason whatever.
If it be a good thing that you have been asking for, and you are sure it is
according to the divine will, if the vision tarry wait for it, pray, weep,
entreat, wrestle, agonise till you get that which you are praying for. If your
heart be cold in prayer, do not restrain prayer until your heart warms, but pray
your soul unto heat by the help of the everblessed Spirit who helpeth our
infirmities. If the iron be hot then hammer it, and if it be cold hammer it till
you heat it. Never cease prayer for any sort of reason or argument. If the
philosopher should tell you that every event is fixed, and, therefore, prayer
cannot possibly change anything, and, consequently, must be folly; still, if you
cannot answer him and are somewhat puzzled, go on with your supplications
notwithstanding all. No difficult problem concerning digestion would prevent
your eating, for the result justifies the practice, and so no quibble should
make us cease prayer, for the assured success of it commends it to us. You know
what your God has told you, and if you cannot reply to every difficulty which
man can suggest, resolve to be obedient to the divine will, and still "Pray
without ceasing." Never, never, never renounce the habit of prayer, or your
confidence in its power.A second meaning is this. Never suspend the regular
offering of prayer. You will, if you are a watchful Christian, have your times
of daily devotion, fixed not by superstition, but for your convenience and
remembrance; just as David, three times a day, and as another saint, seven times
a day, sought the Lord: now be sure to keep up this daily prayer without
intermission. This advice will not comprehend the whole range of the text, I am
not pretending that it does; I am only mentioning it now as supplementary to
other thoughts. "Pray without ceasing;" that is, never give up the morning
prayer, nor the evening prayer, nor the prayer at midday if such has grown to be
your habit. If you change hours and times, as you may, yet keep up the practice
of regularly recurring retirement, meditation, and prayer. You may be said to
continue in prayer if your habitual devotions be maintained. It would be quite
correct for me to say that I know a man who has been always begging ever since I
have been in London. I do not think that I ever passed the spot where he stands
without seeing him there. He is a blind person, and stands near a church. As
long as my recollection serves me he has been begging without ceasing; of course
he has not begged when he has been asleep, he has not begged when he has gone
home to his meals, nor did you understand me to have asserted anything so absurd
when I said he had begged without ceasing for years. And so, if at those times
when it is proper for you to separate yourself from your ordinary labors, you
continue perseveringly begging at mercy's throne, it may be with comparative
correctness said of you that you pray without ceasing. Through all hours are
alike to me, I find it profitable to meet with God at set periods, for these
seem to me to be like the winding up of the clock. The clock is to go all day,
but there is a time for winding it up; and the little special season that we set
apart and hedge round about for communion with our God, seems to wind us up for
the rest of the day. Therefore, if you would pray without ceasing, continue in
the offering of the morning and the evening sacrifice, and let it be perpetually
an ordinance with you, that your times of prayer are not broken in upon. That,
however, is only a help, for I must add, thirdly, between these times of
devotion, labor to be much in ejaculatory prayer. While your hands are busy with
the world, let your hearts still talk with God; not in twenty sentences at a
time, for such an interval might be inconsistent with your calling, but in
broken sentences and interjections. It is always wrong to present one duty to
God stained with the blood of another, and that we should do if we spoiled study
or labor by running away to pray at all hours; but we may, without this, let
short sentences go up to heaven, ay, and we may shoot upwards cries, and single
words, such as an "Ah," an "Oh," an "O that;" or, without words we may pray in
the upward glancing of the eye or the sigh of the heart. He who prays without
ceasing uses many little darts and hand-grenades of godly desire, which he casts
forth at every available interval. Sometimes he will blow the furnace of his
desires to a great heat in regular prayer, and as a consequence at other times,
the sparks will continue to rise up to heaven in the form of brief words, and
looks, and desires.Fourthly, if we would pray without ceasing, we must be always
in the spirit of prayer. Our heart, renewed by the Holy Ghost, must be like the
magnetized needle, which always has an inclination towards the pole. It does not
always point to that pole, you can turn it aside if you will; in an iron ship it
exhibits serious deflections, under all circumstances it is not exactly true;
but if you put your finger to that needle and force it round to the east, you
have only to take away the pressure, and immediately it returns to its beloved
pole again. So let your heart be magnetized with prayer, so that if the finger
of duty turns it away from the immediate act of prayer, there may still be the
longing desire for prayer in your soul, and the moment you can do so, your heart
reverts to its beloved work. As perfume lies in flowers even when they do not
shed their fragrance upon the gale, so let prayer lie in your hearts.But,
perhaps, the last meaning that I shall give has the most of the truth of the
text in it, namely this: Let all your actions be consistent with your prayers,
and be in fact a continuation of your prayers. If I am to pray without ceasing,
it cannot mean that I am always to be in the act of direct devotion; for the
human mind, as at present constituted, needs variety of occupation, and it could
not without producing madness or imbecility continue always in the exercise of
one function. We must, therefore, change the modus or the manner of operation if
we are ceaselessly to continue in prayer. We must pursue our prayers, but do it
in another manner. Take an instance. This morning I prayed to God to arouse his
people to prayerfulness; very well; as I came to this house my soul continued to
ejaculate, "O Lord, awaken thy children to prayerfulness.": Now, while I am
preaching to you and driving at the same point, am I not praying? Is not my
sermon the continuation of my prayer, for I am desiring and aiming at the same
thing? Is it not a continuing to pray when we use the best means towards the
obtaining of that which we pray for? Do you not see my point? He who prays for
his fellow creatures, and then seeks their good, is praying still. In this sense
there is truth in that old distich."He prayeth best that loveth bestBoth man,
and bird, and beast."Loving is praying. If I seek in prayer the good of my
fellow creature, and then go and try to promote it, I am practically praying for
his good in my actions. If I seek, as I should do, God's glory above everything,
then if all my actions are meant to tend to God's glory, I am continuing to
pray, though I may not be praying with my thoughts or with my lips. Oh, that our
whole life might be a prayer. It can be. There can be a praying without ceasing
before the Lord, though there be many pausings in what the most of men would
call prayer. Pray then without ceasing, my brother. Let thy whole life be
praying. If thou changest the method, yet change not the pursuit; but continue
still to worship, still to adore. This I think to be the meaning of our text, --
never altogether abandon prayer; do not suspend the regular offering of prayer;
be much in earnest ejaculations, be always in the spirit of prayer, and let the
whole of your life be consistent with your prayer, and become a part of it.III.
HOW CAN WE OBEY THESE WORDS? First, let us labor as much as we can to prevent
all sinful interruptions. "Pray without ceasing." Then if it be impossible to be
in the act of prayer always, at least let us be as much as possible in that act;
and let us prevent those interruptions which I mentioned in the early part of my
discourse, the interruptions occasioned by our own sin. Let us endeavor to keep
clear, as far as we can, of anything and everything in ourselves, or round about
us, that would prevent our abounding in supplication. And let us also keep clear
of interruptions from the sins of others. Do others forbid us to pray? Let us
not be afraid of their wrath. Remember Daniel, who while he was under the
penalty of being cast into a den of lions, yet opened his window towards
Jerusalem, and prayed seven times a day as he had done aforetime. Under no
threats: and for no bribes, let us ever cease to pray. In private let us always
pray, and if duty calls us to do so where others observe us, let us so much fear
the eye of God that we shall not dare to fear the eye of man. Let us next avoid
all unnecessary interruptions of every sort to our prayer. If we know that any
matter, from which we can escape, has a tendency to disturb the spirit of prayer
within us, let us avoid it earnestly. Let us try, as much as possible, not to be
put off the scent in prayer. Satan's object will be to distract the mind, to
throw it off the rails, to divert its aim, but let us resolve before God, we
will not turn aside from following hard after him. Sir Thomas Abney had for many
years practiced family prayer regularly; he was elected Lord Mayor of London,
and on the night of his election he must be present at a banquet, but when the
time came for him to call his family together in prayer, having no wish either
to be a Pharisee or to give up his practice, he excused himself to the guests in
this way, -- he said he had an important engagement with a very dear friend, and
they must excuse him for a few minutes. It was most true, his dearest friend was
the Lord Jesus, and family prayer was an important engagement; and so he
withdrew for awhile to the family altar, and in that respect prayed without
ceasing. We sometimes allow good things to interrupt our prayer, and thus make
them evil. Mrs. Rowe observes in one of her letters, that if the twelve apostles
were preaching in the town were she lived and she could never hear them again,
if it were her time for private devotion, she would not be bribed out of her
closet by the hope of hearing them. I am not sure but what she might have taken
another time for her private devotions, and so have enjoyed both privileges, but
at the same time, supposing she must; have lost the prayer and have only got the
preaching in exchange, I agree with her, it would have been exchanging gold for
silver. She would be more profited in praying than she would be in hearing, for
praying is the end of preachings. Preaching is but the wheat-stalk, but praying
is the golden grain itself, and he hath the best who gets it.Sometimes we think
we are too busy to pray. That also is a great mistake, for praying is a saving
of time. You remember Luther's remark, "I have so much to do to-day that I shall
never get through it with less than three hours' prayer." He had not been
accustomed to take so much time for pray on ordinary days, but since that was a
busy day, he must needs have more communion with his God. But, perhaps, our
occupations begin early, and we therefore say, "How can I get alone with God in
prayer?" It is said of Sir Henry Havelock that every morning when the march
began at six, he always rose at four, that he might not miss his time for the
reading of the Scripture and communion with his God. If we have no time we must
make time, for if God has given us time for secondary duties, he must have given
us time for primary ones, and to draw near to him is a primary duty, and we must
let nothing set it on one side. There is no real need to sacrifice any duty, we
have time enough for all if we are not idle; and, indeed, the one will help the
other instead of clashing with it. When Edward Payson was a student at College,
he found he had so much to do to attend his classes and prepare for
examinations, that he could not spend as much time as be should in private
prayer; but, at last, waking up to the feeling that he was going back in divine
things through his habits, he took due time for devotion and he asserts in his
diary that he did more in his studies in a single week after he had spent time
with God in prayer, than he had accomplished in twelve months before. God can
multiply our ability to make use of time. If we give the Lord his due, we shall
have enough for all necessary purposes. In this matter seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Your
other engagements will run smoothly if you do not forget your engagement with
God.We must, dear friends, in order to pray without ceasing, strive against
indolence in prayer. I believe that no man loves prayer until the Holy Spirit
has taught him the sweetness and value of it. If you have ever prayed without
ceasing you will pray without ceasing. The men who do not love to pray must be
strangers to its secret joy. When prayer is a mechanical act, and there is no
soul in it, it is a slavery and a weariness; but when it is really living
prayer, and when the man prays because he is a Christian and cannot help
praying, when he prays along the street, prays in his business, prays in the
house, prays in the field, when his whole soul is full of prayer, then he cannot
have too much of it. He will not be backward in prayer who meets Jesus in it,
but he who knows not the Well-beloved will count it a drudgery.Let us avoid,
above all things, lethargy and indifference in prayer. Oh, it is a dreadful
thing that ever we should insult the majesty of heaven by words from which our
heart has gone. I must, my spirit, I must school thee to this, that thou must
have communion with God, and if in thy prayer thou dost not talk with God, thou
shalt keep on praying till thou dost. Come not away from the mercy-seat till
thou hast prayed. Beloved brother, say unto thy soul, thus -- "here have I come
to the throne of grace to worship God and seek his blessing, and I am not going
away till I have done this; I will not rise from my knees, because I have spent
my customary minutes, but here will I pray till I find the blessing." Satan will
often leave off tempting when he finds you thus resolute in prayer. Brethren, we
need waking up. Routine grows upon us. We get into the mill-horse way -- round,
and round, and round the mill. From this may God save us. It is deadly. A man
may pray twenty years with regularity, as far as the time goes, and the form
goes, and never have prayed a single grain of prayer in the whole period. One
real groan fetched from the heart is worth a million litanies, one living breath
from a gracious soul is worth ten thousand collects. May we be kept awake by
God's grace, praying without ceasing.And we must take care, dear brethren,
again, if we would perform this duty, that we fight against anything like
despair of being heard. If we have not been heard after six times we must, as
Elijah, go again seven times; if our Peter is in prison, and the church has
prayed God to liberate him, and he still is in fetters bound in the inner
prison, let us pray on, for one of these days Peter will knock at the gate. Be
importunate, heaven's gate does not open to every runaway knock. Knock, and
knock, and knock again; and add to thy knocking and to thy asking seeking, and
be not satisfied till thou gettest a real answer.Never cease from prayer through
presumption; guard against that. Feel, O Christian, that you always need to
pray. Say not, "I am rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing."
Thou art by nature still naked, and poor, and miserable; therefore, persevere in
prayer, and buy of the Lord fine gold, and clean raiment, that thou mayst be
rich, and fitly clothed.Thus I have tried to set before you, beloved, how by
resisting presumption and despair, indolence and lethargy, and trying to put
aside all sinful and other interruptions, we may pray without ceasing.IV. Now,
very briefly, in the last place, WHY SHOULD WE OBEY THIS PRECEPT? Of course we
should obey it because it is of divine authority; but, moreover, we should
attend to it because the Lord always deserves to be worshipped. Prayer is a
method of worship; continue, therefore, always to render to your Creator, your
Preserver, your Redeemer, your Father, the homage of your prayers. With such a
King let us not be slack in homage. Let us pay him the revenue of praise
continually. Evermore may we magnify and bless his name. His enemies curse him;
let us bless him without ceasing. Moreover, brethren, the spirit of love within
us surely prompts us to draw near to God without ceasing. Christ is our husband.
Is the bride true to her marriage vows if she cares not for her beloved's
company? God is our Father. What sort of a child is that which does not desire
to climb its father's knee and receive a smile from its father's face? If you
and I can live day after day and week after week without anything like communion
with God, how dwelleth the love of God in us? "Pray without ceasing," because
the Lord never ceases to love you, never ceases to bless you, and never ceases
to regard you as his child."Pray without ceasing," for you want a blessing on
all the work you are doing. Is it common work? "Except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it." Is it business? It is vain to rise up early
and sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness, for without God you cannot;
prosper. You are taught to say, "Give us this day our daily bread," -- an
inspired prayer for secular things. Oh, consecrate your seculars by prayer. And,
if you are engaged in God's service, what work is there in which you can hope
for success without his blessing? To teach the young, to preach the gospel, to
distribute tracts, to instruct the ignorant, do not all these want his blessing?
What are they if that favor be denied? Pray, therefore, as long as you work.You
are always in danger of being tempted; there is no position in life in which you
may not be assaulted by the enemy. "Pray without ceasing," therefore. A man who
is going along a dark road where he knows that there are enemies, if he must be
alone and has a sword with him, he carries it drawn in his hand, to let the
robbers know that he is ready for them. So Christian, pray without ceasing;
carry your sword in your hand, wave that mighty weapon of all-prayer of which
Bunyan speaks. Never sheathe it; it will cut through coats of mail. You need
fear no foe if you can but pray. As you are tempted without ceasing, so pray
without ceasing.You need always to pray, for you always want something. In no
condition are you so rich as not to need something from your God. It is not
possible for you to say, "I have all things," or, if you can, you have them only
in Christ, and from Christ you must continue to seek them. As you are always in
need, so beg always at mercy's gate. Moreover, blessings are always waiting for
you. Angels are ready with favors that you know not of, and you have but to ask
and have. Oh, could you see what might be had for the asking you would not be so
slack. The priceless benisons of heaven which lie on one side as yet, oh, did
you but perceive that they are only waiting for you to pray, you would not
hesitate a moment. The man who knows that his farming is profitable, and that
his land brings forth abundantly, will be glad to sow a broader stretch of land
another year; and he who knows that God answers prayer, and is ready still to
answer it, will open his mouth yet wider that God may fill it. Continue to pray,
brethren, for even if you should not want prayer yourself there are others who
do -- there are the dying, the sick, the poor, the ignorant, the backsliding,
the blaspheming, the heathen at home, and the heathen abroad. "Pray without
ceasing," for the enemy works incessantly, and as yet the kingdom has not come
unto Zion. You shall never be able to say, "I left off praying, for I had
nothing to pray for." This side heaven objects for prayer are as multitudinous
as the stars of the sky.And, now, I said I would say a word as to why WE ought
to pray especially, and that shall close the sermon. Beloved friends, this
church ought to pray without ceasing. We have been in years past notable for
prayer. If ever a church has prayed it has been this church. I might find many
faults with some who hinder prayer, but yet I must say in God's sight I know and
feel that there has been living prayer in this church for many years, and hence
it is we have had many years of peace and prosperity. We have lacked nothing
because we have not lacked prayer. I do not doubt we might have had much more if
we had prayed more; still prayer has been very mighty here. Now, brethren,
suppose you had no pastor, suppose the preacher was gone from you, and that the
black cloth upon this pulpit was not for a deceased elder of the church but for
the preacher himself, you would pray, would you not? Will you not pray for me
then while I live? If you would pray for another to come, will you not pray for
me while I am here? I desire to discharge my office before you in God's sight
with all earnestness, but I cannot without your prayers, and as being gone from
you, you would lift up many sighs, and you would with prayers ask for a
successor, pray for me while I am yet with you. Beloved, you have prayed very
earnestly for the pastor when he has been sick, your prayers have been his
consolation and his restoration; will you not pray for him now that he is able
to preach the gospel, that his health may be sanctified to God's service, and
the ministry of the truth may be mighty in the winning of souls. I ask it of
you, I think I might claim it of you. I do beseech you, brethren, pray for
us.Suppose again, dear brethren, there were no conversions in our midst, would
not you pray? And since there are a great many conversions, should that be a
reason for leaving off? Shall we worship God the less because he gives us moor?
Instead of one prayer which would go up were there no conversions, there should
be ten now that he continues to work salvation among us.Suppose we were divided,
and had many schisms, and jealousies, and bickerings, would not the faithful
ones pray in bitterness of spirit? Will you not pray since there are no
divisions, and much Christian love? Surely, I say again, you will not treat God
the worse because he treats you the better. That were foolish indeed.Suppose we
were surrounded to-day with hosts of persecutors, and that error everywhere
crept into our midst and did us damage, would you not pray, you who love the
Lord? And now that we live in days of peace, and error, though it prowls around,
is kept out of our fold, will you not commune with the Lord all the more? I will
say yet a third time, shall we pray the less because God gives the more? Oh no,
but the better he is to us the more let us adore and magnify his name.Just now
we need to pray, for some are growing cold, and turning to their old sins. We
need to pray, for we are doing much for Christ. Every agency is in full work. We
want a great blessing upon great efforts. We have had such results from prayer
as might make a man's ears to tingle who should hear of them for the first time:
our history as a church has not been second even to apostolic history itself: we
have seen God's arm made bare in the eyes of all the people, and to the ends of
the earth the testimony of this pulpit has gone forth, and thousands have found
the Savior, -- all in answer to many prayers. Pray, then, without ceasing. O
church in the Tabernacle, hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Oh, continue to be a praying church that we together; when we shall stand before
the judgement-seat of Christ, pastor and people, may not be accused of being
prayerless, nor of being slack in the work of the Lord. I earnestly hope all
this will tend to make to-morrow's day of prayer more earnest and intense; but
yet more do I pray that at all times all of us may be fervent, frequent,
instant, and constant in prayer; praying in the Holy Ghost, in the name of
Jesus.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 5.


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  CHAPTER 13: WHAT AND WHENCE ARE THESE?
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A Sermon (No.1040) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, February 25th, 1872, by C.
H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "And one of the elders
answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and
whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me,
These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." -- Revelation 7:13-14. TOWARDS
SOME SUBJECTS even the best of men need that their attention should be drawn.
Certain themes need an introduction to our contemplations. We often see and yet
do not see: we see that which upon the surface attracts the eye, but we fail to
penetrate into the inner and more precious truth. Even in heaven, it would seem
that the mind needs directing, and wants a friend to suggest inquiry; he who
sees the whiterobed host may yet need to be led to the consideration of who and
what they are. It is very gracious on the part of our heavenly Father that he
condescends to send us messengers of different kinds to awaken our attention, to
guide our inquiry, and to lead us to search deeper than we might otherwise have
done. John looked at the long ranks of triumphant spirits and admired their
glory, but his thoughts had not penetrated deep enough, and therefore an elder
was sent to speak with him. That personage asked him a question, and this he did
that John might confess his ignorance, might feel a desire to know more, and
might be led to inquire upon the point which it was most needful for him to
consider. While we are dwellers here below our minds are very apt to be
engrossed with the things which surround us, and we want some one to direct our
thoughts to the upper world; and in the same way the mind of a person dwelling
above would naturally be most occupied with the things around it in the glory
land, and it might be needful to bid him remember facts concerning the lower
world. We generally take that view of a matter which is most consistent with our
own present circumstances, whereas to see a thing completely we need to view it
from many angles. Hence the elder suggests to John that he should see these
glorified spirits from another point than that which naturally suggested itself
to him. He was led to consider them, not as they then were, but as they had
been. The question was therefore suggested him, "Who are these, whence came
they? What was their earthly character? What manner of men were they in the days
of their pilgrimage? Were they cherubim, or children of men? Did they come
hither on wings of fire, or came they hither as do the sons of Adam? Who are
these that now have attained to such dignity and bliss, as to be now wearing the
white robe of innocence, and waving the palm of victory?" To that enquiry I hope
to lead your attention this morning; may it be as profitable to you as doubtless
it was to John. We are frequently tempted to think that our Lord Jesus was not
in very truth a man like ourselves. His actual and proper humanity is believed
among us, but not fully realized. We are apt to fancy that his was another flesh
and another manhood from our own, whereas he was in all things made like unto
his brethren, and was tempted in all points like as we are, though without sin.
It is, therefore, needful again and again and again to set out the true
brotherhood and kinship of Christ. The same spirit of error leads us into the
feeling that those holy men who have attained to felicity must have been
something different from ourselves. We set the apostles up in twelve niches, and
look upon them as very superior beings. We can hardly imagine that they were
partakers of our flesh and blood; and, as we see the whole white-robed host, we
imagine in our hearts that they must have been far different from ourselves.
They did well and valiantly we admit, and we rejoice that they have attained to
a blessed reward; but we dream that we ourselves cannot do as well, nor win as
great a recompense. Without exactly defining the feeling, we in some way
persuade ourselves that something in their persons or in their circumstances
entirely separated the glorified saints from us, and gave them an advantage over
us, and therefore we despair of ever achieving their triumphs. Now, this error
must be overcome, because it furnishes convenient excuses for indolence, and
represses those holy ardours which are the life of elevated piety. Brethren, the
point to which the elder drew John's attention is the one we are now driving at;
he would have him note that those were glorified in heaven who were once tried
and tempted as we are; they were, in fact, men of like passions with us. I grant
you it would be very delightful for us to contemplate the present condition of
joy and immortality possessed by yonder bright spirits, but for the moment it
will be more practically useful for us to consider what they were and how they
came to be what they now are, so that finding that they were of old what we now
are, we may follow in their track, and may obtain to the same blessed rank as
that which they now enjoy. Our sermon on this occasion will consist of an answer
to these two questions, -- "Whence come they?" for though that was the second
question asked, it was the first answered; and, secondly, "Who are these?" Our
third point shall be, "What of all this?" I. Concerning the bright spirits in
heaven -- WHENCE CAME THEY? These bearing the palms -- whence came they? Reason
itself suggests that they came from battle. It is not according to the wont of
God to use emblems without a meaning. The palm, the ensign of triumph, indicates
most certainly a conflict and conquest. As on earth palm would not be given if
not won, we may conclude that the Lord would not have distributed the prize
unless there had been a preceding warfare and victory. A conflict for a temporal
crown is severe; how much more for an unfading palm in heaven. The winners of
these palms must have passed through a battle of battles, an agony of agonies, a
great tribulation. Palms which may be waved even before the throne of the august
majesty of heaven are not easily come by. From the very fact that the glorified
carry palms, we may infer that they did not come from beds of sloth, or gardens
of pleasure, or palaces of peace, but that they endured hardness, and were men
trained for war. The inference is well warranted, for it is even so; and the
answer to the question, "Whence came they?" is this: "These are they which came
out of great tribulation." 1. They were then like ourselves, for, in the first
place, they were tried like others. They came out of great tribulation. Note,
then, that the saints now glorified were not screened from sorrow. I saw to-day
a number of lovely flowers they were as delightful in this month of February as
thee would have been in the midst of summer; but I did not ask, "Whence came
they?" I know very well that they were the products of the conservatory; they
had not been raised amid the frosts of this chill season, else they had not
bloomed as yet. But when I look upon God's flowers blooming in heaven, I
understand from the voice of inspiration that they enjoyed no immunity from the
chill breath of grief; they were made to bloom by the master hand of the Chief
Husbandman, in all their glory, amid the afflictions, and adversities, and
catastrophes which are common to men. God's elect are not pampered like spoiled
children, neither are they like "the tender and delicate woman who would not
adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness." They
are, it is true, secured from all fatal injury, but they are not protected from
the rough winds and rolling billows which toss every barque which bears a son of
Adam. Turn over the roll of the worthies of the Lord from the first hero of
faith to the last, and you shall not meet with a sorrowless name. Great are
their privileges, but immunity from trouble is not among them. Was Adam God's
elect? We hope he was, but certainly in the sweat of his face he ate his bread,
and through his tears he saw the mangled body of his second son. Did God honor
Abraham, and call him his friend? He was not without family afflictions, among
the chief of which was the call to take his son, his only son, and offer him up
for a sacrifice. Moses was king in Jeshurun, but his yoke, as a servant of the
Lord, was a very heavy one; for all the day long was he vexed with the
rebellions of a wayward people. Was David, the man after God's own heart? You
know how deep called unto deep, while all God's waves and billows went over him.
Speak ye of the prophets; which of them escaped without trial? Come ye to the
apostles; which of these enjoyed a life of ease? Did they not all of them but
one pass through the gates of death, wearing the martyr's crown? And he who died
of old age, had not he been an exile in Patmos? Where, from their day down to
this, among the elect of heaven do you find a single child of God unchastened, a
solitary branch of the heavenly vine unpruned, or one ingot of precious gold
untried with fire? Through flood, and through the fire, lies the pathway of the
chosen. Through troops we must cut our way, and over walls we must leap, for to
none is there a luxurious path to heaven. We must fight if we would reign. True,
God's people have been found in all ranks, but; in every position they have had
their sorrows. You find Esther, a queen beloved of God, but what were the
tremblings of her heart when, with her life in her hand, she went in unto the
king to plead against that wicked Haman? Lazarus was in the opposite stage of
human circumstance, but he lay suffering at the gate of his ungenerous neighbor,
and the dogs came and licked his sores. In palace or in cottage the rod is the
sure portion of all the heirs of salvation. Each state to the believer produces
bitter herbs peculiar to itself, he shall never need to search far for the
appointed accompaniments to the paschal lamb. I have heard that a great
statesman once stopped his horse on a plain to speak with a shepherd who was
resting in the midst of his flock. Thinking of his own heavy anxieties, he
expressed his envy of the shepherd, because his life was so free from vexation.
"Sir," said the shepherd, "I may not be troubled exactly as you are, but I have
my own worries; do you see that black ewe there?" "Yes." "If she were dead,"
continued the shepherd, "I might be a perfectly happy man; but she is a plague
to me, for every now and then she takes to going astray, and all the rest are
sure to follow her." Rest assured, that there is a black ewe in every flock. Man
is born to trouble. All the sons of God in heaven passed by "weeping-cross."
Such burdens as we are now carrying on earth once pressed the shoulders of those
now in glory. Our crosses are reproductions of the old yoke of Christ. Under our
personal and relative griefs the glorified have smarted, and our sinkings of
heart and fears of soul they have experienced. "Through much tribulation" they
have inherited the kingdom.Note, next, that they were not even screened from
temptation. To the child of God, temptation to sin is a greater grievance than
the suffering of pain. The saint has often said, "I could endure adversity, but
it is misery to be day after day solicited to evil, to have the bait perpetually
dangling before me, and to feel something in my soul which half consents to sin,
and would altogether surrender were it not for watchful grace." Brethren,
temptation to the pure mind is very grievous; to be sifted in Satan's sieve is a
sore trial. Storms on any sea are to be dreaded; but a whirlwind raised by Satan
on the black sea of corruption is horrible beyond conception. Yet do not say you
cannot enter heaven because you are tempted, for all those snowwhite bands
attained their glorious standing through much temptation, as well as through
much affliction. They, like their Master, were tempted in all points as you are.
Let me take you again to the old records, and ask you whether you find a single
saint untempted? Oh, ye young men, who lament that you are so often allured to
evil, have ye forgotten Joseph in Potiphar's house? Ye who dread the
persecutor's frown, have ye forgotten Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego? Ye of
riper years, who feel your feet almost gone, do ye not remember David, and how
he was tempted; ay, and worse, how he fell, and with broken bones had to limp
his way to heaven? Which of the saints has been unassailed by the fiery darts of
the wicked one? Has not the fowler spread his nets to entangle every one of
them? Has he not laid snares for every faithful soul? Review all the ranks of
the white-robed squadrons, and enquire of every glorified spirit. Say to each
one, "And thou? wert thou also tempted? Did the world seek alternately to
fascinate and frighten thee? Hadst thou a body of sin and death to drag thee
down? Hadst thou foes among thine own household? Didst thou also cry, Woe is me,
for I dwell in Meshech?'" To such questions each one of the perfected saints
would reply that their perils were such as ours, and had it not been for
Almighty grace, they would have utterly perished from the way. The shields of
the mighty, which are now so highly exalted, were once battered by the blows of
temptation, even as ours are at this hour.We may add to all this, again, that
they were men who as keenly felt trial and temptation as we do. Too frequently,
when we are forced to admit that the trials of the saints were similar to our
own, we persuade ourselves that their natures were less tender, their feelings
less sensitive, their spirits less vulnerable than our own. We imagine that
these ancient heroes wore some secret armor, or had their hearts steeled within,
or wore a charmed life; and yet we know right well that all flesh of man has the
same power to suffer, that a wound in another man's body bleeds even as it would
in our own, and that reproach is as bitter to one spirit as to another. As face
answereth to face in water, so the heart of man to man. Good men, because they
are good, are not the less sorrowful when their beloved ones are taken from
them: gracious men are not by grace petrified so as to despise the chastening,
of the Lord. Jacob mourned for Rachel, and David for Jonathan. You do not find
the saints less troubled than other men when friendship turned to treachery, and
love to hate. Tears flowed as readily from holy eyes as from the eyes of the
ungodly. They were sons of men, born of women as we are, and subject to the same
passions and emotions. Oh, no, they were not Stoics, nor men of iron, but, made
of the same earth as ourselves, their hearts palpitated to the same tune.
Daughter of grief, dost thou say, "I wish I were as the holy women of old, that
in my trouble I might not be so cast down?" Read thou the history of Hannah, and
mark how her adversary "vexed her sore to make her fret." She, too, was a woman
of a sorrowful spirit. That story in the commencement of the First Book of
Samuel I am sure must often have cheered the daughters of affliction when they
have prayed in the bitterness of their souls, for they have said, here was a
woman, tempted like as we are and smarting as we do under unkind remarks and
slanderous reports and ungenerous treatment, and yet she rejoiced in God's
salvation. If your spirit is constitutionally sorrowful, and its wounds are
often wantonly opened by those about you, read the story of Jeremiah, and his
plaintive notes in the Lamentations will both help you to express your woes and
furnish you with sympathy in them. Read, too, the sorrowful bemoanings of Job.
That grand old patriarch of Uz is very stout, and plays the man right
gloriously; he is no puling child, whining and wincing, at a gentle touch of the
rod; but patient as he is and a very king, among men, yet how bitterly he curses
the day of his birth, and how heavily he complains. Nor were New Testament
saints less tender, for Mary and Martha wept, Magdalene was bowed down with
sorrow at her Lord's death, and the heart of the Virgin was pierced as with a
sword. Peter wept bitterly, and Paul had continued heaviness. Tribulations
abounded and afflictions were multiplied to the first disciples, and we wrong
both themselves and us if we dream that it was easier for them to suffer than
for us. I grant you that they possessed a secret something which enabled them to
endure, but that something was not homeborn in their nature any more than it is
in ours. They were fortified by a secret strength which they found at the throne
of God in prayer, a patience which the Holy Ghost wrought in them, and which he
is equally ready to work in us. But, perhaps, it may be thought by some that
those holy men who now wave the palm-branch were spared some of the keener and
more refined tribulations; to which I reply, it certainly was not so. David
especially appears to have compassed the whole round of affliction. He could
say, "all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." From all quarters his
trials arose; and from his youth to his death they assailed him. Let me remind
you of that special grief which came upon him when his darling son excited
rebellion against him, and his own chosen friend and counsellor, Ahithophel,
betrayed him, and to this add the scene when that same darling son was slain in
red-handed rebellion against his father, and David cried aloud, "O Absolom, my
son, my son! would God I had died for thee! O Absolom, my son, my son!" I should
not feel that I had ventured too far if I said that there is no trouble known to
any person in this audience which would not find its parallel in the case of the
afflicted writer of the Psalms. But, perhaps, you tell me that yours is a
spiritual grief, and that such a wound is the deepest of all. Turn, then, to the
life of the apostle Paul, and, as far as he unveils his experience, you shall
find him to be the subject of internal strifes and spiritual contentions of the
sharpest kind. Remember, especially, when with the thorn in his flesh he prayed
thrice to God to have it taken away, but it was not removed; sufficient grace
was given him, but he had to bear the inward smart; for, through much
tribulation even of that kind must the chief of the apostles follow his Lord.
What need of multiplying words? It is plain to every man that understandeth,
that the children of God have been tried like others, and they who have won the
victory fought a real battle, armed only as we may be, and assailed neither more
nor less as we are, by the same enemies and the same weapons. As the church
militant we claim indisputable kinship with the church triumphant. We are their
companions in tribulation.2. Next, we believe that the saints who are not in
heaven needed trial like others. The word used in our translation is
"tribulation," and you know that the word tribulatio is used by the Romans to
signify a threshing instrument. When they beat out the corn from the straw, they
called it tribulatio; and so tribulation is sent to us to separate our chaff
from our wheat. Since the same tribulation happened to those who are now in
heaven, we infer that they needed it as much as ourselves. To what end do men
need tribulation? We reply, they often require it to arouse them; and yonder
saints who serve God day and night in his temple, once slept as do others, and
needed to be bestirred. Were they not apostles who slept Gethsemane? Yea, were
they not three of the chief of the apostles who slumbered within a stone's cast
of their Master in his agony? The best of men are prone to slumber, and need to
be awakened by the buffetings of sorrow. They needed trial to chasten them. What
son has God ever had, save his firstborn and well-beloved, that did not need
chastening? Inasmuch as we are all sinners, we have need in our Father's house
to suffer from the rod. They wanted tribulation as we do to loosen them from the
earth, else they would have struck their roots into this poor soil, and tried to
live as if this world were their portion. Affliction was also necessary to
develope their graces; even as spices need bruising to bring forth their smell,
and rose leaves require distilling to draw forth their sweetest perfume. They
required adversity to educate them into complete manhood, for they too were once
babes in grace. It is in the gymnasium of affliction that men are modelled and
fashioned in the beauty of holiness, and all their spiritual powers are trained
for harmonious action. It was meet also that they should suffer, in order to
complete their service. Like their Lord, they had to be made perfect through
suffering; and if they had not suffered they had not finished the work which he
had given them to do. They needed tribulation, moreover, that they might be made
like their Savior; for a saint untroubled, how can he be like the man who wore
the thorn crown? Never smitten, never slandered, never despised, never mocked
at, never crucified, then how could we be like our Head? Shall the servant be
above his Master, or the disciple above his Lord? They who are in heaven passed
through tribulation, and they needed it as much as we do. Let us think of all
this, for it may encourage us to press forward. They were knights of the same
order as ourselves, and by the self-same methods obtained the honors which they
wear.3. Again, the children of God who are in heaven in their trials had no
other support than that which is still afforded to all the saints. A miracle was
here and there wrought I grant you; but then there are other things to be said
on our side, for the Spirit of God was not given then as fully as we possess him
now, and Christ had not then brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel so that what little advantage they had in miracle is far outweighed by
the advantage we have in the gospel dispensation. What was it that upheld the
saints of old who are now before the throne? Their faith was sustained by the
promise of God, but we have the promise too. They rested on God's faithful word;
that word is faithful still. We have more promises by far than most of them had
received. They had but here and there a word of inspiration, we have the whole
volume of consolation; yea, we have a double portion, for we have two books full
of choice and gracious words. We have, therefore, more to cheer us than they
had. They had the Spirit of God, you say; but, I reply, so have we. They had him
with them, we have him in us. He visited them occasionally; he dwelleth in us;
he never removeth from his people but abideth in them for ever. You will tell me
that God worked with them: God works with us. Providence was on their side; and
is not providence on our side also? All things worked together for their good;
they work together for our good in the same manner. The Lord who was at the helm
of their vessel when storms assaulted it, still stands at the helm for us and
holds the tiller with a strong hand. He who walked the waves of Gennesaret, and
came to the rescue of the storm-tossed disciples, still saith to us, "It is I;
be not afraid." I see no point in which they had superior resorts to those which
are open to ourselves, for the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our
refuge. Their rest lay where our rest still lies; their peace and comfort were
the same as our own. The Prince of Wurtenberg on one occasion in the midst of
certain kings and great men heard them boasting, one of the mines which enriched
his dominions, another of his forests, another of his vineyards. Now the Prince
of Wurtenberg was poor, but he said, "I have a jewel in my country which I would
not exchange for all your wealth," and, when they questioned him, he said, "If I
were lost in any forest of my territory, or could not find my way along a
lonesome road, if I said to the first peasant that I met that I was his king, I
could lean my head upon him and lie down to sleep, and sleep securely there,
feeling certain that he would watch over his king as he would over his child."
So we feel, and so the saints of old felt a delightful security any where
beneath the blue heavens of God. If we have not riches, if we have not honor, if
we have nothing that flesh could desire, we can lie down anywhere and feel that
we are perfectly safe in the divine keeping. The angels watch over us and
protect us, for we are the children of God: all things work for our good; the
beasts of the field are our friends, and stones of the field are in league for
our defense. This was the portion of those who are now above; it is our portion
still. 4. Very hurriedly I must notice, before I leave this first point, that if
there was any difference between those saints and our selves, it lay in their
enduring superior tribulations, for "these are they that came out of great
tribulation." If, I say, we must distinguish them from ourselves at all, it lies
in this, that some of them were martyred as we are not, resisted unto blood as
we have not, and were put to death by cruel torments as probably we shall not
be. Theirs was the battle's brunt. For them the furnace was heated seven times
hotter. My brethren, if their faith sustained them and won them the palm branch,
why should not ours do the like for us? The text says, "These are they that come
out of the great tribulation," for so it is in the original. It may mean some
peculiarly severe tribulation which has befallen, or is about to befall the
church; and, if so, it is consoling to observe that the saints shall come out of
it unscathed: but I rather take it to mean the one long tribulation of God's
Saints in all ages. It is all one; it is all a part of the sufferings of the
body of Christ; the saints in glory have had their share in the great
tribulation, and, if anything, a greater share than we. We feel persuaded then,
that as they were men like ourselves, who suffered as we suffer, and were
supported as we are supported, we shall, through the same grace, win the same
victory.II. I will not detain you longer on that point, though there is much to
be said, but I must take you to the second, and that is, WHAT ARE THESE? John
beheld them all in white robes; and the question to be answered was, "Who are
these, -- these in heaven?" The reply was "They have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb;" from which we gather, first, that all
those in heaven were sinners, for they all needed to wash their robes. No
superfluity would have been written down in this book; but had the robes been
perfectly white, there had been no necessity to cleanse them, certainly not to
cleanse them in, Jesus' blood. They were sinners then, those glorious ones were
sinners like ourselves. Look up at them now! Observe their ravishing beauty! See
how guiltless they are! And then, remember what they were. Oh, ye trembling
sinners, whose bruised hearts dare not indulge a hope of the divine favor, those
fair ones were once like you, and you are to-day what they were once. They were
all shapen in iniquity as you were: they were everyone of them of woman born,
and, therefore, conceived in sin. They were all placed in circumstances which
allured them to sin; they had their temptations, as we have shown, and they
lived in the midst of an ungodly generation, even as you do. What is more, they
all sinned, for mere temptation would not have soiled their robes, but actual
sin defiled them. There were thoughts of sin, there were words of sin, there
were acts of sin in all of them. Did you observe that bright one who sang most
sweetly of them all? Shall I tell you a part of his earthly history? He was one
of the chief of sinners; he takes rank now amongst the chief of choristers,
because he has most to sing about, since he had most forgiven and loved most. He
will not tell you that he was naturally a saintly spirit, and that by
mortification, and self-denial, and diligent perseverance he won his place in
heaven. No, he will confess that his salvation was all of grace, for he was like
others a sinner, and had transgressed above many. You will say, perhaps, that
none of the saints had committed sins like yours, but there I must flatly
contradict you. Amongst that illustrious company there are those who were once
sinners of the deepest dye -- the adulterer, the thief, the harlot, the
murderer; some who were such are now glorified, for we have such characters
mentioned in infallible Scripture as having been forgiven, sanctified, and at
length glorified. Whatever your sin may be, and I will not mention it, for the
mention of sin does not help to purify us from it; whatever it is, all manner of
sin and blasphemy have been forgiven unto men, and the precious blood of Jesus
has brought into eternal glory men stained with every form of sin. Jesus has
cleansed crimson sinners, deep ingrained with iniquity, and scarlet sinners,
whose crimes were of the most glaring hue. They all in heaven were sinners, such
as we are.Secondly, they all who are in heaven needed an atonement, and the same
atonement as we rely upon. They have washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb. Not one of them became white through his tears of
repentance, not one through the shedding of the blood of bulls or of goats. They
all wanted a vicarious sacrifice, and for none of them was any sacrifice
effectual, except the death of Jesus Christ the Lord. They washed their robes
nowhere but in the blood of the Lamb. O sinner, that blood of the Lamb is
available now. The fountain filled with blood, drunk from Immanuel's veins, is
not closed, nor is its efficacy diminished. Every child of Adam now in heaven
came there through the blood of the great substitute. This was the key that
opened heaven's door, -- the blood, the blood of the Lamb, it was the one
purification of them all, without one exception. If I were in thy case, O
sinner, God helping me, I would in the blood as they did, and enter heaven as
they have done. You will further notice that the saints in haven realised the
atonement in the same way as we must do. They washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb. The act which gave them the virtue which lies in
the atonement was the act of faith. They did not bring anything to the blood,
any merit, or feeling, or preparation; they only brought their filthy garments
to the blood, and nothing else. They washed and were clean. That was all. They
did not give, they took; they did not impart, but they received. In this same
way I have realised the merit of my Savior's passion, and I know that every
believer here will confess that this is his hope, he has washed and he is clean.
There is nothing to do, and nothing to feel, and nothing to be, in order to
forgiveness; we have but to wash and the filth is gone. Every child of God in
heaven whether he were king or prophet, or seer, or priest, came there through
simply relying and depending upon the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb, and that
is all, -- all. You must not dare to add to it, or you will sin against the
all-sufficient sacrifice.The text tells that the sole reason for the saints
being in heaven at all was because they washed their robes in the blood of the
Lamb: "Therefore are they before the throne of God." But, is not one of them
there because he had not sinned? There is no answer from all the shining hosts.
Is not one of them glorified because a long life of consecration wiped out the
small offenses of his youth? No response comes to the enquiry. But, if you ask
whether they were there because they have washed in the blood, the "Yes" which
comes from them all is like the voice of many waters, and like great
thunders.III. Now, beloved, WHAT OF ALL THIS? Why, first of all, we must not
draw the conclusion that trouble and temptation are any argument that a man will
get to heaven. Perhaps I may be misunderstood this morning and therefore I add a
caution. There is a groundless notion abroad, that those who are badly off in
this world will certainly have it made up to them in the world to come; and I
have heard the parable of Lazarus and Dives quoted as though it taught that
those who are poor here will be rich hereafter. There is not a shadow of reason
for any such belief. You may go through much tribulation to hell as well as to
heaven; and as a man may have two heavens, here and hereafter, by living near to
God, so may a man have two hells, the hell which he bringeth upon himself in
this life by his extravagances, his wickedness, and his lust, and the hell that
shall be his punishment for ever in the world to come. Believe me, many a
ragged, loathsome beggar has been damned; he was as poor as Lazarus, but not as
gracious as he, and therefore no angels carried him to Abraham's bosom. There is
no efficacy in the tongues of dogs to lick away sin, neither can a hungry belly
atone for a guilty soul. Many a soul has begged for crumbs on earth, and has
afterwards craved in vain for water in hell. You must take care not to suck
poisonous error out of the flowers of truth.I would, however, have you learn
that no amount of trial which we have to suffer here, if we are believers in
Jesus, should lead us to anything like despair, for however trouble may
encompass us to-day, those in heaven came through as great a tribulation, and
why may not we? If messengers should come one after the other with swift feet to
bring us heavy tidings, if all our property should melt, and our children should
die, and even the partner of our bosom should tempt us to curse God, we must
still hold fast our confidence. Our faith's motto should be, "Though he slay me,
yet will I trust in him." God may smite his children, but he never can cast off
his children. He must love them, and he will love them for ever and for ever.
Let us also understand that no amount of sin of which we may have been guilty
ought to lead us to despair of pardon, salvation, and ultimate entrance into
heaven, if we also wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb. Those who are in
heaven have washed their robes white by faith in Jesus, and so may we. I may be
addressing some one who has written his own death warrant. I thank God that the
Lord has never written it. You may have said, "I know that I never shall have
mercy." Who told thee that God had set a limit to his grace? Who has been up to
heaven and found that thy name is not written among his chosen? Oh, do God the
justice to believe that he delighteth in mercy, and that it is one of his
greatest joys to pass by iniquity, transgression, and sin. And, suppose this day
you should have in your own person trouble and sorrow united; suppose you should
be going through the great tribulation, and at the same time you should have
committed sin which has defiled your garment most conspicuously; though the gall
and the wormwood be both in your cup and both be bitterest of the bitter, yet do
not despair, for the saints whom John saw had the double blessing of deliverance
and cleansing, and why should not you? I make bold to tell you that if your
troubles were tenfold what they are, and your sins also were multiplied ten
times, yet there is power in the eternal arm to bear you up under the
tribulation, and there is efficacy in the precious blood to remove your sinful
stains. By an act of faith cast yourselves upon God in Christ Jesus. If you do
so, you shall take your place amongst the white-robed bands when this life ends.
I was led to these reflections this morning by the remembrance of the few short
days ago since our beloved brother, Mr. Dransfield, whose mortal remains we
committed to the tomb last Monday, was among us. You remember his accustomed
seat, just here, at the prayer meeting; you remember how there was never an
empty seat just over yonder at any of our public services. He was always among
us, and he was just like ourselves. I am sure we all felt at home in his
presence. He did not walk among us at all as a stilted personage or a
supernatural being; he was a father among us; we loved him, esteemed him,
revered him, but he was a man of men among us. I have tried to realize the same
spirit before the throne of God, and I think I have been able to grasp the
thought. I know he was like ourselves; I am equally certain that he is yonder,
and that he is rejoicing in Christ; none of us doubt that. Now let us make a
practical, common sense use of that fact and feel, I, too, resting, where he
rested -- for, oh, how sweetly did he rest in his dying Lord -- I, too, hoping
as he hoped, shall bear up under troubles as he did during his painful illness,
and I, too, shall have a joyful death as he did, for his soul triumphed in his
God beyond measure. Why should not all of us, his brethren, enter where he is
gone? Dear sister, why should not you? You who are consumptive, you who know
that death is drawing near to you, because you carry a disease about you which
will take you home? Just realize the fact now before us. Our dear and well-known
friend is really gone to the better land. You shook hands with that dear brother
a few days ago, and now he is with God, and is waving the palm and wearing the
white robe. It is not a dream, a fiction, or a fancy. It is not the delusion of
high-blown fanaticism. It is not a wondrous attainment for some few special and
renowned saints. Oh, no, it is for every one of us who believe in Jesus. They in
heaven are those who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It is not said, "These are they
that were emperors," not "These are they who were reared in marble halls," not
"these are they who were great scholars," not "These are they who were mighty
preachers," not "These are they who were great apostles," not "These are they
who lived spotless lives;" no, but these are they who came through the
tribulation of life, and were cleansed from their sins, as others must be, in
the precious blood of Jesus; therefore are they before the throne of God, and
serve him day and night in his temple.Dear brother Dransfield, thou wast bone of
our bone, and flesh of our flesh, and yet thou art perfected before the throne.
We thy brethren are on the way and shall be with thee soon. Amen.PORTION OF
SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Revelation 14.As a very large number of friends
from a distance desire occasionally to attend the Tabernacle, but do not like to
encounter the crowds at the doors, the deacons have resolved to issue early
admission tickets, which will admit the holder before the general public, during
the month of issue. They will be purchasable at the price of one shilling, and
can be had by letter, enclosing twelve penny stamps, and one half-penny stamp
for postage, of Mr. C. Blackshaw, Tabernacle, Newington Butts.


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  CHAPTER 14: MERCY'S MASTER MOTIVE
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A Sermon (No.1041) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, March 17th, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "For my name's sake will I
defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not
off. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the
furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it:
for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another."
-- Isaiah 48:9-11. THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL in all their generations were full of
evil. Those who came out of Egypt were a rebellious people, and for forty years
multiplied their provocations of the Lord in the wilderness, till at last they
all found a grave in the desert. The generation following were stiff-necked and
rebellious like their fathers, and they continually went astray after false
gods. Though by the good hand of the Lord they were settled in a goodly land
which flowed with milk and honey, yet they forgot the covenant and sinned
grievously. Though they were smitten and bruised for their idolatries, yet their
successors did the same: whether they were ruled by the high priest, or governed
by the judges, or presided over by a king, it little mattered, they started
aside still, they were never to be depended upon. Idolatry and rebellion against
God were ingrained in their nature; this sin was in their bone, and it would
come out in their flesh. At last the Lord, whose glory tabernacled in Zion,
appeared to grow weary of keeping house with such ungracious children and
unfaithful servants, and he broke up the house altogether: he gave up his temple
to be destroyed, the whole land to be ravaged, and the inhabitants to be carried
away captive into Babylon. The Lord was wroth with his heritage, and therefore
he gave his holy and beautiful house to the fire, and the carved work thereof to
be broken down with hammers, while the whole Jewish state was utterly shattered,
and of the kingdom not one stone was left upon another that was not cast down.
Yet such is the immutability of God in his affection, that he had not long sent
his people into captivity before his bowels yearned towards them again. He cast
his eye over to Babylon, and saw his chosen sitting in sadness by the far-off
rivers, hanging their silent harps upon the willows, and weeping at the
remembrance of Zion; and he said unto himself, "I have chosen this people of
old, and I have loved their fathers, and I have made them to be people unto me
above all the people that are upon the face of the earth, therefore again I will
have mercy upon them." Then the Lord looked to find a reason for mercy in their
past conduct, but could see none. He looked at their present character for a
plea, and found none, for even while they were under the rod they exhibited
hardness of heart, so that even the eyes of mercy could see no reason for favor
in them. What should the Lord do? He would not act without a reason: there must
be something to justify his mercy, and show the wisdom of his way. Since there
is none in the offender, where shall mercy find her plea? Behold the
inventiveness of eternal love! The Lord falls back upon himself; and within
himself finds a reason for his grace. "For my name's sake will I defer mine
anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. For
mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be
polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another." Finding a motive in his
own glory which was bound up in the existence of Israel, and would have been
compromised by their destruction, he turned unto them in love and kindness;
Cyrus wrote the decree of emancipation, the Israelites came back to the land,
and once again they sat every man under his own vine and fig tree, and ate the
good of the land. So far we give the historical meaning of the passage. We shall
now use the text as an illustration of divine love in other cases, for from one
deed of grace we may learn all. As God dealt with his people Israel after the
flesh, in the same manner he dealeth with his people Israel after the spirit;
and his mercies towards his saints are to be seen as in a mirror in his wondrous
lovingkindness towards the seed of Abraham. I shall take the text to illustrate
-- first, the conversion of the sinner; and secondly, the reclaiming of the
backslider; and I pray, dear friends, most earnestly, that while I speak God may
move with his Spirit upon your hearts, so that many of you may follow me,
sincerely feeling that which I describe. While I am speaking may your souls be
silently saying, "Yes, we know what that means, we have felt it; we gladly yield
assent thereto, for we know it to be even so." I. First, then, in reference to
THE CONVERSION OF THE SINNER. Let us suppose a case. It is God's will to save
yonder sinner; he has ordained him to eternal life, and predestinated him to he
conformed to the image of his dear Son. In due time the Lord begins to deal with
the man in a way of grace, and where does he find him? This shall be our first
point this morning. He finds him so utterly ruined and depraved, that in him
there is no argument for mercy, no plea for grace. I will suppose that such a
soul is here this morning, awakened into a perception of his true condition, and
craving for pardon. Soul, canst thou upon calm reflection find in thyself some
good thing which may be pleaded in extenuation of guilt, or as a reason for
forgiveness? What has been thy past conduct? Are there redeeming features in it?
Alas, no! You must at once confess that your neck has been an iron sinew and
your brow brass. You have been obstinate in sin; against many warnings,
entreaties, and chastisements, you have persisted in it. Neither law nor gospel,
providence nor conscience, has sufficed to turn you from your perverse ways.
Your neck would not bend before either the terrors or the mercies of God. You
have heard sermons which seemed enough to melt the heart of a stone, but you
have been unmoved. You have seen others bowing themselves before the Lord Jesus
Christ with holy joy, and yet you have done no such thing, but have been
exceeding stout against the Lord of Hosts. Looking back upon the past also, you
have to confess great impudence in your dealing with God; your brow has been
brass. You have gone direct from his house to sin. He claims but one day in a
week to himself but you have robbed him of that. It may be you have used his
name in common jests, if not worse; you have dared to employ it profanely; you
have scoffed at his people; you have derided everything that has been good, and
in looking back you are obliged to confess that there are ten thousand reasons
why God should not refrain from his anger, and overwhelming reasons why he
should cut you off; but you cannot find so much as one single argument why he
should be pleased to spare and save you. Every man who is really brought to
Christ is first stripped of all on which he placed reliance as a ground of hope,
and made to see that in himself there is guilt deserving condemnation, and
rebellion demanding, punishment, but there is no quality which can enlist divine
sympathy or secure, by its own excellence, divine regard. In us, by nature,
there are no beauties of character, no charms of virtue, or loveliness of
conduct to win the Almighty heart. We were called "transgressors from the womb,"
and rightly were we named. O awakened soul, where art thou this morning? I wish
I could speak with thee face to face, and hear thee say, "How can I expect
divine goodness to spare such a one as I am, for, in addition to all other sins,
I have behaved very treacherously towards the Lord my God. Not long ago I was
laid upon a sick bed, and then I repented, or thought I did, and I sought God
very vehemently, and I vowed unto the Lord, that if I was raised up again, I
would not rest till I had sought his face. But I left my couch and my repentance
died on my sick bed. No sooner had I recovered than I returned to my sin, as a
dog to his vomit, and as the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
After this, how can I have the face to go to God again? I lied unto him, I
flattered him with my tongue, and my heart was not sound in his ways. My
goodness was gone as the dew from the grass, or the meteor from the sky." Yes,
poor soul, this confession is true, and it proves, beyond all question, that no
reason for mercy can be drawn from your past conduct when you have been under
the rod. Why should you be stricken any more? you will revolt more and more.
Chastisement is lost upon you; your nature is hopeless; do what he may with you,
you will not turn unto the Lord.Ah, and I think I hear you say, "neither can I
promise to God anything as to the future. I dare not say to him to-day, have
mercy upon me, and then I will be very different from what I have been. No, my
heart is too treacherous for me to trust it. I might sooner promise what the sea
will be to-morrow, than pledge my future character. Changeful as the winds that
blow from every quarter of the sky is my nature a fickle and false am I. I seem
to-day resolved for good, to-morrow I may be resolved evil, and what I vowed to
do most vehemently will never become fact. I dare not say that in the future I
can see any reason why God should have mercy upon me." Oh, how glad my heart is
when I can meet with a person who confesses this to be his case. It is a very
sad difficulty to be in, a very painful one, when the soul at last abandons all
arguments, extenuations, and apologies, and says, "Lord, I am guilty, I stand at
thy judgment-seat and I can say nothing but guilty. Thou art clear when thou
judgest, thou art just when thou condemnest, and if thou shouldst put on the
black cap, and say, Prisoner at the bar, hast thou anything to say why sentence
should not be speedily executed upon thee?' I could not even stammer out an
apology, but must stand speechless before my judge."My lips, with shame, my sins
confessAgainst thy law, against thy grace:Lord, should thy judgment grow
severe,I am condemn'd, but thou art clear.Should sudden vengeance seize my
breath,I must pronounce thee just in death;And, if my soul were sent to hell,Thy
righteous law approves it well."In the text I beg you specially to remark our
second thought, namely, that God himself finds the reason for his mercy, and, O
ye heavens hear it, and be astonished O earth, he finds it in himself. "For my
name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee,
that I cut thee not off." Here is the drift of the thought -- the Lord is a
patient God, and determines to make his patience glorious. When all was darkness
the Lord said, "Let there be light!" and light was; -- thus he glorified his
power. When all was chaos Jehovah brought fair order out of grim confusion, and
so glorified his wisdom. So in the sinner's case the Lord sees a wretch who has
provoked him to his face for thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, perhaps seventy or
eighty years, and as the Lord desires an opportunity to glorify his patience, he
finds it ready to his hand. Having permitted that sinner to live when he scoffed
at the gospel, scorned the atonement, and rejected the Redeemer, the Lord at
length crowns his longsuffering by blotting out his sins, and forgiving all his
misdeeds, whereat all creatures stand amazed, and men, and angels, and devils in
astonishment cry out, "Who is a God like unto thee, passing by transgression,
iniquity, and sin?" Who but the God of boundless grace could have borne with
such a provoking sinner, and then after all have taken him into his own bosom as
his child.God also would illustrate in the salvation of a sinner not only his
patience, but his sovereign and abundant mercy towards sinners. If the Lord were
to select this morning as the object of his grace some soul possessing merit, if
such were the case, if he were to choose some soul in whom there was a claim for
pity (of course I am supposing an impossibility), then there would be little
glory to his grace; but when, casting his divine eyes of compassion all round
this assembly, he selects a soul that is bad throughout, black without and black
within, a soul that has laid soaking in sin like the wool in the scarlet dye,
till the color is ingrain, then he magnifies the glory of his grace. When he
looks upon a wretch who confesses either by his silence or by his tearful
speech, that he deserves his wrath, and says, "Thy sins which are many are all
forgiven thee: I have laid them on the Savior's head, go and sin no more, thy
transgressions are blotted out, I have purchased thee unto myself by the death
of my Son," oh, then, how the sinner's heart melts with gratitude, love, and
wonder in the presence of such a God. The Lord is loved much in that heart which
feels that much has been forgiven; thus God's glory begins to be known, and soon
it spreads abroad; The neighbors and friends and kinsfolk of the pardoned
penitent say unto one another, "Was it ever done after this sort before? Have
you ever heard the like of this? Here is this man saved -- this man who lay at
hell's dark door, and seemed only fit to be cast into the pit!" Oh, how the
shouts go up to high heaven from the watchful angels who joy over penitents,
"Glory be unto almighty grace." Now, look thee, man, once more, God can, by
saving such a one as thou art, not only glorify his patience and grace but
display his power. It is evident that it is not an easy task to conquer thee.
Thou hast been like Leviathan whose heart is hard as a stone; yea, as hard as a
piece of the nether millstone. "The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold:
the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon; the arrow cannot make him see; he
laugheth at the shaking of a spear." Thou hast laughed at all men who would
convince thee, and even the thunders of God's providence have not solaced to
alarm thee; yet now the Lord intends to show what his Almighty grace can do. Now
will he by a miracle of gracious power turn the lion to a lamb, the raven to a
dove. The conversion of little sinners, if such there be, would but little honor
him; but if they be desperately set on mischief there is room for the eternal
and ever blessed God to display the glory of his name. For his name's sake will
he do it; even for his own sake will he do it, that men may see what his
patience, grace, and power can accomplish. Truly the Lord's love does accomplish
great moral wonders. Forgiveness even among men is often more potent than
punishment. I have heard it related of a soldier at Woolwich, that he had
frequently been drunk and disorderly; and, though he had been very frequently
imprisoned, and otherwise punished for his offenses, he was incorrigible. On one
occasion he had incurred the severe penalty of the lash, and expected to receive
it. He had no excuse to offer, and did not pretend to make any. He was sullen
and obdurate. At last the commanding officer said to him, "We cannot do anything
with you; we have imprisoned you; we have dogged you; yet we cannot improve you.
There is only one thing we have never done with you, and that we are going to
try; we forgive you." The culprit broke down at once. Hard as he was, this new
treatment overcame him. That word, "You are fully forgiven," broke him down far
more than the nine-thonged cat; he was never an offender again. Many a soul that
has been very obstinate against God, even to persecuting the followers of the
Lord Jesus, when the Lord has by the Holy Spirit said in his heart, "I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, I gave my Son to die for thee; I laid thy
sins on him, and now I freely forgive thee, and take thee to be my child, my
well-beloved." Oh, the heart dissolves and the rebellious will surrenders."I
yield -- by mighty love subdued,Who can resist its charms?And throw myself, by
wrath pursued,Into my Savior's arises."God grant that in many and many a case
this may be true at this moment.But, now, it may be that a soul here present is
saying, "Well, I can see that God can thus find a motive for mercy in himself,
when there is none in the sinner, but why is it that the Lord is chastening me
as he is?" Possibly you are sickly in body, have been brought low in estate, and
are grievously depressed in mind. God now, in our text, goes on to explain his
dealings with you, that you may not have one hard thought of him. It is true he
has been smiting you, but it has been with a purpose and in measure. "I have
refined thee, but not with silver." You have been put into the furnace of
affliction, but not, -- note the "but," -- "but not with silver." Now, when
silver is refined it requires the most vehement heat of all metals. God has not
brought upon you the severest troubles. You have been chastised, but not as you
might have been, nor as you deserved to have been. You have been made to suffer,
but his strokes have been fewer than your crimes and lighter than your guilt.
You are now bowed down and depressed, but you are not quite without some rays of
hope, especially now that you have heard the glad sound of a free-grace gospel.
You have been "refined," that was God's object, but the process has been slight,
it is "not with silver." The Lord has not dealt with you as men do with silver.
What do they do with it? They put it into a fire that the dross may be consumed,
and the silver may be made pure. Now, if you, poor sinner, had been put into
such a fire as that, you would have been utterly destroyed, for in you there was
no silver at all. As you are by nature you are not at all like silver, and the
heat of a silver furnace would quite consume you. True it is that now his grace
has created a vein of silver in your heart, but he does not yet intend to put
you to extreme tests, for your weak graces would fail in the process. What he
has sent to you has been with a view to awaken and to quicken, to take away your
self-confidence and false peace, and so in a measure to refine you; but he does
not depend for the refinement of either you or his people upon the furnace of
affliction, he has other and more effectual modes of purification. The furnace
of trouble is often used as a mode of refining, but after all it is only a
means; the real refining fire is the Holy Ghost, the true purification lies in
the blood of him who sits as a refiner. Remember it is not said that trouble
will purify the sons of Levi; but "HE is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's
sope," and "he," not with trouble but by himself, "shall purify the sons of
Levi, and purge them as gold and silver." Here suffering would only make a man
more drossy; apart from divine grace affliction has no good effect. If we are
not sanctified by the Eternal Spirit when in the furnace of affliction, and if
the precious blood of Jesus be not applied to our soul, all the distress and
grief in the world will not purify us. And so, poor soul, God has wrought in
your trouble, but he does not mean to continue to vex you until your soul is
perfectly refined, for that would be more than you could bear, even could it be
possible. No, no, he will put away your sin by better means. Behold the precious
blood! You have not to suffer for your sins, for Christ has suffered for them in
thy stead. You are to be refined, but not by processes of a fiery character.
Behold the sacred water from the river side of your Redeemer, for that will take
your filthiness away. Behold the Eternal Spirit waiting to renew your soul --
that will effectually remove your dross. The Spirit has refined you, in a
measure, by what you have suffered, by awakening and convincing you; but the
true refining shall come to you in another way, therefore be of good courage,
thank God for what you have felt, but be not bowed down with abject terror as
though your trials would quite consume you. They shall be both mitigated in
degree, and useful in result. And now, notice the next thing: the Lord declares
that the time of trial is the chosen season for revealing his love to you: "I
have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." This verse does not teach that
God's choice of any man begins in time, or begins when he is under affliction.
Oh, no, the choice of God is without beginning, it is eternal. God seeth the
things that shall be as though they were; everything is now with him. But it
often happens that the time in which God reveals his choice and manifests his
electing love to a soul is when that soul is almost consumed with trouble. And
now, dear hearer, I must again picture thee, for my object is not to preach to
the winds, but to preach right into thy soul; thou hast been brought very low of
late, thou hast been like a field ploughed, harrowed, cross-ploughed, scarified;
there is no rest to thee; and thou canst plead no reason why God should give
thee rest. Thou art brought into abject distress of spirit. Now is the time when
the Lord reveals his love to such as thou art. I never knew his love when I
strutted abroad in the bravery of my selfrighteousness, and I never should have
known it. I never heard him say "I have chosen thee," when I fared sumptuously
every day at the table of my own self-sufficiency. I never heard him say, "My
son that was dead is alive again, he that was lost is found," when I had still
the gold in my purse and was spending my living riotously. But, I will tell you
when I heard him say, "I have chosen thee": it was when I came fresh from the
swine-trough with my belly aching because I could not fill it with husks, with
my filthy rags about me, and my soul all sinking in despair; with no argument
upon my lip except this: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee,
and am no more worthy to be called thy son." Then for the first time I heard him
say, "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." It is when we are down
to the very lowest, when we are brought to bankruptcy and beggary spiritually,
when we lie at Christ's feet as though we were dead, it is then he puts his hand
upon us, and says, "Fear not, I am the first and the last": it is then he
anoints us with the oil of joy, it is then he clothes us with the garments of
salvation, it is then we hear the voice of eternal love, saying, "I have loved
thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn
thee."But note, once more, before I leave the sinner's case, that lest the soul
should forget it, the Lord repeats again the point he began with, and unveils
the motives of his grace once more. What is the eleventh verse but the echo of
the ninth: "For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it; for how
should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another." God
cannot save you, sinner, for your own sake, you are not worth the saving. If you
are cast away upon the dunghill of oblivion for ever, it is as much as you
deserve; you are not worthy of God's notice, you are a mere speck in his great
universe, and having dared to sin against him, it is as fit that he should
destroy you, as it is fit that a venomous reptile should be crushed beneath your
foot. Yet the Lord declares that he will refrain from wrath. He will have mercy
upon you, oh, broken heart, for his own sake; do you observe why it is "for his
own sake," namely, that his name "may not be polluted." Now, suppose a sinner
shall come to him and cry, "Lord, I am a guilty soul, I have no merit to plead,
but I appeal to thy mercy, I trust in thy love. Thou hast said that through
Christ Jesus, thou wilt forgive sinners. Lord, I trust in thy dear Son. Save me
for his sake. Now if he does not save you, we speak with reverence and bated
breath, but we use his own words, his name will be "polluted," because then it
will be said, "Here is a soul that came to the Lord, and he cast it out, and yet
he said, him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.' Here is a poor
sinner that rested on the love and mercy of God in Christ Jesus and yet was
confounded, whereas, he promised that they that trust in the Lord should never
be confounded, nor ashamed, world without end." I know this morning that my hope
is fixed on Christ Jesus alone. If I am ever lost I shall be a soul in hell
resting upon Christ, and do you think that can ever be? Will they not publish it
in the streets of Tophet; here is a soul that dared believe in Jesus, but Jesus
repelled him as presumptuous. Here is a poor soul who cried"If I perish, I will
pray,And perish only there;"and yet this soul is damned." Why, surely such an
one would be carried in triumph through the blazing streets of hell, and held up
as an insult to the God of mercy, as a proof that he had not kept his word. O
soul, he will save you, for his own sake, lest his name should be "polluted,"
for he is jealous of his name. He will never permit it to be truthfully said,
even by a devil, that he ever broke a promise, even to a devil. If you will go
to him in Christ Jesus, though you be all but damned already, and feel that your
death warrant is signed; he will not, he cannot, reject you. Throw yourself at
the cross-foot, and say, "Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief;" and God will
never tarnish his name by thy destruction. And then, he adds, "And I will not
give my glory unto another." But if a soul should perish while trusting in the
blood of Christ, the glory of God would go over to Satan. It would be proved
that Satan had overcome the truthfulness of God, or the power of God, or the
mercy of God; that at last evil had proved more mighty than good, and sin had
abounded over grace. Can it ever be that goodness shall find a difficulty which
it cannot overcome, a Red Sea it cannot divide, or a Lebanon which it cannot
climb? No, never, while God is God. Oh, that I had before me the biggest sinner
that ever lived! I would like to look this morning into the face of a criminal
who has piled up mountains on mountains of sins, defied his God, and derided the
laws of his country; a ruffian red-handed with murder, and dripping with lust;
for I would glory in saying to him, "All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be
forgiven unto men. Come but to God's arms through Jesus Christ his Son, and you
shall find him a God ready to forgive, and abounding in lovingkindness. He
retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy."I do not know
how to preach the gospel more fully than I am now doing. I am laboring to set
before downcast sinners an open door, and to show them how effectually grace has
removed every hinderance out of the way, by basing its arguments of love upon
the name of God, and not upon the merit of the creature.II. Thus much to the
sinner; we shall now speak OF THE RECLAIMING OF THE BACKSLIDER.Backsliding
professor, your case is more evidently meant in the text even than that of the
sinner, for God was speaking to his own people Israel in these remarkable words.
Now your crime, if any thing, is a more censurable one than that of the sinner.
I can see no more reason why God should have mercy upon you than upon the
ungodly, indeed, I see more reason for punishing you, for you have made a
profession and belied it. "Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by
the name of Israel, which swear by the name of Jehovah, and make mention of the
God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness." That is your character,
you have taken Christ's name upon you, I cannot say altogether that you have
been deceived and a deceiver, but your actions look as if you have been, for you
have gone aside from the faith, and turned aside from your Lord. You did know
something of his love; and, unless awfully deceived, you once rested on the Lord
Jesus. Shall I publish abroad your guilt? How hath the much fine gold become
dim! How hath the blazing sun of your profession been altogether eclipsed? You
have transgressed in opposition to light and knowledge; you knew more than the
sinner, and yet you have sinned as he did; you knew something of the sweets of
Christ's table, but you have joined yourself to the table of devils. And you
have been very perverse about it too, for providence has dealt sharply with you,
but you would not come back to your God. Your neck has been an iron sinew, and
your brow has been brass! Alas, how treacherously have you dealt with the Lord
your God! No sin is so destructive to married love as that of adultery, yet the
Lord puts the backslider's case on the same footing, in the third chapter of the
book of Jeremiah. "They say, if a man put away his wife, and she go from him,
and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be
greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return
again to me, saith the Lord." Cavil not at the imagery for its coarseness, but
rejoice in its matchless grace. Read on in that same chapter, from the twelfth
verse to the end, and note the verse, "Turn unto me, O backsliding children; for
I am married unto you, saith the Lord." But why should the Lord bid his chosen
nation come back? Not because she deserved to be received again, not because in
heaven, or earth, or hell, there could be found any reason why she should for
her own sake be restored. Her sins said, "Put her away, put her away; shall the
holy God have anything to do with such an one as this?" Justice said, "Put her
away, the law demands it." Holiness said, "Put her away, how shall she come into
God's house?" But, his infinite love replied, "The Lord, the God of Israel,
saith that he hateth putting away." He will not hear of a divorce; and again he
cries, "Return, ye backsliding children, I am married unto you, saith the Lord."
Backslider, you see there is no reason for God's grace that can be found in your
person or in your character, but it is found in the divine heart. I must go over
the same ground again. "For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my
praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off."The Lord has a reason
for not cutting off backsliders, and it is this -- first, his many promises must
be kept in which he has declared that his chosen shall not perish, neither shall
they utterly depart from him. Is not this the very tenor of the covenant? "If
his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my
statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgressions
with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness
will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." His gifts
and calling are without repentance, irrevocable. It shall not be said that his
promise was ever revoked or broken; he has made a covenant with our Lord Jesus,
and that covenant is sealed with blood; know ye not the sum and substance of it?
"I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from
then, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall
not depart from me." Thus the faithfulness of God to his promises would be
questioned if any of his people finally apostatised. God's grace is also
interested in it; for if after all your provocations God were to say, "I have
given thee up, I will never deal with thee in grace again," then it would be
said that God's grace had a limit, that it could not abound over sin, and after
all was a mutable thing. Can it be that forgiving grace should punish the
forgiven? That adopting grace could unchild the child? That wrath should
dismember the body of Christ, and mangle the Redeemer, to be avenged upon the
backslider? Oh, no, such is Jehovah's truth, that he will keep every promise to
the letter; such is his grace, that his people shall never sin to such an extent
but what his grace will overtop it all; and such is his immutability, that
though we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. Hath he
said, and will he not do it; hath he commanded, and shall it not come to pass?
Come back, backslider, God has not changed towards you; return at once to him.
His heart is still full of love to you. Return unto him, for still doth he say,
"How can I set thee as Admah, how can I make thee as Zeboim? My repentings are
kindled; I will not destroy him, for I am God and not man." There is a free
course for mercy to those who have wandered furthest, when God finds a motive
for grace in his own name and in his own praise. Why, do you not see, poor
trembling backslider, that if God forgives you, and you once get to heaven, you
will be among the heartiest of heaven's choristers? I mean to sing the loudest
of any if I ever enter the celestial seats, for I shall owe so much to the sweet
love and grace of God; but David and other great backsliders will also love most
intensely. It is amazing grace which not only saves at first, bet restores the
wandering sheep after it has gone astray. Oh, you Christians who are kept by
divine grace walking with God, you have much to praise him for, you ought to
bless him every day you live; but you who have fallen and gone aside, if the
Lord brings you back you must henceforth render double diligence and sevenfold
love. Henceforth you must be like the woman who broke the alabaster box over
Christ's head, you must feel that you cannot do enough for that dear Lord and
Savior who saw you in all your rebellions, and yet loved you. Loving you because
he would love you; not because you were lovely, but because he would love you;
not because you were deserving, but because he would love you. This ought to
make you the very choicest of Christians, this should place you in the front of
the champions of the Lord in the day of battle.Please to observe, that God
having thus declared the reason of his love to the backslider goes on to tell
him, that the present sufferings which he is now enduring as the result of his
backslidings should be mitigated. "I have refined thee, but not with silver; I
have put thee into the fire, but I have not blown the heat to such an extreme
degree that thy sin should be melted from thee: that would be a greater heat
than any soul could bear. I have refined thee, that was needful, but not as
silver; that would have been destructive to thee." Thou sayest, "All that waves
and billows have gone over me." Not so; you know not what all God's waves and
billows might be, for there is a depth infinitely lower than any you have ever
seen. The deeps of hell are far more horrible than anything you can imagine. If
you are in the furnace to-day do not repine, do not say like Cain, "My
punishment is greater than I can bear," but rather say, "I will kiss the rod,
and bless my Father's name that he allows me to live at all, and now bids me to
return to him. I will thank him for the rod; it is the token of the Father's
love to his child."Then comes his next word: "I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction;" that is, as if he said, "I will renew my election of you." It
was never revoked, but now it shall be more manifestly declared. God has looked
at you in prosperity and he has seen you treacherously forgetting him. You
prospered in business and you grew very worldly, God could see no beauty in your
face. You had your children about you, and your wife made you glad, and you
lived almost without prayer, without reading the scriptures; God therefore hid
his face from you. Now, however, your affairs are at a low ebb and you begin
again to pray; the neglected Bible is brought down again; now the seat that
could be left unoccupied half the Sabbath-day is always filled by you; now you
begin saying, "My God, my God, have mercy on me." Hear this for your comfort, --
the Lord never thinks his children's faces more lovely than when they are
slobbered with tears; when repentance defiles the face before men it beautifies
it before God; when the eyes grow red with sorrow they are lovely unto the Lord.
Do you beat upon your breast, and say, "God be merciful to me a sinner," then
know, that no sound of tabor is so sweet to God as the sound of beaten breasts,
no music hath more melody in it than the sigh of a broken heart.Brethren, all of
you, though you are not open backsliders, perhaps you may be worse than those
who are. I know in my own soul, I never feel safe except when I stand as a
sinner at the cross foot; and though I desire to grow in grace, and to be a
saint, and would use language suitable to a child of God, and would not keep my
hands off a single covenant privilege that belongs to me as one with Christ;
yet, for all that, while I am in this flesh, I feel my happiest moments are
those lowly times when I feel that I am nothing, and that Jesus is my all in
all. God chooses his people over again when he sees them contrite in the furnace
of soul affliction. When he sees them how he loves them; when he sees them down
he lifts them up; when he sees them withered in themselves then he makes them
flourish; when they are nothing his love is everything. When they are swollen
with pride and self-reliant, he turns his face away from them; but to his dear
brokenhearted children, he is all kindness; and this is his reason, "How shall
my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another." If one poor
believer who is pining after Jesus' face were forgotten by him, his name would
be polluted -- where would be his immutability? And then again, Satan would
glory over that child of God and say, "I have dragged a child of God down to
hell!" Christ's blood would suffer dishonor, for it would be said that a soul
was punished though Christ was punished in its stead, and that were to
obliterate the atonement, and to make the substitution of Christ to be of none
effect. If it could once be said, "Here is a spirit that God justified, and yet
condemned it," where were God's immutability? There were no God at all. He were
a changeable being, and not Jehovah. If it could be said, "Here is one that was
espoused unto Christ in righteousness, a soul that was one with Jesus in vital
union, yet he suffered this sheep of his flock to perish, this jewel of his
crown to be cast away, this member of his body to rot into corruption, God's
glory could be given to another, and he would not be what he now is. Oh,
beloved, let us to one and all, whether we be unsaved sinners or backsliders, or
may suspect ourselves to be either the one or the other, let us go to the dear
fountain of his blood, whose open veins are the gates of healing to us; let us
go again and touch the hem of his garment and be made whole, and together let us
rejoice that he for his mercy's sake can save us, and magnify himself by the
deed of mercy. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Isaiah 48 and 49:1-12.


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  CHAPTER 15: A PERSUASIVE TO STEADFASTNESS
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A Sermon (No.1042) Delivered on Thursday Evening, February 29th, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "For we are made partakers
of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end."
-- Hebrews 3:14. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE for the preacher to say too much about
faith, or to extol this grace too highly! It is of vital importance, not at one
stage of the Christian's history only, but throughout the whole of his career,
from his setting out even till he reaches the goal where faith is turned to
sight. By faith we begin the life of obedience to Christ, and by faith we
continue to lead the life of holiness, for "the just shall live by faith." This
is the point of honor and of safety with all the just -- the justified ones. The
whole compass of their well-being, though it take in the sternest sense of duty
and the highest grant of privilege, is to believe simply, to rely implicitly,
and to confide cheerfully, in their covenant God. The beginning of their
confidence is a hopeful sign. Time will test its value. The result of that
profession has yet to be shown. Hence it is necessary that the beginning of
their confidence should be held fast, steadfast even unto the end. When we begin
in the spirit we do not proceed with a hope to be made perfect in the flesh. We
do not start with justification by faith, and then look for perfection by works.
We do not lean upon Christ when we are little children, and then expect to run
alone when we are men; but we live by drawing all our stores from him, while as
yet we are naked, and poor, and miserable. When most enriched by his grace, we
still have to say and delight to say it, "all my springs are in thee." Faith at
the beginning and faith at the close; faith all the way through is the one
important matter. A failure in this, as we observed in our reading, shut Israel
out of the promised land. "They could not enter in because of unbelief."
Unbelief is always the greatest mischief to the saints; hence they have need
earnestly to watch against it. Faith is always the channel of innumerable
blessings to them: they ought, therefore, most watchfully to maintain it. We
shall have to show the value of faith while we try to open up the text before
us, in which I see, first, a high privilege: "we are made partakers of Christ;"
and secondly, by implication, a serious question -- the question whether or no
we have been made partakers of Christ and, then, in the third place, an unerring
test. "We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast unto the end." I. First, then, here is A VERY HIGH
PRIVILEGE. "We are made partakers of Christ." Observe that the text does not
say, "we are made partakers with Christ." That would be true, a very precious
truth too, for we are joint-heirs with Christ, and because all things are his,
all things are ours. Christ holds for us the entire heritage of the faithful as
our representative, and as we are made partakers with him in the Father's favor,
and in the world's hatred, so we shall be partakers with him in the glory to be
revealed, and in the bliss which endures for ever and ever. But here we have to
do with our being partakers of Christ, rather than our being partakers with
Christ. Neither does it say we are made partakers of rich spiritual benefits.
That is a fact which we may greet with thorough trust and hearty welcome. But,
dear brethren, there is more than that here. To be partakers of pardoning mercy,
to be partakers of renewing grace; to be partakers of the adoption, to be
partakers of sanctification, preservation, and of all the other covenant
blessings, is to possess an endowment of unspeakable value; but to be made
"partakers of Christ," is to have all in one. You have all the flowers in one
posy, all the gems in one necklace, all the sweet spices in one delicious
compound. "We are made partakers of Christ" -- of himself. "It pleased the
Father that in him should all fullness dwell," and we are made partakers with
him of all that he is ordained to be of God unto us -- "wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption." We are partakers of him; this is a privilege
that no tongue can ever utter, no thought of finite mortal can ever grasp. But
ah, it would need more time than we can afford, and far more spiritual teaching
than we profess to have attained, to dive into this great and profound
utterance, "We are made partakers of Christ." Still, as we stand spell-bound on
the margin, let us venture to sail out just a little upon the surface of this
ocean of goodness and of grandeur. We are made partakers of Christ, beloved,
when first of all by faith in him we-procure a share in his merits. Sinful and
sad, covered with transgressions and conscious of our shame, we come to the
fountain filled with his blood, we washed in it, and were made white as snow. In
that hour we became partakers of Christ. Christ is the substitute for sin. He
suffered the penalty due from the unjust, for whom he died, to the violated law
of God. When we believe in him we become partakers of those sufferings, or
rather of the blessed fruit of them. The fact of his having borne what we ought
to have borne becomes available to us. We present the memorial thereof at the
altar of God, the throne of the heavenly grace, in prayers and professions, and
in spiritual worship. The blood pleads our cause. The blood of Jesus, which
speaketh better things than that of Abel, intercedes for mercy, not for
vengeance. By its rich virtue, its real value, its vital merit, it puts our sins
for ever to death and lays our fears for ever to rest. Oh, how blessed to be a
partaker of Christ, the sin-atoning sacrifice -- to stand before God as a sinner
that deserves nothing but damnation in himself, and yet knows by precious faith,
that"Covered is my unrighteousness,From condemnation I am free -- " -- that I am
a partakerof the meritorious sacrifice of the great high Priest, who, having
once offered one sacrifice for ever, now sits down, his work being done, at the
right hand of God. What a privilege is this!Moreover, we are partakers of
Christ, inasmuch as his righteousness also becomes ours by imputation. We are
not only freed from sin through his atonement, but we are rendered acceptable to
God through his obedience as our responsible surety. We are "accepted in the
beloved," we are justified through his righteousness. God seeth not us marred in
the likeness of the first Adam who sinned, but he seeth us in Christ, the second
Adam, remade, redeemed, restored, arrayed in garments of glory and beauty, with
the Savior's vesture on, as holy as the Holy One. He seeth "no sin in Jacob nor
iniquity in Israel." When Jacob learns to trust in the Messiah, and Israel hides
behind his representative, the Lord our Righteousness, Jacob ceases to wrestle,
for he prevails, and Israel stands in honor, for he is a prince with God.
Blessed, thrice blessed, are they who are partakers of Christ in his
righteousness.After we are thus saved from sin, and righteousness is imputed to
us by faith, we further become partakers of Christ by living upon him, feeding
on him. The sacramental table represents our fellowship. Though it does no more
than represent it, it represents it well. At that table we eat bread, and we
drink wine, and the body is thus fed, typifying that through meditation upon the
incarnate Christ our soul is sustained, and by remembering the passion of the
Lord, as the wine cup sets forth his blood, our spirits are comforted and
revived, and our hearts are nourished. It is not that the bread is anything or
the wine anything, but it is that Christ is everything to us. He is our daily
bread, his atonement makes glad our heart -- makes us "strong in the Lord and in
the power of his might." Brethren, you know what it is to feed upon Jesus, and
what satisfying food it is! When nothing else can give your soul rest and peace,
remembering the incarnate God will do it, a study of the suffering Savior will
bring the refreshment and consolation you want. Jesus Christ when he is our food
makes us to be partakers of himself.But, is there not a doctrine concealed here
of deeper significance? The union of believers with himself was among the latest
of all the revelations which our blessed Lord when on earth made known to his
disciples. With a parable he showed it, and without a parable he declared it
plainly. Every true child of God is one with Christ. This union is set forth in
Scripture by several images, to which we will just refer, but upon none of which
can we just now enlarge. We are one with Christ and partakers of him as the
stone is cemented to the foundation. It is built upon it, rests upon it, and,
together with the foundation, goes to make up the structure. So we are built
into Christ by coherence and adhesion, joined to him, and made a spiritual house
for the habitation of God by the Holy Ghost. We are made partakers with Christ
by a union in which we lean and depend upon him. This union is further set forth
by the vine and the branches. The branches are participators with the stem, the
sap of the stem is for the branches. It treasures it up only to distribute it to
them. It has no sap for itself alone, all its store of sap is for the branch. In
like manner we are vitally one with Christ, and the grace that is in him is for
us. It was given to him that he might distribute it to all his people.
Furthermore, it is as the union of the husband with the wife, they are
participators the one with the other. All that belongs to the husband the wife
enjoys and shares with him. Meanwhile she shares himself, nay, he is all her
own. Thus it is with Christ. We are married unto him -- betrothed unto him for
ever in righteousness and in judgment, and all that he has is ours, and he
himself is ours. All his heart belongs to each one of us. And then, too, as the
members of the body are one with the head, as they derive their guidance, their
happiness, their existence from the head, so are we made partakers of Christ.
Oh, matchless participation! It is "a great mystery" saith the apostle; and,
indeed, such a mystery it is as they only know who experience it. Even they
cannot understand it fully; far less can they hope to set it forth so that
carnal minds shall comprehend its spiritual meaning. The day cometh when we
shall be partakers of Christ to the highest and uttermost degree that symbols
can suggest, prophecy forestal, faith anticipate, or actual accomplishment bring
to pass; for, albeit, though of all that our Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven we
have a reversionary interest to-day by faith, we shall have a share in it by
actual participation ere long. Partakers of Christ! Yes, and therefore with him
partakers in destiny. When he shall come his holy ones shall come with him. That
he has risen from the dead is the earnest of their resurrection. At the day of
his appearing they shall rise and participate in the fruition of his mediatorial
work. Then, in the judging of the world, in the destruction of all his spiritual
foes, in the great marriage-day when the bride shall have made herself ready,
and he shall drink of the new wine in the kingdom of his Father, and in all else
that is to come, too glorious to be described except by symbols like those of
the Apocalypse, his people shall participate with him, for this honor have all
his saints. All right and all might, all that can extol or delight, all that for
ever and for ever shall contribute to the glory of Christ, shall be shared by
all the faithful, for we are partakers not only with him, but of him -- of
Christ -- therefore of all the surroundings of glory and honor that shall belong
to him.The language of the text reminds us that none of us have any title to
this privilege by nature. "We are made partakers of Christ." From our first
parentage He derived a very different entail. We all of woman born became
partakers of the ruin of the first Adam, of the corruption of humanity, of the
condemnation common to the entire race. Oh, to be made partakers! This is a work
of grace, of sovereign omnipotent grace -- a work which a man cannot
sufficiently admire, and for which he can never be sufficiently grateful. "We
are made partakers of Christ." This is the Holy Ghost's work in us, to rend us
away from the old wild olive, and to graft us into the good olive, -- to
dissolve the union between us and sin, and to cement a union between our souls
and Christ, -- to take us out of the Egyptian bondage and the Egyptian night in
which we willingly sat, and to bring us into the liberty and the light wherewith
Christ makes his people free and glad. This is work as grand and godlike as to
create a world. For it let the Lord's name be magnified by each one of us if,
indeed, we have been made partakers of Christ. If -- I say; and that "if" leads
me to the second point I proposed to consider.II. The privilege of which we have
spoken suggests A SOLEMN SEARCHING QUESTION. Are we made partakers of Christ? O
beloved, many think they are who are not. There is nothing more to be dreaded
than a supposititious righteousness, a counterfeit justification, a spurious
hope. Better, I sometimes think, to have no religion than to have a false
religion. I am quite certain that the man is much more likely to be saved who
knows that he is naked, and poor, and miserable, than the man who says, "I am
rich and increased in goods." It were infinitely better to take the road to
heaven doubting than to go in another direction presuming. I am far better
pleased with the soul that is always questioning, "Am I right?" than with him
who has drunk the cup of arrogance till he is intoxicated with selfconceit and
says, "I know my lot; the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; there is
no need for self-examination in my case." Brethren, be assured of this; all men
are not partakers of Christ: all baptised men are not partakers of Christ: all
churchmen are not partakers of Christ: all dissenters are not made partakers of
Christ: all members of this church are not made partakers of Christ: all
ministers, all elders, all bishops, are not made partakers of Christ. Yea, all
apostles were not made partakers of Christ. One of them, Christ's familiar
friend, who kept the little purse which held all the Master's earthly store,
lifted up his heel against him, betrayed him with a tender treacherous kiss, and
became the son of perdition. He was a companion of Christ not a partaker of
him?Am I made a partaker of Christ? Multiply the question till each individual
among you makes it his own. In this congregation there are various classes.
There are probably some here who are only hearers -- hearers about Christ, not
partakers of Christ. It is one thing to hear about a banquet, it is quite
another thing to be fed at it. It is one thing in the wilderness to hear of
rippling streams, and quite another to stoop down and drink the cooling draught
-- one thing for the prisoner by night to dream of liberty, or by day to read of
roaming free through his native country, another thing to get rid of the chain
-- one thing to hear of pardon, another thing to be pardoned -- one thing to
hear of heaven, another thing to go there. O my dear hearers! some of you are as
familiar with the gospel as you are with the house you live in; yet, though you
live in the house, you never live in the gospel, and I fear you never will. You
hear it, and hear it, that is all. God grant you may not have to hear of your
hearing in another world, where it shall be laid down among the chief of your
sins that you were of those who, when they heard did provoke -- provoke because
they rejected what they ought to have received.Others go farther than hearing.
They become professors. May I remind you -- and I would not judge anyone harshly
-- certainly no man more harshly than I would myself -- it is one thing to
profess to be a partaker of Christ, and another thing to be made a partaker of
Christ. I may profess that I am rich and be all the while a bankrupt, a
dishonest bankrupt for having made the profession. I may protest that I am in
health, while a deadly cancer may lurk within. I may declare that I am honest,
but it will not clear me before the judge if I am proved a thief. I may avow
that I am loyal, but it would not save my life if I were convicted of high
treason. Professions; ah, I fear they are in many cases but a painted pageantry
that makes the road to hell attractive. Professions there are not unfrequently
upon which we may gaze with a vacant wonder and turn away with a cold shudder,
as from the sombre gaudiness of a funeral, wherein prancing steeds, stately
mutes, nodding plumes, and velvet palls adorn the obsequies of the dead. God
save us from a lifeless profession! May we never be like certain trees, of which
Bunyan said, that they were green outside, but inwardly they were so rotten that
they were only fit to be tinder for the devil's tinder-box. Many professors are
too fair not to be false; too comely outside not to be loathsome within; for
there is an over-doing of the sepulchre's whitewash. You feel convinced that
there would not be so much whitewashing without if there were not a good deal of
rottenness inside to be concealed. Essence of roses or of lavender is sweet, but
much scent excites much suspicion. Oh, let us, each one who professes to-night,
say to himself, "I was baptised on a profession of my faith, but was I ever
baptised into Christ? When the Sacred name of the triune God was named on me,
did I then enter into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost? I have come often to the communion table; but have I communed with Christ
there? My name is on the church-book, but is it written in heaven? I have said
to others I am a Christian, but am I in very deed known unto Christ? Or will he
say unto me in that day, I never knew you: depart from me ye workers of
iniquity'?" These are solemn questionings. Many persons are temporary followers
of Christ, and outwardly, as far as the human eye can follow, they appear to be
real followers of Christ. I believe in the final perseverance of the saints; but
I do not know, nor can any man know, how near a man may approach to the likeness
of a saint and yet after all apostatise. Nor is any one of us able to say of
himself, or of his fellow members, "We never shall fall away." I remember one
whose voice I, and many of your heard in prayer, and we enjoyed the exercise of
his gifts. The man had been reclaimed from the lowest class of society, and he
distinguished himself by his devotion in such a way that he was accepted as a
church officer among us. I remember, when the first charge of sin was brought
against him, and of very grievous sin, one among us said, "If that man is not a
child of God I am not a child of God." The expression seemed to me too strong,
but in my heart I almost joined in it. I was ready to pronounce him innocent
before I investigated the charges. I felt certain that there could not be in
such a man as that the impurity laid at his door; yet it was there, it was all
there, and worse than tongue can tell. He repented and though not received into
the church because the profession of repentance did not seem to be all we could
wish it to be, yet there was a turning aside from sin for awhile. But he went
into it again, and he wallowed in it. He died in it. As far as we could any of
us judge, he perished in it. He went from bad to worse. I feel I might say
without uncharitableness this man carried his iniquity, as far as human judgment
could track him. Therefore, without prejudice to the doctrine of the final
perseverance of the saints, which I implicitly believe, I will not venture to
say of any among you -- much less will I venture to say it of myself, that I am
sure I am so made a partaker of Christ that I shall hold fast my confidence to
the end. I hope so. I rest in Christ, trusting in him. The possibility is that I
am deceiving myself; the possibility is that you may be self-deceivers. At any
rate, it is so far a possibility that I would beseech you to have no confidence
but such as the Holy Ghost gives you; to put no reliance as to the future
anywhere but in the eternal arms; have no assurance but that assurance which is
based upon the word of God and the witness of the Spirit within your soul. That
can give you infallible assurance. Apart from that, I repeat it again, I will
say neither of you nor of myself, that I can be sure with all the profession
that is made, that you are partakers of Christ. Some go even farther than being
temporary followers of Christ, and yet after all perish. They maintain a
consistent profession before the eye of men throughout the whole of their lives,
as vessels that navigate the whole of the sea and go down in the harbour. There
are soldiers that have held out and fought valiantly up to the very moment of
victory, and then have run away. And there are professors that have been
unexceptional in their lives, whose character has been apparently without a
blemish, and even those who knew them in private could not detect any serious
flaw in their conduct; yet, for all that, there was a worm at the root; a fly in
the pot of ointment; a failure as to the sincerity of their grace. They had not,
after all, the true faith which hangs upon Christ, and they did not persevere in
heart, though they appeared to persevere in life. The difference between the
Christian and the professor is sometimes such as only God can discern. There is
a path which the eagle's eye hath not seen, and the lion's whelp hath not
traversed -- a path of life into which God can bring us, end of which it may be
said that he knows all who are in it. But, there is a something like it, a way
which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. There
is a counterfeit of the true metal of grace so well manufactured, that only
omniscience itself can tell which is the reprobate silver and which is the pure
shekel of the sanctuary. Grave reason have we, then, for raising the question as
to whether we are made partakers of Christ or not.III. Now we come to THE
UNERRING TEST. Patience comes to the aid of faith here. Evidences accumulate
till the issue is conclusive. "We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the
beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end."This passage may be read in
two ways, neither of which violates the literal meaning of the original, either
of which may express to us the mind of the Spirit -- as we have it in our
version, "the beginning of our confidence," or, as I would rather translate it,
"the foundation of our confidence," the basis on which our confidence rests.Take
your choice. We will expound and vindicate both. That man is a partaker of
Christ who holds fast they he had at first, having received it, not as an
education, but as an intuition of his spirit life; not as an argument, but as an
axiom he could not challenge, or rather as an oracle he received joyfully and
bowed to submissively. The confidence which is based upon the true foundation,
even Christ Jesus, is simple and clear as one's own consciousness. It asks no
proof because it admits no doubt. In vain the sceptic comes to me now and says,
"Sir, you are asleep, and dreaming." I answer, "No, sir, I am speaking to these
thousands, and they are listening to me." Even so, when I first believed the
Gospel story it was with a childlike feeling that it was so and I knew it. The
man who is not a partaker of Christ hears the gospel, professes to believe it,
and in some measure acts accordingly; but he perishes because this pure,
unwavering faith does not abide in him. He has not the faith of God's elect
which never can be destroyed. He has only a notion, a creed of his own making,
and not a faith of the Spirit's giving. Now, beloved, what was the beginning of
our confidence? Well, the beginning of my confidence was, "I am a sinner, Christ
is a Savior; and I rest on him to save me." Long before I began with Christ he
had begun with me; but when I began with him it was, as the law writers say, "In
formâ pauperis," after the style of a wretched mendicant -- a pauper who had
nothing of his own, and looked to Christ for everything. I know when I first
cast my eye to his dear cross and rested in him, I had not any merit of my own,
it was all demerit. I was not deserving, except that I felt I was
hell-deserving: I had not even a shade of virtue that I could confide in. It was
all over with me. I had come to an extremity. I could not have found a
farthing's worth of goodness in myself if I had been melted down. I seemed to be
all rottenness, a dunghill of corruption, nothing better, but something a great
deal worse. I could truly join with Paul at that time, and say that my own
righteousnesses were dung. A strong expression he used; but I do not suppose he
felt it to be strong enough. He says, "I count them but dung, that I may win
Christ, and be found in him." Well, that is how we began with Christ. We were
nothing at all, and Jesus Christ was all in all. Now, brethren, we are not made
partakers of Christ unless we hold this fast to the end. Have you got beyond
that? Are you something creditable in your own estimation? I am afraid of you.
Are you richer now in yourselves that you were then? I am afraid of you,
brethren. Do you mind the place you used to stand in? you dared not lift your
eyes, to heaven, but cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner." How in Christ you
have a far nobler place than that, for you are made to sit with him in the
heavenly places. But, I ask you, apart from Christ, have you any different place
from that of deep selfabasement? If you have, you have not held the beginning of
your confidence fast even until now. Begin to suspect yourself. This is the
position always to take "having nothing and yet possessing all things.""I the
chief of sinners amBut Jesus died for me."Such is the beginning of our
confidence. Brethren, where else was the beginning of your confidence? May we
not say of it that it was only and wholly, entirely and exclusively, in the
blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ? In the beginning of your
confidence you did not rely upon any ceremonies, nor upon priests, nor upon your
Bible readings, nor upon your prayings, nor upon your feelings, nor your
experiences, nor your orthodoxy, nor your knowledge of doctrine, nor upon your
works, nor your preachings, your sanctifications or your mortifications. No, in
the beginning of your confidence the one foundation was Jesus only. Nothing save
Jesus would I know. Oh, if on that day, I had met with a man who had any trust
in his own righteousness, I know I should have quarrelled with him. If he had
told me that he hoped that Jesus Christ would help him to save himself I could
have wept over him to think he should be such a fool. Why, Christ is all or
nothing. He must save us from top to bottom, or we never shall be saved at all.
If our foundation is partly on the rock of his finished work, and partly on the
sand of our own unworthy doing, the whole house totters and it must come
down.Well, brethren, is there any correspondence between the beginning of your
confidence and your present look-out? Had you anything except Christ to depend
upon in the hour you first believed? Is there ought now added to that one
foundation that God has laid, or hath your trust been supplemented by any fresh
conceit of your own? Are you faithless? God is faithful. With you, it may be yea
and nay; with him it is yea and amen. Some of the Israelites when they came out
of Egypt depended upon God. They saw that he had divided the Red Sea, and rained
down the manna, and refreshed them with streams in the desert, and so they
believed, but their faith did not hold out. While they could see miracles of
mercy, they relied on God, with nothing else to rely on; but when they got into
a little difficulty they did not hold fast the beginning of their confidence
unto the end, for they began to lose faith in Moses, or to confide in a golden
calf. So there are some that begin, in a time of weakness, calamity, or
despondence, by saying, "I trust in Christ, as a sinner." They get beyond that
when they recover from their temporary depression. Then they qualify their
confessions after their altered circumstances, and elect their religion after
their own deliberate choice. But the God of Israel will not allow it. He will
not have us put any trust but in his dear Son. We must be stripped naked of
everything but that which Christ spins. We must have all our bread mouldy til we
cast it out because we loathe it, and we must feed on nothing but the bread of
heaven. If we get beyond that and feed on anything else, we are not made
partakers of him, for we have not held fast the beginning of our confidence.Let
me call back your thoughts again, beloved, to the love of your espousals, when
you acknowledged the Lord and went after him into the wilderness. Did you not
then have confidence in Christ of a very humble character? Oh, at that time you
did not want to be among the first of God's people to play the part of
Diotrephes. When you were at the foot of the cross, and looked up as a poor
sinner, you had no notion about being a distinguished man in the church. I know
it did not come into my head that day that I should be a leader in God's Israel.
Ah no, if I might but sit in the corner of his house, or be a door keeper it had
been enough for me. If, like the dog under the table, I might get a crumb of his
mercy, were it but flavoured by his hand, because he had broken it off that is
all I wanted. That is just how we ought always to live -- lowly, humbly, gentle,
and broken-spirited, and ready to be anything, so that Christ may he glorified.
It shows the risings of the old nature when we get to be such consequential
people that if anybody should say a hard word, we wonder, or if anybody slanders
us, instead of saying, "Ah, if he knew us he could say something a good deal
worse," we are in a high and mighty temper because our brilliant character is
injured. Verily, I think, that when I was first converted to God if the Lord had
said, "I have taken you into my house" and I am going to make use of you, and
you shall be a door-mat for the saints to wipe their feet on," I should have
said, "Ah, happy shall I be if I but take the filth off their blessed feet, for
I love God's people; and may I minister to them in the slightest degree, it
shall be my delight." But when we get away from that position we are in danger.
If we are made partakers of Christ, the proof will be in our continuing to be of
a meek and lowly spirit -- willing to serve him in any capacity -- in our
becoming like little children, for "except we become as little children, we
shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven." Little children we were in the
beginning of our confidence; little children we must continue to be, or else we
may gravely question whether we have been made partakers of Christ.When we were
first made partakers of Christ, we received him very gratefully. How thankful we
were for one look from Jesus' eye. Half a promise seemed precious in those days.
The sermon, though it was uncouth perhaps, if full of Christ, fed us to the
full. Now, alas, how many professors despise precious truth if it does not
happen to be clothed in the most polished phrases; they run hither and thither
where there is no food for them: not hungering and thirsting after righteousness
as of yore, they admire the banquet spread out with all flowers and no fruit:
they look after gaudy periods, where pure silver and polished sham do sparkle,
though there be no food for the soul to feed on. Did they hold fast the
beginning of their confidence they would prize the truth and love the truth, and
account that if it were but the truth, it did not matter in what shape it came
to them, so long as they could get hold of a promise, have a smile from Christ's
face or enjoy one ray of the blessed Spirit's consolation in their souls. But
now the starving beggars have become dainty epicures; those who once were glad
enough to come and feast on broken crusts from the Master's table, become
connoisseurs of their Master's food; their soul "loatheth this light bread,"
though it is the bread of angels, and drops from the granaries of God. We should
suspect ourselves, when we get into that squeamish condition. Such a proud
captious state of heart does not evidence that we have been made partakers of
Christ at all.When we first received our confidence, we were obedient in word
and deed. I wish all disciples of Christ had the like scrupulous conscience. I
speak my own experience. The first week after I was converted to God, I felt
afraid to put one foot before another for fear I should do wrong; when I thought
over the day if there had been a failure in my temper, or if there had been a
frothy work spoken, or something done amiss, I did chasten myself sorely, and
had I known at that time anything to be my Lord's will, I think I should not
have hesitated to do it; to me it would not have mattered whether it was a
fashionable thing or an unfashionable thing, if it was according to his word.
Oh, to do his will! to follow him whithersoever he would have me go! Why, then
it seemed as though I should never, never, never be slack in keeping his
commandments. Dear brethren, have you held fast the beginning of your
confidence? I smite upon my own breast when I remember that, in that respect, I
have not held fast the beginning of my confidence. To the cross again! Beloved,
if any of you have doubts aroused in your mind by such bitter reflections upon
yourselves, do not dispute with your doubts; go to the cross again. Never
dispute with the devil. He can always beat you. Go straight to the cross. If he
says, "Thou art no saint," say then "Very likely I am not, but there is one
thing even thou canst not deny thou canst not say I am not a sinner; a sinner I
am. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and if I never trusted him
before, I will begin now. If I never yet did know the life of God, I will look
to his death forthwith. Oh, if I never was healed of the disease of sin, there
is healing in those dear wounds, and I, by faith, will have it while yet it is
called to-day." Jesus, I trust thee; I trust thee wholly, and thee alone. I have
heard that some years ago there was a coal-pit in work, the shaft of which by
some means got blocked up, and the men could not get out of it. They were very
nearly perishing. One of them had heard that there was an old working which led
to another mine, and though he was afraid it might be blocked up, yet the best
thing they could do would be to go along, if, perhaps, they might come to the
mouth of another shaft. This old working had not been traversed for some time;
it never was very lofty. They had to go along on their hands and knees, and
generally needed to crawl lying flat on the ground. At length they came to the
mouth of that old shaft, were soon extricated, and they gladly found their way
to the upper air again. Peradventure, some of you have been living heretofore by
frames and feelings; that experience has been the shaft by which you have been
coming and going; and this shaft has been blocked up to-night. Well, I am not
sorry for it. Come, now, brethren, let us all go along on our hands and knees
where the sinners go. Let us crawl to the old shaft: let us prostrate ourselves,
confessing, "Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin. Lord, I am unworthy: Lord, I am
earthly, selfish, devilish. Lord, I am a mass of wounds and a mass of
loathsomeness. I am unworthy of thy favor and thy love." Let us just creep along
in that fashion till we come to Christ, and say, "Just as I am, without one
plea,Save that thy blood was shed for me,And that thou bidst me come to thee,O
Lamb of God, I come."You will find that old shaft is not shut up. There is
light. Look up! There is the cross above you. Jesus is still willing to receive
sinners, still able to save sinners, for he is "exalted" on high "to give
repentance unto Israel and remission of sins." O come to him just that way; and,
brother, when you get back to Christ in that way by which you went years ago,
the advice of the text, with which I will sum up all, is keep on coming to him
in that same way always. Keep on coming always. Keep on coming always. Perhaps
you have been on the top of a mountain such as the Rigi or as Snowden. You know
these mountains do not move. They are good solid rock under your feet. But
people erect platforms on the top of them to see the sun rise a little sooner,
or something of that sort. From the top of one of those platforms a man may come
down with a crash and break his limbs. That is something like our erections
which we put up over our simple faith in Christ. Our beautiful frames and
feelings and experiences -- they will come down with a crash some day, for they
are rotten stuff; but, when a man stands upon this -- "Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners, and I am resting upon him: he is all my salvation and
all my desire: his precious blood is all my confidence. The love of his heart,
the power of his arm, the merit of his plea, -- here I rest myself," -- O
beloved, there is no fear of that confidence ever giving way beneath your feet.
There may you stand and serenely rejoice when worlds shall melt and the pillars
of the earth shall reel. God bless you, and keep you ever holding the beginning
of your confidence steadfast unto the end. So shall it be proved beyond question
that you are partakers of Christ.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON --
Hebrews 3."THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL." Edited by C. H. SPURGEON.Contents for
April, 1872.Advice Gratis. By C. H. Spurgeon.The Story of an Eventful Life.The
Gospel in France.Recollections of the Rev. Rowland Hill. By an Old Member of
Surrey Chapel.Remarks on Beecher's Life of Christ. By Vernon J.
Charlesworth.Cromwell's Puritanism. By E. Leach.A New Interpretation of
Pilgrim's Progress. By G. Rogers (Continued.)Parental Duties. By Edward
Dennett.The Sinners of Mullion.Report of Visitor from the Sunday School Union
(Lambeth Auxiliary).Reviews.Memoranda.Pastors' College Account.Orphanage for
Girls.Stockwell Orphanage.Colportage Association.Price 3d. Post free, 4
stamps.London: Passmore & Alabaster, 18, Paternoster Row, and all Booksellers.


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  CHAPTER 16: GLORIOUS PREDESTINATION
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A Sermon (No.1043) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, March 24th, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren." -- Romans 8:29. YOU WILL HAVE NOTICED
that in this chapter, Paul has been expounding a very deep inward, spiritual
experience. He has written concerning the spirit of bondage, and the spirit of
adoption, the infirmities of the flesh, and the helpings of the spirit; the
waiting for the redemption of the body, and the groanings which cannot be
uttered. It was most natural, therefore, that a deep spiritual experience should
bring him to a clear perception of the doctrines of grace, for such an
experience is a school in which alone those great truths are effectually
learned. A lack of depth in the inner life accounts for most of the doctrinal
error in the church. Sound conviction of sin, deep humiliation on account of it,
and a sense of utter weakness and unworthiness naturally conduct the mind to the
belief of the doctrines of grace, while shallowness in these matters leaves a
man content with a superficial creed. Those teachings which are commonly called
Calvinistic doctrines are usually most beloved and best received by those who
have had much conflict of soul, and so have learned the strength of corruption
and the necessity of grace. Note, also, that Paul in this chapter has been
treating of the sufferings of this present time; and though by faith he speaks
of them as very inconsiderable compared with the glory to be revealed, yet we
know that they were not inconsiderable in his case. He was a man of many trials;
he went from one tribulation to another for Christ's sake; he swam through many
seas of affliction to serve the church. I do not wonder, therefore, that in his
epistles he often discourses upon the doctrines of foreknowledge, and
predestination, and eternal love, because these are a rich cordial for a
fainting spirit. To be cheered under many things, which otherwise would depress
him, the believer may betake himself to the matchless mysteries of the grace of
God, which are wines on the lees well refined. Sustained by distinguishing
grace, a man learns to glory in tribulations also; and strengthened by electing
love, he defies the hatred of the world and the trials of life. Suffering is the
college of orthodoxy. Many a Jonah, who now rejects the doctrines of the grace
of God, only needs to be put into the whale's belly and he will cry out with the
soundest free-grace man, "Salvation is of the Lord." Prosperous professors, who
do no business amid David's billows and waterspouts, may set small store by the
blessed anchorage of eternal purpose and everlasting love but those who are
"tossed with tempest, and not comforted, are of another mind." Let these few
sentences suffice for a preface. I utter them not in the spirit of controversy,
but the reverse. Our text begins by the expression, "Whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate," and many senses have been given to this word "foreknow"
though in this case one commends itself beyond every other. Some have thought
that it simply, means that God predestinated men whose future history ho
foreknow. The text before us cannot be so understood, because the Lord foreknows
the history of every man, and angel, and devil. So far as mere prescience goes,
every man is foreknown, and yet no one will assert that all men are
predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. But, it is further
asserted that the Lord foreknow who would exercise repentance, who would believe
in Jesus, and who would persevere in a consistent life to the end. This is
readily granted, but a reader must wear very powerful magnifying spectacles
before he will be able to discover that sense in the text. Upon looking
carefully at my Bible again I do not perceive such a statement. Where are those
words which you have added, "Whom he did foreknow to repent, to believe, and to
persevere in grace?" I do not find them either in the English version or in the
Greek original. If I could so read them the passage would certainly he very
easy, and would very greatly alter my doctrinal views; but, as I do not find
those words there, begging your pardon, I do not believe in them. However wise
and advisable a human interpolation may be, it has no authority with us; we bow
to holy Scripture, but not to glosses which theologians may choose to put upon
it. No hint is given in the text of foreseen virtue any more than of foreseen
sin, and, therefore, we are driven to find another meaning for the word. We find
that the word "know" is frequently used in Scripture, not only for knowledge,
but also for favor, love, and complacency. Our Lord Jesus Christ will say, in
the judgment, concerning certain persons, "I never knew you," yet in a sense he
knew them, for he knows every man; he knows the wicked as well as the righteous;
but there the meaning is, "I never knew you in such a respect as to feel any
complacency in you or any favor towards you." See also John 10:14-15, and 2
Timothy 2:19. In Romans 11:2, we read, "God hath not cast away his people which
he foreknow," where the sense evidently has the idea of fore-love; and it is so
to be understood here. Those whom the Lord looked upon with favor as he foresaw
them, he has predestinated to he conformed to the image of his Son. They are, as
Paul puts it in his letter to the Ephesians, "predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will." I am
anxious not to tarry over controverted matters, but to reach the subject of my
sermon this morning. Here we have in the text conformity to Christ spoken of as
the aim of predestination; we have, secondly, predestination as the impelling
force by which this conformity is to be achieved; and we have, thirdly, the
firstborn himself set before us as the ultimate end of the predestinations and
of the conformity. -- "that HE might be the first-born among many brethren." I.
Mark then, with care, that OUR CONFORMITY TO CHRIST IS THE SACRED OBJECT OF
PREDESTINATION. Into predestination itself I will not now pry. The deeper things
shall be left with God. I think it was Bishop Hall who once said, "I thank God I
am not of his counsels, but I am of his court." If I cannot understand I will
not question, for I am not his counsellor, but I will adore and obey, for I am
his servant. Now, to-day, seeing we are here taught the object of his
predestination, it will be our business to labor after it, to bless God that he
has set such an object before him, and pray that we may be partakers in it. Here
stands the case. Man was originally made in the image of God, but by sin he has
defaced that image, and now we who are born into this world are fashioned, not
in the heavenly image of God, but in the earthy image of the fallen Adam. "We
have borne," says the Apostle, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, "the
image of the earthy." The Lord in boundless grace has resolved that a company
whom no man can number, called here "many brethren," shall be restored to his
image, in the particular form in which his Eternal Son displays it. To this end
Jesus Christ came into the world and bore our image, that we, through his grace,
might bear his image. He became a partaker of our infirmities and sicknesses
that we might be partakers of the divine nature in all its excellence and
purity. Now, therefore, the one thing to which the Lord is working us through
his Spirit, both by providence and by grace, is the likeness of the Lord from
heaven. He is evermore transforming the chosen, removing that defilement of sin,
and moulding them after the perfect model of his Son, Jesus Christ, the second
Adam, who is the firstborn amongst the "many brethren." Now, observe, that this
conformity to Christ lies in several things. First, we are to be conformed to
him as to our nature. What was the nature of Christ, then, as divine? We must
not pry into it, but we know that he was verily of the nature of God. "Begotten
not made," says the Athanasian Creed, and it says truly too, "being of one
substance with the Father." Now, we also, though we at our conversion are new
creatures, are also said to be "begotten again into a lively hope." To be
begotten is something more than to be made: this is a more personal work of God;
and that which is begotten is in closer affinity to himself than that which is
only created. As Christ was, as the only-begotten of the Father, far above mere
creatures; so also to be begotten of God, in our case, means far more than even
the first and perfect creation could imply. As to his humanity our blessed Lord,
when he came into this world, underwent a birth which was a remarkable type of
our second birth. He was born into this world in a very humble place, amidst the
oxen, and in the manger; but yet he lacked not the songs of angels, and the
adoration of the heavenly hosts. Even so we also were born of the Spirit without
human observation; men of this world saw no glory whatsoever in our
regeneration, for it was not performed by mystic rites, or with sacerdotal pomp.
The Spirit of God found us in our low estate, and quickened us without outward
display. Yet at that selfsame moment, where human eyes saw nothing seraphic eyes
beheld marvels of grace, and angels in heaven rejoiced over one sinner that
repented, singing once again "glory to God in the highest." When Lord was born a
few choice spirits welcomed his birth; an Anna and a Simeon were ready to take
the new-born child into their arms and bless God for him: and even so there were
some that hailed our new birth with much thanksgiving; friends and well-wishers
who had watched for our salvation were glad when they beheld in us the true
heavenly life, and gladly did the take us up into the arms of Christian nurture.
Perhaps, also, there was one who had travailed in birth till Christ was formed
in us the hope of glory, and how happy was that spirit to see us born unto God;
how did our spiritual parent ponder each gracious word which we uttered, and
thank God for the good signs of grace which could be found in our conversation.
Then, too, a worse than Herod sought to kill us. Satan was eager that the
new-born child of grace should be put to death, and, therefore, sent forth
fierce temptations to slay us; but the Lord found a shelter for our infant
spiritual life, and preserved the young child alive. In us the living and
incorruptible seed abode and grew. As many of you as have been born again have
been conformed to the image of Christ in the matter of his birth, and you are
now partakers of his nature. It is not possible for us to be divine, yet it is
written that we are made "partakers of the divine nature." We cannot be
precisely as God is, yet as we have borne the image of the earthy we shall also
bear the image of the heavenly, whatever that image may be. The new birth as
surely stands us with the image of Christ as our first birth impressed us with a
resemblance to the fathers of our flesh. Our first birth gave us humanity; our
second birth allies us with Deity. As we were conceived in sin at the first, and
shapen in iniquity, even so in regeneration our new man is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created us. He that sanctifieth and they that are
sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them
brethren.Furthermore, this conformity to Christ lies in relationship as well as
in nature. Our Lord is the Son of the Highest, -- the Son of God; and truly,
beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see
him as he is. Jehovah has declared that he will be a father unto us, and that we
shall be his sons and his daughters. As surely as Jesus is a son, so surely are
we, for the same Spirit bears witness to both, as it is written "And because ye
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father." When Jesus came into the world as God's Son, he was not left
without attesting proofs. His first public appearance, when he came to the
waters of baptism, was signalled by a voice out of the excellent glory, which
said, "this is my beloved Son," and the descending Spirit, like a dove, rested
upon him. So is it also with us. The voice of God in the word has testified to
us our Heavenly Father's dove; and the Holy Spirit has borne witness with our
spirits that we are the children of God. When first we dared to come forward and
say "we are on the Lord's side," some of us had sacred tokens of sonship which
have never been forgotten by us, and oftentimes since then we have received
renewed seals of our adoption from the Great Father of our spirits. "He that
believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself," so that he can with his
brethren say plainly "we know that we have passed from death unto life." God has
given us full assurance, and infallible testimony, and in all this we rejoice.
We have believed in Jesus, and it is written, "as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on his
name." Our Lord was declared to be the Son of God by the actions which he
performed, both towards God and towards man. As a Son he served his Father, you
could see the nature of God in him, in his deep sympathy with God and in his
exact imitation of God. Whatever God would have done under the circumstances,
that Jesus did. You perceive at once, by his deeds, that his nature was godlike.
His works bore witness of him. It was evermore most clear that he acted towards
God as a son towards a father. Now in proportion as God's determination has been
carried out in us, we also act to God as children towards a loving father, and
whereas the children of darkness speak of their own, and like their father, who
is a liar, speak the lie; and like their father, who is a murderer, act out
wrath and bitterness, even so the children of God speak the truth, for God is
true, and they are full of love, for God is love; and their life is light, for
their God is light. They feel that they must act, under the circumstances in
which they are placed, as they would suppose Jesus would have acted, who is the
Son of the ever blessed Father. Moreover, Christ wrought miracles of mercy
towards men, which proved him to be the Son of God. It is true we can work no
miracles, yet can we do works which mark God's children. We cannot break the
bread and multiply it, we can, however, generously distribute what we have, and
thus in feeding the hungry we shall prove ourselves children of our Father who
is in heaven; we cannot heal the diseased with our touch, still we can care for
the sick, and so in love towards the suffering we can prove ourselves to be
children of the tender and ever-pitiful God. But our Lord has told us that
greater works than his own shall we do, because he is gone to his Father; and
these greater works we do. We can work spiritual miracles. Today, can we not
stand at the grave of the dead sinner, and say, "Lazarus, come forth?" And has
not God often made the dead to rise at our word, by the power of his Spirit!
Today, also, we can preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, casting it about us as it
were as our garment, and he that toucheth the hem thereof shall he not also be
made whole to-day, even as when Jesus was among men? This day, if we do not
break fish and barley loaves, we bring you better food; this day, if we cannot
give to men opened eyes and unstopped ears, yet in the teaching of the gospel of
Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, the mental eye is cleansed, and the soul's
ear also is purged; so that in every child of God, in proportion as he labors in
the power of the Spirit for Christ, the works which he does bear witness of him
that he is the son of God. His zeal in doing them proves that he has the spirit
of a child of God, and the result of those works proves that God works in him as
he will never do in any but his own children. Thus, in relationship, as well as
in nature, we are conformed to the image of Christ.Thirdly, we are to be
conformed to the image of Christ in our experience. This is the part of the
subject from which our craven spirit often shrinks, but if we were wise it would
not be so. What was the experience of Christ in this world? for that ours will
be. We may sum it up as referring to God, to men, to the devil, and to all
evil.His experience with regard to God, what was that? "Though he were a Son,
yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered." Though without sin,
he was not without suffering. The firstborn of the divine family was more sorely
chastened than any other of the household; he was smitten of God and afflicted
till, as the climax of all, he cried Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. Oh, the
bitterness of that cry -- "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It was
the father bruising the firstborn son; and, if you and I, brethren, are to be
conformed to the image of the firstborn, though we may expect from God much
fatherly love, we may also reckon that it will show itself in parental
discipline. If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are
ye bastards, and not sons; but, if ye be true sons, like to the firstborn, the
rod will make you smart, and sometimes you will have to say, "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?" "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with
you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" If we are
predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son, the Lord has
predestinated us to much tribulation, and through it shall we inherit the
kingdom.Next survey our dear covenant Head in his experience in relation to men.
"He came unto his own, and his own received him not." "He was despised and
rejected of men." He said, "Reproach hath broken mine heart, and I am full of
heaviness." Now, brethren, in the very proportion in which we are conformed to
the image of Christ we shall have to "go forth unto him without the camp,
bearing his reproach:" for the disciple, if he be a true disciple, is not above
his Master, nor the servant above his Lord. If they have called the Master of
the house Beelzebub, much more will they call them of his household by some yet
more opprobrious title, if they can invent it. The saints of God must not expect
crowns where Christ found a cross; they must not reckon to ride in triumph
through those streets which saw the Savior hurried to a malefactor's death. We
must suffer with him if we would be glorified with him. Fellowship in his
sufferings is needful to communion with his glory. Then, consider our Lord's
experience with regard to the prince of the power of the air. Satan was no
friend to Christ, but finding him in the desert he came to him with this
accursed "if" -- "If thou be the Son of God." With that attack upon his Sonship
the fiend commenced the battle. "If thou be the Son of God." You know how thrice
he assailed him with those temptations which are most likely to be attractive to
poor humanity, but Jesus overcame them all. The arch enemy, the old dragon, was
always nibbling at the heel of our great Michael, who has for ever crushed his
head. We are predestinated to be conformed to Christ in that respect; the
serpent's subtlety and cruelty will assail us also. A tempted head involves
tempted members. Satan desires to have us and to sift us as wheat. He attacked
the Shepherd, and he will never cease to worry the sheep. Inasmuch as we are of
the seed of the woman, there must be enmity between us and the seed of the
serpent.And, as to all evil, our Lord's entire life was one perpetual battle. He
was fighting evil in the high places and evil in the low, evil among the priests
and evil among the people, evil in a religious dress, in Pharisaism, and evil in
the dress of philosophy amongst the Sadducees; he fought it everywhere: he was
the foe of everything that was wrong, false, selfish, unholy or impure. And you
and I must be conformed to Christ in this respect. We are to be holy, harmless,
undefiled and separate from sinners. Ye are of God, little children, and the
whole world lieth in the wicked one. We are chosen out of the world to be a
peculiar people, adversaries to all evil, never sheathing our sword till we
enter into our rest. We are to be like him then in nature, in relation, in
experience.Fourthly. We are to be conformed to Christ Jesus as to character.
Time and ability alike fail us to speak of this. I only pray that God's Spirit
may make our lives to speak of it. He was consecrated to God; so are we to be.
The zeal of God's house ate him up; so should it consume us also. He went about
his Father's business; so should we ever be occupied. Towards man he was all
love; it becomes us to be the same. He was gentle and kind and tender; as he
was, so are we to be in this world. He did not break the bruised reed, nor
quench the smoking flax; neither should we. Yet was he stern in the denunciation
of all evil; so should we be. Purity, holiness, unselfishness, all the virtues,
should glow in us as they shone in him. Ah, and blessed be God they will too, by
the work of the Spirit. Our text speaks not only of what we ought to be, but of
what we shall be, for we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's
Son. My brethren, what a glorious model! Behold it, wonder at it, and bless God
for it. You are not to be conformed to the mightiest of the apostles, you will
one day be purer than were Paul or John while here below; you are not to be
conformed to the sublimest of the prophets, you shall be like the prophets'
Master; you are not to be content with your own conception of that which is
beautiful and lovely, but God's perfect conception incarnated in his own Son is
that to which you shall certainly be brought by the predestination of God.Just a
sentence upon another point. We are to be conformed to the image of his Son,
fifthly, as to our inheritance for he is heir of all things, and what less are
we heirs of, since all things are ours? He is heir of this world. "Thou madest
him to have dominion over all the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things
under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the fowl of the air and the fish of
the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea." We see not yet
all things put under man, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the
angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor; and in the
person of Christ Jesus this day we, the men who are made in his image, have
dominion over all things, being all made kings and priests unto God, and in
Christ Jesus ordained to reign with him forever and ever. "If children then
heirs," says the apostle; therefore, whatever Christ has we have, and though we
may be very poor and unknown, yet whatever belongs to Christ to us. "The good of
all the land of Egypt is yours," said Joseph to his brethren, and Jesus saith
this to all his people, "All are yours, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is
God's."I must close this point -- time goes much too swiftly this morning when
descanting upon this delightful theme -- by observing that we are to be
conformed to Christ in his glory. We will think of our bodies, for that is a
point surrounded with consolation, since he shall change our vile body and make
it like unto his glorious body. We are like Adam now in weakness and pain, and
we shall soon be like him in death, returning to the ground whence we were
taken; but we shall rise again to a better life, and then shall we wear in glory
and incorruption the image of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. Conceive
the beauties of the risen Redeemer. Let your faith and your imagination work
together to portray the unutterable glories of Immanuel, God with us, as he sits
at the right hand of the Father. Such and so bright shall our glories be in the
day of the redemption of the body. We shall behold his glory, we shall be with
him where he is, and we shall be ourselves glorious in his glory. Is he exalted?
you also shall be lifted up. Is he a King? you shall not be uncrowned. Is he a
victor? you also shall bear a palm. Is he full of joy and rejoicing? so also
shall your soul be filled to the brim with delights. Where he is every saint
shall be ere long. Thus much upon the sacred end of predestination.II. Now,
observe that PREDESTINATION IS THE IMPELLING FORCE TOWARDS THIS CONFORMITY. This
truth divides itself thus: it is the will of God that conforms us to Christ's
image rather than our own will. It is our will now, but it was God's will when
it was not our will, and it only became according to our will when we were
converted, because God's grace had made us willing in the day of its power. We
cannot be made like Christ unwillingly; a consenting will is essential to the
likeness of Christ; unwilling obedience would be disobedience. Naturally we
never will towards good without God, but God works in us to will and to do. God
treats us as men responsible and intelligent, and not as stone or metal; he made
us free agents, and he treats us as such. We are willing now to be conformed to
the image of Jesus, yea, we are more than willing, we are anxious and desirous
for it; but still the main and first motive power lay not in our will, but in
his will, and to-day the immutable force which is best to be depended upon does
not lie in our fickle, feeble will, but in the unchanging and omnipotent will of
God. The force that is conforming us to Christ is the will of God in
predestination.And so, too, it is rather God's work than our work. We are to
work with God in the matter of our becoming like to Christ. We are not to be
passive like wood or marble; we are to be prayerful, watchful, fervent,
diligent, obedient, earnest, and believing, but still the work is God's.
Sanctification is the Lord's work in us. "Thou hast wrought all our works in
us." From the first, and now, and to the last, "he that hath wrought us to the
selfsame thing is God, who also hath given to us the earnest of the Spirit."
There is no holiness in us of our own creating; no good thing in us of our own
fashioning. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." "Not unto
us, not unto us, but unto thy name be praise." Still, true as it is that we are
free agents, yet the Lord is the potter and we are the clay upon the wheel, and
it is his work, and not ours, that makes us like to Christ. It there be a touch
of our finger anywhere upon the vessel, it mars and does not beautify. It is
only where God's hand has been that the vessel begins to assume the form of the
model.Therefore, beloved, all the glory must be unto God and not to us. It is a
great honor to any man to be like Christ; God does not intend that his children
should have no honor, for he puts honor upon his own people; but, still, the
true glory lies with him, since he has made us and not we ourselves. Cannot we
say this morning with thankful hearts, "By the grace of God I am what I am?" and
do we not feel that we shall lay all our honors, whatever they may be, at his
dear feet, who hath according to his abundant mercy predestinated us to be
conformed to the image of his Son?III. Now I must come to the third point, upon
which with brevity. It sweetly appears that the ULTIMATE END OF ALL THIS IS
CHRIST. "Predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that HE," --
"that HE" -- God is always driving at something for him, his well-beloved Son.
He aims at his own glory in the glory of his dear Son; if he blesses us the text
of last Sabbath is still true, "not for your sakes do I this;" it is for the
sake of a higher, a better one than we are, it is "that he might be the
first-born." Now, if I understand the passage before us, it means this. First,
God predestinates us to be like Jesus that his dear Son might be the first of a
new order of beings, elevated above all other creatures, and nearer to God than
any other existences. He was Lord of angels, seraphim and cherubim obeyed his
behests; but the Son desired to be at the head of a race of beings more nearly
allied to him than any existing spirits. There was no kinship between the Lord
Jesus and angels, for to which of the angels had the Father said at any time,
"Thou art my Son?" They are by nature servants, and he is the Son, this is a
wide distinction. The Eternal Son desired association with beings who should be
sons as he was, towards whom he could stand in a close relationship as being
like to them in nature and Sonship, and the Father therefore ordained that a
seed whom he has chosen should be conformed to the image of the Son, that his
Son might head up and be chief among an order of beings more nearly akin to God
than any other. The serpent said to Eve, "God doth know that ye shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil." That lie had in it a residuum of truth, for by
sovereign grace we have become such. There were no obedient creatures in the
world of that sort, knowing good and evil, in the days of Eden's glory. The
angels in heaven had known good, and only good, and preserved by grace had not
fallen; the evil spirit had fallen, and he knew evil, but he had forgotten good,
and was incapable of ever choosing it again; he is now for ever banished from
hope of restoration. But here are we who know both good and evil; we understand
the one, and the other too, and now there is begotten in us a nature which loves
holiness and cannot sin, because it is born of God; we are left free agents,
yea, we are freer than ever we were, and yet in this life, and in the life to
come, our path is like that of the just which shineth more and more unto the
perfect day. Angels know not evil; have never had to battle with evil known and
felt within; they have not tried the paths of sinful pleasure, and through grace
been turned from them, so as with full purpose of heart to cleave to holiness
for ever. Jesus now heads a race assailed but victorious; sorely tempted but
enabled to overcome. Joyfully and cheerfully for ever shall it be our delight to
do the Father's will. For ever with Christ at our head he shall be the nearest
to the eternal throne; the most attached of servants, because also sons; the
most firmly adhesive to good, because we once knew the bitterness of evil. Even
as Christ had to drink the cup of suffering, for sin, we also have sipped of it.
We have known horror caused by guilt, and, therefore, for the future shall be
throughout eternity a nobler race, freer to serve, and serving God after a
nobler fashion than any other creatures in the universe. I take it that it is
the meaning of the text, that the Lord would have Christ to be the first of a
nobler order of beings. But, secondly, the object of grace is that there may be
some in heaven with whom Christ can hold brotherly converse. Note the
expression, "Many brethren" -- not that he might be the firstborn among many,
but among "many brethren," who should be like himself. Our blessed Lord delights
in fellowship; such is the greatness of his heart that he would not be alone in
his glory, but would have associates in his happiness. Now, I speak with bated
breath. God can do all things, but I see not any way by which he could give to
his only-begotten Son beings that should be akin to himself, except through the
processes which we discover in the economy of grace. Here are beings that know
evil, and know also good, beings placed under infinite obligations by bonds of
love and gratitude to choose for ever the good, beings with a nature so renewed
that they always must be holy beings; and these beings can commune with the
incarnate God upon spurring as angels cannot, upon the penalty of guilt as
angels cannot; upon heart-throes, conflicts, reproaches, and brokenness of
spirit as angels cannot: and to them the Lord Jesus can reveal the glory of
holiness, the bliss of conquering sin, and the sweetness of benevolence as only
they can comprehend them. Renewed men are made fit companions for the Son of
God. He shall feast all the more joyously because they shall eat bread with him
in his kingdom. He shall be joyful when he declares the Lord's name unto his
brethren. He shall joy in their joy, and be glad in their gladness.No doubt,
however, the text means that these will for ever love and honor the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. The children look up to the firstborn. In the East the firstborn
is the lord and king of the household. We love Jesus now, and esteem him our
head and chief. How will we, when we once get to heaven, love and adore him as
our dear elder brother with whom we shall be on terms of the closest familiarity
and most reverent obedience. How joyfully will we serve him, how rapturously
adore him. Shall we not want to have our voices made more loud till they become
as thunders, or like many waters, or surely we shall not be able to praise him
as we would? If there be work to do for him in future ages we will be the first
to volunteer for service; if there be battles to be fought in times to come with
other rebellious races, if there be wanted servants to fly over the vast realms
of the infinite to carry Jehovah's messages, who shall fly so swiftly as we
shall, when once we feel that in his courts we shall dwell not as mere servants,
but as members of the royal family, partakers of the divine nature, nearest to
God himself. What bliss to know that he who is "very God of very God," and sits
on the eternal throne, is also of the same nature with ourselves, our kinsman,
who is not ashamed even amidst the royalties of glory to call us brethren. O
brethren, what honors are ours! What a heritage lies before us! Who among us
would change with Gabriel? We shall have no need to envy angels, for what are
they but ministering spirits, servants in our Father's halls; but we are sons,
and sons of no inferior order, no sons of a secondary rank like Abraham's
children born of Keturah, or like the son of the bondwoman, but we are the
Isaacs of God, born according to the promise, heirs of all that he hath, a seed
beloved of the Lord for ever. Oh, what joy ought to fill our spirits this
morning, at the prospect which this text reveals, and which predestination
secures!Perhaps our fullest thought upon the text is this. God was so well
pleased with his Son, and saw such beauties in him, that he determined to
multiply his image. "My beloved," said he, "thou shalt be the model by which I
will fashion my noblest creature, I will for thy sake make men able to converse
with thee, and bound to thee by bands of love, who shall be next akin to myself,
and in all things like to thee." Behold from heaven's mint golden pieces of
inestimable value are sent forth, and each one bears the image and
superscription of the Son of God. The face of Jesus is more lovely to God than
all the worlds, his eyes are brighter than the stars, his voice is sweeter than
bliss; therefore doth the Father will to have his Son's beauty reflected in ten
thousand mirrors in saints made like to him, and his praises chanted by myriads
of voices of those who love him, because his blood has saved them. The Father
knew how happy his Son would be to associate his chosen with himself, for of old
his delights were with the sons of men. As a shepherd loves his sheep, as a king
loves his subjects, so Jesus loves to have his people around him; but deeper yet
is the mystery, as it is not good for a man to be alone, and as for this cause
doth a man leave his father and mother and is joined unto his wife, and they
twain are one flesh, even so is it with Christ and his church. He was made like
to her for her salvation, and now she is made like to him for his honor. In what
way could the Father put greater honor on his Son than by forming a race like to
himself, who shall be the many brethren among whom he is the well-beloved
firstborn? Now, brethren, this word I say and send you home. Keep your model
before you. You see what you are to come to, therefore, set Christ before your
eyes always. You see what you are predestinated to be: aim at it, aim at it
every day. God worketh, and he worketh in you not to sleep, but to will and to
do according to his own good pleasure. Brethren, grieve at your failures; when
you see anything in yourselves that is not Christlike mourn over it, for it must
be put away, it is so much dross that must be consumed; you cannot keep it, for
God's predestination will not let you retain anything about you which is not
according to the image of Christ. Cry mightily to the Holy Spirit to continue
his sanctifying work upon you; beseech him not to be grieved and vexed, and,
therefore, in any measure to stay his hand. Cry, "Lord, melt me, pour me out
like wax, and set thy seal upon me until the image of Christ be clearly there."
Above all, commune much with Christ. Communion is the fountain of conformity.
Live with Christ and you will soon grow like Christ. They said of Achilles, the
greatest of the Grecian heroes, that when he was a child they fed him upon
lion's marrow, and so made him brave; feed upon Christ and be Christlike. They
record on the other hand of blood-thirsty Nero, that he became so because he was
suckled by a woman of a ferocious, barbaric nature. If we drink in our nutriment
from the world, we shall be worldly; but, if we live upon Christ and dwell in
him, our conformity with him shall be readily accomplished, and we shall be
recognized as brethren of that blessed family of which Jesus Christ is the
firstborn. How I wish every one here had a share in the text: I mourn that some
have not, for he that believeth not on the Son hath not life, and therefore
cannot have conformity to a living Christ. God grant to you all to be believers
in Christ, now and for ever. Amen and amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE
SERMON -- Romans 8:16-39; 1 Corinthians 15:39-58."THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL."
Edited by C. H. SPURGEON.Contents for April, 1872.Advice Gratis. By C. H.
Spurgeon.The Story of an Eventful Life.The Gospel in France.Recollections of the
Rev. Rowland Hill. By an Old Member of Surrey Chapel.Remarks on Beecher's Life
of Christ. By Vernon J. Charlesworth.Cromwell's Puritanism. By E. Leach.A New
Interpretation of Pilgrim's Progress. By G. Rogers (Continued.)Parental Duties.
By Edward Dennett.The Sinners of Mullion.Report of Visitor from the Sunday
School Union (Lambeth Auxiliary).Reviews.Memoranda.Pastors' College
Account.Orphanage for Girls.Stockwell Orphanage.Colportage Association.Price 3d.
Post free, 4 stamps.London: Passmore & Alabaster, 18, Paternoster Row, and all
Booksellers.


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  CHAPTER 17: THE GREAT ASSIZE
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A Sermon (No.1076) Delivered on Lord's Day Evening, August 25th, 1872, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in
his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." --
2Corinthians 5:10. THIS MORNING WE preached concerning the resurrection of the
dead, and it seems consistent with order to carry forward our thoughts this
evening, to that which follows immediately after the resurrection, namely: THE
GENERAL JUDGMENT; for the dead rise on purpose that they may be judged in their
bodies. The Resurrection is the immediate prelude to the Judgment. There is no
need that I try to prove to you from Scripture that there will be a general
judgment, for the Word of God abounds with proof-passages. You have them in the
Old Testament. You find David anticipating that great assize in the Psalms
(especially in such as the forty-ninth and fiftieth, the ninety-sixth Psalm, and
the three that follow it), FOR MOST ASSUREDLY THE LORD COMETH: HE COMETH TO
JUDGE THE EARTH IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. Very solemnly and very tenderly does Solomon
in the Ecclesiastes warn the young man, that, let him rejoice as he may and
cheer his heart in the days of his youth, for all these things God will bring
him into judgment; for God will judge every secret thing. Daniel in the night
visions beholds the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, and drawing
near to the Ancient of Days; then he sits upon the throne of judgment AND THE
NATIONS ARE GATHERED BEFORE HIM. It was no new doctrine to the Jews; it was
received and accepted by them as a most certain fact that there would be a day
in which God would judge the earth in righteousness. The New Testament is very
express. The twenty-fifth of Matthew, which we read to you just now, contains
language, which could not possibly be more clear and definite, from the lips of
the Saviour himself. He is the faithful witness, and cannot lie. You are told
that before him will be gathered ALL NATIONS, and he shall divide them the one
from the other, as the shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats. Other
passages there are in abundance, as, for instance, the one that is now before
us, which is plain enough. Another we might quote is in the second epistle to
the Thessalonians, the first chapter, from the seventh to the tenth verse. Let
Us read it, " And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be
glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our
testimony among you was believed) in that day." The book of the Revelation is
very graphic in its depicting that last general judgment. Turn to the twentieth
chapter, at the eleventh and twelfth verses. The seer of Patmos says, " And I
saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and
the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book
was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books, according to their works." Time would
fail me to refer you to all the Scriptures. It is asserted over and over again
by the Holy Spirit, whose Word is truth, that THERE WILL BE A JUDGMENT OF THE
QUICK AND OF THE DEAD. Beside that direct testimony, it should be remembered
there is a convincing argument that so it must needs be, from the very fact that
God is just as the Ruler over men. In all human governments there must he an
assize held. Government cannot be conducted without its days of session and of
trial, and, inasmuch as there is evidently sin and evil in this world, it might
fairly be anticipated that there would be a time when God will go on circuit,
and when he will call the prisoners before him, and the guilty shall receive
their condemnation. Judge for yourselves: is this present state the conclusion
of all things? If so, what evidence would you adduce of the divine justice, in
the teeth of the fact that the best of men are often in this world the poorest
and the most afflicted, while the worst of men acquire wealth, practice
oppression, and receive homage from the crowd? Who are they that ride in the
high places of the earth? Are they not those, great transgressors, who "wade
through slaughter to a throne and shut the gates of mercy on mankind"? Where are
the servants of God? They are in obscurity and suffering full often. Do they not
sit like Job among the ashes, subjects of little pity, objects of much
upbraiding? And where are the enemies of God? Do not many of them wear purple
and fine linen and fare sumptuously every day? If there be no hereafter, then
Dives has the best of it; and the selfish man who fears not God, is after all,
the wisest of men and more to be commended than his fellows. But it cannot be
so. Our common sense revolts against the thought. There must be another state in
which these anomalies will all be rectified. "If in this life only we have hope
in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable," says the apostle. The best of
men were driven to the worst of straits in those persecuting times for being
God's servants. How say ye then, "Finis coronat opus," the end crowns the work?
That cannot be the final issue of life, or justice itself were frustrated. There
must be a restitution for those who suffer unjustly: there must be a punishment
for the wicked and the oppressor. Not only may this be affirmed from a general
sense of justice, but there is in the conscience of most men, if not of all, an
assent to this fact. As an old Puritan says, "God holds a petty session in every
man's conscience, which is the earnest of the assize which he will hold by and
by; for almost all men judge themselves, and their conscience knows this to be
wrong and that to be right. I say almost all,' for there seems to be in this
generation a race of men who have so stultified their conscience that the spark
appears to have gone out, and they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
The lie they seem to approve, but the truth they do not recognize. But let
conscience alone and do not stultify her, and you shall find her bearing witness
that there is a Judge of all the earth who must do right." Now this is
peculiarly the case when conscience is allowed full play. Men who are busy about
their work or entertained with their pleasures, often keep their consciences
quiet. As John Bunyan puts it, they shut up Mr Conscience; they blind his
windows; they barricade his doors; and as for the great bell on the top of the
house, which the old gentleman was wont to ring, they cut the rope of it, so
that he cannot get at it, for they do not wish him to disturb the town of
Man-soul. But when death comes, it often happens that Mr. Conscience escapes
from his prison-house, and then, I warrant you, he will make such a din that
there is not a sleeping head in all Man-soul. He will cry out and avenge himself
for his constrained silence, and make the man know that there is a something
within him not quite dead, which cries out still for justice, and that sin
cannot go unchastised. There must be a judgment, then. Scripture asserts it,
that would be enough: but by way of collateral evidence the natural order of
things requires it; and conscience attests it. Now we come to consider what our
text says about the Judgment. I pray you, brethren, if I should speak coldly
tonight on this momentous truth, or fail to excite your attention and stir your
deepest emotions, forgive me, and may God forgive me, for I shall have good
reason to ask God's forgiveness, seeing that if ever a topic should arouse the
preacher to a zeal for the honor of his Lord and for the welfare of his fellow
creatures, and so make him doubly in earnest, it is this. But, then, permit me
to say, that, if ever there was a theme quite independent of the speaker, which
on its own account alone should command your thoughtfulness, it is that which I
now bring before you. I feel no need of oratory or of speech well selected: the
bare mention of the fact that such a judgment is impending, and will ere long
occur, might well hold you in breathless silence, still the very throbbings of
your pulse, and choke the utterance of my lips. The certainty of it, the reality
of it, the terrors that accompany it, the impossibility of escaping from it, all
appeal to us now and demand our vigilance. I. Ask ye now, who is it, or who ARE
THEY THAT WILL HAVE APPEAR BEFORE THE THRONE OF JUDGMENT? The answer is plain;
it admits of no exemption: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ." This is very decisive, if there were no other text. We must all appear;
that is to say, every one of the human race. We must all appear. And that the
godly will not be exempted from this appearance is very clear, for the apostle
here is speaking to Christians. He says, "We walk by faith, not by sight. We are
confident. We labour" and so on; and then he puts it, "We must all appear." So
that, beyond all others, it is certain that all Christians must appear there.
The text is quite conclusive upon that point. And if we had not that text, we
nave the passage in Matthew, which we have read, in which the sheep are summoned
there as certainly as are the goats; and the passage in the Revelation, where
all the dead are judged according to the things which are written in the books.
They are all there. And if the objection should be raised, "We thought that the
sins of the righteous being pardoned, and for ever blotted out, they could never
come into judgment," we have only to remind you, beloved, that if they are so
pardoned and blotted out, as they undoubtedly are, the righteous have no reason
to fear coming into judgment. They are the persons who covet the judgment, and
will be able to strand there to receive a public acquittal from the mouth of the
great Judge. Who, among us, wishes, as it were, to be smuggled into heaven
unlawfully? Who desires to have it said by the damned in hell, "You were never
tried, or else you might have been condemned as we were." No, brethren, we have
a hope that we can stand the trial. The way of righteousness by Christ Jesus
enables us to submit ourselves to the most tremendous tests which even that
burning day can bring forth. We are not afraid to be put into the balances. We
even desire that day when our faith in Jesus Christ is strong and firm; for we
say, "who is he that condemneth?" We can challenge the day of judgment. Who is
he that shall lay anything to our charge in that day, or at any other, since
Christ hath died and hath risen again?It is needful that the righteous should be
there that there may not be any partiality in the matter whatever; that the
thing may be all clear and straight, and that the rewards of the righteous may
be seen to be, though of grace, yet without any violation of the most rigorous
justice. Dear brethren, what a day it will be for the righteous! For some of
them were -- perhaps some here present are -- lying under some very terrible
accusation of which they are perfectly guiltless. All will be cleared up then,
and that will be one great blessing of that day. There will be a resurrection of
reputations as well as of bodies. Men call the righteous, fools; then shall they
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. They hounded them to
death, as not being fit to live. In early ages they laid to the Christians
charges of the most terrible character, which I should count it shame to
mention. But then they will all be clear; and those of whom the world was not
worthy, who were driven and hunted about find made to dwell in the caves of the
earth, they shall come forth as worthy ones, and the world shall know her true
aristocracy, earth shall own her true nobility. The men whose names she cast out
as evil, all then be held in great repute, for they shall stand out clear and
transparent without spot or blemish. It is well that there should be a trial for
the righteous, for the clearing of them, the vindication of them, and that it
should be public, defying the evil and criticism of all mankind. "We must all
appear." What a vast assembly, what a prodigious gathering, that of the entire
human race! It struck me as I was meditating upon this subject, what would be
the thoughts of Father Adam, as he stood there with Mother Eve and looked upon
his offspring. It will be the first time in which he has ever had the
opportunity of seeing all his children met together. What a sight will he then
behold -- far stretching, covering all the globe which they inhabit, enough not
only to people all earth's plains, but crown her hill-tops, and cover even the
ways of the sea, so numberless must the human race have been, if all the
generations that have ever lived, or shall ever live, shall at once rise from
the dead. Oh, what a sight will that be! Is it too marvelous for our imagination
to picture? Yet it is quite certain that the assemblage will be mustered, and
the spectacle will he beheld. Every one from before the Flood, from the days of
the Patriarchs, from the times of David, from the Babylonian kingdom, all the
legions of Assyria, all the hosts of Persia, all the phalanx of the Greeks, all
the vast armies and legions of Rome, the barbarian, the Scythian, the bond, the
free, men of every color and of every tongue -- they shall all stand in that
great day before the Judgment Seat of Christ. There come the kings -- no greater
than the men they call their slaves. There come the princes -- but they have
doffed their coronets, for they must stand like common flesh and blood. Here
come the judges, to be judged themselves, and the advocates and barristers,
needing an advocate on their own account. Here come those that thought
themselves too good, and kept the street to themselves. There are the Pharisees,
hustled by the Publicans on either side and sunk down to the natural level with
them. Mark the peasants rising from the soil; see the teeming myriads from
outside the great cities streaming in, countless hosts such as no Alexander or
Napoleon ever beheld! See how the servant is as great as his master! "Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity," are now proclaimed. No kings, no princes, no nobles, can
shelter themselves behind their order, assert a privilege or claim an immunity.
Alike on one common level they stand together, to be tried before the last
tremendous tribunal. There shall come the wicked of every sort. Proud Pharaoh
shall be there; Senacherib, the haughty; Herod, that would have slain the young
child; Judas, that betrayed his master; Demas, that sold him for gold; and
Pilate, who would fain have washed his hands in innocency. There shall come the
long list of infallibles, the whole line of popes, to receive their damnation at
the Almighty's hands, and the priests that trod upon the necks of nations, and
the tyrants that used the priests as their tools -- they shall come to receive
the thunderbolts of God which they so richly deserve. Oh, what a scene will it
be! These little companies, which look to us so large when they are gathered
together beneath this roof, how do they shrink into the drop of a bucket as
compared with the ocean of life that shall swell around the throne at the last
great Judgment day. They shall all be there.Now, the most important thought
connected with this to me, is that I shall be there; to you young men, that you
will be there; to you, ye aged of every sort, that you, in propria personae --
each one shall be there. Are you rich? Your dainty dress shall be put off. Are
you poor? Your rags shall not exempt you from attendance at that court. None
shall say -- I am too obscure." You must come up from that hiding place. None
shall say, "I am too public." You must come down from that pedestal. Everyone
must be there. Note the word "We", "We must all appear."And still further, note
the word, "appear." " We must all appear." No disguise will be possible. Ye
cannot come there dressed in masquerade of profession or attired in robes of
state, but we must appear; we must be seen through, must be displayed, must be
revealed; off will come your garments, and your spirit will be judged of God,
not after appearance, but according to the inward heart. Oh, what a day that
will be when every man shall see himself, and every man shall see his, fellow,
and the eyes of angels and the eyes of devils, and the eyes of God upon the
throne, shall see us through and through. Let these thoughts dwell upon your
minds, while you take this for the answer to our first enquiry, "Who is to be
judged?"II. Our second question is, Who will be the judge? "We must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ." That Christ should be appointed judge of
all mankind is most proper and fitting. Our British law ordains that a man shall
be tried by his peers, and there is justice in the statute. Now the Lord God
will judge men, but at the same time it will be in the person of Jesus Christ
the man. Men shall be judged by a man. He that was once judged by men shall
judge men. Jesus knows what man should be; he has been under the law himself in
deep humility, who is ordained to administer the law in high authority. He can
hold the scales of justice evenly, for he has stood in man's place and borne and
braved man's temptations; he therefore is the most fit judge that could be
selected. I have sometimes heard and read sermons in which the preacher said
that a Christian ought to rejoice that his judge is his friend. There may be no
impropriety intended, still it seems to me rather a questionable suggestion. I
should not like to put it use that way myself; because any judge that was
partial to his friends when he sat on the judgment seat would deserve to come
off the seat immediately. As a judge I expect no favoritism from Christ. I
expect when he sits there he will deal out even-handed justice to all. I cannot
see how it is right for any minister to hold it forth that we should find
encouragement in the judge being our friend. Friend or no friend, we shall go in
for a fair trial every one of us, and Christ will not be a respecter of persons.
Of him whom God has appointed to judge the world, it shall not be said when the
assize is over that he winked at the crimes of some and extenuated them, while
he searched out the faults of others and convicted them. He will be fair and
upright throughout. He is our friend, I grant you, and he will be our friend and
Saviour for ever; but, as a judge, we must keep to the thought, and believe and
maintain it that he will be impartial to all the sons of men. You will have a
fair trial, man. He that will judge you will not take sides against you. We have
sometimes thought that men have been shielded from the punishment they deserved,
because they were of a certain clerical profession, or because they occupied a
certain official position. A poor labourer who kills his wife shall be hanged,
but when another matt of superior station does the like deed of violence, and
stains his hands with the blood of her whom he had vowed to love and cherish,
the capital sentence shall not be executed upon him. Everywhere we see in the
world that with the best intentions justice somehow or other does squint a
little. Even in this country there is just the slightest possible turning of the
scale, and God grant that may be cured ere long. I do not think it is
intentional; and I hope the nation will not long have to complain about it.
There ought to be the same justice for the poorest beggar that crawls into a
casual ward, as for his Lordship that owns the broadest acres in all England.
Before the law, at least, all men ought to stand equal. So shall it be with the
Judge of all the earth. Fiat justia, ruat coelum. Christ will by all means hold
the scales even. Thou shalt have a fair trial and a full trial, too. There shall
be no concealment of anything in thy favour, and no, keeping back of anything
against thee. No witnesses shall be borne across the sea to keep them out of the
way. They shall all be there, and all testimony shall be there, and all that is
wanted to condemn or to acquit shall be produced in full court at that trial,
and hence it will be a final trial. From that court there will be no appeal. If
Christ, saith " Cursed!" cursed must they be for ever. If Christ saith
"Blessed!", blessed shall they be for aye. Well, this is what we have to expect
then, to stand before the throne of the man Christ Jesus the Son of God, and
there to be judged. III. Now the third point is, WHAT WILL BE RULE OF JUDGEMENT?
The text says that "every one may receive the things done in his body according
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Then it would appear that our
actions will be taken in evidence at the last. Not our profession, not our
boastings, but our actions will be taken in evidence at the last, and every man
shall receive according to what he hath done in the body. That implies that
everything done by us in this body will be known. It is all recorded; it will be
all brought to light. Hence, in that day every secret sin will be published.
What was done in the chamber, what was hidden by the darkness, shall be
published as upon the housetop -- every secret thing. With great care you have
concealed it, most dexterously you have covered it up; but it shall be brought
out to your own astonishment to form a part of your judgment. There,
hypocritical actions as well as secret sins will be laid bare. The Pharisee who
devoured the widow's house and made a long prayer, will find that widow's house
brought against him, and the long prayer too; for the long prayer will then be
understood as having been a long lie against God from beginning to end. Oh, how
fine we can make some things look With the aid of paint and varnish and gilt;
but at the last day off will come the varnish and veneer, and the true metal,
the real substance, will then be seen.When it is said that everything that is
done in the body will be brought up as evidence against us or for us, remember
this includes every omission as well as every commission; for that which is not
done that ought to have been done is as greatly sinful as the doing of that
which ought not to be done. Did not you notice when we were reading the
twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, how those on the left hand were condemned, not
for what they did, but for what they did not do: "I was an hungry, and ye gave
me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink." Where would some of you
stand, according to this rule, who have lived in neglect of holiness, and
neglect of faith, and neglect of repentance, before God all your days? Bethink
yourselves, I pray you.Recollect, too, that all our words will be brought up.
For every idle word that man shall speak he will have to give an account. And
all our thoughts, too, for these lie at the bottom of our actions and give the
true colour to them good or bad. Our motives, our heart sins, especially, our
hatred of Christ, our neglect of the gospel, our unbelief -- all of these shall
be read aloud and published unreservedly. "Well," saith one, "who then can be
saved?" Ah! indeed, who then can be saved? Let me tell you who will be. There
will come forward those who have believed in Jesus, and albeit they have many
sins to which they might well plead guilty, they will be able to say, "Great
God, thou didst provide for us a substitute, and thou didst say that if we would
accept him he should be a substitute for us and take our sins upon himself, and
we did accept him and our sins were laid upon him, and we have now no sins; they
have been transferred from us to the great Saviour, substitute and sacrifice."
And in that day there will be none who can put in a demurrer to that plea: it
will hold good; for God has said, "Whosoever believeth on Christ Jesus shall
never be condemned." Then will the actions of the righteous, the gracious
actions, be brought forth to prove that they had faith. For that faith which
never evidences itself by good works is a dead faith and a faith that will never
save a soul. Now, if the dying thief were brought up, he would say, "My sins
were laid on Jesus." "Ay, but how about your good works? Thou must have some
evidence of thy faith," Satan might reply. Then would the recording angel say,
"The dying thief said to his fellow thief who was dying with him, Wherefore art
thou railing? In his last moments he did what he could; he rebuked the thief
that was dying with him and made a good confession of his Lord. There was the
evidence of the sincerity of his faith." Dear hearer, will there lie any
evidence of the sincerity of your faith? If your faith has no evidence before
the Lord, what will you do? Suppose you thought you had a faith and went on
drinking. Suppose you did as I know some have done here, go straight from this
place into the public house? Or suppose you joined the Christian church and
remained a drunkard? Ay, and women have done that also as well as men. Suppose
you professed to have faith in Christ and yet cheated in your weights and
measures and common dealings? Do you think that God will never requite these
things at your hands? Oh, sirs, if ye be no better than other men in your
conduct, ye are no better than other men in your character, and ye will stand no
better than other men in the judgment day. If your actions are not superior to
theirs, you may profess what you will about your faith, but you are deceived,
and, as deceivers, you will be discovered at the last great day. If grace does
not make us differ from other men, it is not the grace which God gives his
elect. We are not perfect, but all God's saints keep their eyes on the great
standard of perfection, and, with strong desire, aim to walk worthy of their
high calling of God and to bring forth works which prove that they love God; and
if we have not these signs following faith, or if they are not put in as
evidence for us, at the last great day we shall not be able to prove our faith.
It will be proof positive that you hated God; for a man must hate God indeed who
will spurn his counsels, give no heed to his reproof, scorn his grace, and dare
the vengeance of him who points out the way of escape and the path that leadeth
to life. He that will not be saved by God's mercy proves that he hates the God
of mercy. If God gives his own Son to die and men will not trust in his Son,
will not have him as their Saviour, that one sin, if they had no other, would at
once prove that they were enemies of God and black at heart. But if thy faith be
in Jesus, if thou lovest Jesus, if thy heart goes out to Jesus, if thy life be
influenced by Jesus, if thou makest him thy example as well as thy Saviour,
there will be evidence -- thou canst not see it, but there will be evidence --
in thy favour. For notice those gracious things, when the evidence was brought,
and Christ said, "I was an hungry, and ye gave me no meat, thirsty and ye gave
me no drink," they said, "O Lord, we never knew this." Should any man stand up
here and say, "I have plenty of evidence to prove my faith," I should reply,
"Hold your tongue, sir! Hold your tongue! I am afraid you have no faith at all,
or you would not be talking about your evidence." But if you are saying, "Oh, I
am afraid I have not the evidence that will stand me in good stead at the last,"
yet if all the while you have been feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked,
and doing all you can for Christ, I would tell you not to be afraid. The master
will find witnesses to say, "That man relieved me when I was in poverty. He knew
I was one of Christ's and he came and helped me." And another will come and say
(perhaps it will be an angel), "I saw him when he was alone in his chamber and
heard him pray for his enemies." And the Lord will say, "I read his heart when I
saw how he put up with rebuke, and slander, and persecution, and would not make
any answer for my sake. He did it all as evidence that my grace was in his
heart." You will not have to fetch up the witnesses: the judge will call them,
for he knows all about your case; and as he calls up the witness, will be
surprised to find how even the ungodly will be obliged to consent to the just
salvation of the righteous. Oh, how the secret deeds and the true
heart-sincerity of the righteous, when thus unveiled, will make devils bite
their tongues in wrath to think that there was so much of grace given to the
sons of men, with which to defeat persecution, to overcome temptation, and to
follow on in obedience to the Lord. Oh yes, the deeds, the deeds, the deeds of
men -- not their prating, not their profession, not their talk, but their deeds
(though nobody shall be saved by the merits of his deeds) -- their deeds shall
be the evidence of their grace, or their deeds shall be the evidence of their
unbelief; and so, by their works shall they stand before the Lord, or by their
world shall they be condemned as evidence and nothing more. IV. Now the last
point is this: What is the object of this judgment? Will sentence of acquittal
and condemnation be given, and then the whole thing be over? Far from it. The
judgment is with a view to the thereafter -- "That every man may receive the
things done in his body." The Lord will grant unto his people an abundant reward
for all that they have done. Not that they deserve any reward, but that God
first gave them grace to do good works, then took their good works as evidence
of a renewed heart, and then gave them a reward for what they had done. Oh, what
a bliss it will be to hear it said, "Well done, good and faithful servant," --
and to find that you have worked for Christ when nobody knew it, to find that
Christ took stock of it all, -- to you that served the Lord under
misrepresentation, to find that the Lord Jesus cleared the chaff away from the
wheat, and knew that you were one of his precious ones. For him, then, to say,
"Enter into the joy of thy Lord," oh, what a bliss will it be to you.But to the
ungodly how terrible. They are to receive the things that they have done; that
is to say, the punishment due, -- not every man alike, but the greater sinner
the greater doom; to the man who sinned against light a greater damnation than
to the man who had not the same light, -- Sodom and Gomorrah their place, Tyre
and Sidon their place, and then to Capernaum and Bethsaida their place of more
intolerable torment, because they had the Gospel and rejected it -- so the Lord
himself tells us. And the punishment will not only be meted out in proportion to
the transgression, but it will be a development of the evil actions done in the
evil consequences to be endured, as every man shall eat the fruit of his own
ways. Sin, after the natural order, ripens into sorrow. This is not a blind
fate, but it is the operation of a divine law, wise and invariable. Oh, how
dreadful it will be for the malicious man to have for ever to gnaw his own
envious heart, to find his malice come home to him, as birds come home to roost,
to hoot for ever in his own soul; for the lustful man to feel lust burning in
every vein, which he can never gratify; -- for the drunkard to have a thirst,
which not even a drop of water can allay; -- for the glutton who has fared
sumptuously every day, to be in hunger perpetually; and the soul that has been
wrathful to be for ever wrathful, with the fire of wrath for ever burning like a
volcano in his soul; and the rebel against God for ever a rebel, cursing God
whom he cannot touch, and finding his curses come back upon himself.There is no
punishment worse than for a man who is sinfully disposed to gratify his lusts,
to satiate his bad propensities, and to multiply and fatten his vices. Only let
men grow into what they would be, and then see what they would be like! Take
away the policemen in some parts of London, and give the people plenty of money,
and let their do just as they like. Last Saturday, it might be, there were
half-a-dozen broken heads, and wives and children were in one general skirmish.
Keep those people together: let their vigor continue unimpaired by age or decay,
while they keep on developing their characters. Why, they would be worse than a
herd of tigers! Let them give way to their rage and anger, with nothing to check
their passions; let miserly, greedy people for ever go on with their greed. It
makes them miserable here, but let these things be indulged in for ever, and
what worse hell do you want? Oh, sin is hell and holiness is heaven. Men will
receive the things done in their body. If God has made them to love him, they
shall go on to love him; if God has made them trust him, they shall go on to
trust in him; if God has made them to be like Christ, they shall go on to be
like Christ, and they shall receive the things done in their body as a reward;
but if a man has lived in sin, "he that is filthy shall be filthy still"; he
that has been unbelieving shall be unbelieving still. This, then, shall be the
worm that never dieth, and the fire which never shall be quenched, to which
shall be added the wrath of God forever and ever. Oh, that we may have grace
every one of us to flee to Christ! There is our only safety. Simple faith in
Jesus is the basis for the character which will evidence at last that you are
chosen of God. A simple belief in the merit of the Lord Jesus, wrought in us by
the Holy Spirit, is the rock foundation upon which shall he built up, by the
same divine hands, the character which shall evidence that the kingdom was
prepared for us from before the foundations of the world. God work in us such a
character, for Christ's sake. Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON --
Matthew 25.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/spurgeons-sermons-volume-18-1872/
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