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  SPURGEONS SERMONS VOLUME 20 1874
  by C.H. Spurgeon
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Volume 20 of Spurgeon's collected sermons, containing messages preached during
1874 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: 9

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    0. Spurgeons Sermons Volume 20 1874
    1. Saving Faith
    2. An Earnest Warning about Lukewarmness
    3. The Blood of the Covenant
    4. The Three Witnesses
    5. A Word for the Persecuted
    6. The Turning Point
    7. A Song Among the Lilies
    8. For Whom Did Christ Die?

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  CHAPTER 0: SPURGEONS SERMONS VOLUME 20 1874
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  CHAPTER 1: SAVING FAITH
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A Sermon (No.1162-3) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, March 15, 1874, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "Thy faith hath saved thee."
-- Luke 7:50; and Luke 18:42. I do not remember that this expression is found
anywhere else in the Word of God. It is found in these two places in the Gospel
by Luke, but not in any other Gospel. Luke also gives us in two other places a
kindred, and almost identical expression, "Thy faith hath made thee whole." This
you will find used in reference to the woman whose issue of blood had been
staunched (Luke 8:48), and in connection with that one of the ten lepers who
returned to praise the Saviour for the cure he had received (Luke 17:19). You
will find the expression, "Thy faith hath made thee whole" once in Matthew and
twice in Mark, but you find it twice in Luke, and together therewith the twice
repeated words of our text, "Thy faith hath saved thee." Are we wrong in
supposing that the long intercourse of Luke with the apostle Paul led him not
only to receive the great doctrine of justification by faith which Paul so
plainly taught, and to attach to faith that high importance which Paul always
did, but also to have a peculiar memory for those expressions which were used by
the Saviour, in which faith was manifestly honoured to a very high degree.
Albeit Luke would not have written anything which was not true for the sake of
maintaining the grand doctrine so clearly taught by the apostle, yet I think his
full conviction of it would help to recall to his memory more vividly those
words of the Lord Jesus from which it could be more clearly learned or
illustrated. Be that as it may, we know that Luke was inspired, and that he has
written neither more nor less than what the Saviour actually said, and hence we
may be quite sure that the expression, "Thy faith hath saved thee," fell from
the Redeemer's lips, and we are bound to accept it as pure unquestionable truth,
and we may repeat it ourselves without fear of misleading others, or trenching
upon any other truth. I mention this because the other day I heard an earnest
friend say that faith did not save us, at which announcement I was rather
surprised. The brother, it is true, qualified the expression, and showed that he
meant to make it clear that Jesus saved us, and not our own act of faith. I
agreed with what he meant, but not with what he said, for he had no right to use
an expression which was in flat contradiction to the distinct declaration of the
Saviour, "Thy faith hath saved thee." We are not to strain any expression to
make it mean more than the speaker intended, and it is well to guard words from
being misunderstood; but on the other hand, we may not quite go so far as
absolutely to negative a declaration of the Lord himself, however we may mean to
qualify it. It is to be qualified if you like, but it is not to be contradicted,
for there it stands, "Thy faith hath saved thee." Now we shall this morning, by
God's help, inquire what was it that saved the two persons whose history will
come before us? It was their faith. Our second inquiry will be what kind of
faith was it which saved them? and then thirdly, what does this teach us in
reference to faith? I. WHAT WAS IT THAT SAVED the two persons whose history we
are about to consider? In the penitent woman's case, her great sins were
forgiven her and she became a woman of extraordinary love: she loved much, for
she had much forgiven. I feel, in thinking of her, something like an eminent
father of the church who said, "This narrative is not one which I can well
preach upon; I had far rather weep over it in secret." That woman's tears, that
woman's unbraided tresses wiping the Saviour's feet, her coming so near to her
Lord in such company, facing such proud cavillers, with such fond and resolute
intent of doing honour to Jesus; verily, among those that have loved the
Saviour, there hath not lived a greater than this woman who was a sinner. Yet
for all that Jesus did not say to her, "Thy love hath saved thee." Love is a
golden apple of the tree of which faith is the root, and the Saviour took care
not to ascribe to the fruit that which belongs only to the root. This loving
woman was also right notable for her repentance. Mark ye well those tears. Those
were no tears of sentimental emotion, but a rain of holy heart-sorrow for sin.
She had been a sinner and she knew it; she remembered well her multitude of
iniquities, and she felt each sin deserved a tear, and there she stood weeping
herself away, because she had offended her dear Lord. Yet it is not said, "Thy
repentance hath saved thee." Her being saved caused her repentance, but
repentance did not save her. Sorrow for sin is an early token of grace within
the heart, yet it is nowhere said, "Thy sorrow for sin hath saved thee." She was
a woman of great humility. She came behind the Lord and washed his feet, as
though she felt herself only able to be a menial servant to perform works of
drudgery, and to find a pleasure in so serving her Lord. Her reverence for him
had reached a very high point; she regarded him as a king, and she did what has
sometimes been done for monarchs by zealous subjects -- she kissed the feet of
her heart's Lord, who well deserved the homage. Her loyal reverence led her to
kiss the feet of her Lord, the Sovereign of her soul, but I do not find that
Jesus said, "Thy humility hath saved thee;" or that he said, "Thy reverence hath
saved thee;" but he put the crown upon the head of her faith, and said
expressly, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." In the case of the blind
man to whom my second text refers -- this man was notable for his earnestness;
he cried, and cried aloud, "Son of David, have mercy on me." He was notable for
his importunity, for they who would have silenced him rebuked him in vain; he
cried so much the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me." But I do not discover
that Christ attributed his salvation to his prayers, earnest and importunate
though they were. It is not written, "Thy prayers have saved thee"; it is
written, "Thy faith hath saved thee." He was a man of considerable and clear
knowledge, and he had a distinct apprehension of the true character of Christ:
he scorned to call him Jesus of Nazareth, as the crowd did, but he proclaimed
him "Son of David," and in the presence of that throng he dared avow his full
conviction that the humble man, dressed in a peasant's garb, who was threading
his way through the throng, was none other than the royal heir of the royal line
of Judah, and was indeed the fulfiller of the type of David, the expected
Messiah, the King of the Jews, the Son of David. Yet I do not find that Jesus
attributed his salvation to his knowledge, to his clear apprehension, or to his
distinct avowal of his Messiahship; but he said to him, "Thy faith hath saved
thee," laying the entire stress of his salvation upon his faith. This being so
in both cases, we are led to ask, what is the reason for it? What is the reason
why in every case, in every man that is saved, faith is the great instrument of
salvation? Is it not first because God has a right to choose what way of
salvation he pleases, and he has chosen that men should be saved, not by their
works, but by their faith in his dear Son? God has a right to give his mercy to
whom he pleases; he has a right to give it when he pleases; he has a right to
give it in what mode he pleases; and know ye this, O sons of men, that the
decree of heaven is immutable, and standeth fast forever -- "He that believeth
and is baptised shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned." To this
there shall be no exception; Jehovah has made the rule and it shall stand. If
thou wouldst have salvation, "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved"; but if not, salvation is utterly impossible to thee. This is the
appointed way; follow it, and it leads to heaven; refuse it, and thou must
perish. This is God's sovereign determination, "He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not
believed on the Son of God." Jehovah's will be done. If this be his method of
grace, let us not kick against it. If he determines that faith shall save, so
let it be; only, Good Master, create and increase our faith. But while I
attribute this to the sovereign choice of God, I do see, for Scripture plainly
indicates it, a reason in the nature of things why faith should thus have been
selected. The apostle tells us it is of faith that it might be of grace. If the
condition of salvation had been either feeling or working, then, such is the
depravity of our nature, that we should inevitably have attributed the merit of
salvation to the working or the feeling. We should have claimed something
whereof to glory. It matters not how low the condition may have been, man would
have still considered that there was something required of him, that something
came from him, and that, therefore, he might take some credit to himself. But no
man, unless he be demented, ever claims credit for believing the truth. If he
hears that which convinces him, he is convinced; and if he be persuaded, he is
persuaded; but he feels that it could not well be otherwise. He attributes the
effect to the truth and the influence used. He does not go about and boast
because he believes what is so clear to him that he cannot doubt it. If he did
so boast of spiritual faith, all thinking men would say at once, "Wherefore dost
thou boast in the fact of having believed, and especially when this believing
would never have been thine if it had not been for the force of the truth which
convinced thee, and the working of the Spirit of God which constrained thee to
believe?" Faith is chosen by Christ to wear the crown of salvation because --
let me contradict myself -- it refuses to wear the crown. It was Christ that
saved the penitent woman, it was Christ that saved that blind beggar, but he
takes the crown from off his own head, so dear is faith to him, and he puts the
diadem upon the head of faith and says, "Thy faith hath saved thee," because he
is absolutely certain that faith will never take the glory to herself, but will
again lay the crown at the pierced feet, and say, "Not unto myself be glory, for
thou hast done it; thou art the Saviour, and thou alone." In order, then, to
illustrate and to protect the interests of sovereign grace, and to shut out all
vain glorying, God has been pleased to make the way of salvation to be by faith,
and by no other means.Nor is this all. It is clear to every one who chooses to
think that in order to the renewal of the heart, which is the chief part of
salvation, it is well to begin with the faith; because faith once rightly
exercised becomes the mainspring of the entire nature. The man believes that he
is forgiven. What then? He feels gratitude to him who has pardoned him. Feeling
gratitude, it is but natural that he should hate that which displeases his
Saviour, and should love intensely that which is pleasing to him who saved him,
so that faith operates upon the entire nature, and becomes the instrument in the
hand of the regenerating Spirit by which all the faculties of the soul are put
into the right condition. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he, but his
thinkings come out of his believings; if he be put right in his believings, then
his understanding will operate upon his affections, and all the other powers of
his manhood, and old things will pass away, all things will become new through
the wonderful effect of the faith, which is of the operation of God. Faith works
by love, and through love it purifies the soul, and the man becomes a new
creature. See ye then the wisdom of God? He may choose what way he will, but he
chooses a way which at once guards his grace from our felonious boastings, and
on the other hand produces in us a holiness which other wise never would have
been there.Faith in salvation, however, is not the meritorious cause; nor is it
in any sense the salvation itself. Faith saves us just as the mouth saves from
hunger. If we be hungry, bread is the real cure for hunger, but still it would
be right to say that eating removes hunger, seeing that the bread itself could
not benefit us, unless the mouth should eat it. Faith is the soul's mouth,
whereby the hunger of the heart is removed. Christ also is the brazen serpent
lifted up; all the healing virtue is in him; yet no healing virtue comes out of
the brazen serpent to any who will not look; so that the looking is rightly
considered to be the act which saves. True, in the deepest sense it is Christ
uplifted who saves, to him be all the glory; but without looking to him ye
cannot be saved, so that"There is life in a look,"as well as life in the Saviour
to whom you look. Nothing is yours until you appropriate it. If you be enriched,
the thing appropriated enriches you; yet it is not incorrect but strictly right
to say it is the appropriation of the blessing which makes you rich. Faith is
the hand of the soul. Stretched out, it lays hold of the salvation of Christ,
and so by faith we are saved. "Thy faith hath saved thee." I need not dwell
longer on that point. It is self-evident from the text that faith is the great
means of salvation.II. WHAT KIND OF FAITH WAS IT that saved these people? I will
mention, first, the essential agreements; and then, secondly, the differentia,
or the points in which this faith differed in its external manifestations in the
two cases. In the instances of the penitent woman and the blind beggar, their
faith was fixed alone in Jesus. You cannot discover anything floating in their
faith in Jesus which adulterated it; it was unmixed faith in him. the woman
pressed forward to him, her tears fell on him; her ointment was for him; her
unloosed tresses were a towel for his; feet she cared for no one else, not even
for the disciples whom she respected for his sake; her whole spirit and soul
were absorbed in him. He could save her; he could blot out her sins. She
believed him; she did it unto him. The same was the case with that blind man. He
had no thought of any ceremonies to be performed by priests; he had no idea of
any medicine which might be given him by physicians. His cry was, "Son of David,
Son of David." The only notice he took of others was to disregard them, and
still to cry, "Son of David, Son of David." "What wilt thou that I shall do unto
thee?" was the Lord's question, and it answered to the desire of his soul, for
he knew that if anything were done it must be done by the Son of David. It is
essential that our faith must rest alone on Jesus. Mix anything with Christ, and
you are undone. If your faith shall stand with one foot upon the rock of his
merits, and the other foot upon the sand of your own duties, it will fall, and
great will be the fall thereof. Build wholly on the rock, for if so much as a
corner of the edifice shall rest on anything beside, it will ensure the ruin of
the whole: -- <>"None but Jesus, none but JesusCan do helpless sinners good."All
true faith is alike in this respect.The faith of these two was alike in its
confession of unworthiness. What meant her standing behind? What meant her
tears, her everflowing tears, but that she felt unworthy to draw near to Jesus?
And what meant the beggar's cry, "Have mercy on me?" Note the stress he lays
upon it. "Have mercy on me." He does not claim the cure by merit, nor ask it as
a reward. To mercy he appealed. Now I care not whose faith it is, whether it be
that of David in his bitter cries of the fifty-first Psalm, or whether it be
that of Paul in his highest exaltation upon being without condemnation through
Christ, there is always in connection with true faith a thorough and deep sense
that it is mercy, mercy alone, which saves us from the wrath to come. Dear
hearer, do not deceive yourself. Faith and boasting are as opposite to one
another as the two poles. If you come before Christ with your righteousness in
your hand, you come without faith; but if you come with faith you must also come
with confession of sin, for true faith always walks hand in hand with a deep
sense of guiltiness before the Most High. This is so in every case.Their faith
was alike, moreover, in defying and conquering opposition. Little do we know the
inward struggles of the penitent as she crossed the threshold of Simon's house.
"He will repel thee," the stern, cold Pharisee will say, "Get thee gone, thou
strumpet; how darest thou defile the doors of honest men." But whatever may
happen she passes through the door, she comes to where the feet of the Saviour
are stretched out towards the entrance as he is reclining at the table, and
there she stands. Simon glanced at her: he thought the glance would wither her,
but her love to Christ was too well rooted to be withered by him. No doubt he
made many signs of his displeasure, and showed that he was horrified at such a
creature being anywhere near him, but she took no notice of him. Her Lord was
there, and she felt safe. Timid as a dove, she trembled not while he was near;
but she returned no defiant glances for Simon's haughty looks; her eyes were
occupied with weeping. She did not turn aside to demand an explanation of his
unkind motions, for her lips were all engrossed with kissing those dear feet.
Her Lord, her Lord, was all to her. She overcame through faith in him, and held
her ground, and did not leave the house till he dismissed her with "Go in
peace."It was the same with the blind man. He said, "Son of David, have mercy on
me." They cried, "Hush! Why these clamours, blind beggar? His eloquence is
music; do not interrupt him. Never man spake as he is speaking. Every tone rings
like the harps of the angels. Hush! How darest thou spoil his discourse?" But
over and above them all went up the importunate prayer, "Son of David, have
mercy upon me," and he prevailed. All true faith is opposed. If thy faith be
never tried it is not born of the race of the church militant. "This is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith," but it is indicated in that
very declaration that there must be something to overcome, and that faith must
wage war for its existence.Once more, the faith of these two persons was alike
in being openly avowed. I will not say that the avowal took the same form in
both, for it did not; but still it was equally open. There is the Saviour, and
there comes the weeping penitent. She loves him. Is she ashamed to say so? It
may bring her reproach; it will certainly rake up the old reproaches against
her, for she has been a sinner. Never mind what she has been, nor who may be
present to see her. She loves her Lord, and she will show it. She will bring the
ointment and she will anoint his feet, even in the presence of Pharisees,
Pharisees who would say, "Is this one of the disciples of Christ? A pretty
convert to boast of! A fine conquest this, for his kingdom! A harlot becomes a
disciple! What next and what next?" She must have known and felt all that, but
still there was no concealment. She loved her Lord, and she would avow it, and
so in the very house of the Pharisee, there being no other opportunity so
convenient, she comes forward, and without words, but with actions far more
eloquent than words, she says, "I love him. These tears shall show it; this
ointment shall diffuse the knowledge of it, as its sweet perfume fills the room;
and every lock of my hair shall be a witness that I am my Lord's and he is
mine." She avowed her faith. And so did the blind man. He did not sit there and
say, "I know he is the Son of David, but I must not say it." They said, some of
them contemptuously, and others indifferently, "It is Jesus of Nazareth." But he
will not have it so. "Thou Son of David," saith he; and loud above their noise I
hear him cry, like a herald proclaiming the King, "Son of David." Why, sirs, it
seems to me he was exalted to a high office: he became the herald of the King,
and proclaimed him, and this belongs to a high officer of State in our country.
The blind beggar showed great decision and courage. He cried in effect, "Son of
David thou art; Son of David I proclaim thee; Son of David thou shalt be
proclaimed, whoever may gainsay it; only turn thine eyes and have mercy upon
me." Are there any of you here who have a faith in Christ which you are ashamed
of? I also am ashamed of you, and so also will Christ be ashamed of you when he
cometh in the glory of his Father and all his holy angels with him. Ashamed to
claim that you are honest? Then methinks you must live in bad company, where to
be a rogue is to be famous; and if you are ashamed to say, "I love my Lord,"
methinks you are courting the friendship of Christ's enemies, and what can you
be but an enemy yourself: If you love him, say it. Put on your Master's
regimentals, enlist in his army, and come forward and declare, "As for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord." Their faith was alike then in these four
particulars, it was fixed alone on him, it was accompanied with a sense of
unworthiness, it struggled and conquered opposition, and it openly declared
itself before all comers.By your patience I shall now try to show the
differences between the same faith as to its manifestations. First, the woman's
faith acted like a woman's faith. She showed tender love, and the affections are
the glory and the strength of women. They were certainly such in her. Her love
was intense, womanly love, and she poured it out upon the Saviour. The man's
faith acted like a man's in its determination and strength. He persisted in
crying, "Thou Son of David." There was as much that was masculine about his
faith as there was of the feminine in the penitent's faith, and everything
should be in its order and after its season. It would not have been meet for the
woman's voice to be heard so boldly above the crowd; it would have seemed out of
place for a man's tears to have been falling upon the Saviour's feet. Either one
or the other might have been justifiable, but they would not have been equally
suitable. But now they are as suitable as they are excellent. The woman acts as
a godly woman should. The man like a godly man. Never let us measure ourselves
by other people. Do not, my brother, say, "I could not shed tears." Who asked
thee to do so? A man's tears are mostly within, and so let them be: it is ours
to use other modes of showing our love. And, my sister, do not say, "I could not
act as a herald and publicly proclaim the King." I doubt not thou couldest do so
if there were need, but thy tears in secret, and those wordless tokens of love
to Jesus which thou are rendering, are not less acceptable because they are not
the same as a man would give. Nay, they are the better because they are more
suitable to thee. Do not think that all the flowers of God's garden must bloom
in the same colour or shed the same perfume.Notice next that the woman acted
like a woman who had been a sinner. What more meet than tears? What more fitting
place for her than at the Saviour's feet? She had been a sinner, she acts like a
sinner; but the man who had been a beggar acted like a beggar. What does a
beggar do but clamour for alms? Did he not beg gloriously? Never one plied the
trade more earnestly than he. "Son of David," said he, "have mercy on me." I
should not have liked to have seen the beggar sitting there weeping; nor to have
heard the penitent woman shouting. Neither would have been natural or seemly.
Faith works according to the condition, circumstances, sex, or ability of the
person in whom it lives, and it best shows itself in its own form, not in an
artificial manner, but in the natural outflow of the heart.Observe, also, that
the woman did not speak. There is something very beautiful in the golden silence
of the woman, which was richer than her silver speech would have been. But the
man was not silent; he spoke; he spoke out, and his words were excellent. I
venture to say that the woman's silence spoke as powerfully as the man's voice.
Of the two I think I find more eloquence in the tears bedewing, and unbraided
hair wiping the Saviour's feet, than in the cry, "Son of David, have mercy on
me." Yet both forms of expression were equally good, the silence best in the
woman with her tears, and the speech best in the man with his confident trust in
Christ. Do not think it necessary, dear friend, in order to serve, to do other
people's work. What thine own hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. If you
think you can never honour Christ till you enter a pulpit, it may be just
possible that you will afterwards honour him best by getting out of it as
quickly as you can. There have been persons well qualified to adorn the religion
of Christ with a lapstone on their lap who have thought it necessary to mount a
pulpit, and in that position have been a hindrance to Christ and his gospel.
Sister, there is a sphere for you; keep to it, let none push you out of it; but
do not think there is nothing else to do except the work which some other woman
does. God has called her, let her follow God's voice; he calls you in another
direction, follow his voice thither. You will be most like that other excellent
woman when you are most different from her: I mean, you will be most truly
obedient to Christ, as she is, if you pursue quite another path. There was a
difference, again, in this. The woman gave -- she brought her ointment. The man
did the opposite -- he begged. There are various ways of showing love to Christ,
which are equally excellent tokens of faith. To give him of her ointment, and
give him of her tears, and give him the accommodation of her hair, was well; it
showed her faith, which worked by love: to give nothing, for the beggar had
nothing to give, but simply to honour Christ by appealing to his bounty and his
royal power, was best in the beggar. I can commend neither above the other, for
I doubt not that both the penitent and the beggar gave Christ their whole heart,
and what more does Jesus ask for from any one?The thoughts of the woman and the
thoughts of the beggar were different too. Her thoughts were mainly about the
past, and her sins -- hence her tears. To be forgiven, that was her point. His
thoughts were mainly about the present, and did not so much concern his sin as
his deficiency, infirmity, and inability, and so he came with different
thoughts. I do not doubt that he thought of sin, as I dare say she also thought
of infirmity; but in her case the thought of sin was uppermost, and hence the
tears; in his the infirmity was uppermost, and hence the prayer, "Lord, that I
might receive my sight." Do not, then, compare your experience with that of
another. God is a God of wonderful variety. The painter who repeats himself in
many pictures has a paucity of conception, but the master artist scarcely ever
sketches the same thing a second time. There is a boundless variety in genius,
and God who transcends all the genius of men, creates an infinite variety in the
works of his grace. Look not, therefore, for likeness everywhere. The woman, it
is said, loved much, and she proved her love by her acts; but the man loved much
too, and showed his love by actions which were most admirable, for he followed
Jesus in the way, glorifying God. Yet they were different actions. I do not find
that he brought any box of ointment, or anointed Christ's feet, neither do I
find that she literally followed Christ in the way, though no doubt she followed
him in the spirit; neither did she with a loud voice glorify God as the restored
blind beggar did. There are differences of operation, but the same Lord; there
are differences of capacity and differences of calling, and by this reflection I
hope you will be enabled to deliver yourselves from the fault of judging one by
another, and that you will look for the same faith, but not for the same
development of it.So interesting is this subject that I want you to follow me
while I very rapidly sketch the woman's case, and then the man's, not mentioning
the differences one by one, but allowing the two pictures to impress themselves
separately upon your minds.Observe this woman. What a strange compound she was.
She was consciously unworthy, and therefore she wept, yet she drew very near to
Jesus. Her acts were those of nearness and communion; she washed his feet with
her tears, she wiped them with the hairs of her head, and meanwhile she kissed
them again and again. "She hath not ceased," said Christ, "to kiss my feet." A
sense of unworthiness, and the enjoyment of communion, were mixed together. Oh,
divine faith which blends the two! She was shamefaced, yet was she very bold.
She dared not look the Master in the face as yet; she approached him from
behind; yet she dared face Simon, and remain in his room, whether he frowned or
no. I have known some who have blushed in the face of Christ who would not have
blushed before a judge, nor at the stake, if they had been dragged there for
Christ's sake. Such a woman was Anne Askew, humble before her Master, but like a
lioness before the foes of God.The penitent woman wept, she was a mourner, yet
she had a deep joy; I know she had, for every kiss meant joy. Every time she
lifted that blessed foot, and kissed it, her heart leaped with the transport of
love. Her heart knew bitterness for sin, but it knew also the sweetness of
pardon. What a mixture! Faith made the compound. She was humble, never one more
so; yet see how she takes upon herself to deal with the King himself. Brethren,
you and I are satisfied, and well we may be, if we may wash the saints' feet,
but she was not. Oh, the courage of this woman! She will pass through the outer
court, and get right to the King's own throne, and there pay her homage, in her
own person, to his person, and wash the feet of the wonderful, the Counsellor,
the mighty God. I know not that an angel ever performed such suit and service,
and therefore this woman takes preeminence as having done for Jesus what no
other being ever did. I have said that she was silent, and yet she spake; I will
add, she was despised, but Christ set her high in honour, and made Simon, who
despised her, to feel little in her presence. I will also add she was a great
sinner, but she was a great saint. Her great sinnership, when pardoned, became
the raw stuff out of which great saints are made by the mighty power of God.
Finally she was saved by faith, so says the text, but if ever there was a case
in which James could not have said, "Shall faith save thee?" and in which he
must have said, "Here is one that shows her faith by her works," it was the case
of this woman. There she is before you. Imitate her faith itself, though you
cannot actually copy her deeds. Now look at the man. He was blind, but he could
see a great deal more than the Pharisees, who said they could see. Blind, but
his inward optics saw the king in his beauty, saw the splendour of his throne,
and he confessed it. He was a beggar, but he had a royal soul, and a strong
sovereign determination which was not to be put down. He had the kind of mind
which dwells in men who are princes among their fellows. He is not to be stopped
by disciples, nay, nor by apostles. He has begun to pray, and pray he will till
he obtains the boon he seeks. Note well that what he knew he avowed, what he
desired he pleaded for, and what he needed he understood. "Lord, that I might
receive my sight;" he was clear about his needs, and clear about the only person
who could supply them. What he asked for he expected, for when he was bidden to
come he evidently expected that his sight would be restored, for we are told by
another Evangelist that he cast away his beggar's cloak. He felt he should never
want to beg again. He was sure his eyes were about to be opened. Lastly, what he
received he was grateful for, for as soon as he could walk without a guide he
took Christ to be his guide, and followed him in the way, glorifying him. Look
on both pictures. May you have the shadows and the lights of both, as far as
they would tend to make you also another and distinct picture by the selfsame
artist, whose hand alone can produce such wonders.III. WHAT DOES THIS TEACH US
IN REFERENCE TO FAITH? It teaches us first that faith is all important. Do, I
pray you, my hearers, see whether you have the precious faith, the faith of
God's elect. Remember there are not many things in Scripture called precious,
but there is the precious blood, and there goes with it the precious faith. If
you have not that you are lost; if you have not that you are neither fit to live
nor fit to die; if you have not that, your eternal destiny will be infinite
despair; but if you have faith, though it be as a grain of mustard seed, you are
saved. "Thy faith hath saved thee."Learn next that the main matter in faith is
the person whom you believe. I do not say in whom you believe. That would be
true, but not quite so scriptural an expression. Paul does not say, as I hear
most people quote it, "I know in whom I have believed." Faith believes Christ.
Your faith must recognise him as a person, and come to him as a person, and rest
not in his teaching merely, or his work only, but in him. "Come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." A personal Saviour
for sinners! Are you resting on him alone? Do you believe him? You know the
safety of the building depends mainly upon the foundation, and if the foundation
be not right, you may build as you will, it will not last. Do you build, then,
on Christ alone? Inquire about that as a special point.Observe next, that we
must not expect exactly the same manifestation in each convert. Let not the
elders of the church expect it, let not parents require it from their children;
let not anxious friends look for it; do not expect it in yourself. Biographies
are very useful, but they may become a snare. I must not judge that I am not a
child of God because I am not precisely like that good man whose life I have
just been reading. Am I resting in Christ? Do I believe him? Then it may be the
Lord's grace is striking out quite a different path for me from that which has
been trodden by my brother, that it may illustrate other phases of its power,
and show to principalities and powers the exceeding riches of divine love.And,
lastly, the matter which sums up all is this, if we have faith in Jesus we are
saved, and ought not to talk or act as if there were any question about it. "THY
FAITH HATH SAVED THEE." Jesus says it. Granted, you have faith in Christ, and it
is certain that faith hath saved you. Do not, therefore, go on talking and
acting and feeling as if you were not saved. I know a company of saved people
who say every Sabbath, "Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners"; but they
are not miserable sinners if they are saved, and for them to use such words is
to throw a slight upon the salvation which Christ has given them. If they are
saved sinners they ought to be rejoicing saints. What some say others do not
say, but they act as if it were so. They go about asking God to give them the
mercy they have already obtained, hoping one day to receive what Christ assures
them is already in their possession, talking to others as if it were a matter of
question whether they were saved or not, when it cannot be a matter of question.
"Thy faith hath saved thee." Fancy the poor penitent woman turning round and
saying to the Saviour, "Lord, I humbly hope that it is true." There would have
been neither humility nor faith in such an expression. Imagine that blind man,
when Christ said, "Thy faith hath saved thee," saying "I trust that in future
years it will be found to be so." It would be a belying at once of his own
earnest character and of Christ's honesty of speech. If thou hast believed, thou
art saved. Do not talk as if thou wert not, but now down from the willows take
thy harp, and sing unto the Lord a new song. I have noticed in many prayers a
tendency to avoid speaking as if facts were facts. I have heard this kind of
expression, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we desire to be
glad." The text is, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are
glad;" and if the Lord has done these great things for us our right is to be
glad about them, not to go with an infamous "if" upon our lips before the Lord
who cannot lie. If ye are dealing with your fellow creatures, suspect them, for
they mostly deserve it; if ye are listening to their promises, doubt them, for
their promises go to be broken; but if ye are dealing with your Lord and Master,
never suspect him, for he is beyond suspicion; never doubt his promises, for
heaven and earth and hell shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of his word
shall fail. I claim for Christ that ye cast away forever all the talk which is
made up of "buts," and "ifs," and "peradventures," and "I hope," and "I trust."
You are in the presence of One who said, "Verily, verily," and meant what he
said, who is "the Amen, the faithful and true witness." You would not spit in
his face if he were here, yet your "ifs" and "buts" are so much insult cast upon
his truth. You would not scourge him, but what do your doubts do but vex him and
put him to shame? If he lies, never believe him; if he speaks the truth, never
doubt him. Then shall ye know when ye have cast aside your wicked unbelief, that
your faith has saved you, and ye will go in peace.PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ
BEFORE SERMON -- Luke 7:36-50; 18:35-43.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" -- 18
(Ver.1.), 536, 586.


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  CHAPTER 2: AN EARNEST WARNING ABOUT LUKEWARMNESS
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A Sermon (No.1185) Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, July 26th, 1874, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "Unto the angel of the
church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and
true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou
art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou
art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and
blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou
mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the
shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that
thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore,
and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also
overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." -- Rev.3:14-21 No
Scripture ever wears out. The epistle to the church of Laodicea is not an old
letter which may be put into the waste basket and be forgotten; upon its page
still glow the words, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith
unto the churches." This Scripture was not meant to instruct the Laodiceans
only, it has a wider aim. The actual church of Laodicea has passed away, but
other Laodiceas still exist -- indeed, they are sadly multiplied in our day, and
it has ever been the tendency of human nature, however inflamed with the love of
God, gradually to chill into lukewarmness. The letter to the Laodiceans is above
all others the epistle for the present times. I should judge that the church at
Laodicea was once in a very fervent and healthy condition. Paul wrote a letter
to it which did not claim inspiration, and therefore its loss does not render
the Scriptures incomplete, for Paul may have written scores of other letters
besides. Paul also mentions the church at Laodicea in his letter to the church
at Colosse; he was, therefore, well acquainted with it, and as he does not utter
a word of censure with regard to it, we may infer that the church was at that
time in a sound state. In process of time it degenerated, and cooling down from
its former ardour it became careless, lax, and indifferent. Perhaps its best men
were dead, perhaps its wealth seduced it into worldliness, possibly its freedom
from persecution engendered carnal ease, or neglect of prayer made it gradually
backslide; but in any case it declined till it was neither cold nor hot. Lest we
should ever get into such a state, and lest we should be in that state now, I
pray that my discourse may come with power to the hearts of all present, but
especially to the consciences of the members of my own church. May God grant
that it may tend to the arousing of us all. I. My first point will be THE STATE
INTO WHICH CHURCHES ARE VERY APT TO FALL. A church may fall into a condition far
other than that for which it has a repute. It may be famous for zeal and yet be
lethargic. The address of our Lord begins, "I know thy works," as much as to
say, "Nobody else knows you. Men think better of you than you deserve. You do
not know yourselves, you think your works to be excellent; but I know them to be
very different." Jesus views with searching eyes all the works of his church.
The public can only read reports, but Jesus sees for himself. He knows what is
done, and how it is done, and why it is done. He judges a church not merely by
her external activities, but by her internal pieties; he searches the heart, and
tries the reins of the children of men. He is not deceived by glitter; he tests
all things, and values only that gold which will endure the fire. Our opinion of
ourselves and Christ's opinion of us may be very different, and it is a very sad
thing when it is so. It will be melancholy indeed if we stand out as a church
notable for earnestness and distinguished for success, and yet are not really
fervent in spirit, or eager in soul-winning. A lack of vital energy where there
seems to be most strength put forth, a lack of real love to Jesus where
apparently there is the greatest devotedness to him, are sad signs of fearful
degeneracy. Churches are very apt to put the best goods into the window, very
apt to make a fair show in the flesh, and like men of the world, they try to
make a fine figure upon a very slender estate. Great reputations have often but
slender foundations, and lovers of the truth lament that it should be so. Not
only is it true of churches, but of every one of us as individuals, that often
our reputation is in advance of our deserts. Men often live on their former
credit, and trade upon their past characters, having still a name to live,
though they are indeed dead. To be slandered is a dire affliction, but it is,
upon the whole, a less evil than to be thought better than we are; in the one
case we have a promise to comfort us, in the second we are in danger of
self-conceit. I speak as unto wise men, judge ye how far this may apply to us.
The condition described in our text is, secondly, one of mournful indifference
and carelessness. They were not cold, but they were not hot; they were not
infidels, yet they were not earnest believers; they did not oppose the gospel,
neither did they defend it; they were not working mischief, neither were they
doing any great good; they were not disreputable in moral character, but they
were not distinguished for holiness; they were not irreligious, but they were
not enthusiastic in piety nor eminent for zeal: they were what the world calls
"Moderates," they were of the Broad-church school, they were neither bigots nor
Puritans, they were prudent and avoided fanaticism, respectable and averse to
excitement. Good things were maintained among them, but they did not make too
much of them; they had prayer-meetings, but there were few present, for they
liked quiet evenings at home: when more attended the meetings they were still
very dull, for they did their praying very deliberately and were afraid of being
too excited. They were content to have all things done decently and in order,
but vigour and zeal they considered to be vulgar. Such churches have schools,
Bible-classes, preaching rooms, and all sorts of agencies; but they might as
well be without them, for no energy is displayed and no good comes of them. They
have deacons and elders who are excellent pillars of the church, if the chief
quality of pillars be to stand still, and exhibit no motion or emotion. They
have ministers who may be the angels of the churches, but if so, they have their
wings closely clipped, for they do not fly very far in preaching the everlasting
gospel, and they certainly are not flames of fire: they may be shining lights of
eloquence, but they certainly are not burning lights of grace, setting men's
hearts on fire. In such communities everything is done in a half-hearted,
listless, dead-and-alive way, as if it did not matter much whether it was done
or not. It makes one's flesh creep to see how sluggishly they move: I long for a
knife to cut their red tape to pieces, and for a whip to lay about their
shoulders to make them bestir themselves. Things are respectably done, the rich
families are not offended, the sceptical party is conciliated, and the good
people are not quite alienated: things are made pleasant all round. The right
things are done, but as to doing them with all your might, and soul, and
strength, a Laodicean church has no notion of what that means. They are not so
cold as to abandon their work, or to give up their meetings for prayer, or to
reject the gospel; if they did so, then they could be convinced of their error
and brought to repentance; but on the other hand they are neither hot for the
truth, nor hot for conversions, nor hot for holiness, they are not fiery enough
to burn the stubble of sin, nor zealous enough to make Satan angry, nor fervent
enough to make a living sacrifice of themselves upon the altar of their God.
They are "neither cold not hot." This is a horrible state, because it is one
which in a church wearing a good repute renders that reputation a lie. When
other churches are saying, "See how they prosper! see what they do for God!"
Jesus sees that the church is doing his work in a slovenly, make-believe manner,
and he considers justly that it is deceiving its friends. If the world
recognizes such a people as being very distinctly an old-fashioned puritanic
church, and yet there is unholy living among them, and careless walking, and a
deficiency of real piety, prayer, liberality, and zeal, then the world itself is
being deceived, and that too in the worst way, because it is led to judge
falsely concerning Christianity, for it lays all these faults upon the back of
religion, and cries out, "It is all a farce! The thing is a mere pretence!
Christians are all hypocrites!" I fear there are churches of this sort. God
grant we may not be numbered with them! In this state of the church there is
much self-glorification, for Laodicea said, "I am rich and increased with goods,
and have need of nothing." The members say, "Everything goes on well, what more
do we want? All is right with us." This makes such a condition very hopeless,
because reproofs and rebukes fall without power, where the party rebuked can
reply, "We do not deserve your censures, such warnings are not meant for us." If
you stand up in the pulpit and talk to sleepy churches, as I pretty frequently
do, and speak very plainly, they often have the honesty to say, "There is a good
deal of truth in what the man has said": but if I speak to another church, which
really is half asleep, but which thinks itself to be quite a model of diligence,
then the rebuke glides off like oil down a slab of marble, and no result comes
of it. Men are less likely to repent when they are in the middle passage between
hot and cold, than if they were in the worst extremes of sin. If they were like
Saul of Tarsus, enemies of God, they might be converted; but if, like Gamaliel,
they are neither opposed nor favouring, they will probably remain as they are
till they die. The gospel converts a sincerely superstitious Luther, but
Erasmus, with his pliant spirit, flippant, and full of levity, remains unmoved.
There is more hope of warning the cold than the lukewarm.When churches get into
the condition of half-hearted faith, tolerating the gospel, but having a sweet
tooth for error, they do far more mischief to their age than downright
heretics.It is harder a great deal to work for Jesus with a church which is
lukewarm than it would be to begin without a church. Give me a dozen earnest
spirits and put me down anywhere in London, and by God's good help we will soon
cause the wilderness and the solitary place to rejoice; but give me the whole
lot of you, half-hearted, undecided, and unconcerned, what can I do? You will
only be a drag upon a man's zeal and earnestness. Five thousand members of a
church all lukewarm will be five thousand impediments, but a dozen earnest,
passionate spirits, determined that Christ shall be glorified and souls won,
must be more than conquerors; in their very weakness and fewness will reside
capacities for being the more largely blessed of God. Better nothing than
lukewarmness.Alas, this state of lukewarmness is so congenial with human nature
that it is hard to fetch men from it. Cold makes us shiver, and great heat
causes us pain, but a tepid bath is comfort itself. Such a temperature suits
human nature. The world is always at peace with a lukewarm church, and such a
church is always pleased with itself. Not too worldly, -- no! We have our
limits! There are certain amusements which of course a Christian must give up,
but we will go quite up to the line, for why are we to be miserable? We are not
to be so greedy as to be called miserly, but we will give as little as we can to
the cause. We will not be altogether absent from the house of God, but we will
go as seldom as we can. We will not altogether forsake the poor people to whom
we belong, but we will also go to the world's church, so as to get admission
into better society, and find fashionable friends for our children. How much of
this there is abroad! Compromise is the order of the day. Thousands try to hold
with the hare and run with the hounds, they are for God and Mammon, Christ and
Belial, truth and error, and so are "neither hot nor cold." Do I speak somewhat
strongly? Not so strongly as my Master, for he says, "I will spue thee out of my
mouth." He is nauseated with such conduct, it sickens him, and he will not
endure it. In an earnest, honest, fervent heart nausea is created when we fall
in with men who dare not give up their profession, and yet will not live up to
it; who cannot altogether forsake the work of God, but yet do it in a sluggard's
manner, trifling with that which ought to be done in the best style for so good
a Lord and so gracious a Saviour. Many a church has fallen into a condition of
indifference, and when it does so it generally becomes the haunt of worldly
professors, a refuge for people who want an easy religion, which enables them to
enjoy the pleasures of sin and the honours of piety at the same time; where
things are free and easy, where you are not expected to do much, or give much,
or pray much, or to be very religious; where the minister is not so precise as
the old school divines, a more liberal people, of broad views, free-thinking and
free-acting, where there is full tolerance for sin, and no demand for vital
godliness. Such churches applaud cleverness in a preacher; as for his doctrine,
that is of small consequence, and his love to Christ and zeal for souls are very
secondary. He is a clever fellow, and can speak well, and that suffices. This
style of things is all too common, yet we are expected to hold our tongue, for
the people are very respectable. The Lord grant that we may be kept clear of
such respectability!We have already said that this condition of indifference is
attended with perfect self-complacency. The people who ought to be mourning are
rejoicing, and where they should hang out signals of distress they are flaunting
the banners of triumph. "We are rich, we are adding to our numbers, enlarging
our schools, and growing on all sides; we have need of nothing. What can a
church require that we have not in abundance?" Yet their spiritual needs are
terrible. This is a sad state for a church to be in. Spiritually poor and proud.
A church crying out to God because it feels itself in a backsliding state; a
church mourning its deficiency, a church pining and panting to do more for
Christ, a church burning with zeal for God, and therefore quite discontented
with what it has been able to do; this is the church which God will bless: but
that which writes itself down as a model for others, is very probably grossly
mistaken and is in a sad plight. This church, which was so rich in its own
esteem, was utterly bankrupt in the sight of the Lord. It had no real joy in the
Lord; it had mistaken its joy in itself for that. It had no real beauty of
holiness upon it; it had mistaken its formal worship and fine building and
harmonious singing for that. It had no deep understanding of the truth and no
wealth of vital godliness, it had mistaken carnal wisdom and outward profession
for those precious things. It was poor in secret prayer, which is the strength
of any church; it was destitute of communion with Christ, which is the very life
blood of religion; but it had the outward semblance of these blessings, and
walked in a vain show. There are churches which are poor as Lazarus as to true
religion, and yet are clothed in scarlet and fare sumptuously every day upon the
mere form of godliness. Spiritual leanness exists side by side with vain-glory.
Contentment as to worldly goods makes men rich, but contentment with our
spiritual condition is the index of poverty. Once more, this church of Laodicea
had fallen into a condition which had chased away its Lord. The text tells us
that Jesus said, "I stand at the door and knock." That is not the position which
our Lord occupies in reference to a truly flourishing church. If we are walking
aright with him, he is in the midst of the church, dwelling there, and revealing
himself to his people. His presence makes our worship to be full of spirituality
and life; he meets his servants at the table, and there spreads them a feast
upon his body and his blood; it is he who puts power and energy into all our
church-action, and causes the word to sound out from our midst. True saints
abide in Jesus and he in them. Oh, brethren, when the Lord is in a church, it is
a happy church, a holy church, a mighty church, and a triumphant church; but we
may grieve him till he will say, "I will go and return to my place, until they
acknowledge their offence and seek my face." Oh, you that know my Lord, and have
power with him, entreat him not to go away from us. He can see much about us as
a people which grieves his Holy Spirit, much about any one of us to provoke him
to anger. Hold him, I pray you, and do not let him go, or if he be gone, bring
him again to his mother's house, into the chamber of her that bare him, where,
with holy violence, we will detain him and say, "Abide with us, for thou art
life and joy, and all in all to us as a church. Ichabod is written across our
house if thou be gone, for thy presence is our glory and thy absence will be our
shame." Churches may become like the temple when the glory of the Lord had left
the holy place, because the image of jealousy was set up and the house was
defiled. What a solemn warning is that which is contained in Jeremiah 7:12-15,
"But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the
first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now,
because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you,
rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye
answered not; therefore I will do unto this house, which is called by my name,
wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as
I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out
all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim."II. Now let us consider,
secondly, THE DANGER OF SUCH A STATE. The great danger is, first, to be rejected
of Christ. He puts it, "I will spue thee out of my mouth," -- as disgusting him,
and causing him nausea. Then the church must first be in his mouth, or else it
could not be spued from it. What does this mean? Churches are in Christ's mouth
in several ways, they are used by him as his testimony to the world; he speaks
to the world through their lives and ministries. He does as good as say, "O
sinners, if ye would see what my religion can do, see here a godly people banded
together in my fear and love, walking in peace and holiness." He speaks
powerfully by them, and makes the world see and know that there is a true power
in the gospel of the grace of God. But when the church becomes neither cold nor
hot he does not speak by her, she is no witness for him. When God is with a
church the minister's words come out of Christ's mouth. "Out of his mouth went a
two-edged sword," says John in the Revelation, and that "two-edged sword" is the
gospel which we preach. When God is with a people they speak with divine power
to the world, but if we grow lukewarm Christ says, "Their teachers shall not
profit, for I have not sent them, neither am I with them. Their word shall be as
water spilt on the ground, or as the whistling of the wind." This is a dreadful
thing. Better far for me to die than to be spued out of Christ's mouth.Then he
also ceases to plead for such a church. Christ's special intercession is not for
all men, for he says of his people, "I pray for them: I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me." I do not think Christ ever prays for the
church of Rome -- what would he pray for, but her total overthrow? Other
churches are nearing the same fate; they are not clear in his truth or honest in
obedience to his word: they follow their own devices, they are lukewarm. But
there are churches for which he is pleading, for he has said, "For Zion's sake
will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the
righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a
lamp that burneth." Mighty are his pleadings for those he really loves, and
countless are the blessings which comes in consequence. It will be an evil day
when he casts a church out of that interceding mouth, and leaves her
unrepresented before the throne because he is none of his. Do you not tremble at
such a prospect? Will you not ask for grace to return to your first love? I know
that the Lord Jesus will never leave off praying for his own elect, but for
churches as corporate bodies he may cease to pray, because they become
anti-Christian, or are mere human gatherings, but not elect assemblies, such as
the church of God ought to be. Now this is the danger of any church if it
declines from its first ardour and becomes lukewarm. "Remember therefore from
whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works; or else I will come
unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent." What is the other danger? This first comprehends all, but another evil
is hinted at, -- such a church will be left to its fallen condition, to become
wretched, -- that is to say, miserable, unhappy, divided, without the presence
of God, and so without delight in the ways of God, lifeless, spiritless, dreary,
desolate, full of schisms, devoid of grace, and I know not what beside, that may
come under the term "wretched." Then the next word is "miserable," which might
better be rendered "pitiable." Churches which once were a glory shall become a
shame. Whereas men said, "The Lord has done great things for them," they shall
now say, "see how low they have fallen! What a change has come over the place!
What emptiness and wretchedness! What a blessing rested there for so many years,
but what a contrast now!" Pity will take the place of congratulation, and scorn
will follow upon admiration. Then it will be "poor" in membership, poor in
effort, poor in prayer, poor in gifts and graces, poor in everything. Perhaps
some rich people will be left to keep up the semblance of prosperity, but all
will be empty, vain, void, Christless, lifeless. Philosophy will fill the pulpit
with chaff, the church will be a mass of worldliness, the congregation an
assembly of vanity. Next, they will become blind, they will not see themselves
as they are, they will have no eye upon the neighborhood to do it good, no eye
to the coming of Christ, no eye for his glory. They will say, "We see," and yet
be blind as bats. Ultimately they will become "naked," their shame will be seen
by all, they will be a proverb in everybody's mouth. "Call that a church!" says
one. "Is that a church of Jesus Christ?" cries a second. Those dogs that dared
not open their mouths against Israel when the Lord was there will begin to howl
when he is gone, and everywhere will the sound be heard, "How are the mighty
fallen, how are the weapons of war broken."In such a case as that the church
will fail of overcoming, for it is "to him that overcometh" that a seat upon
Christ's throne is promised; but that church will come short of victory. It
shall be written concerning it even as of the children of Ephraim, that being
armed and carrying bows they turned their backs in the day of battle. "Ye did
run well," says Paul to the Galatians, "what did hinder you that ye should not
obey the truth?" Such a church had a grand opportunity, but it was not equal to
the occasion, its members were born for a great work, but inasmuch as they were
unfaithful, God put them aside and used other means. He raised up in their midst
a flaming testimony for the gospel, and the light thereof was cast athwart the
ocean, and gladdened the nations, but the people were not worthy of it, or true
to it, and therefore he took the candlestick out of its place, and left them in
darkness. May God prevent such an evil from coming upon us: but such is the
danger to all churches if they degenerate into listless indifference.III.
Thirdly, I have to speak of THE REMEDIES WHICH THE LORD EMPLOYS. I do earnestly
pray that what I say may come home to all here, especially to every one of the
members of this church, for it has come very much home to me, and caused great
searching of heart in my own soul, and yet I do not think I am the least zealous
among you. I beseech you to judge yourselves, that you be not judged. Do not ask
me if I mean anything personal. I am personal in the most emphatic sense. I
speak of you and to you in the plainest way. Some of you show plain symptoms of
being lukewarm, and God forbid that I should flatter you, or be unfaithful to
you. I am aiming at personality, and I earnestly want each beloved brother and
sister here to take home each affectionate rebuke. And you who come from other
churches, whether in America or elsewhere, you want arousing quite as much as we
do, your churches are not better than ours, some of them are not so good, and I
speak to you also, for you need to be stirred up to nobler things.Note, then,
the first remedy. Jesus gives a clear discovery as to the church's true state.
He says to it -- "Thou are lukewarm, thou art wretched and miserable, and poor,
and blind, and naked." I rejoice to see people willing to know the truth, but
most men do not wish to know it, and this is an ill sign. When a man tells you
that he has not looked at his ledger, or day-book, or held a stock-taking for
this twelvemonths, you know whereabouts he is, and you say to your manager,
"Have you an account with him? Then keep it as close as you can." When a man
dares not know the worst about his case, it is certainly a bad one, but he that
is right before God is thankful to be told what he is and where he is. Now, some
of you know the faults of other people, and in watching this church you have
observed weak points in many places, -- have you wept over them? Have you prayed
over them? If not, you have not watched as you should do for the good of your
brethren and sisters, and, perhaps, have allowed evils to grow which ought to
have been rooted up: you have been silent when you should have kindly and
earnestly spoken to the offenders, or made your own example a warning to them.
Do not judge your brother, but judge yourself: if you have any severity, use it
on your own conduct and heart. We must pray the Lord to use this remedy, and
make us know just where we are. We shall never get right as long as we are
confident that we are so already. Self-complacency is the death of repentance.
Our Lord's next remedy is gracious counsel. He says, "I counsel thee to buy of
me gold tried in the fire." Does not that strike you as being very like the
passage in Isaiah, "Come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price?" It is so, and it teaches us that one remedy for
lukewarmness is to begin again just as we began at first. We were at a high
temperature at our first conversion. What joy, what peace, what delight, what
comfort, what enthusiasm we had when first we knew the Lord! We bought gold of
him then for nothing, let us go and buy again at the same price.If religion has
not been genuine with us till now, or if we have been adding to it great lumps
of shining stuff which we thought was gold and was not, let us now go to the
heavenly mint and buy gold tried in the fire, that we may be really rich. Come,
let us begin again, each one of us. Inasmuch as we may have thought we were
clothed and yet we were naked, let us hasten to him again, and at his own price,
which is no price, procure the robe which he has wrought of his own
righteousness, and that goodly raiment of his Spirit, which will clothe us with
the beauty of the Lord. If, moreover, we have come to be rather dim in the eye,
and no longer look up to God and see his face, and have no bright vision of the
glory to be revealed, and cannot look on sinners with weeping eyes, as we once
did, let us go to Jesus for the eye-salve, just as we went when we were stone
blind at first, and the Lord will open our eyes again, and we shall behold him
in clear vision as in days gone by. The word from Jesus is, "Come near to me, I
pray you, my brethren. If you have wandered from me, return; if you have been
cold to me I am not cold to you, my heart is the same to you as ever, come back
to me, my brethren. Confess your evil deeds, receive my forgiveness, and
henceforth let your hearts burn towards me, for I love you still and will supply
all your needs." That is good counsel, let us take it.Now comes a third remedy,
sharp and cutting, but sent in love, namely, rebukes and chastenings. Christ
will have his favoured church walk with great care, and if she will not follow
him fully by being shown wherein she has erred, and will not repent when kindly
counselled, he then betakes himself to some sharper means. "As many as I love I
rebuke and chasten." The word here used for "love" is a very choice one; it is
one which signifies an intense personal affection. Now, there are some churches
which Christ loves very specially, favouring them above others, doing more for
them than for others, and giving them more prosperity; they are the darlings of
his heart, his Benjamins. Now, it is a very solemn thing to be dearly loved by
God. It is a privilege to be coveted, but mark you, the man who is so honoured
occupies a position of great delicacy. The Lord thy God is a jealous God, and he
is most jealous where he shows most love. The Lord lets some men escape scot
free for awhile after doing many evil things, but if they had been his own elect
he would have visited them with stripes long before. He is very jealous of those
whom he has chosen to lean upon his bosom and to be his familiar friends. Your
servant may do many things which could not be thought of by your child or your
wife; and so is it with many who profess to be servants of God -- they live a
very lax life, and they do not seem to be chastened for it, but if they were the
Lord's own peculiarly beloved ones he would not endure such conduct from them.
Now mark this, if the Lord exalts a church, and gives it a special blessing, he
expects more of it, more care of his honour, and more zeal for his glory than he
does of any other church; and when he does not find it, what will happen? Why,
because of his very love he will rebuke it with hard sermons, sharp words, and
sore smitings of conscience. If these do not arouse it he will take down the rod
and deal out chastenings. Do you know how the Lord chastens churches? Paul says,
"For this cause some are sickly among you, and many sleep." Bodily sickness is
often sent in discipline upon churches, and losses, and crosses, and troubles
are sent among the members, and sometimes leanness in the pulpit, breakings out
of heresy and divisions in the pew, and lack of success in all church work. All
these are smitings with the rod. It is very sad, but sometimes that rod does not
fall on that part of the church which does the wrong. Sometimes God may take the
best in the church, and chasten them for the wrong of others. You say, "How can
that be right?" Why, because they are the kind of people who will be most
benefited by it. If a vine wants the knife, it is not the branch that bears very
little fruit which is trimmed, but the branch which bears much fruit is purged
because it is worth purging. In their case the chastening is a blessing and a
token of love. Sorrow is often brought upon Christians by the sins of their
fellow-members, and many an aching heart there is in this world that I know of,
of brethren and sisters who love the Lord and want to see souls converted, but
they can only sigh and cry because nothing is done. Perhaps they have a minister
who does not believe the gospel, and they have fellow-members who do not care
whether the minister believes it or not, they are all asleep together except
those few zealous souls who besiege the throne of grace day and night, and they
are the ones who bear the burden of the lukewarm church. Oh, if the chastening
comes here, whoever bears it, may the whole body be the better for it, and may
we never rest till the church begins to glow with the sacred fire of God, and
boil with enthusiastic desire for his glory. The last remedy, however, is the
best of all to my mind. I love it best and desire to make it my food when it is
not my medicine. The best remedy for backsliding churches is more communion with
Christ. "Behold," saith he, "I stand at the door and knock." I have known this
text preached upon to sinners numbers of times as though Christ knocked at their
door and they had to open it, and so on. The preacher has never managed to keep
to free grace for this reason, that the text was not meant to be so used, and if
men will ride a text the wrong way, it will not go. This text belongs to the
church of God, not to the unconverted. It is addressed to the Laodicean church.
There is Christ outside the church, driven there by her unkindness, but he has
not gone far away, he loves his church too much to leave her altogether, he
longs to come back, and therefore he waits at the doorpost. He knows that the
church will never be restored till he comes back, and he desires to bless her,
and so he stands waiting, knocking and knocking, again and again; he does not
merely knock once, but he stands knocking by earnest sermons, by providences, by
impressions upon the conscience, by the quickenings of his Holy Spirit; and
while he knocks he speaks, he uses all means to awaken his church. Most
condescendingly and graciously does he do this, for having threatened to spue
her out of his mouth, he might have said, "I will get me gone; and I will never
come back again to thee," that would have been natural and just; but how
gracious he is when, having expressed his disgust he says, "Disgusted as I am
with your condition, I do not wish to leave you; I have taken my presence from
you, but I love you, and therefore I knock at your door, and wish to be received
into your heart. I will not force myself upon you, I want you voluntarily to
open the door to me." Christ's presence in a church is always a very tender
thing. He never is there against the will of the church, it cannot be, for he
lives in his people's wills and hearts, and "worketh in them to will and to do
of his own good pleasure." He does not break bolt and bar and come in as he
often does into a sinner's heart, carrying the soul by storm, because the man is
dead in sin, and Christ must do it all, or the sinner will perish; but he is
here speaking to living men and women, who ought also to be loving men and
women, and he says, "I wish to be among you, open the door to me." We ought to
open the door at once, and say, "Come in, good Lord, we grieve to think we
should ever have put thee outside that door at all."And then see what promises
he gives. He says he will come and sup with us. Now, in the East, the supper was
the best meal of the day, it was the same as our dinner; so that we may say that
Christ will come and dine with us. He will give us a rich feast, for he himself
is the daintiest and most plenteous of all feasts for perishing souls. He will
come and sup with us, that is, we shall be the host and entertain him: but then
he adds, "and he with me," that is, he will be the host and guest by turns. We
will give him of our best, but poor fare is that, too poor for him, and yet he
will partake of it. Then he shall be host, and we will be guest, and oh, how we
will feast on what he gives! Christ comes, and brings the supper with him, and
all we do is to find the room. The Master says to us, "Where is the guest
chamber?" and then he makes ready and spreads his royal table. Now, if these be
the terms on which we are to have a feast together, we will most willingly fling
open the doors of our hearts and say, "Come in, good Lord." He says to you,
"Children, have you any meat?" and if you are obliged to say, "No, Lord," he
will come in unto you none the less readily, for there are the fish, the net is
ready to break, it is so full, and here are more upon the coals ready. I warrant
you, if we sup with him, we shall be lukewarm no longer. The men who live where
Jesus is soon feel their hearts burning. It is said of a piece of scented clay
by the old Persian moralist that the clay was taken up and questioned. "How
camest thou to smell so sweetly, being nothing but common clay?" and it replied,
"I laid for many a year in the sweet society of a rose, until at last I drank in
its perfume"; and we may say to every warm-hearted Christian, "How camest thou
so warm?" and his answer will be, "My heart bubbleth up with a good matter, for
I speak of the things which I have made touching the King. I have been with
Jesus, and I have learned of him."Now, brethren and sisters, what can I say to
move you to take this last medicine? I can only say, take it, not only because
of the good it will do you, but because of the sweetness of it. I have heard say
of some persons that they were pledged not to take wine except as a medicine,
but then they were very pleased when they were ill: and so if this be the
medicine, "I will come and sup with him, and he with me," we may willingly
confess our need of so delicious a remedy. Need I press it on you? May I not
rather urge each brother as soon as he gets home today to see whether he cannot
enter into fellowship with Jesus? and may the Spirit of God help him! This is my
closing word, there is something for us to do in this matter. We must examine
ourselves, and we must confess the fault if we have declined in grace. An then
we must not talk about setting the church right, we must pray for grace each one
for himself, for the text does not say, "If the church will open the door," but
"If any man hear my voice and open the door." It must be done by individuals:
the church will only get right by each man getting right. Oh, that we might get
back into an earnest zeal for our Lord's love and service, and we shall only do
so by listening to his rebukes, and then falling into his arms, clasping him
once again, and saying, "My Lord and my God." That healed Thomas, did it not?
Putting his fingers into the print of the nails, putting his hand into the side,
that cured him. Poor, unbelieving, staggering Thomas only had to do that and he
became one of the strongest of believers, and said, "My Lord and my God." You
will love your Lord till your soul is as coals of juniper if you will daily
commune with him. Come close to him, and once getting close to him, never go
away from him any more. The Lord bless you, dear brethren, the Lord bless you in
this thing.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Revelation 3.HYMNS FROM
"OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" -- 184, 787, 992.


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  CHAPTER 3: THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT
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A Sermon (No.1186) Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, August 2nd, 1874, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "Now the God of peace, that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good
work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight,
through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." -- Hebrews
13:20-21. WHAT WE ASK OTHERS to do we should be prepared to do ourselves.
Precept fails unless it be followed up by example. The apostle had exhorted the
Hebrew believers to pray for him in the words, "Pray for us;" and then, as if to
show that he did not ask of them what he was not himself. Willing to give, he
utters this most wonderful prayer for them. He may confidently say to his
congregation, "Pray for me" who does unfeignedly from his soul pray for them.
The prayer of the apostle, as you observe, is tinged with the subject upon which
he had been writing. This Epistle to the Hebrews is full of distinctions between
the old covenant and the new, the gist of it being to show that the former
covenant was only typical of that abiding dispensation which followed it; for it
had only the shadow, and not the very image of heavenly things. His subject had
been the covenant, and when he prayed his garments were sweet with the myrrh and
aloes and cassia among which his meditations had conducted him. According to the
manner of his thoughts was the expression of his desires. He weaved into the
texture of his prayer the meditations of his heart. And this is a very right
method, especially when the prayer is public, for it ensures variety, it assists
others to unite with us, and it tends to edification; in fact, as the bee
gathers honey from many flowers, and the honey is often flavored with wild thyme
or some other special flower which abounds in the region from which it collects
its sweets, so doth our soul gather dainty stores of the honey of devotion from
all sources, but that upon which she longest tarries in her meditations yields a
paramount savor and flavor to the expression and the spirit of her prayer. What
was more natural than that a discourse upon the covenant should be followed by
this covenant prayer: "The God of peace, that brought from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will"? The subject of
the Epistle to the Hebrews is deep, for it passes on from the superficial
rudiments to those underlying truths which are more mysterious and profound. It
is a book for the higher classes in Christ's school; and hence this prayer is
not for babes, but for men of understanding. We could not say to all the saints,
"after this manner pray ye," for they would not know what they were asking; they
have need to begin with something simpler, such as that sweet "Our Father, which
art in heaven," which suits alike all believers. Full grown men feed on strong
meat, think sublime thoughts, and offer mighty prayers. As we may admire in the
prayer of the babe its simplicity, and in the prayer of the young man its
vivacity, so in the prayer of one who has become a father in Christ, and feeds
upon the covenant, we rejoice in its depth, compass, and sublimity. All these we
find here. I invite those who would understand the deep things of God to ask the
Holy Spirit's assistance while we follow the apostle in this his covenant
prayer, a prayer of which the covenant is the thread, the substance, and the
plea. I. The subject of our discourse this morning, therefore, is the covenant
of grace, as it is here spoken of; and I shall begin by noticing, first, THE
COVENANT NAMES which the apostle uses. He calls the ever-blessed Father "the God
of peace;" and to the Redeemer who has taken the other side of the covenant, he
gives the title, "Our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep." Dear
friends, as many of us as have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ are in Christ,
and he is our Head and Representative, our Shepherd and Sponsor. On our behalf
he made a covenant with the Father upon this tenor, that we having sinned, a
full recompense should be made to injured justice, and the law of God should be
fully honored; the Father on his part stipulating to grant full pardon,
acceptance, adoption, and eternal life to us. Now, the covenant has been kept on
Christ's side. The text assures us of that, for Jesus has according to his
promise shed his blood, and now the covenant stands only to be fulfilled on the
side of the eternal Father, and under that aspect of the covenant the apostle
calls the Father "the God of peace." What a precious name! Under the covenant of
works he is the God of vengeance; to sinners he is the thrice Holy God, terrible
out of his holy places. Even our God is a consuming fire; and yet to us, seeing
that the covenant has been fulfilled on our side by our great Head and
Representative, he is only "the God of peace." All is peace between you and God,
Christian; there is no past ground of quarrel remaining, nor any fear that a new
one can arise; the everlasting covenant secures everlasting peace. He is not the
God of a hollow truce, not the God of a patched-up forgetfulness of unforgiven
injuries, but the God of peace in the very deepest sense; he is himself at
peace, for there is a peace of God that passeth all understanding; and,
moreover, by reason of his mercy his people are made to enjoy peace of
conscience within themselves, for you feel that God is reconciled to you, your
hearts rest in him, your sins which separated you have been removed, and perfect
love has cast out the fear which hath torment. While the Lord is at peace with
himself, and you are made to enjoy inward peace through him, he is also at peace
with you, for he loves you with a love unsearchable; he sees nothing in you but
that which he delights in, for in the covenant he does not look at you as you
are in yourself, but in your Head, Christ Jesus, and to the eye of God there is
no sight in the universe so lovely as his own dear Son, and his people in his
Son. There is beauty enough in Jesus to make him forget our deformities, merits
enough in Jesus to swallow up our demerits, and efficacy sufficient in the
atoning blood of our great High Priest to wash away all our transgressions. As
for us, our soul recognizing that blood, and perceiving the love of God towards
us, feels now no war with God. We did rebel once, for we hated him, and even
now, when the old nature champs the bit, and the Lord's will runs cross to our
desires, we do not find it easy to bow before him and say, "I thank thee, O
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because it seemed good in thy sight ": but yet
the new nature which comes to the front does rule and govern, and all
heart-contest between our soul and God is at an end. To us the Lord is in the
widest and most perfect sense the God of peace. Oh, how I love that name;
himself the peaceful, happy God, unruffled, undisturbed; ourselves within
ourselves made to enjoy a peace that passeth all understanding, which keeps our
hearts and minds. God at peace with us, declaring that he will never be wroth
with us nor rebuke us, and ourselves rejoicing in him, delighting in his law,
and living for his glory. Henceforth be it ours in every troubled hour to look
to the Lord under this cheering name, "the God of peace," for as such the
covenant reveals him. The apostle had a view of the other great party to the
covenant, and he names him "Our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep."
We must view our Redeemer in the covenant first as Jesus the Savior who leads us
into the Canaan which has been given to us by a covenant of salt, even the rest
which remaineth to the people of God; he is also the Lord Jesus, in all the
dignity of his nature, exalted far above all principalities and powers, to be
obeyed and worshipped by us; and our Lord Jesus -- ours because he has given
himself to us, and we have accepted and received him with holy delight to be the
Lord whom we cheerfully serve. Our Lord Jesus because he saves us; our Lord
Jesus because by bringing us under his kingdom he rescues us; and our Lord Jesus
because we have a special relation both to his sovereignty and his salvation. We
are not generally observant of the appropriateness of our Lord's names, we do
not notice the instruction which is intended by the writers who use them, nor do
we exercise discretion enough ourselves in the employment of them; yet is there
great force in these titles when appropriately employed. Other names may have
small significance, but in the titles of Jesus there is a wealth of meaning.
Further, our Lord is called "that great Shepherd of the sheep." In the covenant
we are the sheep, the Lord Jesus is the Shepherd. You cannot make a covenant
with sheep, they have not the ability to covenant; but you can make a covenant
with the Shepherd for them, and so, glory he to God, though we had gone astray
like lost sheep, we belonged to Jesus, and he made a covenant on our behalf, and
stood for us before the living God. Now, I have aforetime explained to you that
our Lord Jesus in his death is the good Shepherd -- the good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep, and so shows his goodness; that in his rising again he is
the great Shepherd, as we have it in the text, for his resurrection and return
to glory display his greatness; but in his second advent he is the chief
Shepherd -- "when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye also shall appear with him
in glory" -- there he shows his superior sovereignty. Our Lord was good in
laying down his life for the sheep, and there are other shepherds whom he makes
good, who in his name feed his lambs and sheep. When he comes again the second
time he will appear with others, the chief among them all; but in his
resurrection for our justification, in connection with the covenant, he is
alone, and bears the name of the or "that great Shepherd," -- that great
Shepherd of whom all prophecy has spoken, in whom all the divine decrees are
fulfilled, before whom all others shrink away, who stands alone, as in that
covenant capacity the sole and only Shepherd of the sheep. It is very beautiful
to trace the shepherds through the Old Testament, and to see Christ as Abel, the
witnessing shepherd, pouring out that blood, which crieth from the ground; as
Abraham, the separating shepherd, leading out his flock into the strange country
where they dwelt alone; as Isaac, the quiet shepherd, digging wells for his
flock, and feeding them in peace in the midst of the enemies; as Jacob, the
shepherd who is surety for the sheep, who earns them all by long toils and
weariness, separates them, and walks in the midst of them to Canaan, preserving
them by his own lone midnight prayers. There, too, we see our Lord as Joseph,
the shepherd who is head over Egypt for the sake of Israel, of whom his dying
father said, "From thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel." Head over all
things for his church, the King who governs all the world for the sake of his
elect, the great Shepherd of the sheep, who for their sakes has all power
committed unto his hands. Then follows Moses, the chosen shepherd, who led his
people through the wilderness up to the Promised Land, feeding them with manna
and giving them drink from the smitten rock, -- what a wide theme for resection
here! And then there is David, the type of Jesus, as reigning in the covenanted
inheritance over his own people, as a glorious king in the midst of them all.
All these together enable us to see the varied glories of "that great Shepherd
of the sheep."Beloved, this is a great subject, and I can only hint at it. Let
us rejoice that our Shepherd is great, because he with his great flock will be
able to preserve them all from the great dangers into which they are brought,
and to perform for them the great transactions with the great God which are
demanded of a Shepherd of such a flock as that which Jesus calls his own. Under
the covenant, Jesus is Prophet, Priest, and King -- a shepherd should be all
this to his flock; and he is great in each of these offices. While we rest in
the covenant of grace we should view our Lord as our Shepherd, and find solace
in the fact that sheep have nothing to do with their own feeding, guidance, or
protection; they have only to follow their Shepherd unto the pastures which he
prepares, and all will be well with them. "He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters."II. Secondly, the apostle
mentions THE COVENANT SEAL. "The God of peace that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd, of the sheep, through the blood of the
everlasting covenant." The seal of the covenant is the blood of Jesus. In olden
times when men made covenants the one with the other, they generally used some
ceremony to bind the bargain, as it were. Now, under the old dispensation
covenants with God were always confirmed with blood. As soon as ever blood was
shed, and the victim died, the agreement made was established. Now, when our
heavenly Father made a covenant with Jesus Christ on our behalf, that covenant
was true and firm, "according to the sure mercies of David," but to make it
stand fast there must be blood Now, the blood ordained to seal the covenant was
not the blood of bulls or of goats, but the blood of the Son of God himself; and
this has made the covenant so binding that sooner may heaven and earth pass away
than one Little of it fail. God must keep his own promises. He is a free God,
but he binds himself; by two immutable things wherein it is impossible for him
to lie, he has bound himself to bestow covenant blessings upon the flock which
the great Shepherd represented. Brethren, you and I, as honest men, are bound by
our word. If we took an oath, which I trust we would not, we should certainly
feel doubly bound by it; and if we had lived in the old times, and blood had
been sprinkled on an agreement which we had made, we should regard the solemn
sign and never dream of running back from it. Think, for a moment, how
impossible it is that the Lord should ever break that covenant of grace, which
he spontaneously made with his own Son, and with us in him, now that it has been
sprinkled with blood from the veins of his own well-beloved Son No; the covenant
is everlasting. It stands fast for ever, because it is confirmed by blood which
is none other than the blood of the Son of God.Remember, too, that in our case
that blood not only confirmed the covenant, but actually fulfilled it; because
the covenant stipulation was on this wise: -- Christ must subtler for our sins
and honor the divine law. He had kept the law in his life, but it was necessary
to the complete fulfilling of the covenant on his part that he should also be
obedient to death, even the death of the cross. The shedding of his blood
therefore was the carrying out of his promised obedience to its extremity. It
was the actual fulfillment of Christ's side of the covenant on our behalf; so
that now the whole covenant must stand firm, for that upon which it depended is
finished for ever. It is not only ratified with that bloody signature, but by
that blood it is actually carried out on Christ's part, and it cannot be that
the eternal Father should start back from his side of the compact since our side
of it has been carried out to the letter by that great Shepherd of the sheep who
laid down his life for us. By the shedding of the blood the covenant is turned
into a testament. In some Bibles, the margin puts it "testament," and often in
other cases we scarcely know how to translate the word, whether to say the new
testament or the new covenant; certainly it is now a testament, for since Christ
has kept his part of the covenant he wills to us what is due to him from God,
and he makes over to us by his death all that comes to him as his reward, making
us his heirs by a testament which is rendered valid by his death. So you may say
"testament" if you please, or "covenant" if you will, only forget not that the
blood has made both testament and covenant sure to all the sheep of whom Jesus
is the shepherd.Dwell with pleasure upon that word "everlasting covenant."
Certain men in these days declare that "everlasting" does not mean everlasting,
but indicates a period to which an end will come sooner or later; I have no
sympathy with them, and feel no inclination to renounce the everlastingness of
heaven and other divine blessings in order to gratify the tastes of wicked men
by denying the eternity of future punishments. Human nature leans in that
direction, but the word of God does not, and following its unerring track we
rejoice in the everlasting covenant, which will abide for ever and ever. The
covenant of works is gone; it was based on human strength, and it dissolved as a
dream; in the nature of things it could not be everlasting. Man could not keep
the condition of it, and it fell to the ground. But the covenant of grace
depended only upon the power and love and faithfulness of Christ, who has kept
his part of the covenant, and therefore the covenant now rests only upon God,
the faithful and true, whose word cannot fail."As well might he his being
quit,As break his promise, or forget.""His mercy endureth for ever, and his
truth throughout all generations." He has said, "I will make an everlasting
covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good," and
therefore do them good he must, for he is not a man that he should lie, nor the
son of man that he should repent. So, then, the covenant seal makes all things
sure.III. We have now to notice THE COVENANT FULFILMENT, for the Lord has
commenced to fulfill it. "The God of peace that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the
everlasting covenant." See, then, Jesus Christ has been brought back again from
the dead through the blood of the covenant. Here is the story. He was the
covenantor on our behalf; he took our sin upon himself, and undertook to suffer
for it. Having been crucified he yielded up his life, and from the cross he was
taken to the grave, and there he lay in durance vile. Now, it was a part of the
covenant on God the Father's part that he would not leave Christ's soul in
Hades, nor suffer his Holy One to see corruption; this agreement has been
faithfully kept. Christ on the cross represented all of us who believe in him --
we were crucified in him: Jesus in the tomb also represented us, for we are
buried with him. Whatever happened to him happened also to the flock. Now, then,
what will occur to the body of Jesus? Will God keep his covenant? Will the worm
devour that lovely frame, or will it defy corruption? Will it come to pass that
he who has descended into the earth shall never return? Wait. It is the third
morning! The promised time has come. As yet no worm has dared to feed upon that
God-like form, yet it lies among the dead; but on the third morning the
slumberer awakes like one that has been refreshed with sleep. He rises. The
stone is rolled away. Angels escort him to liberty. He comes into the open air
of the garden, and speaks to his disciples. Jesus who bled has left the dead, no
more to die. He waits for forty days that he may let his friends see that he is
really risen, but he has to rise higher yet to be fully brought back to his
former honors. Will God be faithful to him and bring him back from the dead all
the way he once descended? Yes, for on the Mount of Olives, when the time is
come, he begins to ascend; cleaving the ambient air he mounts from amidst his
worshipping disciples, till a cloud receives him. But will he rise fully to the
point from which he came? Will he in his own person gain for his church a full
recovery from all the ruin of the fall? Ah, see him as he enters the gates of
pearl! How he is welcomed by the Father! See how he climbs aloft, and sits upon
the Father's throne, for God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should how.Now note by
what means our Lord returned from the dead to all this glory. It was because he
had presented the blood of the everlasting covenant. When the Father saw that
Jesus had kept all his part of the covenant even to death, then he began to
fulfill his portion of the contract by bringing back his Son from the grave to
life, from shame to honor, from humiliation to glory, from death to immortality.
See where he now sits expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. Now,
what has been done to Jesus has been virtually done to all his people, because,
you observe, the Lord "brought again from the dead," not the Lord Jesus as a
private person only, but "Our Lord Jesus," as "that great Shepherd of the
sheep." The sheep are with the Shepherd. Shepherd of the sheep, where is thy
flock? We know that thou hast loved them even to the end; but thou art gone;
hast thou left them in the wilderness? It cannot be, for it is written, "Who can
separate us from the love of Christ? "Hear the Shepherd say, "I will that they
also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." "Because I live ye shall
live also." "Where I am there also shall my servant be." Beloved, the sheep
never are away from that great Shepherd of the sheep, they are always in his
hand, and none can pluck them thence. They were on earth with him, and they are
risen with him. If Jesus had remained in the grave there must all his sheep have
perished; but when the Father brought him back by the blood, he brought us back
by the blood, and gave us for our souls a lively hope that they shall never die,
and for our bodies the expectation of resurrection. "For though our inbred sins
requireOur flesh to see the dust,Yet as the Lord our Shepherd rose,So all his
followers must."Jesus in heaven is only there as our representative, and his
flock is following him. I wish you could get a picture in your eye of the hills
of heaven rising up from these lowlands. We are feeding here awhile under his
watchful eye, and yonder is a river which runs at the foot of the celestial
hills, and parts us from heavenly pasturage. One he one our beloved ones are
being called across the flood by the Good Shepherd's voice, and they cross the
river pleasantly at his bidding, so that a long line of his sheep may be seen
going over the stream and up the hillside to where the Shepherd stands and
receives them. This line joins the upper flock to the lower, and makes them all
one company. Do you not see them continually streaming up to him, and passing
again under the hand of him that telleth them, to be fed by the Lamb and made to
lie down for ever where wolves can never come? Thus the one flock is even now
with the Shepherd, for it is all one pasture to him, though to us it seems
divided by Jordan's torrent. Every one of the sheep is marked with the blood of
the everlasting covenant; every one of them has been preserved, because Jesus
lived; and as he was brought again from the dead by the blood, even so must they
be, for so the covenant stands.Remember, then, dear friends, that the punishment
of the flock was borne by the Shepherd, that the flock died in the Shepherd, and
that the flock now live because the Shepherd lives; that their life is
consequently a new life; that he will bring all his sheep that as yet are not
called, out of their death in sin, even as he has been brought out of his own
death; that he will lead onward and upward those that are called, even as he
went onward and upward from the grave to the throne; that he will preserve them
all their journey through, even as he was preserved by the blood of the
everlasting covenant; and that he will perfect them even as he is perfect. Even
as the God of peace has glorified his Son, so also will he bring all his chosen
to eternal glory with him.IV. Fourthly, we will view THE COVENANT BLESSING. What
is one of the greatest of all the covenant blessings? The writer of this epistle
here pleads for it. "Now," saith he, "the God of peace, that brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of
the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good worry to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight." Notice that one of the
chief blessings of the covenant is power and will to serve God. The old covenant
said, "There are the tables of stone, mind that you obey every word that is
written thereon: if you do you shall live, and if you do not you shall die." Man
never did obey, and consequently no one ever entered heaven or found peace by
the law. The new covenant speaketh on this wise, "Their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. I will write my law in their hearts, and on
their minds will I write them. I will put my fear in their hearts that they
shall not depart from me." The prophets enlarge most instructively upon this new
covenant. It is not a covenant of "if you will I will," but it runs thus, "I
will and you shall." As a covenant this exactly suits me. If there were
something to be performed by me I could never be sure, but as it is finished I
am at rest. God sets us working, and we work; but the covenant itself dependeth
wholly upon that great promise, "I will not turn away from them to do them
good." So that it was right of Paul to pray that God would make us meet in every
good work to do his will, because of old this was the master promise, that those
for whom Jesus died should be sanctified, purified, and made meet to serve their
God. Great as the prayer is, it is asking what the covenant itself
guarantees.Taking the text word by word, I perceive that the first blessing
asked for by the apostle is meetness for the divine service, for the Greek word
is not "Make you perfect," but meet, "fit," "prepared," "able for." I have no
reference to the discussion upon the doctrine of perfection in this observation.
No one text would decide that controversy; I simply make the observation because
it is matter of fact. The expression should be rendered, "Make you fully
complete," or "fully fitted" to do his will. We ought to request earnestly that
we may be qualified, adapted, and suited, to be used of God for the performance
of his will. After the man once dead in sin is made alive again, the question
arises, who shall be his master? We having died in our great Shepherd, and
having been brought again from the dead, to whom shall we yield ourselves?
Certainly unto God alone. Our prayer is that we may be made meet to do his will.
Our Shepherd did his Father's will, for he cried, "I delight to do thy will, O
God," "by the which will we are sanctified," and sanctified to the doing of that
will each one of us thenceforth. It is a grand desire, but it burns in every
Christian heart, that now he may be meet to serve his God, may be a vessel such
as God can use, an instrument fit for the divine hand; weak and feeble, but not
impure, unsuitable by reason of want of native strength, but suitable through
having been cleansed by the blood of the covenant. Dear brothers and sisters,
ask for meetness for service; pray day and night that you may be fully fitted
for every good work. But the apostle asked for an inward work of grace, not
merely meetness for service, but an operation felt -- "Working in you that which
is well-pleasing in his sight." I long above everything to possess in myself the
inworking of the Holy Ghost more and more clearly. There is so much superficial
religion, and we are so apt to be contented with it that it becomes us to pray
for deep heart-work. We need to have our affections elevated, our will subdued,
our understanding enlightened, and our whole nature deeply spiritualized by the
presence of the Holy Ghost. Now this is the promise of the covenant: "I will
dwell in them and walk in them." Remember, God worked in Christ in the grave by
quickening his body into life, and he must work in us according to the working
of that mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the
dead. Ask the Lord to do it. Do not be satisfied with a little, weak, almost
imperceptible, pulse of religion, of which you can hardly judge whether it is
there or not; but ask to feel the divine energies working within you, the
eternal omnipotence of God, struggling and striving mightily in your spirit
until sin shall be conquered, and grace shall gloriously triumph. This is a
covenant blessing. Seek ye for it.But we need outward as well as inward work.
Working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight -- no small matter when
you remember that nothing but perfect holiness can please God. Paul would have
us made fit for every good work, wanted us to be many-sided men who could do
every good work, just as Jesus did. He wished us to be qualified for any station
and every position. When Jesus Christ rose from the dead he was seen; there was
not merely a secret quickening in him, but a visible life, he was seen of angels
and of men, and here below he lived for a period of time the observed of all
observers. So, dear brethren, there ought to be in us not only an inner
resurrection which we feel, but such a quickening that we shall be manifestly
alive to newness of life. We must know the power of our Lord's resurrection, and
exhibit it in every action of our lives. May God grant us this. There is much
upon this point which time does not permit me to enlarge upon. May you know it
all by experience.Observe, once more, the completeness of this covenant
blessing. Just as Jesus is fully restored to the place from which he came, and
has lost no dignity nor power by having shed his blood, but rather is exalted
higher than ever, so God's design is to make us pure and holy as Adam was at the
first, and to add to our characters a force of love which never would have been
there if we had not sinned and been forgiven, an energy of intense devotion, an
enthusiasm of perfect self-sacrifice, which we never could have learned if it
had not been for him who loved us and gave himself for us. God means to make us
the princes of the blood royal of the universe, or, if you will, the body guards
of the Lord of Hosts. He desires to fashion an order of creatures who will come
very near to him, and yet will feel the lovliest reverence for him. He will have
them akin to himself, partakers of the divine natures and yet the most obedient
of servants, perfectly free agents, and yet bound to him by bonds which will
never let them disobey in thought, or word, or deed. And this is how he is
fashioning this central battalion who shall wait upon his eternal marchings for
ever -- he is forgiving us great sins, he is bestowing upon us great blessings,
he is making us one with his dear Son; and when he has entirely freed us from
the cerements of our spiritual death he will call us up to where Jesus is, and
we shall serve him with an adoration superior to all the rest of his creatures.
Angels cannot love so much as we shall, for they have never tasted redeeming
grace and dying love. This high devotion is the Lord's aim. He did not bring up
the Lord Jesus from the dead that he might live a common life. He lifted him up
that he might be head over all things to his church, and that all things might
be under his feet; even so the destiny of Christians is mysteriously sublime:
they are not lifted up from their native death to a mere morality. They are
destined to be something more than philanthropists and men esteemed by their
fellows, they are to exhibit to angels, and principalities, and powers, the
wonderful grace of God, showing in their own persons what God can do with his
creatures through the death of his Son. I do but touch like a swallow with my
wing where it were delightful to dive.IV. We conclude with THE COVENANT
DOXOLOGY, "To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." If anything in the world
can make a man praise his God it is the covenant, and the knowledge that he is
in it. I will leave off preaching and ask you to think over the love of God in
the covenant. It does not belong to all of you. Christ is not the Shepherd of
the whole herd of men; he is only the Shepherd of the sheep, and he has not
entered into any covenant for all mankind, but for his sheep alone. The covenant
is for his own people; if you believe in him it is a covenant for you, but if
you reject him you can have no participation in that covenant; for you are under
the covenant of works, which condemns you. But now, believer, just sit down for
a moment and think over this exceeding mercy. Your God, the everlasting Father,
has entered into a solemn compact with Christ on your behalf; that he will save
you, keep you, and make you perfect. He has saved you; he has performed a large
part of the covenant in you already, for he has placed you in the way of life
and kept you to this day; and if, indeed, you are his, he will keep you to the
end. The Lord is not as the foolish man who bedpan to build and was not able to
finish. He does not commence to carry out a design, and then turn from it. He
will push on his work till he completes it in you. Can you really believe it?
With you, a poor puny mortal, who will soon sleep in the grave -- with you he
has made an everlasting covenant! Will you not say with our text, "To whom be
glory." Like dying David you can say, "Though my house be not so with God, yet
hath he made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure." I
am sure you will joyfully add, "Glory be to his name." Our God deserves
exclusive glory. Covenant theology glorifies God alone. There are other
theologies abroad which magnify men; they give him a finger in his own
salvation, and so leave him a reason for throwing up his cap and saying, "Well
done I;" but covenant theology puts man aside, and makes him a debtor and a
receiver. It does, as it were, plunge him into the sea of infinite grace and
unmerited favor, and it makes him give up all boasting, stopping the mouth that
could have boasted by filling it with floods of love, so that it cannot utter a
vainglorious word. A man saved by the covenant must give all the glory to God's
holy name, for to God all the glory belongs. In salvation wrought by the
covenant the Lord has exclusive glory.He also has endless glory. "To whom be
glory for ever and ever." Have you glorified God a little, dear brethren,
because of his covenant mercy? Go on glorifying him. Did you serve him well when
you were young? Ah, not so well as you wish you had: then serve him better now
in these riper days. Throw yourself into the glorifying of God. The task of
saving yourself is not yours, Jesus has done it all. You may sing,"A charge to
keep I have,A God to glorify;"But you will not need to add -- "A never-dying
soul to save,And fit it for the sky,"For that soul of yours is saved; "he hath
saved us and called us with a holy calling," and you are fitted for the sky by
the blood of the ever lasting covenant, for Paul says, "Thanks be unto the
Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light." All you have to do is to glorify the Lord who has saved you and set your
feet upon a rock, and established your goings. Now, go at it with all your
might. Are you getting grey, dear brother? With all your experience yore ought
now to glorify the Lord more than ever. You will soon be up yonder in the land
of the living. Do not praise the Redeemer any longer at a poor dying rate, for
you have but a short time to tarry here. And, oh, when we ascend above these
clouds, how we will magnify our covenant God! I am sure I shall not feel my
powers capacious enough, even in heaven, to express my gratitude for his amazing
love. I do not wonder that the poet says -- "Eternity's too shortTo utter half
his praise."People find fault with that expression, and say it is an
exaggeration. How would you have the poets talk? Is not hyperbole allowable to
them? I might even plead that it is not an hyperbole, for neither time nor
eternity can utter all the praises of the infinite Jehovah."On, for a thousand
tongues to singOur great Redeemer's praise."This shall be the sweetest note of
all our music, -- the covenant, "the covenant made with David's Lord, in all
things ordered well," the covenant with that great Shepherd of the sheep by
which every sheep was preserved and kept, and brought into the rich pastures of
eternal glory. We will sing of covenant love in heaven. This shall be our last
song on earth and the first in Paradise -- "The covenant, the covenant sealed
with blood." How I wish Christ's ministers would spread more and more of this
covenant doctrine throughout England. He who understands the two covenants has
found the marrow of all theology, but he who does not know the covenants knows
next to nothing of the gospel of Christ. You would think, to hear some ministers
preach, that salvation was all of works, that it was still uncertain who would
be saved, that it was all a matter of "ifs," and "buts," and "peradventures" and
if you begin to give them "shells," and "wills," and purposes, and decrees, and
pledges, and oaths, and blood, they call you Calvinistic. Why, this doctrine was
true before Calvin was born or thought of! Calvin loved it as we do, but it did
not come from him. Paul had taught it long before; nay, the Holy Ghost taught it
to us in the word, and therefore we hold it. The bringing back of this truth to
the front will be a grand thing for the church. From the mouth of this cannon
the Lord will blow the Pope and all his myrmidons into a thousand shivers, but
no other doctrine will do it. By God's good grace, we must live this doctrine as
well as preach it, and may he that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Then will he have glory
through the covenant and through you, both now and for ever. Amen and
amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Hebrews 13.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK" -- 412, 1054, 317.


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  CHAPTER 4: THE THREE WITNESSES
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A Sermon (No.1187) Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, August 9th, 1874, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "There are three that bear
witness on earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three
agree in one." -- 1 John 5:8. CHRISTIANITY PUTS FORTH very lofty claims. She
claims to be the true faith, and the only true one. She avows her teachings to
be divine, and therefore infallible; while for her great Teacher, the Son of
God, she demands divine worship, and the unreserved confidence and obedience of
men. Her commands are issued to every creature, and though at present her
authority is rejected by millions of mankind, she confidently looks forward to a
time when truth shall obtain universal dominion, and Jesus the Lord shall take
unto himself his great power and reign. Now, to justify such high claims, the
gospel ought to produce strong evidence, and it does so. It does not lack for
external evidences, these are abundant, and since many learned men have spent
their lives in elaborating them, there is less need for me to attempt a summary
of them. In these days scarce a stone is turned over among yonder eastern reins
which does not proclaim the truth of the word of God, and the further men look
into either history or nature, the more manifest is the truth of scriptural
statements. The armoury of external evidences is well stored with weapons of
proof. The gospel also bears within itself its own evidence, it has a
self-proving power. It is so pure, so holy, so altogether above the inventive
capacity of fallen man, that it must be of God. But neither with these external
or internal evidences have we to do this morning, but I call your attention to
the three witnesses which are spoken of in the text, three great witnesses still
among us, whose evidence proves the truth of our religion, the dinning, of our
Lord, and the future supremacy of the faith. Our text speaks of three witnesses,
the Spirit, the water, and the blood: may the Holy Ghost who is our Interpreter,
lead us into the full meaning of this very, remarkable passage. I. I shall note,
first, that OUR LORD HIMSELF WAS ATTESTED BY THESE THREE WITNESSES. If you will
carefully read in the twenty-ninth chapter of the Book of Exodus, or in the
eighth chapter of the Book of Leviticus, you will see that when a priest was
ordained (and a priest was a type of Christ) three things were always used: he
was washed with water in every case, a sacrifice was brought, and his ear, his
thumb, and his toe were touched with blood, and then he was anointed with oil,
in token of that unction of the Spirit with which the coming High Priest of our
profession would be anointed. So that every priest came by the anointing Spirit,
by water, and by blood, as a matter of type, and if Jesus Christ be indeed the
priest that was for to come, he will be known by these three signs. Godly men in
the olden times also well understood that there was no putting away of sin
except with these three things; in proof of which we will quote David's prayer,
"Purge me with hyssop" -- that is, the hyssop dipped in blood -- "and I shall be
clean; wash me" -- there is the water -- "and I shall be whiter than snow;" and
then, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free
Spirit." Thus the blood, the water, and the Spirit were recognized of old as
necessary to cleanse from guilt, and if Jesus of Nazareth be indeed able to save
his people from their sins, he must come with the triple gift -- the Spirit, the
water, and the blood. Now it was evidently so. Our Lord was attested by the
Spirit. The Spirit of God bore witness to Christ in the types and prophecies,
"Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;" and Jesus Christ
answers to those prophecies as exactly as a well-made key answers to the wards
of a lock. By the power of the Holy Spirit our Lord's humanity was fashioned and
prepared for him, for the angel said unto Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." When our
Lord in due time commenced his public ministry, the Spirit of God descended upon
him like a dove, and rested upon him, and a voice was heard from heaven saying,
"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This was indeed one of the
surest seals of our Lord's Messiahship, for it had been given by the Spirit of
prophecy unto John as a token -- "upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending
and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." The
Spirit abode in our Lord without measure, throughout his whole public career, so
that he is described as full of the Spirit and led of the Spirit. Hence his life
and ministry were full of power. How truthfully he said, "The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind." Well said Peter, "God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, and
healing an that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him." Mighty signs
and miracles were the witness of the divine Spirit to the mission of the Lord
Jesus. The Spirit abode with our Lord all his life long, and to crown all, after
he had died and risen again, the Holy Ghost gave the fullest witness by
descending in full power upon the disciples at Pentecost. The Lord had promised
to baptise his disciples with the Holy Ghost, and they tarried at Jerusalem in
expectation of the gift: nor were they disappointed, for on a sudden "they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Spirit gave them utterance." Those cloven tongues of fire, and the "rushing
mighty wind," were sacred tokens that he who had ascended was Lord and God. The
apostles said, "We are witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost,
whom God hath given to them that obey him." The word of the apostles, through
the Holy Spirit, convinced men "of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment," as
the Master had foretold; and then the Spirit comforted the penitents, and they
believed in the exalted Savior and were baptised the selfsame day. The words of
Jesus were abundantly fulfilled, -- "When the Comforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from
the Father, he shall testify of me." Thus from our Lord's birth, throughout his
life, and after his ascension, the Holy Ghost bore conspicuous witness to him.
It is also manifest that our Lord came with water too. I have shown you that
every priest was washed with water; our Lord was not unclean, and therefore one
would have thought he might dispense with this; but to "fulfill all
righteousness" his first step was to be washed in Jordan by the hands of John
the Baptist, coming thus to the door of his ministry by that baptism in water
which indicates that by death, burial, and resurrection, he was about to save
his people. As soon as that baptism had been accomplished, ay, and before that,
you could see that he had come with hater, for by water is signified that clean,
pure, hallowed life which the outward washing was meant to typify. His first
years of obscurity were years of holiness, and his after years of service were
spotless. "In him was no sin." Who ever exercised a ministry so pure as his?
Where else find we such immaculate holiness? He came not by the water merely as
a symbol, but by that which the water meant, by unsullied purity of life. His
doctrine was as pure as his example. Point me to a single syllable of all his
teaching which would create, foster, or excuse sin! He was the friend of
sinners, but not the apologist for their sins. His tenderness to sinners was
that of a physician whose aim is to remove the disease. His whole doctrine is
fitly comparable to purifying and life-giving water, and it operated upon men's
hearts in that manner. In this last sense especially he came by water. It is
very remarkable how John's Gospel is both the exposition and the text of John's
First Epistle, for if you turn to it you find our Lord Jesus coming by water at
the outset of his teaching. To Nicodemus he says a man must be "born of water
and of the Spirit;" to the woman of Samaria he speaks at large of "living
water;" and on the great day of the feast he vies, "If any man thirst let him
come unto me and drink." In his ministry he not only issued the invitation, but
to all who believed on him he gave of the water of the fountain life freely.
Thus our Lord came by water in the sense of communicating a new; pure, and
purifying life to men; for the water is the Emblem of the new life which springs
up within the soul of believers, a life fresh and sparkling, leaping up from the
eternal fountains of the divine existence; a life which will flow on for ever,
and widen and deepen like Ezekiel's river, and increase in fullness of power and
joy until it unites with the ocean of immortal bliss. Jesus came to pour forth
this living flood among the sons of men. Blessed be his name!Our Lord closed his
life with washing his disciples' feet, a fit conclusion to a life which had by
its example been cleansing throughout, and still remains as the grandest
corrective of the corrupt examples of the world. Even after death our Lord
retained the instructive symbol by giving forth from his pierced heart water as
well as blood, which John evidently thought very significant; for when he wrote
concerning it he said, "He that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and
he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe." So that from the Jordan
to the cross both the symbol and the substance were with our great Master, while
his own personal purity, and his gift of life to others, proved his mission to
be from above.With Jesus also was the blood. This distinguished him from John
the Baptist, who came by water, but Jesus came "not by water only, but by water
and blood." We must not prefer any one of the three witnesses to another, but
what a wonderful testimony to Christ was the blood! From the very first he came
with blood, for John the Baptist cried, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world! "Now, the lamb which takes away sin is a slaughtered
lamb, a bleeding lamb; so that at the time when the baptismal waters were upon
him, John saw that he must bleed for human sin. In his ministry there was often
a clear testimony to his future sufferings and shedding of blood, for to the
assembled crowd he said, "Except a man eat my flesh and drink my blood, there is
no life in him:" while to his disciples he spake of the decease which he should
shortly accomplish at Jerusalem. Then at the last, taking all our sins upon his
shoulders, in the agony of Gethsemane, the blood bore witness that he was indeed
the Lamb of God, and on yonder tree where he"Bore all incarnate God could
bear,With strength enough, but none to spare,"disinterestedly dying for his
enemies, unselfishly suffering an ignominious doom that he might redeem those
who had rejected and scoffed at him, his invincible love triumphed over death
itself, and endured divine wrath without repining, as none but the Son of God
could have done. Now Messiah was to be cut off, but not for himself; he was to
make his soul an offering for sin, he was to make his grave with the wicked, and
lie in the heart of the earth. The blood of the covenant was to be shed, the
paschal victim was to be slain, the Shepherd was to be smitten, the Lamb was to
be led to the slaughter, and therefore only by the shedding of his blood could
Jesus prove himself to be the Messiah so long foretold. However pure the life he
led, had he never died he could not have been the Savior appointed to bear the
iniquity of us all. The blood was needed to complete the witness. The blood must
now with the water, the suffering with the serving. The most pious example would
not have proved him to be the divine Shepherd, if he had not laid down his life
for the sheep. Take away the atonement, and Jesus is no more than any other
prophet, the essential point of his mission is gone. It is evident that he who
was to come was to finish transgression, and to make reconciliation for
iniquity. Now, this could not be done except by an expiation, and as Jesus has
made such an expiation by his own blood, we know him to be the Christ of God.
His blood is the seal of his mission, the very life of his work. I have thus
shown that our Lord himself was attested by these three sacred witnesses.II.
Now, secondly, may God the Holy Spirit help me to show that THESE THREE REMAIN
AS STANDING WITNESSES TO HIM TO ALL TIME.And first, the Holy Spirit is witness
at this hour that the religion of Jesus is the truth, and that Jesus is the Son
of God. I say not that he bears such witness everywhere, for there are many that
preach in the wisdom of men, and in carnal excellency of speech, and God the
Holy Ghost does not work with them, because he hath chosen other instruments. I
do not say that he bears witness to the truth when it is defiled by a lukewarm
ministry, and a prayerless church: but I do say this, that the Spirit of God,
wherever Jesus is fully preached, is the great witness to the truth of his word;
for what does he do? By his divine energy he convinces men of the truth of the
gospel: and these so convinced are not only persons who, through their education
are likely to believe it, but men like Saul of Tarsus who abhor the whole thing.
He pours his influences upon men, and infidelity melts away like the iceberg in
the Gulf Stream; he touches the indifferent and careless, and they repent,
believe, and obey the Savior. He makes proud men tremble, and wicked men quake
for fear. The conversions which are wrought where Christ is truly preached are
the miracles which attest the truth of the gospel. He who can make the harlot to
be chaste, the drunkard to be sober, the thief to be honest, the malicious to be
forgiving, the covetous to be generous, and above all the self-righteous to be
humble, is indeed the Christ of God, and when the Spirit does all this and more
by the gospel, he bears conclusive witness to the power of the cross.Then, too,
the Spirit goes forth among believers, and by them he bears witness to our Lord
and his gospel. Great is the variety of his operations, for which cause he is
called the Seven Spirits of God; but in each one he witnesses to Jesus; whether
he quickens, consoles, enlightens, refreshes, sanctifies, anoints, or inflames
the soul, he does it always by taking the things of Christ and revealing them to
us. How mightily does he comfort the saints! Have you not been consoled by him
in deep distress? Have you not endured the loss of dear ones without repining,
because your heart has been sustained by the Comforter? Now, that wondrous
influence which wrought peace in you through the gospel, must have confirmed you
in the belief of the truth: and others who have seen your serenity under heavy
trial, if they are not convinced, at least are led to inquire what strange thing
is this which makes the Christian suffer without repining. The Spirit bears
witness to Christ, then, when he comforts the saints.And he does the same when
he gives them guidance, enlightenment and elevation of soul I will, however, for
a moment, dwell upon "utterance." Some reject the idea, but for all that it is
true that in the selfsame hour it is given to God's servants to speak in his
name. Look at the martyr times! How wondrously feeble women like Anne Askew
baffled all their foes! How ignorant weavers stood up before bishops and doctors
and confounded them! Even now, in answer to prayer, the Spirit comes upon chosen
men who yield themselves to his influence. And bears them along with a
whirlwind, making them eloquent in the divine sense, speaking out of their
hearts that which God gives them to deliver. Some of us know this, for we have
cast ourselves upon that eternal Spirit, and thoughts have been given us, and
mouth and utterance also. By this also the Spirit bears witness to the truth of
our faith.I have not time to go into all the operations of the Spirit, only let
me say that his sustaining, his consoling influences have been very especially
seen in persecuting times. Men of God have been subjected to tortures which our
mind finds it painful to dwell upon, yet they have not been vanquished by their
foes; neither nakedness, nor peril, nor sword have separated them from the love
of God. Blandina tossed in a net by a wild bull, and burned with hot plates of
brass, wearies out her tormentors; and Lawrence, on his gridiron, finds joy
enough for mirth. One cries aloud amid the flames, "None but Jesus," and another
claps his blazing hands and shouts victory as his soul quits the body. The
Spirit of God in the church has preserved her amid persecutions furious and
long-continued, filling the saints with a dauntless courage and a serene
invincibility which has both amazed and alarmed their enemies. So mightily has
this patience convinced the world, that it has passed into a proverb, "The blood
of the martyrs is the seed of the church."With equal power does the Spirit of
God bear witness to the gospel in great revivals of religion. How wondrously did
the Spirit of God testify to Christ during the Reformation! Scarcely had Luther
opened his mouth to proclaim the good news than straightway men received it
eagerly; they sang psalms as they ploughed the field or threw the shuttle; the
precious word was in all men's mouths. They said that angels carried Luther's
writings all over the world: it was not so, but the ever-blessed Spirit makes
the truth to fly like flames of fire. So was it in Whitfield's day, and in many
revivals which we have read of, and some which we have seen. Sometimes men have
been struck down and convulsed, and at other times, without outward violence,
they have been with equal power renewed in their souls. Who that has been at
Edinburgh, and seen many hundreds of people rushing through the streets to one
appointed meeting-place, to fall on their knees and cry for mercy all at once,
could doubt but what the gospel must be true? The Spirit of God, omnipotent in
the realm of spirits, and able to guide the human will without violating it, has
enlightened" men's darkened minds and made them see that Jesus Christ is God and
Savior. Overwhelmed by the love of Jesus, they have yielded at once to his
commands, A formal church, with a minister to stand up and talk officially, and
a people who come and go mechanically, bears no witness to religion, but rather
creates infidels; but where we see what some have called "real Methodist fire,"
and others "the old Protestant enthusiasm," or, rather, where we see the Holy
Ghost, attended by marvellous conversion, deep repentance, singular
illumination, the angelic and general love, we have indisputable evidence of the
divinity of our faith. The next abiding witness in the church is the water --
not the water of baptism, but the new life implanted in Christians, for that is
the sense in which John's Master had used the word "water": "The water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting
life." Where the Spirit of God comes he creates in the man a new nature, pure,
bright, fresh, vigorous, like a fountain, and the fact that this new nature does
exist in multitudes of men is a standing evidence that the gospel is true, for
no other religion makes men new creatures, no other religion even pretends to do
it; they may propose to improve the old nature, but none of them can say,
"Behold, I make all things new." This is the sole prerogative of Jesus our
Lord.The existence of the new life is matter of fact. We ourselves know many
whose lives are pure and blameless; they have faults before God, but before the
eyes of men they are perfect and upright, blameless and harmless. The godly
lives of Christians are good evidence of the truth of the gospel. Did I hear
some one object, "But many professors of Christianity are not holy"? I grant you
it, but then everybody knows that they are inconsistent with the religion which
they profess. If I heard of a lustful Mahomedan I should not consider him
inconsistent with Mahomedanism; is he not allowed his harem? If I heard of a
licentious Hindoo, I should not consider him to be dishonoring his religion, for
some of its sacred rites are disgusting and unmentionable. The same may be said
of all the idolatries. But everybody knows that if a man professes to be a
Christian and he is guilty of a gross fault, the world rings with the scandal,
because it recognizes the inconsistency of his conduct with his profession.
Though some may at the first breath of a slander blazon it abroad and say, "This
is your religion," the world knows it is not our religion, but the want of it.
Why do they themselves make such a wonder of a fallen professor? Are adulterers
so very scarce that such a noise should be made when a minister is, truly or
falsely, charged with the crime? The world's conscience knows that the religion
of Jesus is the religion of purity, and if professed Christians fall into
uncleanness the world knows that such a course of action does not arise out of
the religion of Christ, but is diametrically opposite to it. The gospel is
perfect, and did we wholly yield to its sway sin would be abhorred by us, and
slain in us, and we should live on earth the life of the perfect ones above. Oh,
may God produce in his church more and more the witness of the new life, the
testimony of holiness, love, meekness, temperance, godliness, and grace: these
are the gospel's logic, its syllogisms and demonstrations, which none can
refute.The third abiding witness is the blood. The blood of Christ is still on
the earth, for when Jesus bled it fell upon the ground and was never gathered
up. O earth, thou still art bespattered with the blood of the murdered Son of
God, and if thou cost reject him this will curse thee. But, O humanity, thou art
blessed with the drops of that precious blood, and believing in him it doth save
thee. Now, does the blood really save from guilt, terror, and despair? Does it
operate among men? Let us our memory. Its answer is clear and full. I speak what
I do know, and testify what I have seen. I have preached the blood of Jesus
Christ and the love of the incarnate God, and I have seen proud, stout-hearted
men shed tears in floods; the rock has wept when smitten with this wondrous rod
of the cross. Men who could resist thee thunders of Sinai have melted before the
tender notes of Calvary. Ay, and, on the other hand, I have seen the desponding,
whose soul chose strangling rather than life, look up to that dear cross, and
their faces have been brightened, and a joy unspeakable has chased away despair.
Miracles of consolation the blood has wrought. We have seen men at war with God,
and opposed to holiness, to whom the blood has spoken; they have seen a God
reconciled to them, and they have been reconciled to him themselves. We have
seen them beneath the spell of the blood throw down their weapons and cry -- "I
yield, by Jesus' love subdued, -- Who can resist its charms? -- And throw myself
to be reservedInto my Savior's arms."The blood of Jesus, after speaking peace to
the conscience, inflames the heart with fervent love, and full often leads men
to high deeds of consecration, self-denial, and self-sacrifice, such as can
scarce be understood till they are traced back to that amazing love which bled
upon the tree. Well might the martyrs bleed for him who was crucified for them;
the blood is working mightily in men to will and to do for the glory of God.
Yes, brethren, the blood has such a melting, such a converting, such a subduing,
such a sanctifying, such a joy-creating power to every conscience which hears
its matchless voice, that it remains, with the Spirit and the water, a
convincing witness to the Christ of God.III. In the third place, let us observe
that THIS TRIPLE YET UNITED WITNESS IS PECULIARLY FORCIBLE WITHIN BELIEVING
HEARTS. John tells us, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in
himself." Now, brethren, these three witnesses bear testimony in our souls
abidingly. I speak not of years ago, but of last night, when you bowed your knee
in prayer and prayed, and were heard. Did not the Spirit when he helped you to
pray bear witness that the gospel was no lie? Was not the answer to your prayer
good evidence? And that Sabbath morning, when you prayed that you might gather
up your thoughts and forget the week's cares, and you did so by the Spirit's
aid, did not this sacred rest of your soul prove that Christ is indeed a Savior?
Sitting here this morning as your soul has burned within you, and your Master
has been near you, has not that communion, given you of the Spirit, been to you
a fresh witness to Christ? The other day, when you were so sad and the Holy
Spirit comforted you, when you were so rebellious, and he made you quiet, even
as a weaned child, did not this confirm your faith? The other day when you were
so in the dark, and he enlightened you, when you were in such dilemmas and he
guided you had you not then fresh evidence that there is a life, a power, a
divinity about the gospel? These sweet feelings of yours came to you by the
Spirit of God revealing Jesus to you. He did not comfort you nor elevate you by
the law, nor by the flesh, but by the love of God shed abroad in your heart,
that precious love which comes streaming down from the cross of Jesus Christ our
Lord. Ah, dear friends, I feel sick to death of the common talk about the
healthiness of doubting and the beauty of "modern thought." This talk is only
the self-praise of a set of concealed infidels treacherously lurking in God's
church. There is a short way with sceptics which I commend to your use. Ask them
-- Do they know the Holy Ghost? Did they ever feel him in their own souls? If
they say "No," we believe them; let them believe us when we declare that we do
feel the operations of the Holy Ghost. There is the end of the controversy; if
they are honest so are we, and we are witnesses to the divine working of the
Holy Ghost in our own souls. If they never felt his power, their negative
statements cannot in the least degree affect the truth of ours. The next witness
in us is the water, or the new and pure life. Do you feel the inner life, my
brethren? I know you do -- you feel it fighting, struggling, contending,
sometimes winning the mastery, and at other times captive and groaning; you feel
it often aspiring, desiring, hungering, thirsting, yearning, sighing; and
sometimes singing, shouting, dancing, and leaping up to heaven. You are
conscious that you are not what you used to be, you are conscious of a new life
within your soul which you never knew till the date of your conversion, and that
new life within you is the living and incorruptible seed which liveth and
abideth for ever. The fact that you know you are born of God forbids a doubt as
to the truth by which you were begotten; the sense that you are forgiven forbids
all scepticism as to the fact that Christ is come in the flesh, and that he is
the Son of God, and that his gospel is the truth of God. To you all these things
are clear.Witnessing within us is also the blood. Beloved, this is a witness
which never fails, speaking in us better things than the blood of Abel. It gives
us such peace that we can sweetly live and calmly die. It gives us such access
to God that sometimes when we have felt its power we have drawn as near to our
Father as if we had seen him face to face. And oh, what safety the blood causes
us to enjoy! We feel that we cannot perish while the crimson canopy of atonement
by blood hangs over our head. What victory it gives us! making us cry, "Thanks
be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." These
are mysterious sensations, not to be accounted for by fleshly enthusiasm, for
they are strongest when we are calmest; not to be accounted for by any natural
predilections to such emotions, for we are by nature as easily perturbed as
others, and as apt to forget divine things. In times of trial we have looked to
Jesus' flowing wounds and we have been comforted, we have found communion with
Jesus to be so blessed that we would not envy Gabriel his angelhood.Now, then,
you young men, you need not read "Paley's Evidences," the evidence of the
Spirit, the water, and the blood is better. You do not grant to study "Butler's
Analogy," though you may if you please, but such books, excellent as they are,
only prove the skin and shell of our religion, and the vital matter is the
kernel. If you come by simple prayer, and ask to have the blood of Jesus applied
to devour soul, and if the Spirit of God works mightily in your spirit so that
you obtain a new inner principle, and lead a new life as the result thereof, you
will have the best evidence in the world. You will laugh at doubters, and make a
fire of Colenso's objections, and "Essays and Reviews," Tyndal's challenge, and
Huxley's dreams, and all that heap of worthless muck which has polluted the
church, and defiled the souls of men. O heavens, that ever we should live to see
a day in which ministers tell us that it is good to doubt, when poets almost
deify that very scepticism of which John says that it makes God a liar, and
which therefore is to be denounced as an insult to God, and the curse of the
age. Go, fling your doubts away, ye doting men and dreaming women, and bow like
penitents at Jesus' feet, and you will find far more than all your fancied
learning can bestow. But if ye will not do this, yet know that in vain ye
arraign your Maker at your bar, in vain do you re-judge his judgment, and act as
if ye were the Gods of God!Thus I have tried to show that these three witnesses
testify in our souls; I beg you now to notice their order. These three bear
witness in us thus, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; why in this order?
Because in this manner they operate. The Spirit of God first enters the heart,
perhaps long before the man knows that such is the case; the Spirit creates the
new life, which repents and seeks the Savior, that is the water; and that new
life flies to the blood of Jesus and obtains peace. The Spirit mightily working,
the new life is secretly created, and then faith in the blood is begotten, and
the triple witness is complete. We have also found this to be the order of our
consolation. I have said to myself, "Do I know that the Spirit of God is in me?"
and I have been afraid that it is not; I have then turned to my inner life, the
water, and have not always been certain concerning it, but when I have looked
away to the blood, all has been clear enough! Jesus died; I throw myself once
again into his arms. When I do not know whether I have the Spirit, and when I am
in doubt as to whether I have the living water, I still know that I believe in
the blood, and this brings perfect peace.Having observed their order, now note
their combination. "These three agree in one," therefore every true believer
should have the witness of each one, and if each one does not witness in due
time, there is cause for grave suspicion. For instance, persons have arisen who
have said the Spirit of God has led them to do this and that. Of them we inquire
what are your lives? Does the water bear witness? Are you pardoned? Does the
blood testify for you? If these questions cannot be answered they may rave as
they like about the Spirit of God, but the witness to their salvation is open to
the gravest suspicion. We have known some who will say, "Look at my life, I am
very different from what I was. I am a sober, honest, excellent man." Yes, but
do you Test in the blood of Jesus? Practical evidence is good, but it must arise
out of faith. If you do not believe in Jesus you have not the essential witness,
and your case is not proved. Many also say to us, "I believe that Jesus died for
me," but we must ask them concerning their lives. Are you cleansed in act? Are
you an altered man? For remember, unless the water speaks with the blood, you
have not the three-fold testimony. There may be some who say, "Well, we believe
in Jesus, and our lives are changed": but remember, you may say that, but is it
so? If so, the Spirit of God has changed you: if you have merely excited
yourself into the belief that it is so, or if you were born by your own free
will, you have not the witness, because the truly saved are born not of blood,
nor of the will of man, but of the Spirit of God. The three witnesses agree in
one. He believes in pardon by the blood believes also in sanctification by the
water; he who rests in Jesus Christ's blood always honors the Spirit of God,
and, on the other hand, he that believes in the Holy Ghost values both the inner
life and the cleansing blood. God has joined these three together, and let no
man put them asunder. The old theologians spake of baptismus flaminis, baptismus
fluminis, and baptismus sanguinis. May we know all these, and rejoice in the
Spirit, the flood, and the blood.IV. Lastly, THESE WITNESSES CERTIFY TO US THE
ULTIMATE TRIUMPH OF OUR RELIGION. Is the Spirit working through the gospel? then
the gospel will win the day, because the Spirit of God is Almighty, and complete
master over the realm of mind. He has the power to illuminate the intellect, to
win the affections, to curb the will, and change the entire nature of man, for
he worketh all things after his own pleasure, and, like the wind, he "bloweth
where he listeth." When he puts forth his omnipotent energy none can stand
against him. He has converted three thousand in a day, and he could as readily
convert three millions, or three hundred millions. He can do this, and he will.
The wind at times blows so gently as scarcely to stir the wing of a butterfly,
but at another time it rushes in a tornado, sweeping all before it; do not judge
from its soft breath what its full tempest would be, for nothing can stand
against the wind when once it speeds forth with power. Let the Spirit of God
blow across this land and it will at once drive away the miasmas of
superstition, and the clouds of ignorance.The Holy Spirit is compared to fire.
What can resist the energy of fire? There may be so little of it that a cowherd
may carry it in his lantern, but lo, it sets a city on a blaze. One match
contains all the fire on yonder prairie; it is flung into the dry grass, and lo,
the heavens themselves are scorched with the exceeding heat. Is the Spirit of
the Lord straitened? Is anything too hard for the lord? Behold, the universe was
chaos once, and the Spirit brooded over it and this fair world came forth: let
him in like manner incubate over this chaos of sin, and a new heaven, and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, shall rise therefrom. The gospel must
conquer, because the Holy Ghost who works with it is almighty.Next, the gospel
must conquer, because of the water, which I have explained to be the new life of
purity. What says John? "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." It is
impossible for the gospel to be vanquished so long as there remains in the world
one soul that is born of God. Living and incorruptible seed abideth for ever!
Those who would destroy the church only scatter her living seeds, and when Satan
raises a hurricane it only bears those seeds further afield. Satan once sat down
for weeks together to scheme, land he called in all the devils one by one till
Pandemonium all met in one conclave, and what think you came of it all? The
Papal Inquisition. They set that horrible machine to work to crush out what they
called heresy. They said they would ride up to their saddle girths in the blood
of Lutherans, and they almost redeemed their promise; but their cruelty availed
not, the living faith survived, and their murders and infernal cruelties did but
stir the world to a groan of sympathy, which helped the progress of the gospel.
They cannot destroy the gospel. Do not talk about the Pope of Rome, or the
Ritualistic or the infidel party, destroying the gospel church, they can as soon
annihilate the Lord himself, because the inner life of Christians is a spark
struck from the eternal sun of life, and can never be extinct while God
lives.Lastly, the gospel must spread and conquer because of the blood. Has that
power? Oh, yes, I will tell you how. God, the everlasting Father, has promised
to Jesus by covenant, of which the blood is the seal, that he "shall see his
seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand." As surely as Christ died on the cross, he must sit on a universal
throne. God cannot lie to his Son, cannot mock his wounds, or be deaf to his
death-cries, and, therefore, Christ must have what his Father has promised him,
and he has said, "Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." They that
bow in the wilderness shall bow before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust;
for he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet.Brethren, the
inference from all this is, if you are not on Christ's side it is ill with you,
for you will be surely conquered in the battle: but, if you are on Christ's
side, never speak hesitatingly or despondingly. When they bring out a new book
to disprove Genesis, and another to evaporate the atonement, do not be afraid.
As long as the gospel is in the world the devil will find somebody to write
books against it. Take no notice of them, they cannot stand against facts. A
philosopher once wrote a book to prove that there is no such thing as matter,
and a certain reader believed it till he chanced to knock his head against the
bedpost, and then he abandoned the theory. When a man feels the power of the
Holy Spirit, or the power of the inner life, he does not care to argue; he has a
homespun philosophy of facts which answers his purpose better. Though others may
round upon him and say, "You are not learned," he feels that it does not need
learning to prove that which is a matter of personal consciousness, any more
than we need proof that sugar is sweet when we have a piece in our mouths. Do
you doubt the gospel? Try it! The men who speak against the Bible as a rule have
never read it; those who rail against Christ do not know him; and those who deny
the efficacy of grayer have never prayed. Nothing is more convincing than fact.
Get out of the realm of word-spinning and wind-bag-filling into practical
Christian life, proving personally that these things are so, and you will soon
be convinced by the blessed witness of the Spirit, the water, and the blood.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- 1 John 5.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN
BOOK" -- 335, 451, 331.


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  CHAPTER 5: A WORD FOR THE PERSECUTED
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A Sermon (No.1188) Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, August 16th, 1874, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "What if thy father answer
thee roughly?" -- 1 Samuel 20:10. IT WAS NOT AN UNLIKELY THING that his father
would answer Jonathan roughly. Saul had taken great umbrage against David, while
Jonathan his eldest son, on the contrary, loved David as his own soul. Jonathan
could hardly think that his father really meant harm to so good a man as David,
and he expressed to David that opinion, and then David, to be prepared for the
worst, put to him this question, "What if thy father answer thee roughly? "It
did so turn out. Saul answered his son with bitter words, and in the desperation
of his anger he even hurled a javelin at him to smite him; yet Jonathan did not
forsake David, he clung to him with all the faithfulness of love, and until his
death, which was much mourned by David, he remained his fast and faithful friend
Now, this question of David to Jonathan is one which I wish to put this morning
to all believers in Christ, especially to the younger ones who have lately
entered into covenant with the great Son of David, and who, in the ardor of
their hearts, feel that they could live and die for him. I want to put before
them the supposition that they will meet with opposition from their dearest
friends, that perhaps their father, brother, husband, or uncle will answer them
roughly, or perhaps their mother, wife, or sister will become a persecutor to
them. What then? What will they do under such circumstances? Will they follow
the Lord through evil report? "What if thy father answer thee roughly?" Remember
that this supposition is a very likely one. There are a few Christians so
favourably circumstanced that all their friends accompany them in the pilgrimage
to heaven. What advances they ought to make in the sacred journey! What
excellent Christians they ought to be! They are like plants in a conservatory --
they ought to grow and bring forth the loveliest Bowers of divine grace. But
there are not very many who are altogether in that case. The large proportion of
Christians find themselves opposed by those of their own family, or by those
with whom they labor or trade. Is it not likely to be so? Was it not so from the
beginning? Is there not enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of
the woman? Did not Cain slay his brother Abel because he was accepted of the
Lord? In the family of Abraham was there not an Ishmael born after the flesh,
who persecuted Isaac, who was born after the Spirit? Was not Joseph hated of his
brethren? Was not David persecuted by Saul, Daniel by the Persian princes, and
Jeremiah by the kings of Israel? Has it not ever been so? Did not the Lord Jesus
Christ himself meet with slander, cruelty, and death, and did he not tell us
that we must not look for favor where he found rejection? He said plainly, "I
came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword;" and he declared that the
immediate result of the preaching of the gospel would be to set the son against
the father and the father against the son, so that a man's foes should be they
of his own household. Did he not carefully inquire of every recruit who wished
to enlist in his army, "Have you counted the cost?" Have you not admired his
perfect honesty and admirable caution in dealing with men, when he bids them
remember that if they follow him they must deny themselves and take up their
cross daily and be content to be hated of all men for his sake? He warns us not
to expect that the disciple will be above his Master, for if men have called the
Master of the house Beelzebub, they will assuredly confer no sweet titles upon
his household. Since our Lord has forewarned us, it is well for us to stand
ready for the trial which he predicts, and to ask ourselves whether we are ready
to bear oppression for Christ's sake. I press the question Upon you who think of
avowing yourselves believers, for most likely it will come practically home to
you, and it is well when you begin to build a house to calculate whether you
will be able to finish it. There are very many of God's servants here, whose
life is made bitter by the continual worry they endure from their ungodly
relatives and associates. Often do they sigh for the wings of a dove to fly away
and be at rest. I feel the deepest sympathy with them, and it is not Only with
the intention of forearming the younger ones, but with the hope of cheering and
consoling those who have been long in the fiery furnace, that I shall speak this
morning upon this text, "What if thy father answer thee roughly?" I. Our first
point is this, WHAT YOU MAY DO, what there is a possibility of your doing,
should your friends answer you roughly. In the first confidence of your love to
Christ you go and tell father of your conversion; well, what it he should
ridicule it all? You run to mother, and communicate your change of heart; what
if she should scoff at it? You tell a little of your heart to some friend; what
if that friend should turn again and rend you? I will tell you what perhaps you
will do, though I earnestly pray that you may do no such thing. You may
"by-and-by be offended." I mean that you may leave Christ altogether, because
you cannot bear his cross, and though willing enough to go to heaven with him if
the way were smooth, it may be that, like Mr. Pliable, finding that there is a
slough to be got through, you will turn your back upon the good country and
return to the City of Destruction. Many have done so. Our Lord's parable of the
seed sown in stony places teaches us that many shoots which promise fair for
harvest, perish when the sun arises with burning heat because they have no root.
Observation confirms this statement. If yonder fair-weather professors of
religion could have been daily hailed with general acclamation, they would,
after a certain fashion, have continued steadfast; but inasmuch as they have met
with rebuffs and chills which they never bargained for, they have cast off all
religion and joined with the fashionable world. To such the earthly father is
dearer than the Father who is in heaven; the brother after the flesh is dearer
than that Brother who is born for adversity, and the ungodly husband is more
precious than the everlasting bridegroom; and so they desert their Lord. Or, it
may happen to you that, instead of being by-and-by offended, you may continue
for awhile, but you may gradually give way, and at last yield altogether. There
are many among us who could bear to lose our heads at a stroke for Christ, but
to be burned at a slow fire -- ah, that would try us! And if that slow fire
lasted not for a day or so, but for weeks, and months, and years! How then? If,
after much patient endurance, the cruel mockings still continue, if the hard
words and bitter speeches never cease -- how then? Surely, unless grace sustains
us, the flesh will clamor to be rid of this uneasy yoke, and will look out for
some by-path by which it may escape the rigor of the rough road and go back
again to the world. Grace will hold on and out to the end, but nature at her
best, with firmest resolutions, has only to be tried up to a certain point, and
it will surely yield. This is what we may do; but may God grant that we may be
preserved from such a wretched course of action, for, if we do give way because
of opposition from ungodly friends, it involves tremendous guilt. To give up
religion because of persecution is to prefer ourselves to florist, to be selfish
enough to regard our own ease rather than this glory, to consult our own peace
rather than his honor, though we have said that we love him beyond all else for
redeeming us by his blood. It will show that we love him not at all, but are
ungrateful, false, and hypocritical. With all our true professions, if we flinch
from persecution it will prove that we only want our price, and, like the
traitor Judas, we too will sell our Master, not for thirty pieces of silver
possibly, but to escape ridicule or avoid ill-will. It will become clear, also,
that we prefer the praise of man to the approval of God. A smile from a face
which is soon to die we value at a higher price than the love of God, or the
Redeemer's approbation. Peter for a moment was more affected by the question of
a silly maid than by his allegiance to his Lord, but how dreadful to fall into
that condition deliberately, and think more of a man that shall die, and of the
son of man that is but as a worm, than of the Lord our Maker and Judge, who
alone is to be feared. Is not this folly, treason, and dire iniquity?To forsake
the Lord through persecution is to set time before eternity, to barter heaven
for this world's pleasures, to renounce eternal life for a few hours of ease,
and to involve ourselves in endless misery rather than endure a stupid jest or a
senseless jibe. It comes to that. Many a man has had life and death set before
him, the life has been shaded with the cross, and the death has been gilded over
with transient merriment, and he has chosen the everlasting death with its
glitter in preference to eternal life with its momentary trial. May God grant we
may never be of so insane a mind, for if we are, we shall be numbered with those
mentioned in the Revelation, of whom it is said that "the fearful," which is
being interpreted the cowardly, "and the unbelieving, the abominable, and
murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars" -- for
that is the class of persons with whom cowards are membered -- "shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death" (Revelation 21:8), from which death may the infinite mercy of God deliver
us. Like true soldiers may we buckle on our harness and resolve that let the
battle rage as it may, through divine grace we will not desert our colors. We
prefer death itself to the disgrace of forsaking a cause so true, a doctrine so
pure, a Savior so gracious, a Prince so noble, and so worthy of our most loyal
service.But if left to ourselves we may fall into what is as bad as open
apostasy. When we find the father, or the wife, or the friend answering us
roughly, we may make a pitiful compromise between Christ and the world. I warn
you solemnly against this above everything else. It has the look of being the
prudent and proper thing to do. "Can I not please men and please God? May I not
go a little way with Christ and a little way with the world?" O soul, if you
attempt this you must fail, and moreover you will have chosen the roughest road
of all, for if a man serves God, and serves him thoroughly, he will meet with
many comforts to balance his crosses; and if a man serves Satan thoroughly he
will enjoy whatever poor comfort is to be got out of sin; but if he goes betwixt
and between he will feel the discomforts of both, and the pleasures of neither.
Running the gauntlet on board ship is not worse than attempting to be friends
with Christ and Satan at the same time. I believe many a professing woman has
given way at first to her ungodly husband, where she should have been decided,
and she has embittered all the rest of her life; and many a husband, many a son,
many a man of business, has been undecided in a minor matter for peace sake, and
from that very moment the other side has never believed in his sincerity, and
having given an inch, the world has demanded its ell, and there has been an end
to all liberty henceforth. If you yield a single point of honesty or true
religion, the unconverted will not believe in you as they would have done if you
had been firm throughout; men respect a thoroughbred Christian, but nobody has a
good word for a mongrel. Be one thing or the other, either hot or cold, or
Christ will reject you, and the world too. If a thing be right, do it; if you
resolve to serve the Lord, do it, offend or please; and if, on the other hand,
you prefer the service of Satan, do at least be honest enough not to pretend to
be on the Lord's side. Remember the challenge of Elijah, "If God be God, serve
him; if Baal be God, serve him;" but do not attempt a compromise, which will end
in a miserable breakdown. Mark Antony drove two lions yoked together through the
streets of Rome, but no Mark Antony could ever drive the lion of the tribe of
Judah and the lion of the pit in a leash together. They will never agree. Be ye
warned, then, against falling into the meanness of compromise, for compromise is
nothing better than varnished rebellion against God, a mockery of his claims,
and an insult to his judgment. May the grace of God keep us from this, for left
to ourselves we shall fall into this snare.I will tell you what you may do also,
and I pray that the Holy Spirit may lead you to do it. You may take up humbly,
but firmly, this decided stand: -- "If my father answer me roughly he must do
so, but I have another Father who is in heaven, and I shall appeal to him. If
the world condemn me, I shall accept its condemnation as a confirmation of that
gracious verdict of acquittal which comes from the great Judge of all, for I do
remember it is written, If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it
hated you' and If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but
because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you.'" Be it ours to endure hardness as good soldiers
of Jesus Christ. May we count the reproach of Christ greater riches than all
earth's treasures. Never may a coward blush defile our cheek because we are
ashamed of Jesus; far rather may we be willing to be made a gazing-stock than
for a moment think of turning aside from our Beloved Lord. False or fearful may
we never be; firmly and calmly, with the confidence of a love which cannot
falter, let us cleave to our Lord, even though all men should forsake him: --
"Oh, learn to scorn the praise of men!Oh, learn to lose with God;For Jesus won
the world through shame,And beckons thee His road."II. The second head is WHAT
THE TRIAL WILL, DO FOR US IF WE ARE HELPED TO BEAR UP UNDER IT. "What if thy
father answer thee roughly? "First, it will grieve us. It is by no means
pleasant to be opposed in doing right by those who ought to help us in it. It is
very painful to flesh and blood to go contrary to those we love. Moreover, those
who hate Christians have a way of putting their revilings so that they are sure
to make us wince. They watch our weak points, and with very wonderful skill they
turn their discoveries to account; trained by the old master of all malice, they
are not slow to ply their lash where we are most tender. If one thing is more
provoking than another, they will be sure to say it, and say it when we are
least able to bear it. It may be they are very polite people, and if so, your
refined persecutors have a very dainty way of cutting to the bone, and yet
smiling all the while. They can say a malicious thing so delicately that you can
neither resent it nor endure it. The art of persecuting has been so long studied
by the seed of the serpent that they are perfect masters of it, and know how to
make the iron enter into the soul. Do not be astonished, therefore, if you are
sorely vexed, neither be amazed, as though some strange thing kind happened unto
you. The martyrs did not suffer sham pains; the racks on which they were
stretched were not beds of ease, nor were their prisons parlours of comfort.
Their pains were agonies, their martyrdoms were torments. If you had sham griefs
you might expect counterfeit joys; let the reality of your tribulation assure
you of the reality of the coming glory.The opposition of your friends will try
your sincerity. If you are a hypocrite you will soon yield to opposition. "The
game is not worth the candle," say you, and you will be off, and for the
church's sake very likely it will be a blessing, for the wheat is all the better
for being rid of the chaff, and if the wind of persecution can blow you away you
are chaff. The rough answers of opponents will try your faith. You say you
believe in Jesus: now we shall see if you do, for if you cannot bear a little
trial from men and women, surely you will not be able to bear the worse trials
from the devil and his angels. "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have
wearied thee, then how easiest thou contend with horses? and if in the land of
peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the
swelling of Jordan? "If you cannot bear the trials of life, how will you endure
the ordeals of death?Persecution will try your love to Jesus. If you really love
him you will cheerfully stand in the pillory of reproach with him, and when
enemies have filth to hurl you will say, "Throw it upon me rather than upon him:
if there is a hard thing to be said, say it about me rather than against my
Lord.""If on my face for his dear nameShame and reproach shall be,I'll hail
reproach and welcome shame,For he'll remember me."It will try your love, I say,
and so it will all your graces in their turn; and this is good for you. These
virtues will not increase in strength unless they are brought into action; and
if they are not tested, who is to know of what sort they are? Your valiant
soldier in quiet barracks at home could fight, no doubt, but how do you know
till he has passed through a campaign? He who has charged up to the cannon's
mouth, he who is adorned with a sabre cut across his brow, and bears many a
wound beside, which he gained in the service of his king, he is brave beyond
question. Good gold must expect to be tried in the fire, and these oppositions
are sent on purpose that our faith, and our love, and all our graces should be
proved genuine by enduring the test.The rough answers of those who should be our
friends will keep us awake. I think it was Erskine who used to say, "Lord,
deliver me from a sleepy devil"; and truly it is a prayer well worth praying.
When everything goes on smoothly, and nobody ridicules us, we are very apt to be
off our guard, but when we are stung by undeserved reproaches and insults, and
when for our love we receive only anger or unkindness, we are not very likely to
go to sleep. Such afflictions drive you to your knees. Perhaps you have read the
story of Mr. Eraser, one of the ministers in Ross-shire, who had a cold,
unfeeling woman for a wife; she was very cruel to him, and would never allow
light or fire in his study, so that he had actually worn two holes in the
plaster at the ends of his room, where his hand had touched as he paced to and
fro in the dark. At a meeting of ministers who were not of his mind in divine
things, one of them thought to make sport of him by remarking that he would no
doubt very heartily agree with the toast of "Health to our wives." To their
astonishment he answered, "Mine has been a better wife to me than any of yours
has been to you, she has sent me to my knees seven times a day, when I would not
otherwise have gone, which is more than any of you can say of yours." Personally
I should greatly prefer not to have such a perpetual blister applied to me, but
had the good Physician appointed me so severe a trial, I doubt not that he would
have had good reason for it. Out of what men call weeds the wise man extracts a
medicine, and out of these bitter trials the Lord produces a sacred tonic which
braces us for a higher life of communion with himself. Trials from the enemies
of Jesus confirm our faith. Those who are never tried usually possess a poor,
tottering faith, but trial, especially persecution, is like the rough March wind
which goes howling through the forest, and while the young oaks are almost torn
up by the roots at first, it loosens the soil for them, and they send out more
rootless, till they get such a firm grip that they defy the hurricane. That
which shakes them at first strengthens them afterwards. The tried saint is the
bold saint, and the firm saint; therefore take the rough answer joyfully, and
look for good results from it. A little persecution for the church in England
would be a grand thing for her. We have fallen on very velvety days, when zeal
for God is rare and decision for truth scarcely to be met with. The church has
made terms with the world, and goes to sleep, Satan rocking her cradle. Many a
man professes to be a Christian, who is nothing better than a baptized
worldling, and many a man sets up to be a minister of Christ who is a mere
reader of other people's sermons, and a hireling who cares not for the sheep.
The fan of persecution, if it purged the threshing floor of the church, would
bestow great benefits upon her.Rough speeches, too, will have this good effect
upon genuine Christians, it will lead them to plead for those who utter them. I
remember a good man who used to say of a certain swearing fellow who took
delight to vex him with his horrid taunts and oaths, "Well, after all, I might
forget to pray for him, but he reminds me of it, for he will not let me go by
without a curse." If our friends were all very smooth-spoken, and concealed
their enmity to Christ, we might entertain a false hope about them, and we might
not pray for them; but when we see that the old nature is there, and very
rampant, it drives us to intercession for them, and who can tell but what the
Lord may give us their souls as our reward?Certainly opposition has another good
effect, that it drives those subject to it into the truly separated path; they
are known to be Christians, and proclaimed as such by their revilers. I do not
think it is a bad thing, young man, when you go to that warehouse that they
should advertise you as a Christian by crying out "Halloa, here comes one of the
Methodist sort." It is good for you to be known. If you are what you should be,
you will not mind being labelled, nor being tested either. It will help to keep
you right when temptations arise; and it will frequently deliver you from trials
of a more fascinating kind; for, suppose they forsake your company because you
are a Christian, will not that be well? Those who leave you on that account are
a very gainful loss. An honorable lady, now with God, when she joined this
church told me how after her baptism many of her aristocratic friends had ceased
to call upon her, or invite her to their houses. I congratulated her upon it,
for it rendered it all the easier for her to select her own company. Her real
worth of character and kindness of spirit soon won back all who were worth
having, and the rest were happily removed. Such as shun you for following the
Lord are persons whom you yourself might shun. We gain nothing by the love of
those who love not God.One good effect of being persecuted at home is this, it
makes you gentler abroad. If, my brother Christian, you have those at home who
make you unhappy, if you are a wise man you will be the better ably to have
patience with outsiders. Men wondered why Socrates was so patient with his
pupils, and so good-tempered, but he ascribed it to having been hardened by the
opposition of others, by being schooled at home by his shrewish wife, Xanthippe.
Perhaps you will have the greater patience with those who scoff, and the greater
sympathy with those who are scoffed at, from having had your share in the common
lot of the saints. Thus to you as to Samson, out of the eater cometh forth meat,
and out of the strong cometh forth sweetness. This lion roars upon you, but the
day shall come when you will find honey in it, and bless the name of the
Lord.III. My third point is, HOW SHOULD YOU BEHAVE UNDER THE TRIAL? May the Holy
Spirit enable you to act very discreetly as well as decidedly. Never court
opposition. God forbid we should do so. Some zealots seem bent on making
religion objectionable. The cup we hold to a sinful world is in itself repugnant
enough to fallen nature; there can be no wisdom in making it yet more
objectionable by presenting it with a scowling face. It is as well when you have
medicine to give to a child to show him a piece of sugar too: so let your
kindness, and cheerfulness, and gentleness sweeten that which the world is not
very likely to receive anyhow, but which it will the less resent if you present
it with love, showing a desire to live peaceably with all men, and to consult
the comfort of others rather than your own.And then endure whatever you have to
endure with the greatest possible meekness. There was a farmer whose wife was
very irritated with him because of his attending a dissenting place of worship,
and joining with Christian people. She often declared that she would not bear it
much longer, but he was very patient, and made no harsh reply to her. One day
she fetched him out of the harvest field, and said, "Now it is come to this; you
will give up those people, or give me up"; and she brought out a web of cloth
and said, "Now you take half of this and I'll take the other half; for I am
going." He said, "No, my dear, you are welcome to it all. You have always been a
very good industrious wife, take it all." Then she proposed taking a part of
their household goods and settling everything for a final separation, but again
he said, "Take all there is. If you will go away take everything you like, for I
should not wish you to be uncomfortable; and come back again whenever you
please, I shall always be glad to see you." Seeing that he talked in that way,
she said, "Do you mean me to go?" "No," said he, "it is your own wish, not mine.
I cannot give up my religion, but anything else I can do to make you stay and be
happy, I will do." This was too much for her, she resolved to cease her
opposition, and in a short time went with her husband to the place of worship,
and became herself a believer. This is the surest way to victory. Yield
everything but what it would be wrong to yield. Never grow angry. Keep cool, and
let the railing be all on one side. There was a poor godly woman who used to
attend the ministry of Mr. Robinson, of Leicester, and her husband, a very
coarse brutal man, said to her one day in his wrath, "If you ever go to St.
Mary's church again I'll cut both your legs off." He was a dreadful man, and
equal to any violence, but on the next occasion of worship his wife went as
aforetime. As she came home, she commended herself to the care of God, expecting
to be assailed. Her husband said to her, "Where have you been?" "I have been to
St. Mary's church," said she. With that he felled her to the ground with a
terrible blow on the face. Rising up, she gently said, "If you strike me on the
other side I shall as freely forgive you as I do now." She had been a very
passionate woman before conversion, and had been accustomed to give her husband
as good as he could send, and therefore he was struck with her gentleness.
"Where did you learn this patience?" said he. Her reply was, "By God's grace I
learned it at St. Mary's." "Then you may go as often as you like." Presently he
went also, and the war was over. There is nothing like meekness. It will conquer
the strongest. After bearing with meekness return good for evil. For creel words
return warmer love and increased kindness. The most renowned weapon for a
Christian to fight his antagonists with is that of overcoming evil with good.
Evil to evil is beastlike, and no Christian will indulge in it; but good for
evil is Christlike, and we must practice it. I think I have before told you the
story of the husband who was a very loose, gay, depraved, man of the world, but
he had a wife who for many years bore with his ridicule and unkindness, praying
for him day and night, though no change came over him, except that he grew even
more bold in sin. One night, being at a drunken feast with a number of his boon
companions, he boasted that his wife would do anything he wished, she was as
submissive as a lamb. "Now," he said, "she has gone to bed hours ago; but if I
take you all to my house at once she will get up and entertain you and make no
complaint." "Not she," they said, and the matter ended in a bet, and away they
went. It was in the small hours of the night, but in a few minutes she was up,
and remarked that she was glad that she had two chickens ready, and if they
would wait a little she would soon have a supper spread for them. They waited,
and ere long, at that late hour, the table was spread, and she took her place at
it as if it was quite an ordinary matter, acting the part of hostess with
cheerfulness. One of the company, touched in his better feelings, exclaimed,
"Madam, we ought to apologize to you for intruding upon you in this way, and at
such an hour, but I am at a loss to understand how it is you receive us so
cheerfully, for being a religious person you cannot approve of our conduct." Her
reply was, "I and my husband were both formerly unconverted, but, by the grace
of God, I am now a believer in the Lord Jesus. I have daily prayed for my
husband, and I have done all I can to bring him to a better mind, but as I see
no charge in him, I fear he will be lost for ever; and I have made up my mind to
make him as happy as I can while he is here." They went away, and her husband
said, "Do you really think I shall be unhappy for ever?" "I fear so," said she,
"I would to God you would repent and seek forgiveness." That night patience
accomplished her desire. He was soon found with her on the way to heaven. Yield
on no point of principle, but in everything else be willing to bear reproach,
and to be despised and mocked at for Christ's sake. In hoc signo vinces -- by
the cross patiently borne thou couquerest. "This is a hard saying," says one. I
know it is, but grace can make the heaviest burden light, and transform duty
into delight.Here let one also remark that to this gentle endurance there must
be added by the persecuted Christian much exactness of life. We must be very
particular when such lynx-eyes are upon us, because if they can find us
trespassing they will pounce upon us at once. If it is only a little wrong, a
thing which they would not have noticed in anybody else, they will magnify it
and raise quite a clamor about it. "Ah, that is your religion," say they, as if
we claimed to be absolutely perfect. Be watchful, therefore, walk circumspectly,
do not put yourself into their hands; let them have nothing to say against you
save only upon the point of your religion. Nothing bathes opponent) like
integrity, truthfulness, and holiness: they long to speak against you, but
cannot find a fair opportunity. Take care that you daily pray for grace to keep
your temper, for if you fail there they will boast of having conquered you, and
will assail you again in the same way. Ask for grace to be patient, and say as
little as you can, except to God. Pray much for them, for prayer is still heard,
and how knowest thou, O believing woman, but thou mayst save thy unbelieving
husband? Only watch on and pray on, and a blessing will come.IV. In DOING ALL
THIS WHAT COMFORT MAY YOU EXPECT? You may have this for your comfort, that the
persecutor is in God's hands. He cannot do more than God lets him, and if God
permits him to annoy, you may cheerfully bear it. Next, remember, if you keep
your conscience clear it is a great joy. Conscience is a little bird that sings
more sweetly than any lark or nightingale. Rough answers outside need not
trouble you while within there is the answer of a good conscience towards God.
Injure your conscience and you lose that consolation; preserve it from evil and
you must be happy. Remember that by patiently enduring and persevering you will
have fellowship with the grandest spirits that ever lived. You cannot be a
martyr and wear the blood-red crown in these days, but you can at least suffer
as far as you are called to do: grace enabling you, you may have a share in the
martyr's honors. "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in
heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."Remember,
too, that if you have extraordinary troubles Jesus will be doubly near to you.
This is the greatest comfort of all, for in all your afflictions he is
afflicted. You will find his presence in the ordinances to be very delightful.
Those stolen waters which he gives you in secret fellowship are very choice,
those morsels which you get by stealth, how sweet they are! The old covenantors
said they never worshipped God with so much joy as in the glens and among the
hills when Claverhouse's dragoons were after them. The living is very refreshing
to the Lord's hunted harts. His bosom is very soft and warm for those who are
rejected of all men for his sake. He has a marvellous way of unveiling his face
to those whose faces are covered with shame because of their love to him. Oh, be
content, dear friends, to watch with your Lord. You have the sweet thought also
that you are doing more good where you are than if you were placed altogether
among the godly. Yonder light, set up in mid ocean on the Eddystone rock, see
how the storm sweeps around it, and the waters leap over it, threatening to put
out its flame, but shall the light complain? Standing where it is, beaten by the
Atlantic rollers, and braving the full fury of the storm, it is doing more good
than if it were set up in Hyde Park for my lords and ladies to look at. The
persecuted saint occupies a place where he warns and enlightens, and therefore
suffers. He is like an advanced guard, to whom the place of danger is the place
of honor: only let him ask for strength to bear and forbear, and he shall have
glory at the last. Remember the rougher the road the sweeter the rest, and the
greater the suffering the brighter the crown at the last. Those who have to bear
most for Jesus will be those to whom he will most sweetly say, "Well done, good
and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."Ah, brethren, if you
have a little rough language to put up with, what is it, compared with what many
of the Lord's afflicted ones have to endure? I will tell you a little incident
bearing upon that point, and then have done. Yesterday the postman brought me,
amongst many others, a letter from Australia, which I prize more than any that
have come to hand for a long while; it has touched my heart, and when you hear
it you will not wonder. It is written at the desire of a man who is described by
the gentleman who writes for him in the following terms: "I have known the
writer for near eight years, during which time he has been quite helpless, being
paralyzed, he has had one leg cut off, the sight has left his eye, he cannot
move hand or feet; as he is placed on his bed so must he lie and endure the
annoyance of flies, or anything that may molest him. So that I am sure you will
be pleased to be the means of giving comfort to such an one, and yet he is
mostly rejoicing; and few are more apt to teach and exhort those who come to see
him, and direct them to suitable portions of God's word far their reading." Now
this poor man, who has been helpless ever since the year 1858, or sixteen long
years, writes me thus: "Being moved by the Holy Spirit I send you these few
lines to thank you for the benefit I have received by reading your sermons. In
the year 1850 I was brought to the knowledge of the truth, and found peace
through believing in Jesus. In 1858 I met with a serious accident, so that I was
not able to earn my bread, but trusting in the Lord he has led me in the right
way. In 1866 it pleased him to confine me entirely to my bed. I bless his Holy
Name that I can say I am bound by the cords of his love, that he has upheld and
comforted me through all my long confinement, and enabled me to rejoice in hope
of his glory; and the reading of your excellent sermons, which privilege I have
enjoyed for some years, having been a source of great comfort and delight to my
soul, causing me to soar on high and enjoy sweet communion, I am constrained by
love to send you this acknowledgment, hoping that perhaps you may be cheered a
little by it in your arduous labors; and if our heavenly Father see fit, this my
testimony to his faithfulness may be blessed by him to the comfort and
encouragement of some afflicted ones in your flock, as I know that all these
things work together for good to them that love God." Think of this unselfish
sufferer having a letter written to comfort me. One would have thought he needed
comforting himself, but the Lord so cheers him that, instead of asking for
consolation, he does not mention in his letter that he has lost his leg, or that
he is paralyzed, or has lost his sight. He only tells me of his joy and peace.
Now, if children of God in such extremities can yet bear testimony to his
faithfulness, are you going to run away because some foolish person or other
sneers at you? Will you in cowardly fashion desert the standard because fools
point their fingers at you? If so, are you made of the same stuff as the true
saints? Have you the same backbone of divine grace as they? Assuredly not. May
the Lord in his infinite mercy give you such a sound conversion that, whatever
trial comes, you may still sing, "Yet will I rejoice in the Lord and glory in
the God of my salvation."If I am addressing any one who has persecuted God's
saints in any way, let me say, "Mind what you are at; there are many things a
man will bear, but if you meddle with his children it will stir his soul, that
is a tender point with all fathers." Nothing provokes the Lord like interfering
with his children. Mind what you are at. And, oh, I pray the Lord, if you have
done it ignorantly, really thinking them to be wrong, and only scoffing at them
because you thought them hypocrites, may he that spake out of heaven to Saul,
and said, "Why persecutest thou me?" let you see that you have really been
wounding Jesus himself. May he make you see that those tears which you have
forced from that faithful woman, and those sleepless nights which you have
caused to that earnest man, were so much of evil done unto Christ, for which he
will reckon with you at the last. Turn you unto the Lord Jesus, and may the Holy
Spirit grant you to repent of this your wickedness, for Jesus is willing to
receive and bless even you, as he did Paul of old. Believe on the Lord Jesus,
and you also shall be saved. God bless you all, for Christ's sake. Amen. PORTION
OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Mark 4.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" -- 76,
670, 667.


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  CHAPTER 6: THE TURNING POINT
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A Sermon (No.1189) Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, August 23rd, 1874, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "And he arose, and came to
his father." -- Luke 15:20. THIS SENTENCE EXPRESSES the true turning point in
the prodigal's life story. Many other matters led up to it, and before he came
to it there was much in him that was very hopeful; but this was the point
itself, and had he never reached it he would have remained a prodigal, but would
never have been the prodigal restored, and his life would have been a warning
rather than an instruction to us. "He arose, and came to his father." Speaking,
as I do, in extreme weakness, I have no words to spare; and while my voice holds
out I shall speak straight to the point, and I pray the Lord to make every
syllable practical and powerful by his Holy Spirit. I. We shall begin by
noticing that HERE WAS ACTION -- "He arose, and came to his father." He had
already been in a state of thoughtfulness; he had come to himself, but now he
was to go further, and come to his father. He had considered the past, and
weighed it up, and seen the hollowness of all the world's pleasures; he had seen
his condition in reference to his father, and his prospects if he remained in
the far-off country; he had thought upon what he ought to do, and what would be
the probable result of such a course; but now he passed beyond the dreaminess of
thought into matter-of-fact acting and doing. How long will it be, dear hearers,
before you will do the same? We are glad to have you thoughtful; we hope that a
great point is gained when you are led to consider your ways, to ponder your
condition, and to look earnestly into the future, for thoughtlessness is the
ruin of many a traveler to eternity, and by its means the unwary fall into the
deep pit of carnal security and perish therein. But some of you have been among
the "thoughtful" quite long enough; it is time you passed into a more practical
stage. It is high time that you came to action; it would have been better if you
had acted already; for, in the matter of reconciliation to God, first thoughts
are best. When a man's life hangs on a thread, and hell is just before him, his
path is clear, and a second thought is superfluous. The first impulse to escape
from danger and lay hold on Christ is that which you would be wise to follow.
Some of you whom I now address have been thinking, and thinking, and thinking,
till I fear that you will think yourselves into perdition. May you, by divine
grace, be turned from thinking to believing, or else your thoughts will become
the undying worm of your torment. The prodigal had also passed beyond mere
regret. He was deeply grieved that he had left his father's house, he lamented
his lavish expenditure upon wantonness and rebelling, he mourned that the son of
such a father should be degraded into a swineherd in a foreign land; but he now
proceeded from regret to repentance, and bestirred himself to escape from the
condition over which he mourned. What is the use of regret if we continue in
sin? By all means pull up the sluices of your grief if the floods will turn the
wheel of action, but you may as well reserve your tears, if they mean no more
than idle sentimentalism. What avails it for a man to say he repents of his
misconduct if he still perseveres in it? We are glad when sinners regret their
sin and mourn the condition into which sin has brought them, but if they go no
further, their regrets will only prepare them for eternal remorse. Had the
prodigal become inactive through despondency, or stolid through sullen grief, he
must have perished, far away from his father's home, as it is to be feared many
will whose sorrow for sin leads them into a proud unbelief and wilful despair of
God's love; but he was wise, for he shook off the drowsiness of his despondency,
and, with resolute determination, "arose and came to his father." Oh, when will
you sad ones be wise enough to do the same? When will your thinking and your
sorrowing give place to practical obedience to the gospel? The prodigal also
pressed beyond mere resolving. That is a sweet verse which says, "I will arise,"
but that is far better which says, "And he arose." Resolves are good, like
blossoms, but actions are better, for they are the fruits. We are glad to hear
from you the resolution, "I will turn to God," but holy angels in heaven do not
rejoice over resolutions, they reserve their music for sinners who actually
repent. Many of you like the son in the parable have said, "I go, sir," but you
have not gone. You are as ready at forgetting as you are at resolving. Every
earnest sermon, every death in your family, every funeral knell for a neighbor,
every pricking of conscience, every touch of sickness, sets you a resolving to
amend, but your promissory notes are never honored, your repentance ends in
words. Your goodness is as the dew, which at early dawn hangs each blade of
grass with gems, but leaves the fields all parched and dry when the sun's
burning heat is poured upon the pasture. You mock your friends, and trifle with
your own souls. You have often in this house said, "Let me reach my chamber and
I will fall upon my knees," but on the way home you have forgotten what manner
of men you were, and sin has confirmed its tottering throne. Have you not
dallied long enough? Have you not lied unto God sufficiently? Should you not now
give over resolving and proceed to the solemn business of your souls like men of
common sense? You are in a sinking vessel, and the life-boat is near, but your
mere resolve to enter it will not prevent your going down with the sinking
craft; as sure as you are a living man, you will drown unless you take the
actual leap for life. "He arose and came to his father." Now, observe that this
action of the prodigal was immediate, and without further parley. He did not go
back to the citizen of that country and say, "Will you raise my wages? If not, I
must leave." Had he parleyed he had been lost; but he gave his old master no
notice, he concerned his indentures by running away. I would that sinners here
would break their league with death, and violate their covenant with hell, by
escaping for their lives to Jesus, who receives all such runaways. We want
neither leave nor licence for quitting the service of sin and Satan, neither is
it a subject which demands a month's consideration: in this matter instantaneous
action is the surest wisdom. Lot did not stop to consult the king of Sodom as to
whether he might quit his dominions, neither did he consult the parish officers
as to the propriety of speedily deserting his home; but with the angel's hand
pressing them, he and his fled from the city. Nay, one fled not; she looked and
lingered, and that lingering cost her her life! That pillar of salt is the
eloquent monitor to us to avoid delays when we are bidden to flee for our lives.
Sinner, dost thou wish to be a pillar of salt? Wilt thou halt between two
opinions, until God's anger shall doom thee to final impenitence? Wilt thou
trifle with mercy till justice smite thee? Up, man, and while thy day of grace
continues, fly thou into the arms of love. The text implies that the prodigal
aroused himself, and put forth all his energies. It is said, "he arose;" the
word suggests that he had till then been asleep upon the bed of sloth, or the
couch of presumption. If like Samson in Delilah's lap, he had been supine,
inactive, and unstrung, but now, startled from his lethargy, he lifts up his
eyes, he girds up his loins, he shakes off the spell which had enthralled him,
he puts forth every power, he arouses his whole nature, and he spares no
exertion until he returns to his father.Men are not saved between sleeping and
waking. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by
force." Grace does not stupefy us, it but arouses us. Surely, sirs, it is worth
while making an awful effort to escape from eternal wrath. It is worth while
summoning up every faculty and power and emotion and passion of your being, and
saying to yourself, "I cannot be lost; I will not be lost: I am resolved that I
will find mercy through Jesus Christ." The worst of it is, O sinners, ye are so
sluggish, so indifferent, so ready to let things happen as they may. Sin has
bewitched and benumbed you. You sleep as on beds of down and forget that you are
in danger of hell fire. You cry, "A little more rest, and a little more slumber,
and a little more folding of the arms to sleep," and so you sleep on, though
your damnation slumbereth not. Would to God you could be awakened. It is not in
the power of my voice to arouse you; but may the Lord Himself alarm you, for
never were men more in danger. Let but your breath fail, or your blood pause,
and you are lost for ever. Frailer than a cobweb is that life on which your
eternal destiny depends. If you were wise you would not give sleep to your eyes,
nor slumber to your eyelids, till you had found your God and been forgiven. Oh,
when will you come to a real action? How long will it be ere you believe in
Jesus? How long will you snort between the jaws of hell? How long dare you
provoke the living God?II. Secondly, HERE WAS A SOUL COMING INTO ACTUAL CONTACT
WITH GOD, -- "He arose and came to his father." It would have been of no avail
for him to have arisen if he had not come to his father. This is what the sinner
has to do, and what the Spirit enables him to do: namely, to come straight away
to his God. But, alas! very commonly, when men begin to be anxious, they go
round about and hasten to a friend to tell him about it, or they even resort to
a deceitful priest, and seek help from him. They fly to a saint or a virgin, and
ask these to be mediators for then, instead of accepting the only Mediator Jesus
Christ, and going to God at once by him. They fly to outward forms and
ceremonies, or they turn to their Bibles, their prayers, their repentances, or
their sermon-hearings; in fact, to anything rather than their God. But the
prodigal knew better; he went to his father, and it will be a grand day for you,
O sinner, when you do the same. Go straight away to your God in Christ Jesus.
"Come here," says the priest. Pass that fellow by. Get away to your Father.
Reject an angel from heaven if he would detain you from the Lord. Go personally,
directly, and at once to God in Christ Jesus. But surely I must perform some
ceremony first? Not so did the prodigal, he arose and went at once to his
father. Sinner, you must come to God, and Jesus is the way. Go to him then, tell
him you have done wrong, confess your sins to him, and yield yourself to him.
Cry, "Father, I have sinned: forgive me, for Jesus' sake."Alas! there are many
anxious souls who do not go to others, but they look to themselves. They sit
down and cry, "I want to repent; I want to feel my need; I want to be humble." O
man, get up! What are you at? Leave yourself and go to your Father. "Oh, but I
have so little hope; my faith is very weak, and I am full of fears." What
matters your hopes or your fears while you are away from your Father? Your
salvation does not lie within yourself, but in the Lord's good will to you. You
will never be at peace till, leaving all your doubts and your hopes, you come to
your God and rest in his bosom. "Oh, but I want to conquer my propensities to
sin, I want to master my strong temptations." I know what it is you want. You
want the best robe without your Father's giving it you, and shoes on your feet
of your own procuring; you do not like going in a beggar's suit and receiving
all from the Lord's loving hand; but this pride of yours must be given up, and
you must get away to God, or perish for ever. You must forget yourself, or only
remember yourself so as to feel that you are bad throughout, and no more worthy
to be called God's son. Give yourself up as a sinking vessel that is not worth
pumping, but must be left to go down, and get you into the life-boat of free
grace. Think of God your Father -- of him, I say, and of his dear Son, the one
Mediator and Redeemer of the sons of men. There is your hope -- to fly away from
self and to reach your Father.Do I hear you say, "Well, I shall continue in the
means of grace, and I hope there to find my God." I tell you, if you do that,
and refuse to go to God, the means of grace will be the means of damnation to
you. "I must wait at the pool," says one. Then I solemnly warn you that you will
lie there and die; for Jesus does not command you to lie there, his bidding is,
"Take up thy bed, and walk." "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved." You have to go unto your Father, and not to the pool of Bethesda, or
any other pool of ordinances or means of grace. "But I mean to pray," says one.
What would you pray for? Can you expect the Lord to hear you while you will not
hear him? You will pray best with your head in your Father's bosom, but the
prayers of an unyielding, disobedient, unbelieving heart are mockeries. Prayers
themselves will ruin you if they are made a substitute for Doing at once to God.
Suppose the prodigal had sat down at the swine trough and said, "I will pray
here," what would it have availed him? or suppose he had wept there, what good
would have come of it? Praying and weeping were good enough when he had come to
his father, but they could not have been substituted for it. Sinner, your
business is with God. Hasten to him at once. You have nothing to do with
yourself, or your own doings, or what others can do for you, the turning point
of salvation is, "he arose and came to his father." There must be a real,
living, earnest, contact of your poor guilty soul with God, a recognition that
there is a God, and that God can be spoken to, and an actual speech of your soul
to him, through Jesus Christ, for it is only God in Christ Jesus that is
accessible at all. Going thus to God, we tell him that we are all wrong, and
walls to be set right; we tell him we wish to be reconciled to him, and are
ashamed that we should have sinned against him; we then put our trust in his
Son, and we are saved. O soul, go to God: it matters not though the prayer you
come with may be a very broken prayer, or even if it has mistakes in it, as the
prodigal's prayer had when he said, "Make me as one of thy hired servants;" the
language of the prayer will not signify so long as you really approach to God.
"Him that cometh to me," says Jesus, "I will in no wise cast out;" and Jesus
ever liveth to make intercessions for them that come to God through him. Here,
then, is the great Protestant doctrine. The Romish doctrine says you must go
round by the back door, and half-a-dozen of the Lord's servants must knock for
you, and even then you may never be heard; but the grand old Protestant doctrine
is, come to God yourself; come with no other mediator than Jesus Christ; come
just as you are without merits and good works; trust in Jesus and your sins will
be forgiven you.There is my second point: there was action, and that action was
contact with God.III. Now, thirdly, IN THAT ACTION THERE WAS AN ENTIRE YIELDING
UP OF HIMSELF. In the prodigal's case, his proud independence and self-will were
gone. In other days he demanded his portion, and resolved to spend it as he
pleased, but now he is willing to be as much under rule as a hired servant, he
has had enough of being his own master, and is weary of the distance from God
which self-will always creates. He longs to get into a child's true place,
namely, that of dependence and loving submission. The great mischief of all was
his distance from his father, and he now feels it to be so. His great thought is
to remove that distance by humbly returning, for then he feels that all other
ills will come to an end. He yields up his cherished freedom, his boasted
independence, his liberty to think and do and say whatever he chose, and he
longs to come under loving rule and wise guidance. Sinner, are you ready for
this? If so, come and welcome; your father longs to press you to his bosom!He
gave up all idea of self-justification, for he said, "I have sinned." Before he
would have said, "I have a right to do as I like with my own; who is to dictate
how I shall spend my own money. If I do sow a few wild oats, every young man
does the same. I have been very generous, if nothing else, nobody can call me
greedy. I am no hypocrite. Look at your canting Methodists, how they deceive
people! There's nothing of that in me, I'll warrant you; I am an outspoken man
of the world; and after all, a good deal better in disposition than my elder
brother, fine fellow though he pretends to be." But now the prodigal boasts no
longer. Not a syllable of self-praise falls from his lips; he mournfully
confesses, "I have sinned against heaven and before thee." Sinner, if you would
be saved you also must come down from your high places, and acknowledge your
iniquity. Confess that you have done wrong, and do not try to extenuate your
offense; do not offer apologies and make your case better than it is, but humbly
plead guilty and leave your soul in Jesus' hands. Of two things, to sin or to
deny the sin, probably to deny the sin is the worse of the two, and shows a
blacker heart. Acknowledge your fault, man, and tell your heavenly Father that
if it were not for his mercy you would have been in hell, and that as it is you
richly deserve to be there even now. Make your case rather blacker than it is if
you can, this I say because I know you cannot do any such thing. When a man is
in the hospital it cannot be of any service to him to pretend to be better than
he is; he will not receive any more medical attention on that account, but
rather the other way, for the worse his case the more likely is the physician to
give him special notice. Oh, sinner, lay bare before God thy sores, thy
putrifying sores of sin, the horrid ulcers of thy deep depravity, and cry, "O
Lord, have mercy upon me? "This is the way of wisdom. Have done with pride and
self-righteousness, and make thy appeal to the undeserved pity of the Lord, and
thou will speed.Observe that the prodigal yielded up himself so thoroughly that
he owned his father's love to him to be an aggravation of his guilt: so I take
it he means when he says, "Father, I have sinned." It adds an emphasis to the "I
have sinned" when it follows after the word "father." "Thou good God, I have
broken thy good laws; thou loving, tender, merciful God, I have done wrong
wantonly and wickedly against thee. Thou hast been a very loving Father to me,
and I have been a most ungenerous and shameless traitor to thee, rebelling
without cause. I confess this frankly and humbly, and with many tears. Ah! hadst
thou been a tyrant I might have gathered some apology from thy severity, but
thou hast been a Father, and this makes it worse that I should sin against
thee." It is sweet to hear such a confession as this poured out into the
Father's bosom.The penitent also yielded up all his supposed rights and claims
upon his father, saying, "I am not worthy to be called thy son." He might have
said, "I have sinned, but still I am thy child," and most of us would have
thought it a very justifiable argument; but he does not say so, he is too humble
for that, he owns, "I am no more worthy to be called thy son." A sinner is
really broken down when he acknowledges that if God would have no mercy on him,
but cast him away for forever, it would be no more than justice."Should saddled
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."That soul is not far from
peace which has ceased arguing and submits to the sentence. Oh, sinner, I urge
thee, if thou wouldst find speedy rest, go and throw thyself at the foot of the
cross where God meets such as thou art, and say, "Lord, here I am; do what thou
wilt with me. Never a word of excuse will I offer, nor one single plea by way of
extenuation. I am a mass of guilt and misery, but pity me, oh, pity me! No
rights or claims have I; I have forfeited the rights of creatureship by becoming
a rebel against thee. I am lost and utterly undone before the bar of thy
justice. From that justice I flee and hide myself in the wounds of thy Son.
According to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions!"
Once again, here was such a yielding up of himself to his father that no terms
or conditions are mentioned or implied. He begs to be received, but a servant's
place is good enough for him; amongst the scullions of the kitchen he is content
to take his place, so long as he may be forgiven. He does not ask for a little
liberty to sin, or stipulate for a little self-righteousness wherein he may
boast; he gives all up. He is willing to be anything or nothing, just as his
father pleases, so that he may but be numbered with his household. No weapons of
rebellion are in his hands now. No secret opposition to his father's rule
lingers in his soul, he is completely subdued, and lies at his father's feet.
Our Lord never crushed a soul yet that lay prostrate at his feet, and he never
will. He will stoop down and say, "Rise, my child; rise, for I have forgiven
thee. Go and sin no more. I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Come and
let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath
smitten, and he will bind us up. He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench
the smoking flax.IV. Notice further, and fourthly, that IN THIS ACT THERE WAS A
MEASURE OF FAITH IN HIS FATHER -- a measure, I say, meaning thereby not much
faith, but some. A little faith saves the soul. There was faith in his father's
power. He said, "In my father's house there is bread enough and to spare."
Sinner, dost thou not believe that God is able to save thee; that through Jesus
Christ he is able to supply thy soul's needs. Canst thou not get as far as this,
"Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean." The prodigal had also some faith
in his father's readiness to pardon; for if he had not so hoped he would never
have returned to his father at all: if he had been sure that his father would
never smile upon him he would never have returned to him. Sinner, do believe
that God is merciful, for so he is. Believe, through Jesus Christ, that he
willeth not the death of the sinner, but had rather that he should turn to him
and live; for as surely as God this is truth, and do not thou believe a lie
concerning thy God. The Lord is not hard or harsh, but he rejoices to pardon
great transgressions. The prodigal also believed in his fathers readiness to
bless him. He felt sure that his father would go as far as propriety would
permit, for he said, "I am not worthy to be called thy son, but make me at least
thy servant." In this also he admitted that his father was so good, that even to
be his servant would be a great matter. He was contented even to get the lowest
place, so long as he might be under the shade of so good a protector.Ah, poor
sinner, dost thou not believe that God will have mercy on thee if he can do so
consistently with his justice? If thou believest that, I have good news to tell
thee. Jesus Christ, his Son, has offered such an atonement, that God can be
just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth, he has mercy upon the vilest,
and justifieth the ungodly, and accepteth the very chief of sinners through his
dear Son. Oh, soul, have faith in the atonement. The atonement made by the
personal sacrifice of the Son of God must be infinitely precious; believe thou
that there is efficacy enough in it for thee. It is thy safety to fly to that
atonement and cling to the Cross of Christ, and thou wilt honor God by so doing;
is the only way in which thou canst honor him. Thou canst honor him by believing
that he can save thee, even thee. The truest faith is that which believes in the
mercy of God in the teeth of conscious unworthiness. The penitent in the parable
went to his father too unworthy to be called his son, and yet he said, "My
father." Faith has a way of seeing the blackness of sin, and yet believing that
God can make the soul as white as snow. It is not faith that says, "I am a
little sinner, and therefore God can forgive me;" but that is faith which cries,
"I am a great sinner, an accursed and condemned sinner, and yet, for all that,
God's infinite mercy can forgive me, and the blood of Christ can make me clean."
Believe in the teeth of thy feelings, and in spite of thy conscience; believe in
God, though everything within thee seems to say, "He cannot save thee; he will
not save thee." Believe in God, sinner, over the tops of mountain sins. Do as
John Bunyan says he did, for he was so afraid of his sins and of the punishment
thereof, that he could not but run into God's arms, and he said, "Though he had
held a drawn sword in his hands, I would have run on the very point of it,
rather than have kept away from him." So do thou, poor sinner. Believe thy God.
Believe in nothing else, but trust thy God, and thou wilt get the blessing. It
is wonderful the power of faith over God, it binds his justice and constrains
his grace. I do not know how to illustrate it better than by a little story.
When I walked down my garden some time ago I found a dog amusing himself among
the flowers. I knew that he was not a good gardener, and no dog of mine, so I
threw a stick at him and bade him begone. After I had done so, he conquered me,
and made me ashamed of having spoken roughly to him, for he picked up my stick,
and, wagging his tail right pleasantly, he brought the stick to me, and dropped
it at my feet. Do you think I could strike him or drive him away after that? No,
I patted him and called him good names. The dog had conquered the man. And if
you, poor sinner, dog as you are, can have confidence enough in God to come to
him just as you are, it is not in his heart to spurn you. There is an
omnipotence in simple faith which will conquer even the divine Being himself.
Only do but trust him as he reveals himself in Jesus, and you shall find
salvation. V. I have not time or strength to dwell longer here, and so I must
notice, fifthly, that THIS ACT OF COMING INTO CONTACT WITH GOD IS PERFORMED BY
THE SINNER JUST AS HE IS. I do not know how wretched the prodigal's appearance
may have been, but I will be bound to say he had grown none the sweeter by
having fed swine, nor do I suppose his garments had been very sumptuously
embroidered by gathering husks for then from the trees. Yet, just as he was, he
came. Surely he might have spent an hour profitably in cleansing his flesh and
his clothes. But no, he said, "I will arise," and no sooner said than done! he
did arise, and he came to his father. Every moment that a sinner stops away from
God in order to get better he is but adding to his sin, for the radical sin of
all is his being away from God and the longer he stays in it the more he sins.
The attempt to perform good works apart from God is like the effort of a thief
to set his stolen goods in order, his sole duty is to return them at once. The
very same pride which leads men away from God may be seen in their
self-conceited notion that they can improve themselves while still they refuse
to return to him. The essence of their fault is that they are far off from God,
and whatever they do, so long as that distance remains, nothing is effectually
done. I say the radical of the whole matter is distance from God, and therefore
the commencement of setting matters right lies in arising and returning to him
from whom they have departed.The prodigal was bound to go home just as he was,
for there was nothing that he could do. He was reduced to such extremities that
he could not purchase a fresh piece of cloth to mend his garments, nor a
farthing's worth of soap with which to cleanse his flesh; and it is a great
mercy when a man is so spiritually reduced that he cannot do anything but go to
his God as a beggar, when he is so bankrupt that he cannot pay a farthing in the
pound, when he is so lost that he cannot even repent or believe apart from God,
but feels that he is for ever undone unless the Lord shall interpose. It is our
wisdom to go to God for everything.Moreover, there was nothing needed from the
prodigal but to return to his father. When a child who has done wrong comes
back, the more its face is blurred with tears the better. When a beggar ask for
charity, the more his clothes are in rags the better. Are not ram and sores the
very livery of beggars? I once gave a man a pair of shoes because he said he was
in need of them; but after he had put them on and gone a little way I overtook
him in a gateway taking them off in order to go barefooted again. I think they
were patent leather, and what should a beggar do in such attire? He was changing
them for "old shoes and clouted," those were suitable to his business. A sinner
is never so well arrayed for pleading as when he comes in rags. At his worst,
the sinner, for making an appeal to mercy, is at his best. And so, sinners,
there is no need for you to linger; come just as you are. "But must we not wait
for the Holy Spirit? "Ah, beloved, he who is willing to arise and go to his
Father has the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who moves us to return to God,
and it is spirit of the flesh or of the devil that would bid us wait.How now,
sinners? Some of you are sitting in those pews, where are you? I cannot find you
out, but my Master can, he has made this sermon on purpose for you. "Well, but I
would like to get home and pray." Pray where you are, in the pew. "But I cannot
speak out aloud." You may if you like, I won't stop you. "But I should not
like." Well, don't, then. God can hear you without a sound, though I wish
sometimes we did hear people cry out, "What must I do to be saved? "I would
gladly hear the prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner." But if men cannot hear
you, the Lord can hear the cries of their hearts. Now, just sit still a minute,
and say, "My God I must come to thee. Thou art in Jesus Christ, and in him thou
has already come a great way to meet me. My soul wants thee; take me now and
make me what I ought to be. Forgive me, and accept me." It is the turning-point
of a man's life when that is done, wherever it is, whether in a workshop, or in
a saw-pit, in a church, or in a tabernacle; it does not matter where. There is
the point -- the getting to God in Christ, giving all up, and by faith resting
in the mercy of God.VI. The last point of all is this -- THAT ACT WROUGHT THE
GREATEST CONCEIVABLE CHANGE IN THE MAN. He was a new man after that. Harlots,
winebibbers, you have lost your old companion now! He has gone to his leather,
and his Father's company and yours will never agree. A man's return to his God
means his leaving the chambers of vice and the tables of riot. You may depend
upon it whenever you hear of a professing Christian living in uncleanness, he
has not been living anywhere near his God. He may have talked a great deal about
it, but God and unchastity never agree; if you have friendship with God you will
have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Now, too, the penitent
has done with all degrading works to support himself. You will not find him
feeding swine any more, or making a swine of himself either by trusting in
priests or sacraments. He will not confess to a priest again, or pay a penny to
get his mother out of purgatory; he is not such a fool as that any more. He has
been to his God on his own account, and he does not want any of these shavelings
to go to God for him. He has got away from that bondage. No more pig-feeding; no
more superstition for him! "Why," says he, "I have access with boldness to the
mercy-seat, and what have I to do with the priests of Rome?"There is a change in
him in all ways. Now he has come to his father his pride is broken down. He no
longer glories in that which he calls his own; all his glory is in his father's
free pardoning love. He never boasts of what he has, for he owns that he has
nothing but what his father gives him; and though he is far better off than ever
he was in his spendthrift days, yet he is as unassuming as a little child. He is
a gentleman-commoner upon the bounty of his God, and lives from day to day by a
royal grant from the table of the King of kings. Pride is gone, but content
fills its room. He would have been contented to be one of the servants of the
house, much more satisfied is he to be a child. He loves his father with a new
love; he cannot even mention his name without saying, "And he forgave me, he
forgave me freely, he forgave me all, and he said, "Bring forth the best robe
and put it on him; put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet." From the day
of his restoration the prodigal is bound to his Father's home, and reckons it to
be one of his greatest blessings that it is written in the covenant of grace, "I
will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me."This
morning I believe that God in his mercy means to call many sinners to himself. I
am often very much surprised to find how the Lord guides my word according to
the persons before me. Last Sunday there came here a young son of a gentleman, a
foreigner, from a distant land, under considerable impressions as to the truth
of the Christian religion. His father is a follower of one of the ancient
religions of the East, and this young gentleman naturally felt it a great
difficulty that he would probably make his father angry if he became a
Christian. Judge, then, how closely the message of last Sabbath came home to
him, when the text was, "What if thy father answer thee roughly? "He came to
tell me that he thanked God for that message, and he hoped to bear up under the
trial, should persecution arise. I feel that I am with equal plainness speaking
to some of you. I know I am. You are saying, "May I now go to God joist as I am,
and through Jesus Christ yield myself up; and will he forgive me? "Dear brother,
or dear sister, wherever you may be, try it. That is the best thing to do; try
it; and, if the angels do not set the bells in heaven ringing, God has altered
from what he was last week, for I know he received poor sinners then, and he
will receive them now. The worst thing I dread about you is, lest you should
say, "I will think of it." Don't think of it. Do it! Concerning this no more
thinking is needed; but to do it. Get away to God. Is it not according to nature
that the creature should he at peace with its Creator? Is it not according to
your conscience? Is there not something within you which cries, "Go to God in
Christ Jesus." In the case of that poor prodigal, the famine said to him, "Go
home!" Bread was dear, meat was scarce, he was hungry, and every pang of want
said, "Go home! Go home!" When he went to his old friend the citizen, and he
asked him for help, his scowling looks said, "Why don't you go home?" There is a
time with sinners when even their old companions seem to say, "We do not want
you. You are too miserable and melancholy. Why don't you go home?" They sent him
to feed swine, and the very hogs grunted, "Go home?" When he picked up those
carob husks and tried to eat them, they crackled, "Go home." He looked upon his
rags, and they gaped at him, "Go home." His hungry belly and his faintness cried
"Go home." Then he thought of his father's face, and how kindly it had looked at
him, and it seemed to say, "Come home!" He remembered the bread enough and to
spare, and every morsel seemed to say, "Come home! "He pictured the servants
sitting down to dinner and feasting to the full, and every one of them seemed be
look right away over the wilderness to him and to say, "Come home! Thy father
feeds us well. Come home! "Everything said, "Come home! "Only the devil
whispered, "Never go back. Fight it out! Better starve than yield! Die game!
"But then he had got away from the devil this once, for he had come to himself,
and he said, "No; I will arise and go to my father." Oh that you would be
equally wise. Sinner, what is the use of being damned for the sake of a little
pride. Yield thee, man! Down with thy pride! You will not find it so hard to
submit if you remember that dear Father who loved us and gave himself for us in
the person of his own dear Son. You will find it sweet to yield to such a
friend. And when you get your head in his bosom, and feel his warm kisses on
your cheek, you will soon feel that it is sweet to weep for sin -- sweet to
confess your wrong doing, and sweeter still to hear him say, "I have blotted out
thy sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud thy transgressions." "Though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool." God Almighty grant this may be the case with
hundreds of you this morning. He shall have all the glory of it, but my heart
shall be very glad, for I feel nothing of the spirit of the elder brother within
me, but the greatest conceivable joy at the thought of making merry with you
by-and-by, when you come to own my Lord and Master, and we sit together at the
sacramental feast, rejoicing in his love. God bless you, for his sake.
Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Luke 15.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN
BOOK" -- 136 (Song I.), 614, 612.


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  CHAPTER 7: A SONG AMONG THE LILIES
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A Sermon (No.1190) Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, August 30th, 1874, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "My beloved is mine, and I
am his: he feedeth among the lilies." -- Song of Solomon 2:16. LAST SABBATH, in
our morning's sermon, we began at the beginning and described the turning point
in which the sinner sets his face towards his God, and for the first time gives
practical evidence of spiritual life in his soul. He bestirs himself, he goes to
his Father's house, and speedily is pressed to his Father's bosom, forgiven,
accepted, and rejoiced over. This morning we are going far beyond that stage, to
a position which I may call the very crown and summit of the spiritual life. We
would conduct you from the door-step to the innermost chamber, from the outer
court to the Holy of Holies, and we pray the Holy Spirit to enable each one of
us who have entered in by Christ Jesus, the door, to pass boldly into the secret
place of the tabernacles of the Host High, and sing with joyful heart the words
of our text, "My beloved is mine, and I am his." "For he is mine and I am his,
The God whom I adore; My Father, Savior, Comforter, Now and for evermore." The
passage describes a high state of grace, and it is worthy of note that the
description is full of Christ. This is instructive, for this is not an
exceptional case, it is only one fulfillment of a general rule. Our estimate of
Christ is the best garage of our spiritual condition; as the thermometer rises
in proportion to the increased warmth of the air, so does our estimate of Jesus
rise as our spiritual life increases in vigor and fervency. Tell me what you
think of Jesus and I will tell you what to think of yourself. Christ us, yea,
more than all when we are thoroughly sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost.
When pride of self fills up the soul, there is little room for Jesus; but when
Jesus is fully loved, self is subdued, and sin driven out of the throne. If we
think little of the Lord Jesus we have very great cause to account ourselves
spiritually blind, and naked, and poor, and miserable. The rebel despises his
lawful sovereign, but the favored courtier is enthusiastic in his praise. Christ
crucified is the revealer of many hearts, the touchstone by which the pure gold
and the counterfeit metal are discerned; his very name is as a refiner's fire
and like fuller's soap; false professors cannot endure it, but true believers
triumph therein. We are growing in grace when we grow in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let everything else be gone, and let Christ fill
up the entire space of our soul, then, and only then, are we rising out of the
vanity of the flesh into the real life of God.Beloved, the grandest facts in all
the world to a truly spiritual man are not the rise and fall of empires, the
marches of victory, or the desolations of defeat; he cares neither for crowns
nor mitres, swords nor shields; his admiring gaze is wholly fixed upon Christ
and his cross and cause. To him Jesus is the center of history, the soul and
core of providence. He desires no knowledge so much as that which concerns his
Redeemer and Lord; his science deals with what Jesus is and what he is to be,
what he has done, what he is doing, and what he will do. The believer is mainly
anxious as to how Jesus can be glorified, and how sinners can be brought to know
him. That which concerns the honor of Jesus is our chief concern from day to
day; as for other matters let the Lord do as he wills with them, only let Jesus
Christ be magnified, and all the rest of the world's story has small
significance for us. The Beloved is the head and front, the heart and soul of
the Christian's delight when his heart is in its best state. Our text is the
portrait of a heavenly-minded child of God, or rather, it is the music of his
well stringed harp when love as minstrel touches the tenderest chords: "My
beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies."We shall note then,
first, that here is a delighting to have Christ; secondly, a delighting to
belong to Christ; and thirdly, a delighting at the very thought of Christ.I.
First, here is A DELIGHTED TO HAVE CHRIST. "My beloved is mine." The spouse
makes this the first of her joy notes, the cornerstone of her peace, the
fountain of her bliss, the crown of her glory. Observe here that where such an
expression is truthfully used the existence of the Beloved is matter of fact.
Scepticism, and questioning have no place with those who thus sing. There are
dreamers now-adays who cast doubt on everything; taking to themselves the name
of philosophers, and professing to know something of science, they make
statements worthy only of idiots, and demand for their self-evidently false
assertions the assent of rational men. The word "philosopher" will soon come to
mean a lover of ignorance, and the term "a scientific man" will be understood as
meaning a fool, who has said in his heart there is no God. Such attacks upon the
eternal verities of our holy faith can have no effect upon hearts enamoured of
the Son of God, for, dwelling in his immediate presence, they have passed the
stage of doubt, left the region of questioning far behind, and in this matter
have entered into rest. The power of love has convinced us; to entertain a doubt
as to the reality and glory of our Well-beloved would be torment to us, and
therefore love has cast it out. We use no perhapses, buts, or ifs concerning our
Beloved, but we say positively that he is, and that he is ours. We believe that
we have better evidence of his being, power, Godhead, and love to us than can be
given for any other fact. So far from being abashed by the cavils of sceptics,
or quailing beneath the question, "Is there such a Beloved?" we are not careful
to answer in this matter, for we know that there is; our love laughs at the
question, and does not condescend to answer it save by bidding those who
seriously inquire to "come and see" for themselves. We have ever found, beloved,
that when a time of chilling doubt has come over us -- and such ague fits will
come -- we have only to return to meditations upon Jesus and he becomes his own
evidence by making our hearts burn within us with love of his character and
person, and then doubt is doomed. We do not slay our unbelief by reason, but we
annihilate it by affection. The influence of love to Jesus upon the soul is so
magical -- I wish I had a better word -- so elevating, so ravishing, so
transporting, it gives such a peace, and withal inspires such holy and lofty
aspirations, that the effect proves the cause. That which is holy is true, and
that which is true cannot rise out of that which is false. We may safely judge a
tree by its fruit, and a doctrine by its result: that which produces in us
self-denial, purity, righteousness, and truth, cannot itself be false, and yet
the love of Jesus does this beyond everything else. There must be truth for a
cause where truth is the effect; and thus love, by the savor which it spreads
over the soul by contemplation of Christ, puts its foot upon the neck of doubt
and triumphantly utters bold, confident declarations, which reveal the full
assurance of faith. New-born love to Jesus, while yet in its cradle, like a
young Hercules, takes the serpents of doubt and strangles them. He who can say
from his heart "My Beloved," is the man who is in the way to confirmed faith.
Love cannot, will not doubt; it casts away the crutches of argument and flies on
the wings of conscious enjoyment, singing her nuptial hymn, "My Beloved is mine,
and I am his." In the case before us the love of the heavenly-minded one is
perceived and acknowledged by herself. "My beloved," saith she; it is no latent
affection, she knows that she loves him, and solemnly avows it. She does not
whisper, "I hope I love the peerless one," but she sings, "My beloved." There is
no doubt in her soul about her passion for the altogether lovely one. Ah, dear
friends, when you feel the flame of love within your soul, and give it practical
expression, you will no longer inquire, "Do I love the Lord or no? "Then your
inner consciousness will dispense with evidences. Those are dark days when we
require evidences; well may we then fast, for the Bridegroom is not with us; but
when he abides with us, enjoyment of his fellowship supersedes all evidences. I
want no evidence to prove that food is sweet when it is still in my month; I
want no evidence of the existence of the sun when I am basking in his beams, and
enjoying his light, and even so we need no evidence that Jesus is precious to us
when, like a bundle of myrrh, he perfumes our bosom. We are anxious doubters as
to our safety, and questioners of our own condition, because we are not living
with Jesus as we ought to be; but when he brings us to his banqueting house, and
we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with him and with
the Father, and then we believe and are sure, and our love to Jesus is
indisputable, because it burns within too fervently to be denied. Why, when a
Christian is in a right state, his love to Jesus is the mightiest force in his
nature, it is an affection which, like Aaron's rod, swallows up all other rods;
it is the mainspring of his action, and sways his whole body, soul, and spirit.
As the wind sweeps over all the strings of the Alolian harp, and causes them all
to vibrate, so does the love of Jesus move every power and passion of our soul,
and we feel in our entire being that our Beloved is indeed ours, and that we
love him with all our hearts. Here, then, is the Beloved realized, and our love
realised too.But the pith of the text lies here, our possession of him is
proven, we know it, and we know it on good evidence -- "My beloved is mine." You
know it is not a very easy thing to reach this point. Have you ever thought of
the fact that to claim the Lord and call him "my God," is a very wonderful
thing? Who was the first man in the Old Testament who is recorded as saying "My
God"? Was it not Jacob, when he slept at Bethel, and saw the ladder which
reached to heaven? Even after that heavenly vision it took him touch effort to
reach to "My God." He said "If God will be with me and will keep me in the way
that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put On, so that I come
again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God." Only after
long experience of divine goodness could he climb up to the height of saying "My
God." And who is the first man in the New Testament that calls Jesus "My Lord
and My God"? It was Thomas, and he must needs have abundant proofs before he can
speak thus: "Except I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger
into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not
believe." Only when he had received such proofs could he exclaim "My Lord and my
God." Blessed are they who reach it by simpler faith, who have not seen and yet
have believed. "My Beloved" is a strong expression. "Beloved" is sweet, but "MY
Beloved" is sweetest of all. If you think of it, it is no little thing to claim
God as ours, to claim Jesus the Beloved as ours, yea, to put it in the singular,
and call him mine; and yet, when the believer's heart is in the right condition,
he makes the claim, and is warranted in so doing; for Jesus Christ is the
portion of all believers. His Father gave him to us, and he has given himself to
us. Jesus was made over to every believing soul, as his personal possession, in
the eternal covenant ordered in all things and sure; Jesus actually gave himself
for us in his incarnation, becoming bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; he
has made himself ours by his passion and death, loving us and giving himself for
us, to save us from our sins; he has also given us power to appropriate him by
the gracious gift of faith, by which we are in very deed married to him, and are
enabled to call him the husband of our souls, who is ours to have and to hold,
for better for worse, for life and for death, by a bond of marriage union which
neither death nor hell, time nor eternity, can break. Jesus is ours by the
promise, the covenant, and oath of God; a thousand assurances and pledges, bonds
and seals, secure him to us as our portion and everlasting heritage.This
precious possession becomes to the believer his sole treasure. "My beloved is
mine," saith he, and in that sentence he has summed up all his wealth. He does
not say "My wife, my children, my home, my earthly comforts are mine." He is
almost afraid to say so, because while he is yet speaking, they may cease to be
his: the beloved wife may sicken before his eyes, the child may need a tiny
coffin, the friend may prove a traitor, and the riches may take to themselves
wings, therefore the wise man does not care to say too positively that anything
here below is his; indexed, he feels that in very truth they are not his, but
only lent to him "to be returned anon"; but the Beloved is his own, and his
possession of him is most firm. Neither doth the believer when his soul is in
the best state so much rejoice even in his spiritual privileges as in the Lord
from whom they come. He has righteousness, wisdom, sanctification and
redemption; he has both grace and glory secured to him, but he prefers rather to
claim the fountain than the streams. He clearly sees that these choice mercies
are only his because they are Christ's, and only his because Christ is his. Oh,
what would all the treasures of the covenant be to us if it were possible to
have them without Christ? Their very sap and sweetness would be gone. Having our
Beloved to be ours, we have all things in him, and therefore our main treasure,
yea, our sole treasure, is our Beloved. O ye saints of God, was there ever
possession like this? You have your beloveds, ye daughters of earth, but what
are your beloveds compared with ours? He is the Son of God and the Son of Man!
The darling of heaven and the delight of earth! The lily of the valley and the
rose of Sharon! Perfect in his character, powerful in his atoning death, mighty
in his living plea! He is such a lover that all earthly loves put together are
not worthy to touch the hem of his garment, or loose the latchet of his shoes.
He is so dear, so precious, that words cannot describe him nor pencil depict
him, but this we will say of him, he is "the chief among ten thousand, and the
altogether lovely," and he is ours. Do you wonder that we glory in this fact,
and count this the crowning delight of our lives, "My beloved is mine"? The very
tenure upon which we hold this priceless possession is a matter to glory in. O
worldlings, you cannot hold your treasures as we hold ours. If you knew all, you
would never say of anything, "It is mine," for your holding is too precarious to
constitute possession. It is yours till that frail thread of life shall snap, or
that bubble of time shall burst. You have only a leasehold of your treasures,
terminable at the end of one frail life; whereas ours is an eternal freehold, an
everlasting entail. "My beloved is mine," -- I cannot lose him, nor can he be
taken from me; he is mine for ever, for "who shall separate us from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? "So that, while the possession is rare,
the tenure is rare also, and it the life of our life, and the light of our
delight that we can sing -- "Yea, thou art mine, my blessed Lord,O my Beloved,
thou art mine!And, purchased with thy precious blood,My God and Savior, I am
thine."MY CHRIST! Oh, sing it in the heavens,Let every angel lift his
voice;Sound with ten thousand harps his praise,With me, ye heavenly hosts,
rejoice."The gift unspeakable is given,The grace of God has made him mine;And,
now, before both earth and heaven,Lord, I will own that I am thine."Now, beloved
friends, I cannot talk about this as I feel, I can only give you hints of that
which fills me to the full with joy. I beg you to contemplate for a single
moment the delight which is stored up in this fact, that the blessed Son of God,
the "brightness of the Father's glory," is all our own. Whatever else we may
have, or may not have, he is ours. I may not exhibit in my character all the
grace I could wish, but "My beloved is mine"; I may have only one talent, but
"My beloved is mine"; I may be very poor and very obscure, but "My beloved is
mine"; I may have neither health nor wealth, but "My beloved is mine"; I may not
be what I want to be, but "My beloved is mine." Yea, he is altogether mine, his
Godhead and his manhood, his life, his death, his attributes, and prerogatives,
yea, all he is, all he was, all he ever will be, all he has done, and all he
ever will do, is mine. I possess not a portion in Christ, but the whole of him.
All his saints own him, but I own him as much as if there were never another
saint to claim him. Child of God, do you see this? In other inheritances, if
there are many heirs, there is so much the less for each, but in this great
possession every one who has Christ has a whole Christ all to himself, from the
head of much fine gold, down to his legs, which are as pillars of marble. The
whole of his boundless heart of love, his whole arm of infinite might, and his
whole head of matchless wisdom, -- all is for thee, beloved. Whoever thou mayst
be, if thou dost indeed trust in Jesus, he is all thine own.My beloved is all
mine, and absolutely mine; not mine to look at and talk about merely, but mine
to trust in, to speak to, to depend upon, to fly to in every troublous hour,
yea, mine to feed upon, for his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink
indeed. Our beloved is not ours only to use in certain ways, but ours outright,
without restriction. I may draw what I will from him, and both what I take and
what I leave are mine. He himself in his ever glorious person is mine, and mine
always; mine when I know it, and mine when I do not know it, mine when I am sure
of it, and mine when I doubt it; mine by day, and mine by night; mine when I
walk in holiness, ay, and mine when I sin, for "if any man sin we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." He is mine on the hill
Mizar, and mine in the swellings of Jordan; mine by the grave where I bury those
I love, mine when I shall be buried there myself, mine when I rise again; mine
in judgment, and mine in glory; for ever mine.Note well that it is written, "My
beloved is mine," in the singular. He is yours, I am glad of it; but still to me
it is most sweet that he is mine. It is well to bless God that others have a
possession in Christ, but what would that avail if we were strangers to him
ourselves? The marrow and the fatness lie in the personal pronoun singular, "My
beloved is mine. "I am so glad that Jesus loves me." Oh for a blessed grip with
both hands on such a Christ as this! Observe well that he is ours as our
Beloved, so that he is ours as whatever our love makes of him. Our love can
never praise him enough, or speak well enough of him, she thinks all
descriptions fall short of his deservings; well, then, Jesus is ours at his
best; if we think him so glorious, he is ours in all that glory. Our love says
that he is a fair, lovely, sweet, and precious Christ, and let us be sure that,
however lovely, sweet, and precious he is, he is all ours. Our love says there
is none like him, he is King of kings and Lord of lords, he is the ever blessed;
well, as the King of kings and Lord of lords he is yours. You cannot think too
much of him, but when you think your best he is yours at that best. He has not a
glory so high that it is not yours, nor a lustre so brilliant that it is not
yours. He is my beloved, and I would fain extol him, but never can I get beyond
this golden circle, when I most extol him he is still mine. Here, then, is the
basis of Christian life, the foundation on which it rests: to know that most
surely Christ is altogether ours is the beginning of wisdom, the source of
strength, the star of hope, the dawn of heaven.II. The second portion of the
text deals with DELIGHTING TO BELONG TO CHRIST. "I am his." This is as sweet as
the former sentence. I would venture to put a question to each loving wife here
present -- when you were married which was the sweetest thought to you, that you
were your husband's, or that he was yours? Why, you feel that neither sentence
would be sweet alone: they are necessary to each other. Ask any fond, loving
heart which of these declarations could best be parted with, and they will tell
you that neither can be given us. Christ is mine, but if I were not his it would
be a sorry case, and if I were his and he were not mine it would be a wretched
business. These two things are joined together with diamond rivets -- "My
beloved is mine, and I am his." Put the two together, and you have reached the
summit of delight.That we are his is a fact that may be prove -- yea, it should
need no proving, but be manifest to all that "I am his." Certainly we are his by
creation: he who made us should have us. We are his because his Father gave us
to him, and we are his because he chose us. Creation, donation, election are his
triple hold upon us. We are his because he bought us with his blood, his because
he called us by his grace, his because he is married to us, and we are his
spouse. We are his, moreover, to our own consciousness, because we have
heartily, from the inmost depths of our being, given ourselves up to him, bound
by love to him for ever. We feel we must have Christ, and be Christ's, or die --
"For me to live is Christ." Brethren and sisters, mind you attend to this
clause, I am sure you will if the former one is true to you. If you can say, "My
beloved is mine," you will be sure to add, "I am his, I must be his, I will be
his: I live not unless I am his, for I count that wherein I am not his I am
dead, and I only live wherein I live to him." My very soul is conscious that I
am his.Now this puts very great honor upon as. I have known the time when I
could say "My beloved is mine" in a very humble trembling manner, but I did not
dare to add "I am his" because I did not think I was worth his having. I dared
not hope that "I am his" would ever be written in the same book side by side
with "My beloved is mine." Poor sinner, first lay hold on Jesus, and then you
will discover that Jesus values you. You will prize him first, and then you will
find out that he prizes you, and that though you do not feel worthy to be flung
on a dunghill, yet Jesus has put a value upon you, saying "Since thou wert
precious in my sight thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee." It is no
small joy to know that we poor sinners are worth Christ's having, and that he
has even said, "They shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels."This
second part of the text is true as absolutely as the first. "I am his" -- not my
goods only, nor my time, nor my talents, nor what I can spare, but "I am his." I
fear that some Christians have never understood this. They give the Lord a
little of their surplus, which they never miss. The poor widow who gave all her
living, had the true idea of her relation to her Lord. She would have put
herself into the treasury if she could, for she felt "I am his." As for myself,
I wish I could be dropped bodily through the little slit of Christ's treasure
box, and be in his casket for ever, never to be heard of any more as my own, but
to be wholly my Lord's. Paul desired to spend and be spent. It is not easy to do
those two things distinctly with money, for when you spend a thing it is spent
at one and the same time, but the apostle meant that he would spend himself by
activity, and then when he could do no more, he would be glad to be spent by
passive endurance for Christ's sake. The believer feels that he belongs to Jesus
absolutely; let the Lord employ him as he may, or try him as he pleases; let him
take away all earthly friends from him or surround him with comforts; let him
either depress him or exalt him, let him use him for little things or great
things, or not use him at all, but lay him on the shelf; it is enough that the
Lord does it, and the true heart is content, for it truthfully confesses, "I am
his. I have no mortgage or lien upon myself, so that I can call a part of my
being my own, but I am absolutely and unreservedly my Lord's sole property." Do
you feel this, brethren and sisters? I pray God you may.Blessed be God, this is
true evermore -- "I am his," his to-day, in the house of worship, and his
to-morrow in the house of business; his as a singer in the sanctuary, and his as
a toiler in the workshop; his when I am preaching, and equally his when I am
walking the streets; his while I live, his when I die; his when my soul ascends
and my body lies mouldering in the grave; the whole personality of my manhood is
altogether his for ever and for ever. This belonging to the Well-beloved is a
matter of fact and practice, not a thing to be talked about only, but really to
be acted on. I am treading on tender ground now, but I would to God that every
Christian could really say this without lying: "I do live unto Christ in all
things, for I am his. When I rise in the morning I wake up as his, when I sit
down to a meal I eat as his, and drink as his. I eat, and drink, and sleep unto
the Lord, in everything giving thanks unto him. It is blessed even to sleep as
the Lord's beloved, to dream as his Abrahams and Jacobs do, to awake at night
and sing like David, and then drop off to "sleep in Jesus." "It is a high
condition," say you. I grant it, but it is where we ought to abide. The whole of
our time and energy should be consecrated by this great master principle, "I am
his." Can you say it? Never rest till you can. And if you can, beloved, it
involves great privilege. "I am his," then am I honored by having such an owner.
If a horse or a sheep is said to belong to the Queen, everybody thinks much of
it: now you are not the Queen's, but you are the Lord's, and that is far more.
Through belonging to Christ you are safe, for he will surely keep his own. He
will not lose his own sheep, he paid too dear a price for them to lose them.
Against all the powers of earth and hell the Redeemer will hold his own and keep
them to the end. If you are his he will provide for you. A good husband careth
for his spouse, and even thus the Lord Jesus Christ cares for those who are
betrothed unto him. You will be perfected too, for whatever Christ has he will
make worthy of himself and bring it to glory. It is because we are his that we
shall get to heaven, for he has said, "Father, I will that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am." Because they are his he would have them
with him.Now, give your thoughts licence to wonder that any one of us should be
able to say, "I am his." "I who used to be so giddy and thought" less, So
sceptical, and perhaps profane, I am his." Ay, and some of you can say, "I who
used to be passionate and proud, I who was a drunkard, I whose lips were black
with blasphemy, I am his." Glory he unto thee, O Jesus Christ, for this, that
thou hast taken up such worthless things as we are and made us thine. No longer
do we belong to this present evil world, we live for the world to come. We do
not even belong to the church, so as to make it our master; we are part of the
flock, but like all the rest we belong to the Great Shepherd. We will not give
ourselves up to any party, or become the slave of any denomination, for we
belong to Christ. We do not belong to sin, or self, or Satan; we belong
entirely, exclusively, and irrevocably to the Lord Jesus Christ. Another master
waits upon us and asks us to give our energies to his services, but our answer
is, "I am already engaged." "How is that?" "I bear in my body the marks of the
Lord Jesus, and therefore from henceforth trouble me no more." "But can you not
serve me in part?" "No, sir, I cannot serve two masters; I am not like a man who
can do as he pleases, I have no time to call my own." "How is that?" "I belong
to Christ, I am wholly his. If there is anything to be done for him I am his man
to the best of my ability; I decline no service to which he calls me, but I can
serve no other Lord." Lord Jesus, help each one of us now to say -- "I am thine,
and thine alone,This I gladly, fully own;And in all my works and ways,Only now
would seek thy praise."III. To conclude: the saint feels DELIGHT IN THE VERY
THOUGHT OF CHRIST. "He feedeth among the lilies." When we love any persons, and
we are away from home, we delight to think of them, and to remember what they
are doing. You are a husband travailing in a foreign land; this morning you said
to yourself, "At this time they are just getting up at home." Perhaps the time
is different, for you are in another longitude, and you say to yourself, "Ah,
now the dear children are just getting ready to go to the Sabbath-school;" and
by-and-by you think they are at dinner. So delight in the thought of Christ made
the church say, "He feedeth among the lilies." She was pleased to think of where
he was and what he was doing.Now, where is Jesus? What are these lilies? Do not
these lilies represent the pure in heart, with whom Jesus dwells? The spouse
used the imagery which her Lord had put into her mouth. He said "As the lily
among thorns, so is my love among the daughters," and she appropriates the
symbol to all the saints. A preacher who is great at spiritualizing has well
said on this verse, "The straight stalk, standing up erect from the earth, its
flowers as high from the ground as possible, do they not tell us of
heavenly-mindedness? Do they not seem to say, set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth'? And if the spotless snow of the leaves
teaches us of grace, then the gold of the anthers tells us of that crown which
shall be the reward of grace." The violet and the primrose in spring nestle
close to the earth, as if in sympathy with her chill condition, but the lily
lifts up itself towards heaven in sympathy with the summer's light and splendor.
The lily is frail, and such are the saints of God; were not Jesus among them to
protect them the wild beast would soon tread them down. Frail as they are, they
are surpassingly lovely, and their beauty is not that which is made with hands.
It is a beauty put upon them by the Lord, for "they toil not, neither do they
spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." The
saints work not for life, and spin no righteousness of their own, and yet the
royal righteousness which adorns them far surpasses all that wisdom could devise
or wealth procure. Where, then, is my Lord to-day? He is up and away, among the
lilies of Paradise. In imagination I see those stately rows of milkwhite lilies
growing no longer among thorns: lilies which are never soiled with the dust of
earth, which for ever glisten with the eternal dews of fellowship, while their
roots drink in unfading life from the river of the water of life which waters
the garden of the Lord. There is Jesus! Can you see him? He is fairer even than
the lilies which bow their heads around him. But he is here too where we are,
like lilies which have scarce opened yet, lily buds as yet, but still watered by
the same river, and yielding in our measure the same perfume. O ye lilies of
Christ's own planting, he is among you; Jesus is in this house to-day, the
unction which has made his garments so fragrant is discerned among us.But what
is he doing among the lilies? It is said, "He feedeth among the lilies." He is
feeding himself, not on the lilies, but among them. Our Lord finds solace among
his people. His delights are with the sons of men; he joys to see the graces of
his people, to receive their love, and to discern his own image in their faces.
As he said to the woman of Samaria, "Give me to drink," so does he say to each
one of his people, "Give me to drink," and he is refreshed by their loving
fellowship. But the text means that he is feeding his people. He feedeth that
part of his flock redeemed by blood of which we read that "the Lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them into living
fountains of waters." Nor does he forget that part of his bock which is in the
low lands of earth, but he gives them also their portion of food. He has fed us
this morning, for he is the good Shepherd, and leaves none of his sheep to
famish.Then what shall I do? Well, I will abide among the lilies. His saints
shall be my companions. Where they flourish I will try to grow. I will be often
in their assemblies. Ay, and I will be a lily too. By faith I will neither toil
nor spin in a legal fashion, but I will live by faith upon the Son of God,
rooted in him. I would be pure in life, and I would have the golden anther of
looking to the recompense of the reward. I would lift up my soul aloft" towards
heaven as the lily lifts up its flower. Jesus will come and feed by my side if I
am a lily, and even I may yield him some pleasure by my humble
gratitude.Beloved, this is a choice subject, but it is more sweet as a matter of
fact than mere hearing can make it. "He feedeth among the lilies." This is our
joy, that Christ is in his church, and the pith of all I want to say is this;
never think of yourself or of the church apart from Jesus. The spouse says, "My
beloved is mine, and I am his", she weaves the two into one. The cause of the
church is the cause of Christ; the work of God will never be accomplished by the
church apart from Christ, her power lies in his being in her midst. He feedeth
among the lilies, and therefore those lilies shall never be destroyed, but their
sweetness shall make fragrant all the earth. The church of Christ, working with
her Lord, must conquer, but never if she tries to stand alone or to compass any
end apart from him.As for each one of us personally, let us not think of
ourselves apart from Christ, nor of Christ apart from us. Let George Herbert's
prayer be ours."Oh, be mine still, still make me thine,Or rather make nor mine
nor thine."Let mine melt into thine. Oh, to have joint stock with Christ, and to
trade under one name; to be married to Christ and lose our old name, and wast
his name, and say, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." As the wife is
lost in the husband, and the stone in the building, and the branch in the vine,
and the member in the head, we would be so amalgamated with Christ, and have
such fellowship with him that there shall be no more mine nor thine.Last of all,
poor sinner, you will say, "There is nothing in all this for me," and I should
not like to send you away without a word. You are saying "This is a day of good
tidings, but it is only for God's own people." I beg you to read through the
first and second chapters of the Song, and see who it was that said, "My beloved
is mine," because I should not wonder but what you are very like her. She was
one who confessed, "I am black", and so are you. Perhaps grace will, one of
these days, help you to say, "I am comely." She was one with whom her mother's
children were angry -- perhaps you, too, are a speckled bird. She had done
servile work, for they made her a keeper of the vineyards. I should not wonder
but what you are doing servile work, too, trying to save yourself instead of
accepting the salvation which Jesus has already wrought out for sinners. So it
came to pass that she became very sorrowful and passed through a winter of rain
and cold. Perhaps you are there; and yet you know she came out of it her winter
was past, and the birds began to sing. She had been hidden in the secret places
of the stairs, as you are now; but she was called out from the dust and cobwebs
to see the face of her Lord. One thing I wish to whisper in your ears -- she was
in the clefts of the rock. O soul, if thou canst but get there, if thou canst
shelter in the riven side of our Beloved, that deep gash of the spear from which
flowed blood and water, "to be of sin the double cure"; if thou canst get there,
I say, though thou be black and grimed with sin, and an accursed sinner, only
fit to be a firebrand in hell, yet shalt thou, even thou, be able to sing with
all the rapture of the liveliest saint on earth, and one day with all the
transport of the brightest ones above, "My beloved is mine, and I am his: he
feedeth among the lilies." There, go your way with those silver bells ringing in
your ears; they ring a marriage peal to saints, but they ring also a cheery
invitation to sinners, and this is the tune they are set to -- Come and welcome!
Come and welcome! Come and welcome! Sinner, come! God bless you, for Jesus'
sake. Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Song of Solomon 2.HYMNS
FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" -- 660, 663, 614."The Turning Point."


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  CHAPTER 8: FOR WHOM DID CHRIST DIE?
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A Sermon (No.1191) Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, September 6th, 1874, by C.
H. SPURGEON, At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "Christ died for the
ungodly." -- Romans 5:6. In this verse the human race is described as a sick
man, whose disease is so far advanced that he is altogether without strength: no
power remains in his system to throw off his mortal malady, nor does he desire
to do so; he could not save himself from his disease if he would, and would not
if he could. I have no doubt that the apostle had in his eye the description of
the helpless infant given by the prophet Ezekiel; it was an infant -- an infant
newly born -- an infant deserted by its mother before the necessary offices of
tenderness had been performed; left unwashed, unclothed, unfed, a prey to
certain death under the most painful circumstances, forlorn, abandoned,
hopeless. Our race is like the nation of Israel, its whole head is sick, and its
whole heart faint. Such, unconverted men, are you! Only there is this darker
shade in your picture, that your condition is not only your calamity, but your
fault. In other diseases men are grieved at their sickness, but this is the
worst feature in your case, that you love the evil which is destroying you. In
addition to the pity which your case demands, no little blame must be measured
out to you: you are without will for that which is good, your "cannot" means
"will not," your inability is not physical but moral, not that of the blind who
cannot see for want of eyes, but of the willingly ignorant who refuse to look.
While man is in this condition Jesus interposes for his salvation. "When we were
yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly"; "while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us," according to "his great love wherewith he
loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins." The pith of my sermon
will be an endeavour to declare that the reason of Christ's dying for us did not
lie in our excellence; but where sin abounded grace did much more abound, for
the persons for whom Jesus died were viewed by him as the reverse of good, and
he came into the world to save those who are guilty before God, or, in the words
of our text, "Christ died for the ungodly." Now to our business. We shall dwell
first upon the fact -- "Christ died for the ungodly"; then we shall consider the
fair inferences therefrom; and, thirdly, proceed to think and speak of the
proclamation of this simple but wondrous truth. First, here is THE FACT --
"Christ died for the ungodly." Never did the human ear listen to a more
astounding and yet cheering truth. Angels desire to look into it, and if men
were wise they would ponder it night and day. Jesus, the Son of God, himself God
over all, the infinitely glorious One, Creator of heaven and earth, out of love
to me stooped to become a man and die. Christ, the thrice holy God, the
pure-hearted man, in whom there was no sin and could be none, espoused the cause
of the wicked. Jesus, whose doctrine makes deadly war on sin, whose Spirit is
the destroyer of evil, whose whole self abhors iniquity, whose second advent
will prove his indignation against transgression, yet undertook the cause of the
impious, and even unto death pursued their salvation. The Christ of God, though
he had no part or lot in the fall and the sin which has arisen out of it, has
died to redeem us from its penalty, and, like the psalmist, he can cry, "Then I
restored that which I took not away." Let all holy beings judge whether this is
not the miracle of miracles! Christ, the name given to our Lord, is an
expressive word; it means "Anointed One," and indicates that he was sent upon a
divine errand, commissioned by supreme authority. The Lord Jehovah said of old,
"I have laid help upon one that is mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the
people"; and again, "I have given him as a covenant to the people, a leader and
commander to the people." Jesus was both set apart to this work, and qualified
for it by the anointing of the Holy Ghost. He is no unauthorised saviour, no
amateur deliverer, but an ambassador clothed with unbounded power from the great
King, a Redeemer with full credentials from the Father. It is this ordained and
appointed Saviour who has "died for the ungodly." Remember this, ye ungodly!
Consider well who it was that came to lay down his life for such as you are. The
text says Christ died. He did a great deal besides dying, but the crowning act
of his career of love for the ungodly, and that which rendered all the rest
available to them, was his death for them. He actually gave up the ghost, not in
fiction, but in fact. He laid down his life for us, breathing out his soul, even
as other men do when they expire. That it might be indisputably clear that he
was really dead, his heart was pierced with the soldier's spear, and forthwith
came there out blood and water. The Roman governor would not have allowed the
body to be removed from the cross had he not been duly certified that Jesus was
indeed dead. His relatives and friends who wrapped him in linen and laid him in
Joseph's tomb, were sorrowfully sure that all that lay before them was a corpse.
The Christ really died, and in saying that, we mean that he suffered all the
pangs incident to death; only he endured much more and worse, for his was a
death of peculiar pain and shame, and was not only attended by the forsaking of
man, but by the departure of his God. That cry, "My God, my God! why hast thou
forsaken me?" was the innermost blackness of the thick darkness of death.Our
Lord's death was penal, inflicted upon him by divine justice; and rightly so,
for on him lay our iniquities, and therefore on him must lay the suffering. "It
pleased the Father to bruise him; he hath put him to grief." He died under
circumstances which made his death most terrible. Condemned to a felon's gibbet,
he was crucified amid a mob of jesters, with few sympathising eyes to gaze upon
him; he bore the gaze of malice and the glance of scorn; he was hooted and
jeered by a ribald throng, who were cruelly inventive in their taunts and
blasphemies. There he hung, bleeding from many wounds, exposed to the sun,
burning with fever, and devoured with thirst, under every circumstance of
contumely, pain, and utter wretchedness; his death was of all deaths the most
deadly death, and emphatically "Christ died."But the pith of the text comes
here, that "Christ died for the ungodly"; not for the righteous, not for the
reverent and devout, but for the ungodly. Look at the original word, and you
will find that it has the meaning of "impious, irreligious, and wicked." Our
translation is by no means too strong, but scarcely expressive enough. To be
ungodly, or godless, is to be in a dreadful state, but as use has softened the
expression, perhaps you will see the sense more clearly if I read it, "Christ
died for the impious," for those who have no reverence for God. Christ died for
the godless, who, having cast off God, cast off with him all love for that which
is right. I do not know a word that could more fitly describe the most
irreligious of mankind than the original word in this place, and I believe it is
used on purpose by the Spirit of God to convey to us the truth, which we are
always slow to receive, that Christ did not die because men were good, or would
be good, but died for them as ungodly -- or, in other words, "he came to seek
and to save that which was lost."Observe, then, that when the Son of God
determined to die for men, he viewed them as ungodly, and far from God by wicked
works. In casting his eye over our race he did not say, "Here and there I see
spirits of nobler mould, pure, truthful, truth-seeking, brave, disinterested,
and just; and therefore, because of these choice ones, I will die for this
fallen race." No; but looking on them all, he whose judgment is infallible
returned this verdict, "They are all gone out of the way; they are together
become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Putting them
down at that estimate, and nothing better, Christ died for them. He did not
please himself with some rosy dream of a superior race yet to come, when the age
of iron should give place to the age of gold, -- some halcyon period of human
development, in which civilisation would banish crime, and wisdom would conduct
man back to God. Full well he knew that, left to itself, the world would grow
worse and worse, and that by its very wisdom it would darken its own eyes. It
was not because a golden age would come by natural progress, but just because
such a thing was impossible, unless he died to procure it, that Jesus died for a
race which, apart from him, could only develop into deeper damnation. Jesus
viewed us as we really were, not as our pride fancies us to be; he saw us to be
without God, enemies of our own Creator, dead in trespasses and sins, corrupt,
and set on mischief, and even in our occasional cry for good, searching for it
with blinded judgment and prejudiced heart, so that we put bitter for sweet and
sweet for bitter. He saw that in us was no good thing, but every possible evil,
so that we were lost, -- utterly, helplessly, hopelessly lost apart from him:
yet viewing us as in that graceless and Godless plight and condition, he died
for us.I would have you remember that the view under which Jesus beheld us was
not only the true one, but, for us, the kindly one; because had it been written
that Christ died for the better sort, then each troubled spirit would have
inferred "he died not for me." Had the merit of his death been the perquisite of
honesty, where would have been the dying thief? If of chastity, where the woman
that loved much? If of courageous fidelity, how would it have fared with the
apostles, for they all forsook him and fled? There are times when the bravest
man trembles lest he should be found a coward, the most disinterested frets
about the selfishness of his heart, and the most pure is staggered by his own
impurity; where, then, would have been hope for one of us, if the gospel had
been only another form of law, and the benefits of the cross had been reserved
as the rewards of virtue? The gospel does not come to us as a premium for
virtue, but it presents us with forgiveness for sin. It is not a reward for
health, but a medicine for sickness. Therefore, to meet all cases, it puts us
down at our worst, and, like the good Samaritan with the wounded traveller, it
comes to us where we are. "Christ died for the impious" is a great net which
takes in even the leviathan sinner; and of all the creeping sinners innumerable
which swarm the sea of sin, there is not one kind which this great net does not
encompass. Let us note well that in this condition lay the need of our race that
Christ should die. I do not see how it could have been written "Christ died for
the good." To what end for the good? Why need they his death? If men are
perfect, does God need to be reconciled to them? Was he ever opposed to holy
beings? Impossible! On the other hand, were the good ever the enemies of God? If
such there be are they not of necessity his friends? If man be by nature just
with God, to what end should the Saviour die? "The just for the unjust" I can
understand; but the "just dying for the just" were a double injustice -- an
injustice that the just should be punished at all, and another injustice that
the just should be punished for them. Oh no! If Christ died, it must be because
there was a penalty to be paid for sin committed, hence he must have died for
those who had committed the sin. If Christ died, it must have been because "a
fountain filled with blood" was necessary for the cleansing away of heinous
stains; hence, it must have been for those who are defiled. Suppose there should
be found anywhere in this world an unfallen man -- perfectly innocent of all
actual sin, and free from any tendency to it, there would be a superfluity of
cruelty in the crucifixion of the innocent Christ for such an individual. What
need has he that Christ should die for him, when he has in his own innocence the
right to live? If there be found beneath the copes of heaven an individual who,
notwithstanding some former slips and flaws, can yet, by future diligence,
completely justify himself before God, then it is clear that there is no need
for Christ to die for him. I would not insult him by telling him that Christ
died for him, for he would reply to me, "Why should he? Cannot I make myself
just without him?" In the very nature of things it must be so, that if Christ
Jesus dies he must die for the ungodly. Such agonies as his would not have been
endured had there not been a cause, and what cause could there have been but
sin?Some have said that Jesus died as our example; but that is not altogether
true. Christ's death is not absolutely an example for men, it was a march into a
region of which he said, "Ye cannot follow me now." His life was our example,
but not his death in all respects, for we are by no means bound to surrender
ourselves voluntarily to our enemies as he did, but when persecuted in one city
we are bidden to flee to another. To be willing to die for the truth is a most
Christly thing, and in that Jesus is our example; but into the winepress which
he trod it is not ours to enter, the voluntary element which was peculiar to his
death renders it inimitable. He said, "I lay down my life of myself; no man
taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself." One word of his would have
delivered him from his foes; he had but to say "Begone!" and the Roman guards
must have fled like chaff before the wind. He died because he willed to do so;
of his own accord he yielded up his spirit to the Father. It must have been as
an atonement for the guilty; it could not have been as an example, for no man is
bound voluntarily to die. Both the dictates of nature, and the command of the
law, require us to preserve our lives. "Thou shalt not kill" means "Thou shalt
not voluntarily give up thine own life any more than take the life of another."
Jesus stood in a special position, and therefore he died; but his example would
have been complete enough without his death, had it not been for the peculiar
office which he had undertaken. We may fairly conclude that Christ died for men
who needed such a death; and, as the good did not need it for an example -- and
in fact it is not an example to them -- he must have died for the ungodly.The
sum of our text is this -- all the benefits resulting from the Redeemer's
passion, and from all the works that followed upon it, are for those who by
nature are ungodly. His gospel is that sinners believing in him are saved. His
sacrifice has put away sin from all who trust him, and, therefore, it was
offered for those who had sin upon them before. "He rose again for our
justification," but certainly not for the justification of those who can be
justified by their own works. He ascended on high, and we are told that he
"received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also." He lives to intercede,
and Isaiah tells us that "He made intercession for the transgressors." The aim
of his death, resurrection, ascension, and eternal life, is towards the sinful
sons of men. His death has brought pardon, but it cannot be pardon for those who
have no sin -- pardon is only for the guilty. He is exalted on high "to give
repentance," but surely not to give repentance to those who have never sinned,
and have nothing to repent of. Repentance and remission both imply previous
guilt in those who receive them: unless, then, these gifts of the exalted
Saviour are mere shams and superfluities, they must be meant for the really
guilty. From his side there flowed out water as well as blood -- the water is
intended to cleanse polluted nature, then certainly not the nature of the
sinless, but the nature of the impure; and so both blood and water flowed for
sinners who need the double purification. To-day the Holy Spirit regenerates men
as the result of the Redeemer's death; and who can be regenerated but those who
need a new heart and a right spirit? To regenerate the already pure and innocent
were ridiculous; regeneration is a work which creates life where there was
formerly death, gives a heart of flesh to those whose hearts were originally
stone, and implants the love of holiness where sin once had sole dominion.
Conversion is also another gift, which comes through his death, but does he turn
those whose faces are already in the right direction? It cannot be. He converts
the sinner from the error of his ways, he turns the disobedient into the right
way, he leads back the stray sheep to the fold. Adoption is another gift which
comes to us by the cross. Does the Lord adopt those who are already his sons by
nature? If children already, what room is there for adoption? No; but the grand
act of divine love is that which takes those who are "children of wrath even as
others," and by sovereign grace puts them among the children, and makes them
"heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ." To-day I see the Good Shepherd in
all the energy of his mighty love, going forth into the dreadful wilderness. For
whom is he gone forth? For the ninety and nine who feed at home? No, but into
the desert his love sends him, over hill and dale, to seek the one lost sheep
which has gone astray. Behold, I see him arousing his church, like a good
housewife, to cleanse her house. With the besom of the law she sweeps, and with
the candle of the word she searches, and what for? For those bright new coined
pieces fresh from the mint, which glitter safely in her purse? Assuredly not,
but for that lost piece which has rolled away into the dust, and lies hidden in
the dark corner. And lo! grandest of all visions! I see the Eternal Father,
himself, in the infinity of his love, going forth in haste to meet a returning
child. And whom does he go to meet? The elder brother returning from the field,
bringing his sheaves with him? An Esau, who has brought him savoury meat such as
his soul loveth? A Joseph whose godly life has made him lord over all Egypt?
Nay, the Father leaves his home to meet a returning prodigal, who has companied
with harlots, and grovelled among swine, who comes back to him in disgraceful
rags, and disgusting filthiness! It is on a sinner's neck that the Father weeps;
it is on a guilty cheek that he sets his kisses; it is for an unworthy one that
the fatted calf is killed, and the best robe is worn, and the house is made
merry with music and with dancing. Yes, tell it, and let it ring round earth and
heaven, Christ died for the ungodly. Mercy seeks the guilty, grace has to do
with the impious, the irreligious and the wicked. The physician has not come to
heal the healthy, but to heal the sick. The great philanthropist has not come to
bless the rich and the great, but the captive and the prisoner. He puts down the
mighty from their seats, for he is a stern leveller, but he has come to lift the
beggar from the dunghill, and to set him among princes, even the princes of his
people. Sing ye, then, with the holy Virgin, and let your song be loud and
sweet, -- "He hath filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he hath sent
empty away." "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." "He is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them." O ye guilty ones, believe in him and live.II. Let us now
consider THE PLAIN INFERENCES FROM THIS FACT. Let me have your hearts as well as
your ears, especially those of you who are not yet saved, for I desire you to be
blessed by the truths uttered; and oh, may the Spirit of God cause it to be so.
It is clear that those of you who are ungodly -- and if you are unconverted you
are that -- are in great danger. Jesus would not interpose his life and bear the
bloody sweat and crown of thorns, and nails, and spear, and scorn unmitigated,
and death itself, if there were not solemn need and imminent peril. There is
danger, solemn danger, for you. You are under the wrath of God already, and you
will soon die, and then, as surely as you live, you will be lost, and lost
forever; as certain as the righteous will enter into everlasting life, you will
be driven into everlasting punishment. The cross is the danger signal to you, it
warns you that if God spared not his only Son, he will not spare you. It is the
lighthouse set on the rocks of sin to warn you that swift and sure destruction
awaits you if you continue to rebel against the Lord. Hell is an awful place, or
Jesus had not needed to suffer such infinite agonies to save us from it.It is
also fairly to be inferred that out of this danger only Christ can deliver the
ungodly, and he only through his death. If a less price than that of the life of
the Son of God could have redeemed men, he would have been spared. When a
country is at war, and you see a mother give up her only boy to fight her
country's battles -- her only well-beloved, blameless son -- you know that the
battle must be raging very fiercely, and that the country is in stern danger:
for, if she could find a substitute for him, though she gave all her wealth, she
would lavish it freely to spare her darling. If she were certain that in his
heart a bullet would find its target, she must have strong love for her country,
and her country must be in dire necessity ere she would bid him go. If, then,
"God spared not his Son, but freely delivered him up for us all," there must
have been a dread necessity for it. It must have stood thus: die he, or the
sinner must, or justice must; and since justice could not, and the Father
desired that the sinner should not, then Christ must; and so he did. Oh, miracle
of love! I tell you, sinners, you cannot help yourselves, nor can all the
priests of Rome or Oxford help you, let them perform their antics as they may;
Jesus alone can save, and that only by his death. There on the bloody tree hangs
all man's hope; if you enter heaven it must be by force of the incarnate God's
bleeding out his life for you. You are in such peril that only the pierced hand
can lift you out of it. Look to him, at once, I pray you, ere the proud waters
go over your soul. Then let it be noticed -- and this is the point I want
constantly to keep before your view -- that Jesus died out of pure pity. He must
have died out of the most gratuitous benevolence to the undeserving, because the
character of those for whom he died could not have attracted him, but must have
been repulsive to his holy soul. The impious, the godless -- can Christ love
these for their character? No, he loved them notwithstanding their offences,
loved them as creatures fallen and miserable, loved them according to the
multitude of his loving-kindnesses and tender mercies, from pity, and not from
admiration. Viewing them as ungodly, yet he loved them. This is extraordinary
love! I do not wonder that some persons are loved by others, for they wear a
potent charm in their countenances, their ways are winsome, and their characters
charm you into affection; "but God commendeth his love towards us in that while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us." He looked at us, and there was not a
solitary beauty spot upon us: we were covered with "wounds, and bruises, and
putrefying sores," distortions, defilements, and pollutions; and yet, for all
that, Jesus loved us. He loved us because he would love us; because his heart
was full of pity, and he could not let us perish. Pity moved him to seek the
most needy objects that his love might display its utmost ability in lifting men
from the lowest degradation, and putting them in the highest position of
holiness and honour.Observe another inference. If Christ died for the ungodly,
this fact leaves the ungodly no excuse if they do not come to him, and believe
in him unto salvation. Had it been otherwise they might have pleaded, "We are
not fit to come." But you are ungodly, and Christ died for the ungodly, why not
for you? I hear the reply, "But I have been so very vile." Yes, you have been
impious, but your sin is not worse than this word ungodly will compass. Christ
died for those who were wicked, thoroughly wicked. The Greek word is so
expressive that it must take in your case, however wrongly you have acted. "But
I cannot believe that Christ died for such as I am," says one. Then, sir, mark!
I hold you to your words, and charge you with contradicting the Eternal God to
his teeth, and making him a liar. Your statement gives God the lie. The Lord
declares that "Christ died for the ungodly," and you say he did not, what is
that but to make God a liar? How can you expect mercy if you persist in such
proud unbelief? Believe the divine revelation. Close in at once with the gospel.
Forsake your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall surely live. The
fact that Christ died for the ungodly renders self-righteousness a folly. Why
need a man pretend that he is good if "Christ died for the ungodly?" We have an
orphanage, and the qualification for our orphanage is that the child for whom
admission is sought shall be utterly destitute. I will suppose a widow trying to
show to me and my fellow trustees that her boy is a fitting object for the
charity; will she tell us that her child has a rich uncle? Will she enlarge upon
her own capacities for earning a living? Why, this would be to argue against
herself, and she is much too wise for that, I warrant you, for she knows that
any such statements would damage rather than serve her cause. So, sinner, do not
pretend to be righteous, do not dream that you are better than others, for that
is to argue against yourself. Prove that you are not by nature ungodly, and you
prove yourself to be one for whom Jesus did not die. Jesus comes to make the
ungodly godly, and the sinful holy, but the raw material upon which he works is
described in the text not by its goodness but by its badness; it is for the
ungodly that Jesus died. "Oh, but if I felt!" Felt what? Felt something which
would make you better? Then you would not so clearly come under the description
here given. If you are destitute of good feelings, and thoughts, and hopes, and
emotions, you are ungodly, and "Christ died for the ungodly." Believe in him and
you shall be saved from that ungodliness."Well," cries out some Pharisaic
moralist, "this is dangerous doctrine." How so? Would it be dangerous doctrine
to say that physicians exercise their skill to cure sick people and not healthy
ones? Would that encourage sickness? Would that discourage health? You know
better; you know that to inform the sick of a physician who can heal them is one
of the best means for promoting their cure. If ungodly and impious men would
take heart and run to the Saviour, and by him become cured of impiety and
ungodliness, would not that be a good thing? Jesus has come to make the ungodly
godly, the impious pious, the wicked obedient, and the dishonest upright. He has
not come to save them in their sins, but from their sins; and this is the best
of news for those who are diseased with sin. Self-righteousness is a folly, and
despair is a crime, since Christ died for the ungodly. None are excluded hence
but those who do themselves exclude; this great gate is set so wide open that
the very worst of men may enter, and you, dear hearer, may enter now. I think it
is also very evident from our text that when they are saved, the converted find
no ground of boasting; for when their hearts are renewed and made to love God
they cannot say, "See how good I am," because they were not so by nature; they
were ungodly, and, as such, Christ died for them. Whatever goodness there may be
in them after conversion they ascribe it to the grace of God, since by nature
they were alienated from God, and far removed from righteousness. If the truth
of natural depravity be but known and felt, free grace must be believed in, and
then all glorying is at an end.This will also keep the saved ones from thinking
lightly of sin. If God had forgiven sinners without an atonement they might have
thought little of transgression, but now that pardon comes to them through the
bitter griefs of their Redeemer they cannot but see it to be an exceeding great
evil. When we look to Jesus dying on the cross we end our dalliance with sin,
and utterly abhor the cause of so great suffering to so dear a Saviour. Every
wound of Jesus is an argument against sin. We never know the full evil of our
iniquities till we see what it cost the Redeemer to put them away.Salvation by
the death of Christ is the strongest conceivable promoter of all the things
which are pure, honest, lovely, and of good report. It makes sin so loathsome
that the saved one cannot take up even its name without dread. "I will take away
the name of Baalim out of thy mouth." He looks upon it as we should regard a
knife rusted with gore, wherewith some villain had killed our mother, our wife,
or child. Could we play with it? Could we bear it about our persons or endure it
in our sight? No, accursed thing! stained with the heart's blood of my beloved,
I would fain fling thee into the bottomless abyss! Sin is that dagger which
stabbed the Saviour's heart, and henceforth it must be the abomination of every
man who has been redeemed by the atoning sacrifice.To close this point. Christ's
death for the ungodly is the grandest argument to make the ungodly love him when
they are saved. To love Christ is the mainspring of obedience in men -- how
shall men be led to love him? If you would grow love, you must sow love. Go,
then; and let men know the love of Christ to sinners, and they will, by grace,
be moved to love him in return. No doubt all of us require to know the
threatenings of the wrath of God; but that which soonest touches my heart is
Christ's free love to an unworthy one like myself. When my sins seem blackest to
me, and yet I know that through Christ's death I am forgiven, this blest
assurance melts me down."If thou hadst bid thy thunders roll,And lightnings
flash, to blast my soul.I still had stubborn been;But mercy has my heart
subdued,A bleeding Saviour I have view'd,And now I hate my sin."I have heard of
a soldier who had been put in prison for drunkenness and insubordination several
times and he had been also flogged, but nothing improved him. At last he was
taken in the commission of another offence, and brought before the commanding
officer, who said to him, "My man, I have tried everything in the martial code
with you, except shooting you; you have been imprisoned and whipped, but nothing
has changed you. I am determined to try something else with you. You have caused
us a great deal of trouble and anxiety, and you seem resolved to do so still; I
shall, therefore, change my plans with you, and I shall neither fine you, flog
you, nor imprison you; I will see what kindness will do, and therefore I fully
and freely forgive you." The man burst into tears, for he reckoned on a round
number of lashes, and had steeled himself to bear them, but when he found he was
to be forgiven, and set free, he said, "Sir, you shall not have to find fault
with me again." Mercy won his heart. Now, sinner, in that fashion God is dealing
with you. Great sinners! Ungodly sinners! God says, "My thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are my ways your ways. I have threatened you, and you hardened
your hearts against me. Therefore, come now, and let us reason together: though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool." "Well," says one, "I am afraid if you talk to
sinners so they will go and sin more and more." Yes, there are brutes
everywhere, who can be so unnatural as to sin because grace abounds, but I bless
God there is such a thing as the influence of love, and I am rejoiced that many
feel the force of it, and yield to the conquering arms of amazing grace. The
Spirit of God wins the day by such arguments as these; love is the great
battering-ram which opens gates of brass. When the Lord says, "I have blotted
out thy transgressions like a cloud, and like a thick cloud thine iniquities,"
then the man is moved to repentance.I can tell you hundreds and thousands of
cases in which this infinite love has done all the good that morality itself
could ask to have done; it has changed the heart and turned the entire current
of the man's nature from sin to righteousness. The sinner has believed,
repented, turned from his evil ways, and become zealous for holiness. Looking to
Jesus he has felt his sin forgiven, and he has started up a new man, to lead a
new life. God grant it may be so this morning, and he shall have all the glory
of it. III. So now we must close -- and this is the last point -- THE
PROCLAMATION OF THIS FACT, that "Christ died for the ungodly." I would not mind
if I were condemned to live fifty years more, and never to be allowed to speak
but these five words, if I might be allowed to utter them in the ear of every
man, and woman, and child who lives. "CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY" is the best
message that even angels could bring to men. In the proclamation of this the
whole church ought to take its share. Those of us who can address thousands
should be diligent to cry aloud -- "Christ died for the ungodly"; but those of
you who can speak to one, or write a letter to one, must keep on at this --
"Christ died for the ungodly." Shout it out, or whisper it out; print it in
capitals, or write it in a lady's hand -- "Christ died for the ungodly." Speak
it solemnly, it is not a thing for jest. Speak it joyfully; it is not a theme
for sorrow, but for joy. Speak it firmly; it is indisputable fact. Facts of
science, as they call them, are always questioned: this is unquestionable. Speak
it earnestly; for if there be any truth which ought to arouse all a man's soul
it is this: "Christ died for the ungodly." Speak it where the ungodly live, and
that is at your own house. Speak it also down in the dark corners of the city,
in the haunts of debauchery, in the home of the thief, in the den to the
depraved. Tell it in the gaol; and sit down at the dying bed and read in a
tender whisper -- "Christ died for the ungodly." When you pass the harlot in the
street, do not give a toss with that proud head of yours, but remember that
"Christ died for the ungodly"; and when you recollect those that injured you,
say no bitter word, but hold your tongue, and remember "Christ died for the
ungodly." Make this henceforth the message of your life -- "Christ died for the
ungodly."And, oh, dear friends, you that are not saved, take care that you
receive this message. Believe it. Go to God with this on your tongue -- "Lord
save me, for Christ died for the ungodly, and I am of them." Fling yourself
right on to this as a man commits himself to his lifebelt amid the surging
billows. "But I do not feel," says one. Trust not your feelings if you do; but
with no feelings and no hopes of your own, cling desperately to this, "Christ
died for the ungodly." The transforming, elevating, spiritualising, moralising,
sanctifying power of this great fact you shall soon know and be no more ungodly;
but first, as ungodly, rest you on this, "Christ died for the ungodly." Accept
this truth, my dear hearer, and you are saved. I do not mean merely that you
will be pardoned, I do not mean that you will enter heaven, I mean much more; I
mean that you will have a new heart; you will be saved from the love of sin,
saved from drunkenness, saved from uncleanness, saved from blasphemy, saved from
dishonesty. "Christ died for the ungodly" -- if that be really known and trusted
in, it will open in your soul new springs of living water which will cleanse the
Augean stable of your nature, and make a temple of God of that which was before
a den of thieves. Trust in the mercy of God through the death of Jesus Christ,
and a new era in your life's history will at once commence.Having put this as
plainly as I know how, and having guarded my speech to prevent there being
anything like a flowery sentence in it, having tried to put this as clearly as
daylight itself, -- that "Christ died for the ungodly," if your ears refuse the
precious boons that come through the dying Christ, your blood be on your own
heads, for there is no other way of salvation for any one among you. Whether you
reject or accept this, I am clear. But oh! do not reject it, for it is your
life. If the Son of God dies for sinners, and sinners reject his blood, they
have committed the most heinous offence possible. I will not venture to affirm,
but I do suggest that the devils in hell are not capable of so great a stretch
of criminality as is involved in the rejection of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Here lies the highest love. The incarnate God bleeds to death to save men, and
men hate God so much that they will not even have him as he dies to save them.
They will not be reconciled to their Creator, though he stoops from his
loftiness to the depths of woe in the person of his Son on their behalf. This is
depravity indeed, and desperateness of rebellion. God grant you may not be
guilty of it. There can be no fiercer flame of wrath than that which will break
forth from love that has been trampled upon, when men have put from them eternal
life, and done despite to the Lamb of God. "Oh," says one, "would God I could
believe!" "Sir, what difficulty is there in it? Is it hard to believe the truth?
Darest thou belie thy God? Art thou steeling thy heart to such desperateness
that thou wilt call thy God a liar?" "No; I believe Christ died for the
ungodly," says one, "but I want to know how to get the merit of that death
applied to my own soul." Thou mayest, then, for here it is -- "He that believeth
in him," that is, he that trusts in him, "is not condemned." Here is the gospel
and the whole of it -- "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: he
that believeth not shall be damned." I am a poor weak man like yourselves, but
my gospel is not weak; and it would be no stronger if one of "the mailed
cherubim, or sworded seraphim" could take the platform and stand here instead of
me. He could tell to you no better news. God, in condescension to your weakness,
has chosen one of your fellow mortals to bear to you this message of infinite
affection. Do not reject it! By your souls' value, by their immortality, by the
hope of heaven and by the dread of hell, lay hold upon eternal life; and by the
fear that this may be your last day on earth, yea, and this evening your last
hour, I do beseech you now, "steal away to Jesus." There is life in a look at
the crucified one; there is life at this moment for you. Look to him now and
live. Amen.PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Ezekiel 16:1-14; Romans
5:1-11.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" -- 174, 502 (v.4, 5, 6), 553.


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