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  SPURGEONS SERMONS VOLUME 31 1885
  by C.H. Spurgeon
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Volume 31 of Spurgeon's collected sermons, containing messages preached during
1885 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 31 1885
    1. The Song of a City, and the Pearl of Peace
    2. The Horns of the Altar
    3. The Man Christ Jesus
    4. A Question for a Questioner
    5. Israel And Britain. A Note of Warning
    6. Coming Judgment of the Secrets of Men
    7. Immeasurable Love
    8. The True Tabernacle, and Its Glory of Grace and Peace

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  CHAPTER 0: SPURGEONS SERMONS VOLUME 31 1885
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  CHAPTER 1: THE SONG OF A CITY, AND THE PEARL OF PEACE
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A Sermon (No.1818) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, January 4th, 1885, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the [1]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. "Thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." --
Isaiah 26:3 This is no dry, didactic statement, but a verse from a song. We are
among the poets of revelation, who did not compose ballads for the passing hour,
but made sonnets for the people of God to sing in after days. I quote to you a
stanza from the song of a city. Judah has not aforetime thus chanted before her
God, but she has much to learn, and one day she shall learn this psalm also: --
"We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks." Into
the open country the adversary easily advances, but walled cities are a check
upon the invading foe. Those people who had been hurried to and from as
captives, and had frequently been robbed of their property by invaders, were
glad when they saw builded among them a city, a well-defended city, which should
be the centre of their race, and the shield of their nation. This song of a city
may, however, belong to us as much as to the men of Judah, and we may throw into
it a deeper sense of which they were not aware. We were once unguarded from
spiritual evil, and we spent our days in constant fear; but the Lord has found
for us a city of defence, a castle of refuge. We have a burgess-ship in the new
Jerusalem which is the mother of us all; and within that strong city we dwell
securely. Let us sing this morning, "We have a strong city." The man that hath
come into fellowship with God through the atoning sacrifice, hath gotten into a
place of perfect safety, where he may dwell, ay, dwell for ever, without fear of
assault. We are no longer hunted by hosts of fears, and trodden down by dark
despairs; but "We have a strong city" which overawes the foe, and quiets
ourselves. Our gospel hymns are the songs of men who, in the truest sense, have
seen an end of alarm, by accepting God's provision against trouble of heart.
Observe how the song goes on to dilate upon the city's strength. "Salvation will
God appoint for walls and bulwarks." Our refuge will repay a close examination.
We are doubly defended. Its lofty walls are the mainstay of a city's security;
when they are strong, and high, they keep out the foe, whether he assail by
scaling-ladder, or battering-engine. Outside the wall, on the other side of the
moat, lies what is called the bulwark; the earthwork where, in times of peace,
the citizens delight to take their walks. The bulwark of their confidence is the
boulevard of their communion. The Lord our God has set ring upon ring, defence
upon defence, around His people. All the powers of providence and grace protect
the saints. Material and spiritual forces alike surround her. The Lord keeps His
people doubly fenced by walls and bulwarks, and hence He speaks of a double
peace. "Thou wilt keep him in peace, peace," saith the Hebrew. God does nothing
by halves, but everything by doubles. His salvation is decreed and appointed,
and this is made the basis for the unbroken serenity of all His chosen. The
song, however, does not end with verses concerning the city, but it conducts us
within its walls. "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth
the truth may enter in." Entrance into this grace, wherein we stand, is a choice
privilege. The greatest joy of true godliness lies in our being able to enter
into it. If the City of God were shut against us, it were sad, indeed, for us.
If, to-day, you and I were outside of her, of what value would her walls and
bulwarks be to us? Whatever God has done to His people, it is just so much
additional sorrow rather than increased joy to ourselves if we are not partakers
therein. That there should be a Christ, and that I should be Christless; that
there should be a cleansing, and I should remain foul; that there should be a
Father's love, and I should be an alien; that there should be a heaven, and I
should be cast into hell, is grief embittered, sorrow aggravated. Come, then,
let us sing of personal entrance into the City of God. The music and the
feasting are not outside the door: to enjoy them we must enter in. Our
citizenship is now in heaven. Nothing is barred against us, for the Son of David
has set before us an open door, and no man can shut it. Let us not neglect our
opportunities. Let it not be said, "They could not enter in because of
unbelief." No, let it be ours to sing of salvation because we enjoy it to the
full. Let our music never cease. Now, when we get as far as this, -- a strong
city, and a city into which we have entered, we are still further glad to learn
who the keeper and garrison of that city may be, for a city needs to be kept
while there are so many foes abroad. To render all secure there needs to be some
leader and commander for the people, who has strength with which to man the
walls, and drive off besiegers. Our text tells us how securely this strong city
will be held -- so securely that none of her citizens shall ever be disturbed in
heart, -- "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee:
because he trusteth in thee." Permit me to remind you again that my text is the
verse of a song. I earnestly desire you to feel like singing all the time while
I am preaching, and let the words of the text ring in your heart with deep
mysterious chimes, as of a land beyond these clouds and tempests, -- "Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in
thee." I do not want you to be thinking, "I wish that the Lord would keep me in
peace;" I would have you now enter into rest before the Lord. Do not say, "I am
fretting and worrying, because I cannot reach this peace;" but pray to enjoy it
this morning. O Lord and Giver of peace, vouchsafe it to our faith at once! O ye
trustful ones, enter at once into the opened gates of the city of peace, and
then bless God that you cannot be driven out again, for the Lord promises to be
your garrison and safeguard. May the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter, and
whose fruit is peace, now work peace in each of us!I. First, we are going to
answer this question as best we can, WHAT IS THIS PERFECT PEACE? The text in the
original, as I have told you, is -- "Thou wilt keep him in peace, peace." It is
the Hebrew way of expressing emphatic peace; true and real peace; double peace,
peace of great depth and vast extent. Many of you know what it is; and you will
probably think my answer a very poor one. I shall give the best I can, I can do
no more; and if you try to make up for my deficiencies, our brethren will be
gainers. I confess that I cannot to the full describe the peace that may be
enjoyed if our faith is strong, and our confidence in God has reached its
appropriate height. We are not limited as to quality or measure of this precious
thing. Peace is a jewel of so rare a price that he only hath valued it aright
who has sold all that he hath to buy it. Describe it? Nay, verily, there we
fail.This "peace, peace" means, I think, an absence of all war, and of all alarm
of war. You who can imagine the full meaning of siege, storm, sack, and pillage,
can also guess the happier state of things when a city hears no longer the tramp
of armies, when from her ramparts and towers no sign of adversary can be
discovered; but all is peace. That is very much the condition of the people of
God when the Lord keepeth them in peace. God Himself, at one time, seemed to be
against us: the ten great cannon of His Law were turned against our walls; all
heaven and earth mustered for battle; God Himself was against us, at least, so
conscience reported from her look-out. But, now, at this moment, having believed
in Jesus Christ, we have entered into rest, and we have perfect peace as to our
former sins. Who is he that can harm you, O ye that are reconciled to God? "If
God be for us, who can be against us?" "Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect?" We have by faith arrived at a state of perfect reconciliation with
God. The divine Fatherhood has covered us. We inherit the spirit of children,
the spirit of love and of unquestioning confidence. Everything is quiet, for we
dwell in our Father's house. Look upward, and you will perceive no seat of fiery
wrath to shoot devouring flame. Look downward, and you discover no hell, for
there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Look back, and sin is
blotted out. Look around, and all things work together for good to them that
love God. Look beyond, and glory shineth through the veil of the future, like
the sun through a morning's mist. Look outward, and the stones of the field, and
the beasts of the field, are at peace with us. Look inward, and the peace of
God, which passeth all understanding, keeps our hearts and minds by Christ
Jesus. The Lord leadeth us by still waters at such happy times, along that road
of which we read, "No lion shall be there." If you who are believers in Jesus do
not usually enjoy this peace, the blame must be laid to your own door: you make
your own disquietude, for God saith to you, "Peace, peace," and He will keep you
there if your mind is stayed on Him. Happy is he whose conflict is ended, and
whose warfare is accomplished by faith in Christ Jesus.Further, this perfect
peace reigns over all things within its circle. Not only is no enemy near, but
the inhabitants of the city are all at rest, and all their affairs are happy. No
man can be said to be at perfect peace who has any cause of disquietude at all.
Yet the child of God has this perfect peace according to our Lord's own
statement; and, therefore, it must be true that the believer is raised above all
disquietude. "What," say you, "has he not an evil heart of unbelief?" Yes, and
that demands his watchfulness, but should not create in him any kind of terror,
for God is greater than our hearts, and where sin abounded, grace doth much more
abound. The flesh has received its death-warrant, and unbelief is but a part of
the flesh doomed to die. The holy life within us must triumph. "If we believe
not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." Though we be as yet like
the smoking flax, we shall soon shine forth, and He will bring forth judgment
unto victory. "Ah," saith one, "but I have disquietude in my family: I have a
wild, unruly son; or, I have a sick, pining child, who will soon be taken away
from my by consumption!" Yes, friend, but if your mind is stayed on God, and you
can trust God with such matters, you should not lose your perfect peace even
through this. For, what if your heart be troubled? Will that make the
consumptive child any the stronger? Or will your melancholy be likely to
restrain your rebellious son? No, but "The just shall live by faith," and shall
triumph by faith, too. It shall be your strength to bring your sick, and lay
them at Jesus feet; it shall be your hope to bring your unruly one, and say,
"Lord, cast out the devil from my child, and let him live unto Thee." Nothing
ought to avail to break the peace of the believer; the shield of faith should
quench every fiery dart. For, observe, that your sin is forgiven you for
Christ's sake, and that is done once for all. Observe, that Christ has taken
possession of you, and you are His; neither will He lose you, but He will hold
you single-handed against the world, and death, and hell. Observe, too, that
your heavenly Father rules in providence, giving you what you need, for He has
said, "No good thing will I withhold from them that walk uprightly." He reigns
in power, anticipating every danger, for He hath declared, "No weapon that is
formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee
in judgment thou shalt condemn." God's peace covers the whole extent of the
territory. Tell it out through every street of Mansoul that the Prince Emmanuel
has come, and to every creature within the city walls the peace of God is
granted, to be possessed with gladness and delight. We are getting some idea, I
trust, of this peace, though words cannot fully convey it; we must know it
ourselves. Yet it is pleasant to note that this peace is deeply real and true.
No perfect peace can be enjoyed unless every secret cause of fear is met and
removed. Whisper it at the gates, and in the hostelries, that the city might be
taken by surprise, and that spies had been seen in the meadows, down by the East
gate; and straightway the city would be in a ferment. No; peace cannot breathe
while suspicion haunts the streets. Our peace may be a false peace, a fools
peace; we may be lulled into a carnal security. Politically, nations have become
self-confident, have dreamed of peace when the forges were ringing with the
hammers of war; and so ill has happened unto them. Spiritually, there are
multitudes of persons who think that all is right with their souls, when,
indeed, all is wrong, for eternity. It is to be feared that some have received a
"strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." Now, we cannot call that
perfect peace which lies only on the surface, and will not bear to be looked
into. We desire a peace which sits in open court, and neither blindfolds nor
muzzles ambassadors. The peace which requires that there should be a hushing-up
of this and that is an evil thing. Such is the direct opposite of the peace of
God. If there be any charge against God's people, men are challenged to bring
it, -- "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" The pardon which
God gives us is not a smothering-up of our sins, nor a blinding of justice. God
is as just in His pardons as in His punishments. It shall be seen at the last,
when believers enter into their glory, that they rise there by law, just as
surely as the lost sink down to hell by law: that is to say, that the Lord Jesus
Christ hath rendered to the law such recompense by His perfect obedience, and
His matchless atonement, that it shall be as just on God's part to save His
elect as to condemn the unbelieving world. We claim that our peace is just and
right. It may be examined and tested; for here we have NO FICTION. If truth is
to be found beneath the stars, it is in the peace which come through the
precious blood of the Son of God. The peace which God gives goes through the
very bottom of things, and brings us into the eternal harmonies.We may gaze upon
this truth with the most attentive eye, but we shall see only the more clearly
that he that believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ hath salvation for walls and
bulwarks. Under any light believers in Jesus are secure. You may be put in
circumstances of a very trying kind, especially you may be brought to the brink
of death, and near to the bar of God; and yet, dear friend, the God in whom ye
trust will not fail you. Your heart rests on His promises and faithfulness, and
there is no reason why its peace should be broken.Is not this a perfect peace?
If I stood here to preach up a sort of enthusiastic confidence, which would not
bear the test, I would be ashamed of myself; but in preaching this peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, which has no back-reckonings to disturb it,
which has nothing behind that can come in ultimately to break it up, I preach
something worth the having. I do desire and pray that every man and woman here
may know it as I know it; for I have peace with God, and therefore my heart is
glad. Oh that all of you here present might now believe God, and stay yourselves
upon Him; then would you hear the Lord say "Peace! peace!"One thing more, peace
in a city would not be consistent with the stoppage of commerce. During perfect
peace intercourse goes on with all surrounding places, and the city by its trade
is enriched. Where there is perfect peace with God, commerce prospers between
the soul and heaven. Good men commune with the good, and thereby their sense of
peace increases. If you have perfect peace, you have fellowship with all the
saints: personal jealousies, sectarian bitternesses, and unholy emulations are
all laid aside. Oh, it is a happy state of mind when we have no prejudices which
can wall out the godly from fellowship with us! Oh, how blessed to say
spontaneously, "If he is a child of God, I love him; if he is a member of the
heavenly family, he is my brother, and I welcome him!" When we are at one with
all the people of God, we are quit of a world of wars.Better still, there is a
sweet peace between the heart and its God when from day to day, by prayer and
praise, we commune with the Most High. Any peace that is linked with
forgetfulness of God is a horrible thing: it is the peace of the miasma, which
is brooding in quiet before it strikes with the arrow of death; it is that dead
calm which precedes the cyclone or the earthquake. The perfect peace which God
giveth sunneth itself in the presence of God; it is a tropical flower, which
lives in the flaming sun-light; a bird with rainbow-wings, which is at home in
the high-noon of heavens summertide. God gives us to know more and more of this
perfect peace, by enabling us to plunge more and more completely into His own
self! One with God in Christ Jesus, we have reached everlasting peace. Further
let me speak upon this peace that God gives to us. It consists in rest of the
soul. You know how the body casts all the limbs upon the bed, and they lie at
ease; so does our spiritual nature stretch itself at ease. The heart reclines
upon God's love, and the judgment leans on His wisdom; the desires recline, the
hopes repose, the expectations rest, the soul throws all its weight and all its
weariness upon the Lord, and then a perfect peace follows. To this absolute
recumbency add a perfect resignation to the divine will. If you quarrel with
God, your peace is at an end; but when you say, "It is the Lord; let him do what
seemeth him good," you have obtained one of the main elements of perfect peace.
When the Lord's will is owned and love, all ground for quarrel is over: the
peace must be deep. It consists also in sweet confidence in God, when there is
not the shadow of doubt about anything God does, for you are sure of this, if of
nothing else, that He must be true, and He must be right and kind, and in all
things better to you than you are to yourself. Then to leave everything with
God, trusting in Him for ever, because in Him there is everlasting strength --
this is peace. It means, in fact, the swallowing up of self in the great sea of
God, the giving up of all we are, and all we have, so entirely to God that
henceforth we cannot be troubled, or be disturbed, because that which could make
trouble is already bound over to keep the peace. Then comes a blessed
contentment; we want no more, we have enough. "The Lord is my portion, saith my
soul; therefore will I hope in him." Having Him, my desires all stay at home
with Him. Let me but know Him better, and I shall grow even more satisfied with
unutterable beauties, His indescribable perfections.I hope you know this peace;
and if you do, I need not tell you it means freedom from everything like
despondency. The mind cannot yield to mistrust, for the Lord's peace keeps it.
The compass on board an iron steam-vessel is placed aloft, so that it may not be
so much influenced by the metal of the ship: though surrounded by that which
would put it out of place, the needle faithfully adheres to the pole because it
is set above the misleading influence. So with the child of God, when the Lord
has given him peace: he is lifted beyond the supremacy of his sorrowful
surroundings, and his heart is delivered from its sad surroundings.Thus we are
kept from everything like rashness: resting in God, we are not in sinful haste;
we can wait God's time to deliver us, knowing that there is love in every second
of the delay. We do not kick, as the untutored bullock kicks against the goad,
but we push on the more eagerly with our furrow, toiling on to the end, till God
shall appear for us. Thus we are saved from the temptations which come with our
trials. We get the smelting of the furnace without its smut. We endure the
sorrow, but escape the sin, and this is joy enough for a pilgrim in this vale of
tears.O friends, he that hath this perfect peace is the richest man in the
world! What are broad acres if you have a troubled spirit? What are millions of
gold, laid by in the bank, if you have no God to go to in the hour of distress?
What would it be to be a prince, a king, an emperor, if you had no hope for the
hereafter, no treasure of eternal love? I, therefore, charge you to get and keep
this "peace," -- this perfect peace.II. May the Lord strengthen me, in this time
of painful weakness, while I speak upon another question. WHO ALONE CAN GIVE US
THIS PEACE, AND PRESERVE IT IN US? The answer is in the words of the song, "Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace." See, it is God Himself that can give us this
peace, and keep us in it. The answer is one and indivisible. I know that while I
was speaking some of you were saying, "The pastor is setting forth a high style
of living; how can we reach to it?" But if peace be God's gift, and if the Lord
Himself is to keep us in it, how easily can we attain it by putting ourselves
into His hands! To be striving after peace is hard work, for by our very anxiety
to find it we miss its trail. How differently does the matter appear when we
read, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace!"How does the Lord keep His people in
peace? I answer, first, by a special operation upon the mind in the time of its
trial. We read in the 12th verse, "Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou
also hast wrought all our works in us." If this be so, we can understand how the
Lord can work peace in us among all the other works. There is an operation of
God upon the human mind, mysterious and inscrutable, of which the effects are
manifest enough; and among those effects is this, a quiet of heart, a calm of
spirit, which never comes in any other way. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace." The Creator of our mind knows how to operate upon it by His Holy Spirit.
Let the heart and will be allowed to be as free as you choose, yet is the Lord
free to act upon them. As we can tune the strings of an harp, so can the Lord
adjust the chords of our heart to joyous serenity. Not only by the Word of God,
and by our meditation thereon, but by His own direct operation, the Lord can
create peace within the land-locked sea of the human spirit. The Lord can get at
men, and influence them for the highest ends, apart from the outward means. I
have noticed that, altogether apart from the subjects of my reflections, I have,
on a sudden, received a singular calm and peace of spirit directly from God. I
can remember occasions when I had been hurried through broken water; the winds
were wild, and my little vessel was at one instant lifted out of the water, and
at the next beaten under the waves. Then, in a moment, everything was calm as a
summer's evening, quiet as when the hush of Sabbath falls on a hamlet in the
lone Highlands. My heart was royally glad, for it had entered into perfect
peace. I think you must have noticed such matters in your own case. Generally, I
grant you, we are led into this peace by the consideration of the promises of
God; but sometimes, apart from that, without our knowing why or wherefore, we
have upon a sudden glided from darkness into light, by the distinct operation of
the Spirit of God upon the mind. But usually the Lord keeps His people in
perfect peace by the operation of certain considerations, intended by His
infinite wisdom to work in that manner. For instance, if sin be before the mind,
it may well disquiet us, but when a man considereth that Christ died for our
sins, according to the Scriptures, he hath that before him which allayeth the
disquietude. When he considereth that, in dying, the Lord Jesus rendered unto
God a full and satisfactory atonement for all the sin of all His believing
people, then the man is at once, by that consideration, brought into perfect
peace. Or suppose that a temporal trial ruffles the mind; the uneasy one turns
to Scripture, and he finds that affliction is not sent as a legal punishment,
but only as a fatherly chastisement of love: then is the bitterness of it passed
away. Let a man know that all his trials work together for his good, and every
sufficient reason for discontent is removed. The man noteth that there is good
in the evil which surrounds him; indeed, he perceives the Lord to be at work
everywhere, and henceforth he accepts the arrangements of providence without
mistrust, and his heart is at peace. Depend upon it, dear friend, if you are
tossed up and down, like the locust, you will only find peace by flying to the
fields of Scripture. In this garden of the Lord, flowers are blooming which
yield a balm for every wound of the heart. Never was there a lock of
soul-trouble yet, but what there was a key to open it in the Word of God. For
our pain, here is an anodyne; for our darkness, a lamp; for our loneliness, a
friend. It is like the garden of Eden: a double river of peace glideth through
it. Turn you then to the Lord's Word, to communion with His people, to prayer,
to praise, or some form of holy service, and God will thus keep you in perfect
peace.I believe, also, that the Lord keeps His people in perfect peace by the
distinct operations of His providence. When a man's ways please the Lord, He
maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. By secret workings he can quiet
foes so that they are as still as a stone till Thy people pass over, O Lord.
When one providence apparently fights against you, another will come in to
deliver you. The Lord's thoughts towards His people are thoughts of good, and
not of evil; and they shall see it to be so. Either the afflicted shall reach a
place of rest, or else double strength shall be given for the double trial. God
will allow no war in His providence against His own child, all must be for you
there. If you are God's Jonah, and are thrown into the sea, a whale must wait
upon you; and if you are God's servant, and are brought into the lowest dungeon
in Egypt, Pharaohs own self must send and fetch you out of it to sit upon a
throne. Lift up now your eyes, O you that crouch among the ashes because of your
daily fret! Be no longer grovellers in the dust! The Lord is your King; nothing
can break your peace. The Creator of yon stars and clouds, Lord of the universe,
Monarch of all nature: thinkest thou that He cannot speedily send thee
deliverance? All these ages has He loved thee; canst thou mistrust Him? Knowest
thou not that He feeds the sparrows, ay, and the fish of the sea, and the
myriads of living creatures which only His eye can see? There is no limit to His
stores, nor bounds to His power. Canst thou not trust in Him, that He will help
thee through, and give thee rest? Thus, you see, our peace comes from God in
some way or other; and I therefore the more earnestly ask you never to seek
peace elsewhere. Do not seek peace by praying for the absence of trial. You may
be just as happy in affliction as out of it, if the Lord be with you. Do not
seek peace by cultivating hardness of heart, and indifference of spirit. No,
when you are afflicted, you ought to feel it: God means you should; and you must
learn to feel it, and yet be fully at peace. Do not imagine you can get peace by
philosophy, or by considerations derived from reason, or by knowledge fetched
from experience. There is but one well from which you can draw the sweet waters
of perfect peace, and it bears about its rim this dainty inscription -- "Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace, O Jehovah." Such peace as God giveth makes us
like to God, it fills us with His love, it sets us acting according to His
holiness; and, meanwhile, it prepares us for His palace, where everlasting peace
perfumes every chamber, and covers the whole fabric with glory.III. I have to
answer another question this morning, and that is -- WHO SHALL OBTAIN THIS
PEACE? "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee." The
Hebrew is very involved and difficult to understand, but we shall not err if we
permit it to teach us this, -- that the whole of our being is stayed upon God in
order to this peace. The word for "mind" is very vague, but it must include our
thoughts. If your thoughts are stayed on God, you will have perfect peace: our
misery comes from stray, vagabond, unsettled thoughts. If you will think of
nothing except in connection with God, if you will only think of your sin in
connection with a merciful God, if you will only think of tribulation in
connection with a faithful God, if you will set the Lord always before you, so
that he is at your right hand, you shall not be moved; but you certainly cannot
be perfectly at peace till each thought, being held captive, learns to stay
itself on Him. This includes the imagination. The imaginations are most
untamable wild beasts, and cause a world of terror in timid minds. Oh for grace
to fasten up imagination in the Lord's own cage! We must not imagine anything to
be possible which would make the Lord appear to be unkind or untrue. Pray that
your imagination may be stayed on God, that you may never again imagine anything
contrary to the grace, goodness, and love of your heavenly Father. What peace
would rule if this were the case! I think our text includes especially the
desires. Desires are very grasping things. It is utterly impossible to satisfy a
worldly mans heart: if he had all he now wishes for, he would be sure then to
enlarge his desires as hell, and ask for more. But you, dear friend, must stay
your desires at some bound or other, and what more fit than to stay them upon
God? Say, "I want nothing but what God wills to give me; I desire to have
nothing but what He thinks is for His glory, and for my profit." When you once
come to this point, when your imaginations and desires all pitch their tents
within the compass of God Himself, Who is your heavenly portion, then you will
be kept in perfect peace. What else is meant by being stayed? Does it not mean
rested? When your thoughts recline at their ease in God's revealed will, that is
staying upon God. When your desires are filled, and no longer open their greedy
mouths for more, because God has filled them, that is staying. Does it not mean
stopping there? We speak of staying at a place. Well, when our minds are stayed
upon God, we just stop at God; we do not propose any further journeying; we do
not wish to push on in advance of where He leads the way. Our heart is rooted
and grounded in the great Father's love, and so we stay our souls on Him.Staying
means upholding. We speak of a stay, and of a mainstay; it is something upon
which we are depending. Such a person is the stay of the house, -- its chief
upholder and support. See, then, what it is to stay your souls on God, and mind
that you daily carry it out. Some are staying themselves upon a friend, others
are staying themselves upon their own ability, but blessed is the man who stays
himself upon God. We are to have no confidence except in the Almighty arm; our
reliance must be place there only. When in our God we live, and move, and have
our being, this is the crowning condition of a creature. Oh, to feel to the
utmost that we are wholly the Lord's, and that, whether His will appoints us joy
or woe, we shall be equally satisfied, for we have come to lie down on His will,
and go no further. I like staid persons -- you know what they are and where they
are. They are not easily put about, neither do they readily forsake a cause
which they have espoused. He that is stayed upon God is the most staid in the
world; he is steadfast, grounded, settled, and he cannot be removed from the
blessed hope of the gospel. He that is fully staid is the man that shall have
perfect peace. Oh, whither away, ye undecided ones? Oh, whither away, poor
hearts? Will ye wander over every mountain? Will ye never take up lodging with
your God, and dwell at ease in Him? Of this be ye well assured, your souls are
on the wing, and are bound to fly on and on for ever unless they make bold to
settle down upon the Lord their God. In God is rest, but in none else. All earth
and heaven, time and eternity, cannot make up a peace for a bruised spirit, and
yet a word from the Lord bestows it beyond recall.Observe, it says, "stayed on
thee." Dwell with emphasis upon that, for there are many ways of staying
yourself, but you must mind that all your staying is on God; on your heavenly
Father, who will withhold no good thing from you; on your divine Saviour, who
pleads for you at the right hand of God; on the Holy Ghost, who dwells in you;
on the triune God, who hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee."Now, instead of saying more, I should like, if God the Holy Spirit would
help us, for each one to go through the mental act of rolling our care upon the
Lord. Let us commit ourselves, and all that we are, and all that we have, and
all that we have to do, and all that we have to suffer, to the guardian care of
our loving God, casting all our care upon Him, for He careth for us. Here we are
in God, and here we mean to abide. We are not regretting the grace of yesterday,
nor sighing for the grace of to-morrow. We stay where we are -- at home with
God. Our anchor is down, and we do not mean to draw it up again. "My heart is
fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise." "Oh," saith one,
"you do not know my troubles!" No, but I remember the story of a poor Methodist
at the battle of Fontenoy. He had both his legs shot away, and when the surgeon
came to attend to him, he was evidently bleeding to death, but he cried, "I am
as happy as I can be out of Paradise!" Well, if in the very article of death,
and suffering as he was, he could overflow with happiness, surely you and I can
rejoice in perfect peace. I want you all to be like Dr. Watts, who said that for
many years he went to his bed without the slightest solicitude as to whether he
should wake up in this world, or in the next. To rest in God's Word, to rejoice
in God's covenant, to trust in the divine sacrifice, to be conformed to God's
will, to delight in God's self -- this is to stay yourself upon God, and the
consequence of it is perfect peace.IV. WHY IS IT THAT THE LORD WILL KEEP THAT
MAN IN PERFECT PEACE WHO STAYS HIMSELF ON HIM? The answer is, "because he
trusteth in thee." Dear friends, that means surely this, that in faith there is
the tendency to create and nourish peace. In all other ways of trying to live
before God there is a tendency to produce uneasiness; but he that believes shall
rest. Faith lays a cool hand upon a burning brow, and removes the fever of the
fearful heart. Faith hath a voice of silver, wherewith she whispers, "Peace, be
still." Nothing can conduce so much to a quiet life as a firm, unwavering
confidence in the faithfulness of God's promise, and in the fact that what He
has promised He is able also to perform.Further, the text means this, that when
a man stays himself upon God it is not only his faith that brings him peace, but
his faith is rewarded by peace, which the Lord gives him as a token of approval.
A kind of discipline is going on in our heavenly Father's family, not rewards
and punishments such as judges award to criminals, but such as fathers give to
their children. By this we are being trained for the many mansions in the
Father's house above. If we will stay ourselves on God, we shall have peace; if
we will not do so, we shall have no rest, and shall be in sore disquietude. "Let
not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." The pressure
of the trouble comes with the decline of faith. If thou believest more, it may
not make thee richer, but thou wilt not feel thy poverty so keenly. If thou
believest more, it may not make thee healthy in body, but thou shalt not fret
because of thy sickness: if thou believest more, it will not give thee back thy
buried ones, but it shall fill thy heart with a still higher love. "All things
are possible to him that believeth," and peace, peace is among those
possibilities; but if thou wilt not believe, neither shalt thou be established,
thine unbelief shall be a rod for thine own back, a bitter for thine own cup. If
thou wilt not trust thy God, thou shalt wander into a weary land, seeking rest
and finding none. Come, brothers and sisters, let us fly from such a fate, and
win perfect peace as the reward of perfect confidence. I think, lastly, this
peace comes out of faith, because it is faiths way of proclaiming herself. If
God gives you perfect peace, you will not need, when you go home, to shout to
your friends, "I am a believer." They will soon see it. You have lost one that
was very dear to you, and instead of fretting and repining, you kiss the hand of
God, and go about your daily duties with patience. That is a very wonderful
fruit of the Spirit, wrought by faith, and thus faith is seen. A man has had a
fire, or some other form of loss, and his comforts are destroyed. If he is an
unbeliever, we do not wonder that he tears his hair, and curses God, and rages
and fumes. But if he has stayed himself on God, he will be at peace, and he will
say, "The Lord hath done it. It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good."
By this will you be known to be the disciples of Christ, when in patience ye
possess your souls. Faith which only operates when all goes well, is the mockery
of faith; the love that praises God when God gives thee according to thy desire
is no more than the love of some dogs to their masters, who care just as much
for them as the number of the scraps may be. Wilt thou have such a cupboard love
as that? It were far better to get to this state, "Though he slay me, yet will I
trust in him." If thou hast this faith within thee, then shall thy peace be like
a river. The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep thy heart
and mind by Christ Jesus.I am very much concerned in leaving you, that you, dear
friend, should aim much at the possession of this peace. It is a mode of
propagating the gospel never to be despised. Multitudes of people have been
converted by seeing the holy patience of God's people: they have been impressed
by it, and have said, "There must be something in a religion that can give such
a peace as this." When you are fretting and worrying, you are undoing your
ministers work. When the people of God are over and above troubled, when they
count life to be a burden to them because things are not as they would wish them
to be, they are really slandering their heavenly Father, and they are preventing
the wandering from coming back. The unconverted say, "Why should be go to God to
be made miserable?" O ye banished seed, be glad! O ye troubled ones, rejoice!
Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations, yet lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh. Within a
short time you shall put on the garments of your excellency and beauty, and the
weeds of your mourning shall be laid aside. Wherefore play the man: better
still, play the Christian; and let all men know where God is, and where the Lord
rules the heart, there is, there must be, a deep and profound peace. May God
bless you, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON
-- Isaiah 26.HYMNS FROM OUR OWN HYMN BOOK -- 46, 738, 552.


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  CHAPTER 2: THE HORNS OF THE ALTAR
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A Sermon (No.1826) Delivered by C. H. SPURGEON, At [2]the Metropolitan
Tabernacle, Newington, On March 23rd, 1884, "And he said, Nay; but I will die
here." -- 1 Kings 2:30 WE MUST tell you the story. Solomon was to be the king
after David, but his elder brother, Adonijah, was preferred by Joab, the captain
of the host, and by Abiathar, the priest; and, therefore, they got together, and
tried to steal a march upon dying David, and set up Adonijah. They utterly
failed in this; and when Solomn came to the throne Adonijah was afraid for his
life, and fled to the horns of the altar at the tabernacle for shelter. Solomn
permitted him to find sanctuary there, and forgave him his offence, and said
that if he proved himself a worthy man he should live without further
molestation. But very soon he began plotting again, and sought to undermine
Solomon now that their venerable father was dead. It became therefore necessary,
especially according to oriental ideas, for Solomn to strike a heavy blow; and
he determined to begin with Joab -- the bottom of all the mischief, who, though
he had not followed after Absalom in David's time, was now following after
Adonijah. No sooner had the king determined upon this, than Joab,
conscience-stricken, begin to look to himself and fly. Read the twenty-eighth
verse. "Then tidings came to Joab: for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he
turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and
caught hold on the horns of the altar." I suppose that he thought that, as
Adonijah had done this successfully before, Joab might repeat it, and have some
hope for his life. Of course. he had no right to enter into the holy place, and
lay hold on the horns of the altar; but being driven to desperation, he knew not
what else to do. He was a man of hoary head, who had thirty or more years before
committed two atrocious murders, and now they came home to him. He did not know
where to fly except he fled to the horns of an altar, which he had very seldom
approached before. As far as we can judge, he had shown little respect to
religion during his lifetime. He was a rough man of war, and cared little enough
about God, or the tabernacle, or the priests, or the altar; but when he was in
danger, he fled to that which he had avoided, and sought to make a refuge of
that which he had neglected. He was not the only man that had done the same.
Perhaps there are some here who before long will be trying to escape from
impending woe by like means. Now, I want you to notice that when Joab fled to
the tabernacle of the Lord, and took hold of the horns of the altar, it was of
no use to him. "And it was told king Solomon that Joab was fled unto the
tabernacle of the Lord; and, behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomn sent
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him. And Benaiah came to the
tabernacle of the Lord and said unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And
he said, Nay; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again,
saying, Thus saith Joab, and thus he answered me. And the king said unto him, Do
as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the
innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father. And
the Lord shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men, more
righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not
knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel,
and Amasa, the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah. Their blood shall
therefore return upon the head of Joab. So Benaiah the son of Jehoida went up,
and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the
wilderness." I have two lessons I am anxious to teach at this time. The first is
derived from the fact that Joab found no benefit of sanctuary even though he
laid hold of the horns of the altar of God's house, from which I gather this
lesson -- that outward ordinances will avail nothing. Before the living God, who
is greater and wiser than Solomn, it will be of no avail to any man to lay hold
upon the horns of the altar. But, secondly, there is an altar -- a spiritual
altar -- whereof if a man do but lay hold upon the horns, and say, "Nay; but I
will die here," he shall never die; but he shall be safe against the sword of
justice for ever; for the Lord has appointed an altar in the person of his own
dear Son, Jesus Christ, where there shall be shelter for the very vilest of
sinners if they do but come and lay hold thereon. I. To begin, then, first,
OUTWARD ORDINANCES AVAIL NOT. The laying hold upon the literal horns of an
altar, which can be handled, availed not Joab. There are many -- oh, how many
still! -- that are hoping to be saved, because they lay hold, as they think,
upon the horns of the sacraments. Men of unhallowed life, nevertheless, come to
the sacramental table, looking for a blessing. Do they not know that they
pollute it? Do they not know that they are committing a high sin, and a great
misdemeanour against God, by coming amongst his people, where they have no right
to be? And yet they think that by committing this atrocity they are securing to
themselves safety. How common it is to find in this city, when an irreligious
man is dying, that someone will say, "Oh, he is all right; for a clergyman has
been, and given him the sacrament." I often marvel how men calling themselves
the servants of God can dare thus to profane the ordinance of the Lord. Did he
ever intend the blessed memorial of the Lord's supper to be a kind of
superstitious vialicum, a something upon which ungodly men may depend in their
last hour, as if it could put away sin. I do not one half so much blame the poor
ignorant and superstitious persons who seek after the sacrament in their dying
hours, as I do the men who ought to know better, but who pander to what is as
downright a superstition as anything that ever came from the church of Rome, or,
for the matter of that, from the fetish worship of the most deluded African
tribe. Do they conceive that grace comes to men by bits of bread and drops of
wine? These things are meant to put us in memory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and,
as far as they do that, and quicken our thoughts of him, they are useful to us;
but there is no wizardry or witchcraft linked with these two emblems, so they
convey as form of grace. If you do rely upon such things, I can only say that
this error is all of a piece: it is a superstition which begins with, "In my
baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor
of the kingdom of heaven"; which statement is altogether false; and then it
continues the delusion by prostituting an ordinance meant for the living child
of God, and giving it to the ungodly, the ignorant, and the superstitious, as
though it could make them meet for entering heaven. I charge you, as before the
Lord, cleanse yourselves of this superstition. There is no salvation apart from
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and you might as well trust in your sins as in
sacraments. In fact, the sacraments become sins to men who trust in them, for
those men sin against the ordinances of the Lord by putting them where they
never ought to be, and making an Antichrist of them, so as to push Christ out of
his place with their baptisms and their masses. If you died with the sacramental
bread in your mouths, ye will lost unless your faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. Your hands, which are superstitiously laid upon the altar's horns, might
as well be placed upon your weapons of rebellion. Outward emblems can do you no
good whatsoever if you remain unspiritual. Without faith in Christ, even the
ordinances of God become things to condemn you. If ye eat and drink unworthily
ye eat and drink condemnation to yourselves, not discerning the Lord's body;
and, if this be true, how dare any unconverted, unbelieving man put his trust in
the outward ordinance of which he has no right to partake? There are others who
put their trust in religious observances of sundry kinds. Their visible
altar-horn is something which they believe to be very proper and right, and
which, indeed, may be so if wisely used, for the thing is good if used lawfully;
but it will be their ruin if it be put out of its own place. For instance, there
are, doubtless, some who think that they are all right because they frequent
sermons. They delight to be found hearing the gospel. Now, in this you do well,
for, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God"; but, if you
suppose that the mere hearing of a sermon with the outward ear can save you, you
suppose what is untrue, and you build the house of your hope on sand. "Oh, sir,
I have sat to hear the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ these many years."
Yes, and these many years you have rejected it. The kingdom of God has come nigh
unto you, but I fear it will work your damnation through your unbelief; for it
will be a savour of death unto you. I fear that in the last great day it shall
be seen that I have ministered unto some of you to your hurt. It will not be
laid to my charge, but to yours, if I have been faithful in the declaration of
the word. Oh, may God grant that no man or woman among you may ever put the
slightest faith in the mere hearing of the word! Except ye receive it by faith
ye deceive your own souls; if ye are hearers only, what good can come of it?"Oh,
but," says another, "I attend prayer meetings." I admit that it is not every
hypocrite that will regularly come to prayer-meetings, but there are some that
do; and, though you are so fond of prayer-meetings, yet, my dear friend, unless
it can be said of you, "Behold he prayeth," you need not make sure of safety.
Your being found in the place where prayer is wont to be made may be no true
sign of grace. "Ay, but I do more than that, for I have prayers in my own
house." Yes, and very proper , too. I would that all did the same; I am grieved
that any should neglect the ordinance of family prayer. But yet, if you think
that the reading of a form of prayer in your household, or even the use of
extempore prayer, is a thing to be relied upon for salvation, you do greatly
err. "He that believeth in him hath everlasting life", but he that believes not
in the Lord Jesus Christ does but offer unbelieving prayer to God; and what is
that but a vain sacrifice which he cannot accept? Oh, do not rely upon the habit
of outward worship, or you will lean on a bulrush!"But I regularly read a
chapter," says one. I am extremely glad you do, and God bless that chapter to
you! I would that all were in the habit of reading right thought the Bible
regularly, and endeavouring to understand it; but, if you trust in your
Bible-readings as a ground of salvation, you are resting upon a mere soap-bubble
which will burst under your weight. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, producing in
the soul a change of heart, a new birth unto God, this is what is wanted; and,
apart from that, all the Bible reading you ever practice can do you no good
whatsoever. "Ye must be born again. Ye must be born again"; and if they be not
this inward change, then vain is all outward observance. You may wash a corpse,
you may clothe that corpse in the purest white shroud that was ever woven, but
when all is done it does not live; and what are all the outward devotions of a
carnal man but dead things which bring no life with them to men dead in sin?Some
are foolish enough to put their confidence in ministers. It would seem to me to
be the maddest thing in all the world for anybody to have confidence in me as to
helping him in his salvation; and I trust that nobody is such a fool. I cannot
even save myself; what can I do for others? Do not come to me with "Give us of
your oil," for I have not enough for myself, except as I keep on begging a
supply. When I look at the priests in whom some trust, especially such as I have
seen abroad, they may be very fine fellows, but I would not trust some of them
with a half-crown, let alone my soul. The very look of most priests makes me
wonder how they manage to secure power over people's minds. They may know a
great deal, but they do not look as if they were overdone with wit. I would as
soon trust my soul in the hands of a gipsy with a red cloak as I would with the
best-ordained priest or bishop that ever lived. There is one Mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus, and he who sets up another is an enemy of
souls. There is but one who can be trusted with our soul affairs, even the Lord
Jesus Christ; and woe to us if we put our confidence in men! Ordained or
unordained, shaven or unshorn, they cannot help us. Yet I know that people do
trust in ministers most foolishly. I remember years ago being at three o'clock
in the morning in a house now pulled down, which stood not far from the London
Bridge railway-station. A gentleman of considerable means had spent the Sunday
at Brighton, had come home, and had been taken with cholera on a sudden, and
nothing would do him, when he was in the pangs of death, but he must send for
me. I went, not knowing what was required of me. But when I got there what could
I do? There was a little consciousness left to the man, and I spoke to him of
Jesus. I asked if he had a Bible. The people of the house searched high and low,
but there was no such thing to be found. The mind was soon too beclouded for
further comprehension, and as I came away I asked, "Has he ever gone to a place
of worship?" No, never -- never cared for such a thing; but as soon as he was
ill, then, "Oh, send for Mr. Spurgeon!" He must come, and nobody else: and there
I stood, and what could I do? There died in the City of London, not long ago, a
tradesman of much wealth; and when he came to die, though I had never seen the
man in my life before, he importunately asked for me. I could not go. My brother
went to see him, and, after setting before him the way of salvation, he
enquired, "What made you wish to see my brother?" "Well," he said, "you know
whenever I have a doctor I always like to get the best; and when I employ a
lawyer I like a man who is high in the profession. Money is no object. I want
the best possible help." Ah me! I shuddered at being so regarded. The best help
he could get! That best is nothing -- less than nothing, and vanity. What can we
do for you, dear hearts, if you will not have our Saviour? We can stand and weep
over you, and break our hearts to think that you reject him; but what can we do?
Oh, if we could let you into heaven, if we could renew your hearts, how joyfully
would we perform the miracle; but we claim no such power, no such influence! Go
you to Christ, and lay hold upon the true altar-horn; but do not be so foolish
as to put confidence in us or in any other ministers. "Ah, well," says one, "I
am free of that. I am a professor of religion, and have been a member of a
church now these twenty years." You may be a member of a church fifty years, but
you will be damned at last unless you are a member of Christ. It matters not
though you are a church-officer, a deacon, an elder, a pastor, a bishop, or even
Archbishop of Canterbury, or an apostle, you will perish as surely as Judas, who
betrayed his Master with a kiss, unless your heart is right with God. I pray
you, put no confidence in your profession. Unless you have Christ in your heart,
a profession is but a painted pageantry for a soul to go to hell in. As a corpse
is drawn to the grave by horses adorned with nodding plumes, so may you find in
an outward profession a pompous way of being lost. God save us from that!"No,"
says one, " but I do not trust in mere profession. I have great reliance upon
orthodoxy. I will have sound doctrine." That is right, friend, I would have all
men value the truth. "My confidence is in my sound doctrine." That is not mine,
friend, and I hope that it will not be yours long, for many lost souls have
firmly believed orthodox doctrine. In fact, I question whether any one is more
orthodox than the devil, for the devils believe and tremble. Satan is no
skeptic; he has too much knowledge for that. Devils believe and tremble, and yet
they are devils still. Put no confidence in the mere fact that you hold to an
orthodox faith, for a dead orthodoxy soon corrupts. You must have faith in
Christ, or else this altar-horn of a correct creed, on which you lay your hand,
will bring you no salvation.I will not enlarge upon this topic. Whatever you
depend upon apart from the blood and righteousness of Christ, away with it! Away
with it! If you are even depending upon your own repentance, and your faith,
away with them! If you are looking to your own prayers or alms, I can only cry
again, -- Away with them! Nothing but the blood of Jesus; nothing but the
atoning sacrifice; but, if you come and lay your hand upon that, blessed shall
you be.II. That assurance is the second part of our discourse, on which I will
speak briefly. COMING TO THE SPIRITUAL ALTAR, AND LAYING OUR HAND UPON IT, WILL
SAVE US.Now, notice first, the act itself. Joab came within the tabernacle. So,
poor soul, come and hide yourself in Christ. Joab took hold of the horns, the
projecting corners of the altar, and he would not let go. Come, trembling
sinners, and take hold on Christ Jesus."My faith doth lay her handOn that dear
head of thine;While like a penitent I stand,And there confess my sin."Lean with
your hand of faith upon your Lord, and say, "This Christ is mine. I accept it as
the gift of God to me, unworthy though I be."When that is done, a fierce demand
may be made upon you. The enemy will probably cry, "Come forth! Come forth!" The
self-righteous will say, "What right has a sinner as you to trust Christ? Come
forth!" Mind you say to them, "Nay, but I will die here." Your sins and your
guilty conscience will cry to you, "Come forth! Come forth! You must not lay
hold of Christ. See what you have been, and what you are, and what you are
likely to be." Answer to these voices, "Nay, but I will die here. I will never
give up my hold of Christ." Satan will come, and he will howl out, "Come forth!
What right have you with the Lord Jesus Christ? You cannot think that he came to
save such a lost one as you are." Do not listen to him. As often as he howls at
you, only say to yourself, "Nay, but I will die here." I pray God that every
sinner here may be brought to this desperate resolve, "If I perish, I will
perish trusting in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. If I must die, I
will die here." For certain, we shall die anywhere else. If we trust in any but
Jesus, we must perish. "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid."
"Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin." "He that believeth on
him is not condemned: but he that believeth not," -- whatever else he trusts to,
-- "is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the
only-begotten Son of God." Make, then, this desperate resolve -- If I must die,
here will I die,Here at the cross I bide;To whom or whither should I fly?Where
else can I confide?Say to all those who call you away, "Nay, but I will die
here"; for nobody ever did perish trusting in Jesus. There has not been through
all these centuries a single instance of a soul being cast away that came all
guilty and hell-deserving, and took Christ to be its salvation. If you perish,
you will then be the first that perished with his hand laid upon Christ. His
love and power can never fail a sinner's confidence. Wherefore, may God the Holy
Spirit lead you to resolve, "If I must die, I will die here." Listen to me,
soul, whoever thou mayest be out of the crowd, man or women, whatever thy life
may have been, even though it should have been that of a harlot or a thief, a
drunkard or a profligate, if thou wilt now believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
thou shalt be saved; for, if not, then God himself will have missed his greatest
design. What did he give Jesus for but to save sinners? What did he lay sin upon
Jesus for, but that he might take it off the sinner, and let him go free, and be
pardoned? If, then, Christ fails, God's grandest expedient has broken down. That
method by which the Lord resolved to show what his almighty grace can do has
proved to be a failure if a believing sinner is not saved. Dost thou think that
such a thing can ever be? It is blasphemy to think that Jehovah can be defeated.
He that believes in Christ shall be saved; nay, he is saved. If thou art not
saved believing in Christ, then Christ himself is dishonoured. Oh, let them once
know, down in the dark abode of fallen spirits, that a man has trusted in Christ
and yet has not been saved, I tell you that they will make such exultation over
Christ as Philistia made over Samson when his eyes were put out. They would feel
that they had defeated the Prince of Glory. They would trample on his blood, and
ridicule his claim to be the Saviour of men. If any soul can truly say
hereafter, "I went to Christ, and he refused me," then Christ does not speak the
truth when he says, "Him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out." Then he
has changed his nature, foregone his word, and foresworn himself. But that also
can never be. Wherefore, dear heart, cling to Jesus, and say still, "If I die, I
will die here."Moreover, if thou canst perish trusting in Christ thou wilt
discourage all the saints of God; for if Christ can break his promise to one,
then why not to another? If one promise fails, why not all the promises? If the
blood has lost its power, how can any of us ever hope to enter heaven? I say it
will breed great discouragement in the hearts of all people if this be true; for
what a wet blanket would e throne over all thy fellow-sinners! If they are
coming to Christ, they will start back, and say, "What is the good of it? Here
is one that came to Jesus, and he did not save him. He trusted in the precious
blood, and yet his sin was laid to his charge." If one fails, why not the rest?
I must give up preaching the gospel when once I hear of a man trusting Jesus and
not being saved; for I should be afraid to speak with boldness, as I now do.If
one poor soul that puts his trust in Christ should be cast away it would spoil
heaven itself. What security is there for glorified spirits that their
splendours shall endure except the promise of a faithful, covenant-keeping God?
If, then, looking down from their celestial seats, they behold the great Father
breaking his promise, and the Son of God unable to save those for whom he died,
then will they say, "We will lay our harps aside, and put our palms away, for
we, too, after all, may perish." See, then, O man, heaven and earth, ay, God and
his Christ, as to their credit and their glory, do stand and fall with the
salvation of every believing sinner. If I were in your stead tonight, I think
that I should bless God to have this matter put so plainly to me. I know that
years ago, when I was under a sense of sin, if I had heard even such a poor
sermon as this I should have jumped for joy at it, and would have ventured upon
Christ at once. Come, poor soul; come at once. You have heard the gospel long
enough; now obey it. You have heard about Christ long enough; now trust in him.
You have been invited and entreated, and pleaded with; now yield to his grace.
Yield to joy and peace by trusting in him who will give you both of these as
soon as you have rested in him.Look! sinner, look! A look out of thyself will
save thee. Look away from all thy works, and prayers, and tears, and feelings,
and church-goings, and chapel-goings, and sacraments, and ministers. Look alone
to Jesus. Look at once to him who on the bloody tree made expiation, and who
bids thee look, and thou shalt live.God make this present hour to be the period
of thy new birth. I pray it, and so do his people. The Lord hearken to our
intercessions, for Christ's sake. Amen.Portion of Scripture read before Sermon
-- Psalms 61 and 62.Hymns from "Our Own Hymn Book" -- 560, 589, 514.LETTER FROM
MR. SPURGEONDEAR FRIENDS AND BRETHREN, -- As I am expected to report myself
weekly, and have only this corner left to do it in, the bulletin shall be brief.
Weather unsettled; progress fair, but not rapid. I find myself too readily
depressed with small matters, and I have a sense of unfitness for my future
work. This shows that while rest has done much, there is more to be done. Three
weeks have worked such marvels that I hope in due time to return in full
vigor.My heart is with the Special Services at the Tabernacle; for which I beg
every reader to pray daily.C. H. SpurgeonMentone, February 21st, 1885.


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  CHAPTER 3: THE MAN CHRIST JESUS
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A Sermon (No.1835) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, April 12th, 1885, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At [3]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "Now consider how great
this man was." -- Hebrews 7:4. CONSIDER how great Melchizedek was. There is
something majestic about every movement of that dimly-revealed figure. His one
and only appearance is thus fitly described in the Book of Genesis, -- "And
Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of
the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most
high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him
tithes of all." We see but little of him, yet we see nothing little in him. He
is here and gone, as far as the historic page is concerned, yet is he "a priest
for ever," and "it is witnessed that he liveth." Everything about him is on a
scale majestic and sublime. "Consider how great this man was" in the combination
of his offices. He was duly appointed both priest and king: king of
righteousness and peace, and at the same time priest of the Most High God. It
may be said of him that he sat as a priest upon his throne. He exercised the
double office to the great blessedness of those who were with him; for his one
act towards Abraham would seem to be typical of his whole life; he blessed him
in the name of the Most High God. "Consider how great this man was" that he not
only ruled his people with righteousness and brought them peace, but he was
their representative towards God and God's representative to them; and in each
character distributed divine blessings. "Consider how great this man was" in the
power of his benedictions. Abraham had already been greatly blessed so much so
that he is described as "he that received the promises." Yet a receiver of
promises so great, a man with whom God had entered into solemn covenant, was yet
blessed by Melchizedek, and without all contradiction the less is blessed of the
better. This great man yet further blessed the blessed Abraham, and the father
of the faithful was glad to receive benediction at his hands. No small man this:
no priest of second rank; but one who overtops the sons of men by more than head
and shoulders, and acts a superior's part among the greatest of them. "Consider
how great this man was" in supremacy over all around him. He met Abraham when he
was returning as a conqueror from the overthrow of the robber kings; and the
victorious patriarch bowed before him and gave him tithes of the best of the
spoil. Without a moment's hesitation the man of God recognized the priest of
God, and paid to him the tribute of a subject to the officer of a great king. In
Abraham's bowing all the line of Aaronic priesthood did homage unto Melchizedek;
for as the apostle saith, "Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in
Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him." So
that all kings in Abraham, and all priests in Abraham, did homage unto this man,
who, as king and priest, was owned to be supreme. "Consider how great this man
was" when Paul had once proved that Melchizedek was greater than all other, at
least to the Hebrews; for the seed of Abraham can recognize none greater than
Abraham; and since Abraham by paying tithes acknowledges his subordination to
Melchizedek, it is clear that the priest of the Most High God was the greatest
of men. "Consider how great this man was" as to the singularity of his person,
"without father, without mother, without descent": that is to say, we know
nothing as to his birth, his origin, or his history. Even this explanation
hardly answers to the words, especially when it is added, "Having neither
beginning of days, nor end of life." So mysterious is Melchizedek that many
deeply-taught expositors think that he was veritably an appearance of our Lord
Jesus Christ. They are inclined to believe that he was not a king of some city
in Canaan, as the most of us suppose, but that he was a manifestation of the Son
of God, such as were the angels that appeared to Abraham on the plains of Mamre,
and that divine being who appeared to Joshua by Jericho, and to the three holy
ones in the furnace. At any rate, you may well consider how great this man was
when you observe how veiled in cloud is everything about his coming and going --
veiled because intended to impress us with the depth of the sacred meanings
which were shadowed forth in him. How much more shall this be said of him of
whom we ask -- "Thy generation who can tell,Or count the number of thy
years?""Consider how great this man was" in the specialty of his office. He had
no predecessor in his priesthood, and he had no successor. He was not one who
took a holy office and then laid it down; but as far as the historic page of
Scripture is concerned we have no note of his quitting this mortal scene; he
disappears, but we read nothing of his death any more than of his birth. His
office was perpetual, and passed not from sire to son; for he was the type of
"One who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power
of an endless life.""Consider how great this man was" in his being altogether
unique. There is another "after the order of Melchizedek," the glorious Antitype
in whom Melchizedek himself is absorbed; but apart from him Melchizedek is
unique. Who can equal this strange, mysterious priest, prophet, king, sent of
the Most High God to bless the father of the faithful? He is altogether alone:
he receives no commission from the hands of men, nor from God by men; and he
does not transmit to a successor what he had not received from a predecessor.
Melchizedek stands alone: one mighty crag, rising out of the plain; a long Alp,
whose brow is swathed in cloud sublime. "Consider how great this man was" but
think not to measure that greatness.I shall leave you to that consideration; for
my business this morning is not with Melchizedek, but with a greater than he. I
shall take my text in its connection, but lift it up to a higher application.
Beloved friends, if Melchizedek was so great, how much greater is that man whom
Melchizedek represents! If the type is so wonderful what must the Antitype be! I
invite you to consider "how great" is he of whom it is written, "The Lord sware
and will not repent, Thou are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
I will not say "Consider how great this man was", for there is no verb: the
"was" is inserted in italics by the translators. We are to consider "how great
this man." Say "was" if you will, but read also "is," and "shall be." Consider
how great this man was and is, and is to be, even the Man Christ Jesus.And
first, this morning, let me exhort you to consider how great this man is: then
let me assist you to consider how great this man is: and then let us practically
improve our consideration of how great this man is, trying to turn it to holy
account as the Holy Ghost may enable us.I. First, then, LET ME EXHORT YOU TO
CONSIDER HOW GREAT THIS MAN, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, is.This subject claims your
consideration. I do not think it should be a matter of option with you whether
you will now consider the greatness of your Lord or not; it is his due and right
that you should consider his greatness. For he of whom we speak, -- "this man,"
is one well known among us. If you be true to your profession he is one most
dear to you, to whom you owe all things, aye, owe your very selves. He is one
between whom and you there is a troth plighted: you are espoused unto him, your
hearts are his, even as his heart is yours. If you do not consider him, who
will? He has loved you, and given himself for you. Strangers may listen to our
teaching at this time, and in vain we may cry,"Is it nothing to you, all ye that
pass by?Is it nothing to you that Jesus should die?"But you are no stranger, you
are not even a guest in his house, but you are a child living at home with him.
He is your brother, and much more; for he is bone of your bone, and flesh of
your flesh. All your interests are wrapped up in him. You are one with him: by
an endless union, one. I claim, therefore, and I am sure you assent at once to
the claim, that you should often consider your Lord, and the greatness of his
nature, person, office, and work. His greatness should be your perpetual theme.
I would urge that all other thoughts should now be banished, for this is your
Lord's own day, and therefore to him it should be dedicated with glad consent.
If you are in the Spirit on the Lord's day, you will, like John in Patmos, give
all your thoughts to the Son of Man who walketh among the golden candlesticks. I
urge it on you that you do now consider with your whole heart and mind, how
great this man is. Do you not consent to the claim?Certainly the subject needs
consideration; for, dear friends, we shall never gain an idea of how great he is
unless we do consider, and consider much. Here is a great deep, and it cannot be
fathomed by the thoughtless. You think you know Christ, and, blessed be his
name, you do know him in a sense; but do you know the thousandth part of him?
When the apostle Paul had known Christ for many years he wrote to the
Philippians, and he then expressed himself as desiring to know Christ; for
though he knew him to his own personal salvation, yet he felt that he did not
know him to the full. He owned that he knew the love of Christ, but he added,
"it passeth knowledge." Well may each of us who has been for years a student at
the Master's feet exclaim, "I find myself a learner yet." I suppose the saints
who have been in heaven now for thousands of years, and have been evermore
adoring him, are still students of him. This is the philosophy which the most
cultured mind shall never fully compass, -- "God manifest in the flesh."
"Consider how great this man is!" This is a matter worthy of continual research,
and calling for profound thought. You must weigh this subject, and turn it over,
and meditate upon it the livelong day. You must let it lie both day and night
upon your hearts as a bundle of camphor, perfuming the bosom in which it lies.
You must look, and look, and look, and look again: still looking unto Jesus. The
angels standing on the golden mercy-seat have ever their eyes bent downward,
desiring to look within; and that must be your posture. Oh, you servants of the
Lord, by looking to Jesus you began to live, by looking to him you shall
continue to live, and your life shall find strength and growth. This sacred
subject shall ever need more and more consideration from you. Oh the depths of
the love, and wisdom, and glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ! I go a
little further, and say that not only does my subject claim your consideration
and need your consideration, but it solemnly commands it. The text is not a mere
piece of advice; it is by inspiration that the apostle bids you today out of
this sacred page, "Consider how great this man was." He charges you to think of
Melchizedek but much more would he have you remember Melchizedek's Antitype. Oh,
do not, my brethren, do not need to be pressed to this divine study: love it,
never cease from it. Count every minute wasted in which you are not learning
more about Jesus. Reckon all other knowledge to be as mere chaff and dog's meat
as compared with the knowledge of Christ crucified. In these days of science,
falsely so called, determine with the apostle to know nothing among men save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. It is imperative upon you that you love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind; and that God
in Christ Jesus should call into exercise every faculty of your inner man,
while, with blended intellect and emotion, you consider how great he was.Follow
out this meditation, I pray you, because there is an exceeding great reward for
any man who will "consider how great this man was." I find for myself that the
only possibility of my living is living in Christ and unto Christ. Look you
about and try to live by the wisdom of man. Unstable as water and fickle as the
wind is the product of human wisdom. The history of philosophy, from the
beginning until now, is the history of fools; and never was folly so
self-evident as in the philosophy which is now dominant. I believe that within a
century it will be found impossible to make men believe that educated men were
ever so degraded as to accept the philosophy of the present hour; it will seem
to be so altogether absurd and contrary to all reason and common sense, that it
will be rejected with scorn as a popular delusion of a dark age. Even today this
generation is kicking about like footballs the philosophies of preceding ages,
and we may rest assured that future generations will do the same with the doting
of today. I find, therefore, that I must come back to the revelation of God.
Here is a rock beneath my feet -- "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Certain great facts
concerning God and his Christ have been made known to us by the Holy Ghost, and
these are infallibly sure. God's revelation is true, whatever man's dreams may
be. On the basis of revelation there is foothold. A personal knowledge of Christ
revealed by the Spirit is also a sure matter. I get to Jesus, I speak to him,
and meditate upon him, and he rises before me greater than ever, till in his
presence all the learning of men condenses into folly. He is "God only wise."
Ah, then I live when he is all in all! My heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth
when I forget all else save Christ Jesus my Lord. Therefore, brethren, I say
that you shall find a great reward in full often coming near to your Lord, and
considering again and again how great he is.Consider his greatness, and I again
remind you that the blessing comes only by consideration. I may speak to you
this morning about the greatness of my Master, but I shall not succeed in fully
declaring it. I am never more vexed with myself than when I have done my very
best to extol his dear name! What is it but holding a candle to the sun? What
are my lispings compared with the loud acclamations which such an one as he is
might well expect from those who love him? You must carefully consider, or you
will miss the blessing. It will not be enough for you to hear, or read; you must
do your own thinking, and consider your Lord for yourselves. You may even read
the Bible itself without profit, if you do not consider as well as read. The
wine is not made by gathering the clusters, but by treading the grapes in the
wine-vat: under pressure the red juice leaps forth. Not the truth as you read
it, but the truth as you meditate upon it, will be a blessing to you. "Read,
mark, learn, and inwardly digest." "Consider how great this man was." Shut
yourselves up with Jesus, if you would know him. "Come, my people, enter thou
into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a
little moment, until the indignation be overpast." In Christ there is shelter,
and the more you consider him the greater your peace will be. Come and lay your
finger into the prints of the nails, and thrust your hand into his side. Commune
with the personal Christ, who ever liveth; and evermore "consider how great this
man was."Thus have I exhorted you to this duty; now let me try to help you in
it. But what help will mine be unless the Divine Spirit be with me, that the
word spoken may be with power?II. LET ME NEXT ASSIST YOU TO CONSIDER HOW GREAT
THIS MAN WAS.And first, lest the very use of the expression, "this man," should
leave anybody for a moment in doubt as to our faith in his Godhead, I bid you
consider how great this man was in his relationship to God. For though he was
man, he was not merely man. He was assuredly and truly man in all respects, "man
of the substance of his mother," bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; and
yet he was indeed and of a truth very God. Do not think of him as a divine man,
or as a human God; he was neither the one nor the other. He was perfectly man,
yet he was infinitely God. Think, then, into what a position of honour and
dignity his manhood was uplifted by union with the Godhead in one person. Born,
growing, gathering strength, coming to manhood, suffering, dying, in all this he
was man; yet he was never at any time less divine. Our Lord's humanity is not to
be thought of apart from his deity, for he is one and indivisible. I have
sometimes heard objections made against certain expressions in Dr. Watt's hymns
in which our Lord is spoken of as the God that bled and died, and so forth. I
fear that the objection is frequently aimed less at the poet than at the truth
of the deity of our Lord: the objector figures as a critic because he dares not
avow himself a heretic. Take note that in the Scriptures you shall find frequent
confusions of speech upon the person of our Lord, intentionally made, in order
to show that although the natures were distinct, yet they were indissolubly
united in the one person of Jesus. Of his one person might popularly be
predicated that which in strict accuracy could only be true of his humanity, or
only of his deity. To the one person of our Lord will be found to be ascribed
what he did both as God and as man, and it is not needful for us to be wise or
accurate above what is written by the Spirit of God. It is possible to be so
true to the letter as to be false to the spirit. Cavillers have no monopoly of
wisdom. My Lord Jesus is to me no less a man because he is God. Oh, how my heart
loves him! He is to me fairest of the sons of men, chief among ten thousand, and
altogether lovely. But he is to me because of his manhood none the less, but all
the more, "God over all, blessed for ever." Into the dust my spirit bows before
his majesty, and my soul adores him. I ask you, therefore, to consider the
greatness of his manhood because it never was apart from his Godhead, and cannot
be thought of except in connection therewith. "The Word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth." Inconceivable is the greatness of the man
who is thus one with God. You, my brethren, are not in doubt upon this vital
matter; let me, therefore, ask you to consider "how great this man was" as to
his relationship to men. Christ Jesus is the second man, the Lord from heaven.
Adam, our first father, was the head of the race, and all men were in him as
their representative: in him they stood in the garden; in him, alas, they fell
when he broke the divine command, and the Lord took up the quarrel of his
covenant, and cast him out of Paradise. "Oh, what a fall was there, my brethren:
then you and I and all of us fell down." We inherit because of Adam's failure a
nature whose tendencies are towards evil. Adam was a very great personage in
relation to the race: he was the summary of all the generations, the fountain of
the stream of humanity. To him we might apply the language of the prophet, "Thou
hast been in Eden, the garden of God. . . . Thou wast perfect in thy ways from
the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." As Adam came
forth from God he was as a covering cherub, under whose wings the race nestled
down. But now comes in the Lord Jesus Christ as the greater man, the
representative man, in whom none are made to fall, but multitudes arise. In this
man the Lord is again well pleased with men. Time was when God looked on
rebellious man, and it repented him that he had made him; but now that he turns
his eye to this perfect man he feels no such repentance; but, on the contrary,
we read that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." For the
sake of the man Christ Jesus he deals with the innumerable race of sinners in a
way of long-suffering and pity, and does not destroy them. Long ago had the
flood-gates been pulled up again, and man been swept away by a deluge, not of
water but of fire, if it had not been that the long-suffering Lord looks on the
Well-Beloved Christ and therefore spares mankind. Yea, more; for his sake he
sends the gospel of peace to men, and in the name of Jesus glad tidings are sent
to every creature. It has sometimes happened that the illustrious deed of one
man has served to elevate a class, or even a nation into honour. A grand, heroic
deed has welded you not only to that one person but to all his kith and kin.
Consider, then, how great this man was, that the divine mind which cannot look
upon sin without indignation, nevertheless was so charmed to look upon the
person and character of this glorious Man, that an amnesty was proclaimed to the
race, and a message was sent to the sons of men bidding them repent and turn to
him and live. "Consider," then, "how great this man was."Come a little closer,
and reach forward to that which will delight your hearts far more; consider the
relationship of Christ to his own people. Now we get on sure ground, and feel a
rock beneath our feet. Long before the heavens and the earth were made, God with
prescient eye beheld the person of his Son as God in human nature, and he saw
all his elect lying in him. The church is his body, "the fulness of him that
filleth all in all." God the Father saw in the divine decree the mystical
Christ, and he was well pleased with all his redeemed for Christ Jesus' sake.
How wondrous was that transaction when in the council-chamber of eternity the
covenant was made, and the Lord Jesus Christ became the surety of that covenant.
He entered into covenant with the eternal God on the behalf of his chosen that
he would make atonement for their sin, and would perfect the righteousness which
should cover every one of them, and make them to be accepted in the Beloved. No
actual sacrifice was offered for thousands of years; but see how great this man
was, since on the strength of his bare promise the Lord continued to save men
for thousands of years, admitting them to his infinite glory before the Mediator
had appeared, or the Redeemer had put a hand to the work. Consider that you and
I, and all of us who are in Christ, are this day beloved for his sake, accepted
for his sake, justified for his sake. Still doth God embrace us in the arms of
almighty love for his sake; for his sake heaven is being prepared for us; for
his sake the treasures of the infinite are given to us; because we are the
covenanted ones for whom he pledged his troth, and for whom in the fulness of
time he poured out his heart's blood, that he might redeem us unto God.
"Consider how great this man was." He is so great that all the saints are
blessed in him. He is so great that we, as many as have believed, dwell evermore
in the clefts of this great Rock, and find in him our castle and high tower. For
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. "Consider how
great this man was."Let me help you a little further, dear friends, to "consider
how great this man was," by reminding you of the surroundings of his first
advent. Thousands of years before his birth holy men had been speaking of him.
Prophets and seers all pointed to him as The Coming One. "How great this man
was," since the wisest and best of mankind all looked forward to his day with
gladness. Think of that wonderful system of types, and emblems, and symbols
which God ordained by his servant Moses; for the whole of this system was meant
to set forth the Messiah, who would yet appear in the fulness of time. To him
witnessed each bleeding sacrifice, each censer of sweet incense, each golden
vessel, each curtain and wall of tabernacle or temple: all spoke concerning him.
Ay, and more than that, all the histories of all the empires were all but
concentric rings of which he was the center; for the Lord Jesus is the center of
history, the sum total of all God's doings and manifestations among the sons of
men. That was an august Person towards whom all the past had been labouring, and
for whom all the present was agonizing. "How great this man was," that when he
came the saints were watching for him: Simeon and Anna could not depart till he
appeared. Angels stood on tip-toe ready to descend and sing, Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Humble shepherds, as they
watched their flocks, did but wait for the signal to hasten to adore him; and
wise men from the east forgot the fatigues of a long journey that they might lay
their gold and incense at his feet. How great this man was, when being born and
laid in a manger, the whole earth was moved by his appearing. Consider too, "how
great this man was," not only as to the outward circumstances of his coming, but
as to the secret mystery of his birth. For this man was not "born in sin," as we
are; neither was he "shapen in iniquity." This is a thing to be thought of and
considered in our privacy, but it cannot be omitted here. Thus said the angel to
the blessed Virgin, "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." "Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born
of the Virgin Mary," he was truly a man, but not fallen man. The method by which
the pure human nature of the man Christ Jesus was produced is a great mystery,
but it serves to make us see "how great this man was." I will say no more than
this, that we have here the fulfillment of the promise, "Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Think of that word
of old: "When he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let
all the angels of God worship him." Let us, therefore worship. Reverently
forbearing all idle intrusion into the deep things of God, let us go to
Bethlehem, and "consider how great this man was."Now, let us look at his life.
After he emerged from the obscurity of his childhood, what a life was that of
our Lord! His greatest adversaries, unless they have been mad, have never dared
to speak against his character. If the Christian religion were supposed to be an
invention, the existence of the narrative of the life of Jesus would be more
wonderful than the facts themselves. The conception of a perfect character
requires a perfect mind, and a perfect mind would never have prepared a fiction
and imposed it upon men as a veritable history. If the life of Jesus be a fable,
then a perfect being has deceived us; and this it is not possible for us to
imagine. The life of Jesus Christ is great throughout. It is so tender and so
gentle that it is never little and mean: it is so unselfish that it never ceases
to be majestic; it is so condescending that it is pre-eminently sublime. Above
all, it is full of truth, transparent, artless, natural. No one ever thought of
Jesus as acting a part yet; he is reality itself. He is so simple, so
unaffected, so truly the holy child Jesus, that in this he is great above all.
Never was a man so wholly seen as the Christ; and yet never was man so little
understood. You have read memoirs of departed worthies, and you have felt, The
biographer did well to say no more upon this point; but you never felt that
anything need be reserved as to the character of Jesus. If his chronicles had
kept on writing till the world itself had been made a library of the lives of
Christ they would never have recorded an unworthy act or a regrettable word. It
is not only that his pursuits were majestic, for he came to save men; that his
motives were divine, for he revealed the Father; but it is himself that is so
great -- I mean his soul, his spirit, the man himself. Look at Alexander, he is
a great conqueror, but what a pitiful creature he appears when the drunkard's
bowl has maddened him. What a poor thing is Napoleon as seen in privacy! In his
captivity he was as petulant as a spoiled child. Consider the Lord Jesus, and it
does not matter where you view him: in the wilderness he is grandly victorious
over temptation, in the crowd he is greatly wise in answering those who would
entrap him. Behold him in his agony in the Garden; was there ever such an
Agoniser? Behold him as the crucified; did ever cross hold such a sufferer? When
Jesus is least he is greatest, and when he is in the direst darkness his
brightness is best revealed. In death he destroys death; in the grave he bursts
the sepulcher. "Consider how great this man was": the field of his life is
ample; do not be slow to investigate it.Beloved, I cannot speak as I would of
him. The blaze of this Sun blinds me! Yet consider how great this man was in his
death; for then he appeared as the great Sin-offering, putting away the sin of
his people. The Lord had made to meet in him the iniquity of us all. What a
weight was on him, yet he sustained it! The wrath of God on account of sin fell
upon him who had never sinned, and he bore it all. A penalty which must have
made a hell for us for ever was exacted of our Lord upon the cross, and he
discharged it. He drank the whole of our bitter cup. He bore in himself all that
was necessary to vindicate the divine justice until he could truly say, "It is
finished." "Lama Sabachthani" is the most terrible word that ever came from
human lips; and therefore "It is finished" is the greatest utterance that tongue
ever gave forth. The work was colossal; what if I say it was infinite; and
therefore our Lord Jesus when he cried "It is finished," had reached the summit
of greatness. "Consider how great this man was."Now, beloved, consider for a
minute "how great this man was" when he rose again; for he could not be holden
with the bonds of death, and his body could not see corruption. It was a great
thing in itself for Christ to rise, but what I want you to remember is, that we
all rose in him. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive;" and especially his covenanted people were raised up together with him.
There was for his redeemed a death in his death and a rising again in his rising
again; for we have been made partakers of his resurrection, and we live in
newness of life by his rising from the dead. This is his cry as he rises from
the tomb, "Because I live ye shall live also." "Consider how great this man was"
whose life imparts life to all who are in him. But he has gone up on high, and
has led captivity captive. Think of the gifts which were showered down from
heaven in consequence of this man's ascent into the highest. For the Holy Spirit
descended never to return till the close of this dispensation, and now all the
gifts that rest in the church of God, and all the works of regeneration,
illumination, sanctification, and the like, which are wrought by the blessed
Paraclete, are the effects of the entrance of this man into the secret place of
the tabernacles of the Most High. Every soul regenerated, every heart comforted,
every mind quickened, every eye illuminated, every creature spiritually blessed,
reflects glory upon this man. How great is he!Beloved, I would we had time this
morning to introduce you to this man as he now sits at the right hand of God,
even the Father. There is no need for me to depict him; if there were it were
impossible to me. What said the man who loved him best, and knew him best? "When
I saw him I fell at his feet as dead." "Consider how great this man is" now,
when every angel pays him homage, and at the name of Jesus every knee doth bow,
of things in heaven; as by-and-by every knee shall bow of things on earth, and
things that are under the earth, for Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God
the Father. "Consider how great this man is," and then remember that he shall
shortly come to be our Judge! Possibly, while I am yet speaking to you, he may
appear; no man knoweth the day nor the hour; but "how great this man is" will be
clearly seen when, in flaming fire, he shall take vengeance upon those that will
not obey him. How "great" will he be when in the manifestation of his glory all
believers shall be glorified. I think I hear, even now, sounding out of my
theme, shouts of "hallelujah, hallelujah," from assembled worlds. Yes, the music
peals forth loud and long, "King of kings, and Lord of lords. HALLELUJAH. For he
shall reign for ever and ever. HALLELUJAH!" Break forth with your loud hosannas,
oh, ye waiting spirits of believing men, for the time is at hand when he shall
be admired in all them that believe! Consider how great this man is. I have but
reached the fringe of my subject. We see but the skirts of our Lord's garments;
his actual glory is unspeakable, unsearchable. Oh, the depths! Oh, the
depths!III. This in a few words is THE PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT of the whole
subject, with which we must wind up. Consider how great this man was, and as you
consider, believe in his infinite power to bless men. He is full of blessing as
the sun is full of light, that he may shine upon his needy creatures. Christ is
full of blessing that he may bless poor, needy, empty sinners. Dost thou say,
poor sinner, "I am so great a sinner that he cannot save me"? Consider what this
man did when he was here on earth; he went about and laid his hands on the
diseased, and they were cured; he looked at devils, and they fled; he spoke to
fevers and they disappeared. And he in heaven is, and if I may so say, greater
than when he was here below, for here on earth he was veiled in humiliation, but
now he is enthroned in infinite majesty, "able to save to the uttermost them
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."
Believe in the infinite blessedness treasured up in Christ for every believing
soul, and come and take your share of it this morning. All that you want, and
all that wish -- come and receive freely, for he doth graciously dispense it,
and it is a part of his glory that he delights to enrich the children of men.
Let faith in Jesus be one lesson -- may God write it on each heart.And then let
us ascribe to our Lord Jesus Christ all the honour that our thoughts can
compass. Let us give to him this day our very selves over again. Consider how
great this man was, and go away feeling how greatly you are indebted to him,
what great things you ought to do for him, and how little your greatest thing is
when you have done it as compared with the greatness of his deservings."Let him
be crowned with majestyThat bowed his head to death;And be his honour sounded
highBy all things that have breath."Do not you feel that question pressing upon
your heart?"Oh what shall I doMy Saviour to praise!"Do something; and having
done it do more, and yet more. Give up your whole being to the showing forth of
how great this Man is!Once more, considering how great this Man is do not be
afraid, nor troubled, nor tumbled up and down in your thoughts about anything
that is happening, or is yet to happen. "Consider how great this man was." Our
wise men are going to do away with the old faith; modern culture means to stamp
out old- fashioned orthodoxy. Christianity itself is getting to be effete, and
something better is to supersede it. Listen! "Why do the heathen rage, and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the
rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed. He
that sitteth in the heaven shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." One said to me the other day,
"The current of thought does not seem to run in the direction of evangelical
religion." Well, I said I should not believe in evangelical religion an atom the
more if the current of thought did run that way. We do not believe according to
the counting of heads. The currents of men's thoughts are so uncertain that you
can better tell the flight of birds, or the changing of English weather. The
gospel is perhaps the surer to be true because there are so few who believe it.
It is according to our expectation that God's revealed truth should be abhorred
and hated by the wise men of every generation. I shall not believe the gospel
any the less if I am left alone, nor shall I believe it any the more if the
whole world shall cry it up. Let God be true and every man a liar. He whose
faith stands upon the consensus of popular opinion has placed his feet upon the
sand, but he who has read his Bible and has been taught of the Spirit of God
what truth is, will hold to it come what may. When you consider how great this
man is, it seems to me that to be a fool for his sake is the highest wisdom, and
that to cling to what he says is the best philosophy, and to believe him, and
none beside is not alone a duty but a necessity of every Christian spirit. Be of
good cheer, dear friends! Let no man's heart fail him because of modern doubt.
Let no man be troubled because of the fierceness of the fight. I can hear
already the sounding of the trumpets of the Lord's coming. He is not far away;
even if thousands of years intervene before his feet touch the Mount of Olivet
the victory will never be doubtful. All is done that is required for winning the
battle, his blood has been shed, his life has been accepted as a ransom. The
eternal decree has settled it, nothing can change it! "He shall see of the
travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." Amen. PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ
BEFORE SERMON -- Psalm 2:1-10; Hebrews 7:1-10, 17, 21, 22.HYMNS FROM OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK -- 72, 392, 60.A pamphlet is being widely advertised as prefaced by
"Mr. Spurgeon." I have written no such preface. My views on all subjects are as
they were. It is disgraceful that an attempt should be made to propagate
doctrines which I loathe, by leading the public to suppose that I have espoused
them.C. H. SpurgeonApril 15, 1885.


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  CHAPTER 4: A QUESTION FOR A QUESTIONER
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A Sermon (No.1843) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, May 31st, 1885, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At [4]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "Hath God forgotten to be
gracious?" -- Psalm 77:9. ASAPH was very grievously troubled in spirit. The deep
waters were not only around his barque, but they had come in even unto his soul.
When the spirit of a man is wounded, then is he wounded indeed; and such was the
case with this man of God. In the time of his trouble he was attacked with
doubts and fears; so that he was made to question the very foundations of
things. Had he not taken to continual prayer he had perished in his affliction;
but he cried unto God with his voice, and the Lord gave ear unto him. Nor did he
only pray, but he used the fittest means for escaping from his despondency. Very
wisely this good man argued with himself, and sought to cure his unbelief. He
treated himself homoeopathically, meeting like with like. As he was attacked by
the disease of questioning, he gave himself questions as a medicine. Observe how
he kills one question with another, as men fight fire with fire. Here we have
six questions, one after another, each one striking at the very heart of
unbelief. "Will the Lord cast off for over? Will he be favourable no more? Is
his mercy clean gone for ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God
forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?" If
questions are raised at all let us go through with them; and as the Saviour
answered one question of his opponents by another, so may we also silence the
questions of unbelief by further questions which shall strip our doubt of all
disguises. The question which makes our text is meant to end other questions.
You may carry truth as far as ever you like, and it will always be truth. Truth
is like those crystals which, when split up into the smallest possible
fragments, still retain their natural form. You may break truth in pieces, you
may do what you like with it, and it is truth throughout; but error is diverse
within itself, and evermore bears its own death within itself. You can see its
falsehood even in its own light. Bring it forward, strip it of its disguises,
behold it in its naked form, and its deformity at once appears. Carry unbelief
to its proper consequences, and you will revolt from it, and be driven by the
grace of God to faith. Sometimes our doubts assume appearances which are not
their own, and so are hard to deal with; but if we make them take their own
natural shapes, we shall easily destroy them. The question before us is what the
logician would call a reductio ad absurdum; it reduces doubt to an absurdity; it
puts into plain and truthful words the thought of an unbelieving mind, and at
once it is seen to be a horrible notion. "Is his mercy clean gone for ever?" One
might smile while reading a suggestion so absurd, and yet there is grave cause
for trembling in the profanity of such a question. "Hath God forgotten?" We
stumble at the first word. How can God forget? "Hath God forgotten to be?" We
snap the question at that point, and it is blasphemous. It is no better when we
give it as a whole, -- "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" The bare idea is
both ridiculous and blasphemous. Again, I say, it is wise when we are vexed with
evil questioning to put down the questions in black and white, and expose them
to the daylight. Drive the wretched things out of their holes; hunt them in the
open; and they will soon be destroyed. Let the light of God into the dark cellar
of your despondency, and you will soon quit the den in sheer disgust at your own
folly. Make a thought appear to be absurd and you have gone a long way towards
conquering it. The question now before us is one of very wide application. I
shall not attempt to suggest all the ways in which it may be employed, but I am
going to turn it to three uses this morning. The first is for the man of God in
distress. Let him take this question, and put it to his own reason and common
sense, and especially to his own faith, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?"
When we have handled the question in that way, we will pass it over to the
seeking sinner who is despondent, and we will ask him whether he really believes
that God hath forgotten to be gracious. When this is done, we may have a moment
or two left for the Christian worker who is dispirited, who cannot do his work
as he would wish to do, and who mourns over the little result coming from it.
"Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" Will you be allowed to go forth weeping,
bearing precious seed, and will you never come again rejoicing, bringing your
sheaves with you? We shall have quite enough matter to fill up our time, and
many fragments remaining when the feast is over. May God the Holy Spirit bless
the word! I. TO THE MAN OF GOD IN DISTRESS, this question is commended, "Hath
God forgotten to be gracious?" What kind of distress is that which suggests such
a question? Where had Asaph been? In what darkness had he wandered? In what
tangled wood had he lost himself? How came he to get such a thought into his
mind? I answer, first, this good man had been troubled by unanswered prayers.
"In the day of my trouble," he says, -- "In the day of my trouble I sought the
Lord"; and he seems to say that though he sought the Lord his griefs were not
removed. He was burdened, and he cried unto God beneath the burden, but the
burden was not lightened. He was in darkness, and he craved for light, but not a
star shone forth. Nothing is more grievous to the sincere pleader than to feel
that his petitions are not heeded by his God. It is a sad business to have gone
up, like Elijah's servant, seven times, and yet to have seen no cloud upon the
sky in answer to your importunity. It tries a man to spend all night in
wrestling, and to have won no blessing from the covenant angel. To ask, and not
to receive; to seek, and not to find; to knock, and to see no open door, --
these are serious trials to the heart, and tend to extort the question, "Hath
God forgotten to be gracious?" Unanswered prayer is very staggering even to
strong faith; but the weak faith of a tried believer is hard put to it by long
delays and threatened denials. When the mercy-seat itself ceases to yield us
aid, what can we do? You will not wonder, then, considering your own tendency to
doubt, that this man of God, when his prayers did not bring him deliverance,
cried out, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?"Besides that, he was enduring
continued suffering. Our text says, "My sore ran in the night." His wound was
bleeding ever: there was no cessation to his pain. At night he woke up and
wished it were morning, and when the daylight came he wished for night again,
if, perchance, he might obtain relief; but none came. Pain of body, when it is
continuous and severe, is exceedingly trying to our feeble spirits; but agony of
soul is worse still. Give me the rack sooner than despair. Do you know what it
is to have a keen thought working like an auger into your brain? Has Satan
seemed to pierce and gimlet your mind with a sharp, cutting thought that would
not be put aside? It is torment indeed to have a worm gnawing at your heart, a
fire consuming your spirit: yet a true child of God may be thus tormented. When
Asaph had prayed for relief, and the relief did not come, the temptation came to
him to ask, "Am I always to suffer? Will the Lord never relieve me? It is
written, 'He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds'; has he
ceased from that sacred surgery? 'Hath God forgotten to be gracious?'"In
addition to this, the man of God was in a state of mind in which his depression
had become inveterate. He says, "My soul refused to be comforted." Many plasters
were at hand, but he could not lay them upon the wound; many cordials offered
themselves, but he could not receive them -- his throat seemed closed. The
meadows were green, but the gate was nailed up, and the sheep could not get in;
the brooks flowed softly, but he could not reach their margin to lie down and
drink. Asaph was lying at the pool of Bethesda, and he saw others step in to be
healed, but he had no man to put him into the pool when the waters were
troubled. His mind had become confirmed in its despondency, and his soul refused
to be comforted.More than that, there seemed to be a failure of the means of
grace for him. "I remembered God, and was troubled." Some of God's people go up
to the house of the Lord where they were accustomed to unite in worship with
delight, but they have no delight now; they even go to the communion-table, and
eat the bread and drink the wine, but they do not receive the body and blood of
Christ to the joy of their faith. Anon they get them to their chambers, and open
their Bibles, and bow their knees, and remember God; but every verse seems to
condemn them; their prayers accuse them, and God himself seems turned to be
their enemy; and then it is little wonder that unbelief exclaims, "Hath God
forgotten to be gracious?"At the back of all this there was another trouble for
Asaph, namely, that he could not sleep. He says, "Thou holdest mine eyes
waking." It seemed as if the Lord himself held up his eyelids, and would not let
them close in sleep. Others on their beds were refreshed with "kind nature's
sweet restorer, balmy sleep"; but when Asaph sought his couch he was more
unrestful there than when he was engaged in the business of the day. We may
speak of sleeplessness very lightly, but among afflictions it is one of the
worst that can happen to men. When the chamber of repose becomes a furnace of
anguish it goes hard with a man. When the Psalmist could not find even a
transient respite in sleep, his weakness and misery drove him to say, "Hath God
forgotten to be gracious?"Moreover, there was one thing more: he lost the
faculty of telling out his grief: "I am so troubled that I cannot speak." There
are some people to whom we would not tell our trouble, for we know they would
not understand it, for they have never been in deep waters themselves; there are
others to whom we could not tell our trouble, though they might help us, because
we feel ashamed to do so. To be compelled to silence is a terrible increase to
anguish: the torrent is swollen when its free course is prevented. A dumb sorrow
is sorrow indeed. The grief that can talk will soon pass away; that misery which
is wordless is endless. The brook that ripples and prattles as it flows is
shallow; but deep waters are silent in their flow. When a man falls under the
power of a dumb spirit it needs Christ himself to come and cast the devil out of
him, for he is brought into a very grievous captivity. We who know what a poor
thing human nature is when it is brought into affliction, are not surprised that
the man of God said in such a case, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" Having
thus, you see, put the doubt in the most apologetic style, and mentioned the
excuses which mitigate the sin of the question, I am now going to expose its
unreasonableness and sinfulness, by considering what answers we may give to such
a question? I shall endeavour to answer it by making it answer itself -- "Hath
God forgotten to be gracious?" Answer: Hath God forgotten anything? If he could
forget, could he be God? Is it not absurd to speak of him as short of memory, of
whose understanding there is no searching? Shall we speak of him as forgetting,
when to his mind all things are present, and the past and the future are ever
before him as in a map which lies open before the beholder's eye? Oh child of
God, why doest thou talk thus? Oh troubled heart, wilt thou insult thy God, wilt
thou narrow the infinity of his mind? Can God forget? Thou art forgetful.
Perhaps thou canst scarce remember from hour to hour thine own words and thine
own promises; but is the Lord such an one as thou art? Not even the least thing
is passed over by him. He hath not forgotten the young ravens in their nests,
but he heareth when they cry. He hath not forgotten a single blade of grass, but
giveth to each its own drop of dew. He hath not forgotten the sea monsters down
deep in the caverns of ocean. He hath not forgotten a worm that hides itself
away beneath the sod; therefore banish the thought once for all, that thy God
hath forgotten anything, much less that he hath forgotten to be gracious."Hath
God forgotten to be gracious?" Then hath he forgotten an old, long, ancient,
aye, eternal habit of his heart. Hast thou not heard that his mercy endureth for
ever? Did he not light up the lamps of heaven because of his mercy? Do we not
sing, "To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever. The sun
to rule by day, and the moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth
for ever"? Since the creation hath he not in providence always been gracious? Is
it not his rule to open his hand, and supply the want of every living thing? Did
he not give his Son to redeem mankind? Hath he not sent his Spirit to turn men
from darkness to light? After having been gracious all these myriads of ages,
after having manifested his love and his grace at such a costly rate, hath he
forgotten it? Thou, O man, takest up a practice, and thou layest it down; thou
doest a thing now and then, and then thou ceasest from thy way, but shall the
eternal God who has always been gracious forget to be gracious? Oh, Lord,
forgive the thought."Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" Why, then, he must have
forgotten his purpose! Hath thou not heard that or ever the earth was he
purposed to redeem unto himself a people who should be his own chosen, his
children, his peculiar treasure, a people near unto him? Before he made the
heavens and the earth, had he not planned in his own mind that he would manifest
the fulness of his grace toward his people in Christ Jesus, and dost thou think
that he has turned from his eternal purpose, and rent up his divine decrees, and
burned the book of life, and changed the whole course of his operations among
the sons of men? Dost thou know what thou art at to talk so? Doth he not say, "I
am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed"? Hath he
said, and will he not do it? Hath he purposed, and shall it not come to pass?
Banish, then, the thought of his forgetting to be gracious."Hath God forgotten
to be gracious?" Then he must have forgotten his own covenant; for what was the
purport of his covenant with Jesus Christ, the second Adam, on the behalf of his
people? Is it not called a covenant of grace? Is not grace the spirit and tenor
and object of it? Of old he said, "I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy"; and in his covenant he
ordains to show this grace to as many as are in Christ Jesus. Now, if a man's
covenant be confirmed it stands fast. Nothing that occurs after a covenant has
been made can alter it; and God having once made a covenant turneth not from his
promise and his oath. The law which was four hundred and thirty years after the
covenant made with Abraham could not change the promises which the Lord had made
to the believing seed, neither can any accident or unforeseen circumstance make
the covenant of grace null and void; indeed, there are no accidents with God,
nor any unforeseen circumstances with him. He hath lifted his hand to heaven and
hath sworn; he hath declared, "If my covenant be not with day and night, then
will I cast away the seed of Jacob." The Lord hath not forgotten his covenant
with day and night, neither will he cast off his believing people. He cannot,
therefore, forget to be gracious.More than that, when thou sayest, "Has God
forgotten to be gracious?" dost thou not forget that in such a case he must have
forgotten his own glory? for the main of his glory lies in his grace. In that
which he does out of free favour and love to undeserving, ill-deserving,
hell-deserving men, he displays the meridian splendour of his glory. His power,
his wisdom, and his immutability praise him; but in the forefront of all shines
out his grace. This is his darling attribute; by this he is illustrious on earth
and in heaven above. Hath God forgotten his own glory? Doth a man forget his
honour? Doth a man turn aside from his own name and fame? He may do so in a
moment of madness; but the thrice holy God hath not forgotten the glory of his
name, nor forgotten to be gracious. Listen, and let unbelief stand rebuked. If
God hath forgotten to be gracious, then he must have forgotten his own Son, he
must have forgotten Calvary and the expiatory sacrifice offered there; he must
have forgotten him that is ever with him at his right hand, making intercession
for transgressors; he must have forgotten his pledge to him that he shall see of
the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Canst thou conceive that? It is
verging upon blasphemy to suppose such a thing; yet it must be that he has
forgotten his own Son if he hath forgotten to be gracious.Once more; if this
were the case, the Lord must have forgotten his own self; for grace is of the
essence of his nature, since God is love. We forget ourselves and disgrace
ourselves, but God cannot do so. Oh beloved, it is part and parcel of God's own
nature that he should show mercy to the guilty and be gracious to those who
trust in him. Hast thou forgotten as a father thy children? Can a woman forget
her sucking child that she should not have compassion upon the son of her womb?
These things are barely possible, but it is utterly impossible that the great
Father should forget himself by forgetting his children; that the great Lord who
hath taken us to be his peculiar heritage and his jewels should cease to value
us and forget to be gracious to us.I think I hear some one say, "I do not think
God hath forgotten to be gracious except to me." Doth God make any exceptions?
Doth he not speak universally when he addresses his children? Remember, if God
forgot to be gracious to one of his believing people he might forget to be
gracious to them all. If there were one instance found in which his love failed,
then the foundations would be removed, and what could the righteous do? The Good
Shepherd doth not preserve some of his sheep, but all of them; and it is not
concerning the strong ones of his flock that he saith, "I give unto my sheep
eternal life, and they shall never perish;" but he has said it of all the sheep,
aye, and of the smallest lamb of all the flock, of the most scabbed and wounded,
of all that he has purchased with his blood. The Lord hath not forgotten himself
in any one instance; but he is faithful to all believers.Now, let us attend to
the amendment of the question. Shall I tell thee, friend, thou who hast put this
question, what the true question is which thou oughtest to ask thyself? It is
not, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" but "Hast thou forgotten to be
grateful?" Why, thou enjoyest many mercies even now. It is grace which allows
thee to live after having asked such a vile question. Grace is all around thee,
if thou wilt but open thine eyes, or thine ears. Thou hadst not been spared
after so much sin if God had forgotten to be gracious.Listen: Hast thou not
forgotten to be believing? God's word is true, why dost thou doubt it? Is he a
liar? Has he ever played thee false? Which promise of his has failed? Time was
when thou didst trust him; then thou knewest he was gracious; but thou art
doubting now without just cause; thou art permitting an evil heart of unbelief
to draw thee aside from the living God. Know this, and repent of it, and trust
thy best Friend.Hast thou not also forgotten to be reverent? Else how couldst
thou ask such a question? Should a man say of God that he has forgotten to be
gracious? Should he imagine such a thing? Should the keenest grief drive to such
profanity? Shall a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
Shall anyone of us begin to doubt that grace, which has kept us out of the
bottomless pit, and spared us to this hour? Oh, heir of glory, favoured as thou
hast been to bathe thy forehead in the sunlight of heaven full often, and then
to lean thy head on the Saviour's bosom, -- is it out of thy mouth that this
question comes, -- "Hath God forgotten to be gracious"? Call it back and bow
thine head unto the dust, and say, "My Lord, have mercy upon thy servant, that
he hath even thought thus for an instant.""Hath God forgotten to be gracious?"
Why, surely thou hast forgotten thyself, or thou wouldest not talk so: thou hast
forgotten that thou owest everything to thy Lord, and art indebted to him even
for the breath in thy nostrils. Thou hast forgotten the precious blood of Jesus;
thou hast forgotten the mercy-seat; thou hast forgotten providence; thou hast
forgotten the Holy Spirit; thou hast forgotten all that the Lord has done for
thee: surely, thou hast forgotten all good things, or thou wouldest not speak
thus. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and leave the dunghill of thy despair,
and sing, "His mercy endureth for ever." Say in thy soul, -- "Though he slay me,
yet will I trust in him."Thus much to the child of God. May the Holy Spirit, the
Comforter, apply it to every troubled heart.II. Furthermore, I desire to talk a
little with THE SEEKING SINNER IN DESPONDENCY. You have not yet found joy and
peace through believing, and therefore I will first describe your case, and what
it is that has made you say, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?"You labour
under a sense of guilt; you know that you have transgressed against God, and you
feel that this is a terrible thing, involving wrath to the uttermost. The arrows
of God are sticking in your soul, and rankling there. You cannot trifle with sin
as you once did; it burns like a fiery poison in your veins! You have been
praying to get rid of that sense of sin, but it deepens. The case I am stating
is very clear to every child of God; but it is not at all clear to the man who
is enduring it. He cries, "The more I pray, the more I go to hear the word, the
more I read the Bible, the blacker sinner I seem to be. 'Hath God forgotten to
be gracious?'" Moreover, a sense of weakness is increasing upon you. You thought
that you could pray; but now you cannot pray. You thought it the easiest thing
in the world to believe; but now the grappling-irons will not lay hold upon the
promise, and you find no rest. You cannot now perform those holy acts which you
once thought to be so easy. Your power is dried up, your glory is withered. Now
you groan out, "I would but I can't repent, then all would easy be. Alas, I have
no hope, no strength; I am reduced to utter weakness." We understand all this,
but you do not; and we do not wonder at your crying, -- "Hath God forgotten to
be gracious." "Oh, but sir, I have been crying to God that he would be pleased
to deliver me from sin, and the more I try to be holy the more I am tempted; I
never knew such horrible thoughts before, nor discovered such filthiness in my
nature before. When I get up in the morning I resolve that I will go straight
all the day, and before long I am more crooked than ever. I feel worse rather
than better. The world tempts me, the devil tempts me, the flesh tempts me,
everything goes wrong with me. 'Hath God forgotten to be gracious'? I have
prayed the Lord to give me peace, and he promises to give rest; but I am more
uneasy than ever, and cannot rest where I used to do. I used to be very happy
when I was at chapel on Sunday; I thought I was doing well to be at public
worship; but now I fear that I only go as a formalist, and therefore I mock God,
and make matters worse. I rested once in being a teetotaller, in being a
hard-working, honest, sober man; but now I see that I must be born again. I used
to rest once in the idea that I was becoming quite religious; but now it seems
to me that my betterness is a hollow sham, and all my old nests are pulled
down.My friend, I perfectly understand your case, and think well of it; for the
like has happened to many of us. You must be divorced from self before you can
be married to Christ; and that divorce must be made most clear and plain, or
Jesus will never make a match with you. You must come clear away from
self-righteousness, self-trust, self-hope, or else one of these days, when Jesus
has saved you, there might be a doubt as to whether he is to have all the glory,
or to go halves with self. He makes you nothing that he may be all in all to
you. He grinds you to the dust that he may lift you out of it for ever.
Meanwhile, I do not wonder that the question crosses your mind, "Hath God
forgotten to be gracious?"Let me show how wrong the question is. "Hath God
forgotten to be gracious?" If he has, he has forgotten what he used to know
right well. David was foul with his adultery -- remember that fifty-first Psalm
-- but how sweet was the prophet's message to the penitent king: "The Lord hath
put away thy sin; thou shalt not die!" "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow," was a prayer most graciously answered in that royal sinner's case.
Remember Jonah, and how he went down to the bottom of the mountains in the
whale's belly, and was brought even to hell's door; yet he lived to sing
"Salvation is of the Lord," and was brought out of the depths of the sea.
Remember Manasseh, who shed innocent blood very much, and yet the grace of God
brought him among thorns, and made him a humble servant of the Lord. Remember
Peter, how he denied his Master, but his Master forgave him, and bade him feed
his sheep. Forget not the dying thief, and how in the extremity of death, filled
with all the agonies of crucifixion, he looked to the Lord, and the Lord looked
on him, and that day he was with the King in paradise. Think also of Saul of
Tarsus, that chief of sinners, who breathed out threatenings against the people
of God, and yet was struck down, and, before long was in mercy raised up again,
and ordained to be a chosen vessel to bear the gospel among the heathen. If God
has forgotten to be gracious, he has forgotten a line of things in which he has
wrought great wonders, and in which his heart delighted from of old. It cannot
be that he will turn away from that which is so dear to him."Hath God forgotten
to be gracious?" Then why are all the old arrangements for grace still standing?
There is the mercy-seat; surely that would have been taken away if God had
forgotten to be gracious. The gospel is preached to you, and this is its
assurance, "Whosoever believeth in him is not condemned." If the Lord had
forgotten to be gracious he would not have mocked you with empty words.Our Lord
Jesus Christ himself is still living, and still stands as a priest to make
intercession for transgressors. Would that be the case if God had forgotten to
be gracious? The Holy Spirit is still at work convincing and converting; would
that be so if God had forgotten to be gracious? Oh brothers, while Calvary is
still a fact, and the Christ has gone into the glory bearing his wounds with
him, there is a fountain still filled with blood wherein the guilty may wash.
While there is an atoning sacrifice there must be grace for sinners. I cannot
enlarge on these points, for time flies so rapidly; but the continuance of the
divine arrangements, the continuance of the Son of God as living and pleading,
and the mission of the Holy Spirit as striving, regenerating, comforting -- all
this proves that God hath not forgotten to be gracious. Remember that God
himself must according to nature be ever gracious so long as men will put their
trust in the great sacrifice. He has promised to be gracious to all who confess
their sins and forsake them and look to Christ; and he cannot forget that word
without a change which we dare not impute to him. God might sooner forget to be
than forget to be gracious to those to whom he has promised his grace. He has
promised to every poor, guilty, confessing soul that will come and put his trust
in Christ that he will be gracious in pardoning sin, and so it must be.I shall
come to close quarters with you. I know your despair has driven you to the
question, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" and I would silence it by putting
other questions to you. Is it not you that have forgotten to believe in Christ?
"I have been praying," says one. That is all very well, but the gospel is, "He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," not "he that prays." "I have
been trying to come to Christ." I know that, but I read nothing about this
trying in Holy Scripture, and I fear your trying is that which keeps you from
Jesus. You are told to believe in Christ, not to try to believe. A minister in
America, some time ago, was going up the aisle of his church during a revival,
when a young man earnestly cried to him, "Sir, can you tell me the way to
Christ?" "No," was the answer, very deliberately given; "I cannot tell you the
way to Christ." The young man answered, "I beg pardon; I thought you were a
minister of the gospel." "So I am," was the reply. "How is it that you cannot
tell me the way to Christ?" "My friend," said the minister, "there is no way to
Christ. He is himself the way. All that believe in him are justified from all
things. There is no way to Christ; Christ is here." O! my hearer, Christ himself
is the way of salvation, and that way comes right down to your foot, and then
leads right up to heaven. You have not to make a way to the Way, but at once to
run in the way which lies before you. The way begins where you now are; enter
it. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ now, and you are saved; and then you will
no more ask the question, "Is his mercy clean gone for ever?""Oh," says one,
"but I have been looking to reform myself and grow better, and I have done a
good deal in that way." That is not the gospel; it is all very right and proper,
but the gospel is, "He that believeth in him is not condemned." The other day I
saw my bees swarming; they hung on a branch of a tree in a living mass; the
difficulty was to get them into a hive. My man went with his veil over his face
and began to put them into the skep; and I noticed that he was particularly
anxious to get the queen bee into it; for if he once had her in the hive the
rest would be sure to follow, and remain with her. Now, faith is the queen bee.
You may get temperance, love, hope, and all those other bees into the hive; but
the main thing is to get simple faith in Christ, and all the rest will come
afterwards. Get the queen bee of faith, and all the other virtues will attend
her."Alas!" cries one, "I have been listening to the gospel for years." That is
quite right, for "faith cometh by hearing"; but recollect, we are not saved by
mere listening, nor even by knowing, unless we advance to believing. The letter
of the word is not life; it is the spirit of it which saves. When tea was first
introduced into this country a person favoured a friend with a pound of it. It
was exceedingly expensive, and when he met his friend next, he enquired, "Have
you tried the tea?" "Yes, but I did not like it at all." "How was that?
Everybody else is enraptured with it." "Why," said the other, "we boiled it in a
saucepan, threw away the water, and brought the leaves to table; but they were
very hard, and nobody cared for them." Thus many people keep the leaves of form,
and throw away the spiritual meaning. They listen to our doctrines, but fail to
come to Christ. They throw away the true essence of the gospel, which is faith
in Jesus. I pray you, do not act thus with what I preach. Do not bury yourself
in my words, or even in the words of Scripture; but pass onward to the life and
soul of their meaning, which is Christ Jesus, the sinner's hope. All the aroma
of the gospel is in Christ; all the essence of the gospel is in Christ, and you
have only to trust him to enjoy eternal life. You guilty, worthless sinner, you
at the gates of hell, you who have nothing to recommend you, you who have no
good works or good feelings, simply trust the merits of Christ, and accept the
atonement made by his death, and you shall be saved, your sin shall be forgiven,
your nature shall be changed, you shall become a new creature in Christ Jesus,
and you shall never say again, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?"III. The time
has gone; therefore THE DISAPPOINTED WORKER must be content with a few crumbs.
You have been working for Christ, dear brother, and have fallen in to a very low
state of heart, so that you cry, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" I know
what state you are in. You say, "I do not feel as if I could preach; the matter
does not flow. I do not feel as if I could teach; I search for instruction, and
the more I pull the more I cannot get it." "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?"
Can he not fill thine empty vessel again? Can he not give thee stores of
thought, emotion, and language? He has used thee; can he not do so again? "Ah,
but my friends have gone; I am in a village from which the people remove to
London, and I lose my best helpers." Or, perhaps you say, "I work in a back
street, and everybody is moving out into the suburbs." You have lost your
friends, and they have forgotten you; but, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?"
You can succeed so long as the Lord is with you. Be of good courage; your best
friend is left. He who made a speech in the Academy found that all his hearers
had gone except Plato; but as Plato remained, the orator finished his address.
They asked him how he could continue under the circumstances, and he replied
that Plato was enough for an audience. So, if God be pleased with you, go on;
the divine pleasure is more than sufficient. "The Lord of hosts is with us; the
God of Jacob is our refuge." Did not Wesley say when he was dying, "The best of
all is, God is with us"? Therefore fear not the failure of friends. "But, sir,
the sinners I have to deal with are such tough ones: they reject my testimony;
they grow worse instead of better; I do not think I can ever preach to them
again." "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" You cannot save them, but he can.
"But I work in such a depraved neighbourhood, the people are sunk in poverty and
drunkenness." "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" Does not he know the way to
save drunkards? Does not he know how to rescue the harlot and the whoremonger,
and make them clean and chaste?"Ah, but the church in which I labour is in a
wretched state; the members are worldly, lukewarm, and divided. I have no
brethren around me to pray for me, as you have; they are always squabbling and
finding fault with one another." That is a horrible business, but "Hath God
forgotten to be gracious?" Cannot God put you right, and your church right? If
he begins with you by strengthening your faith, may you not be the means of
healing all these divisions, and bringing these poor people into a better state
of mind, and then converting the sinners round about you? "Hath God forgotten to
be gracious?""Ah, well," saith one, "I am ready to give it all up." I hope you
will not do so. If you have made up your mind to speak no more in the name of
the Lord, I hope that word will be like fire in your bones; for if God has not
forgotten to be gracious, provoked as he has been, how can you forget to be
patient? Is it possible while God's sun shines on you that you will refuse to
shine on the fallen? If God continues to be gracious, you ought not to grow
weary in well-doing.Perhaps I speak to some dear brother who is very old and
infirm; he can hardly hear, and scarcely see, so that he reads his Bible with
difficulty. He gets to the service now, but he knows that soon he will be
confined to his chamber, and then to his bed. His mind is sadly failing him; he
is quite a wreck. Take this home with you, my aged brother, and keep it for your
comfort if you never come out again: "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" Oh,
no; the Lord hath said, "Even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs
will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will
deliver you." Having loved his own which were in the world, the Lord Jesus loved
them unto the end; and he will love you to the end. When the last scene comes,
and you close your eyes in death, blessed be his name, you shall know that he
has not forgotten you. "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee," is the
Lord's promise, and his people's sheet-anchor. Therefore, let us not fear when
our frail tabernacles are taken down, but let us rejoice that God hath not
forgotten to be gracious. Though our bodies will sink into the dust, they will
ere long rise again, and we shall be in glory for ever with the Lord. Blessed be
his name. Amen.Portion of Scripture read before Sermon -- Psalm 77.Hymns from
"Our Own Hymn Book" -- 196, 77, 502.


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  CHAPTER 5: ISRAEL AND BRITAIN. A NOTE OF WARNING
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A Sermon (No.1844) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, June 7th, 1885, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the [5]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "But though he had done
so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of
Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed
our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they
could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes,
and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor
understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These
things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him." -- John 12:37-41.
THE BLINDNESS of Israel concerning our Lord was sadly remarkable. It was a
blindness of the eyes, for they saw his many miracles, and yet believed not:
their ears also seemed to be stopped, for they heard his words and did not
understand them; and their hearts also were heavy, for they did not relent under
the plaintive admonitions of a Saviour's love. Their hearts were cruel towards
the Messiah; they hated him without a cause. No door was open to the heart of
Israel; they had hardened their heart, they had shut their eyes, they had
stopped their ears, and even he that spake as never man spake gained no access
to their souls. They went so far as to crucify him, and cried as they did so,
"His blood be on us, and our children," -- words so sadly verified when
Jerusalem was destroyed, and her children slaughtered, sold as slaves, or
scattered to the four corners of the earth. It was indeed, a terrible blindness
which happened unto Israel. Her rejection of the Lord Jesus is the more amazing
because Isaiah gave so clear an account of the Messiah, and so clearly pictured
Jesus of Nazareth. Descriptions of him could not have been more explicit than
were the prophecies of Isaiah. It would be very easy to construct an entire life
of Christ out of the book of Isaiah, beginning with "a virgin shall conceive and
bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel," and ending with "he made his
grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death." Isaiah spake of John the
Baptist as the "voice crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God," and he foretold our Lord's
ministry by the way of the sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the Gentiles, where
the people who sat in darkness saw great light. The prophecy portrayed his Lord
as "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."
Clearest of all is he upon his vicarious sufferings, concerning which he uses a
variety of most definite expressions, such as, -- "The chastisement of our peace
was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah saw so clearly the day
of our Lord Jesus that he spake rather as an evangelist than as a prophet; as an
eyewitness, rather than as one foretelling a far-off event. Yet all this
clearness was lost upon the men of his generation, and upon those who followed
after. The nation had so long been fickle towards God, and had trifled so long
with God's truth, that it was at length given up to a judicial hardness of
heart, so that it could not understand or perceive. They refused the plainest
messages of grace, and were so confirmed in unbelief that all their prophets
cried with one plaintive voice, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is
the arm of the Lord revealed?" Nor was it alone grievous that Israel sinned
against the light which shone in Isaiah's testimony; but, alas, she closed her
eyes against the meridian splendour of our Lord's own life. Jesus bore his own
witness in his person, teachings, works, and gifts. A sad wonder lies in the
fact, that they did not know the Lord of glory although they saw his miracles,
which were sure witnesses to his claims. He wrought among them works which none
other man did. There is about our Lord a likeness to God: in all that he does
the Godhead shines forth. He is so pure that he can say, "Which of you
convinceth me of sin?" How like to him who is saluted as "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord
God of Hosts!" His teaching is so full of tenderness and gentleness that since
God is love, we conclude that Christ is God. His many miracles touch upon every
point in the great circle of omnipotence. What is there that God can do which
the Christ did not do? Was he not multiform and multitudinous in his works of
power and grace? Herein lay the wonder, that though he did so many miracles
before them, not in secret but actually before their eyes; though he fed them
with bread which they could see, and handle, and eat; though he healed the sick
and raised the dead, they yet believed not on him. How sadly far can men go in
unbelief, prejudice, and hardness of heart! How dim can human eyes become when
men refuse to see! How darkened the understanding when men are unwilling to
comprehend! Let us tremble at this, lest ourselves by imitating the chosen
people in their unbelief should fall into like bondage to prejudice and
ignorance, lest we by tampering with truth should come at last to be incapable
of perceiving it, lest we also by rejecting the testimony of God should be given
up to our own willfulness, to believe a lie and refuse the truth. Such, then, as
Isaiah had foreseen, was the state of Israel in our Lord's day: never clearer
evidence, and never more obstinate refusal to see it; never truth more plain,
and never rejection so determined. Woe to those who close their ears; for the
day cometh when they shall no longer hear! Woe to those who shut their eyes to
the light, for they shall ere long be made blind! Isaiah was informed that such
would be the outcome of his ministry: the Lord bade him say to the people, "Hear
ye indeed, but underststand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not." This must
have been a very sad business for so generous and tender-hearted a man of God.
It was painful to him to be so clear and yet to be so little understood. He was
the Paul of the Old Testament; to him belonged fulness of knowledge, clearness
of vision, plainness of speech, and faithfulness of spirit, and yet none of
these things could make the people understand his message and receive it into
their hearts. He was sublime in thought, attractive in word, and affectionate in
spirit, and yet they did not believe his testimony; so that he must often have
been astonished and heart-broken as he spake in vain to a people who were
determined that they would not hear. This morning I shall draw certain lessons
for ourselves from the great evangelical prophet, his ministry, and the people
to whom he ministered so vainly. Our first meditation shall be concerning Isaiah
and his ministry: and our second shall be concerning the people to whom he
spake. Alas! I fear that we who speak in the name of the Lord in these last days
have also to deal with hearts that are gross, ears that are heavy, and eyes that
are dimmed. Upon this generation also there is falling a measure of judicial
withdrawal of light and discernment; and we also have to cry, "Who hath believed
our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" I. First, then, let me
speak with you CONCERNING ISAIAH AND HIS MINISTRY. Oh, that the Spirit of God
may speak with power through me. Our text says two things of Isaiah: first, that
"he saw his glory," and secondly, that "he spake of him." The first statement is
that Isaiah saw. Isaiah was a great seer: his prophesy begins thus, -- "The
vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem."
All prophets were more or less seers, and saw what they foretold; but Isaiah
above others was endowed with the seeing and foreseeing faculty. He had the
clearest sight, and for that reason he had the clearest speech. When a man
speaks so that you cannot understand him, the usual reason is that he does not
understand himself; and when a man speaks so as to be readily comprehended, it
is because the thought in his own mind is well defined. He that would speak well
must see well. Mark the two things in the text -- "When Isaiah saw his glory,
and spake of him."In what sense is Isaiah said to have seen that which he spake?
Does it not mean that he realized his thoughts? that they stood out vividly, so
as to make a deep impression upon his own mind? Things to come were already come
in his apprehension: he beheld what he believed, he felt what he foretold. He
was not a dreamy person, maundering about half-fashioned, undeveloped thoughts;
but he was a person who knew, and perceived, and felt what he preached. He saw
with his soul what he set forth with his lips.But what did he see? It is a most
important thing that in these days you and I should see the same, for the same
work lies before us among a people who are a repetition of that disobedient and
gainsaying nation. Read, then, with care the sixth chapter of Isaiah. Open your
Bibles and refer to the passage verse by verse.First, what Isaiah saw was the
Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. When the prophet went abroad
among the people he heard them speaking against the Lord God; some contending
for our deity and some for another; some leaning upon an arm of flesh, and
others despising the promise of Jehovah the God of Israel. All this, I say, he
saw out of doors, and he was troubled. But when he went into the sanctuary of
God he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne : still reigning, still glorious,
undisturbed by opposition. He must then have felt like David when he said, "Why
do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and
against his anointed. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall
have them in derision. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." As
David saw Christ upon the throne amid the strirvings of the people, so did
Isaiah see the Lord Jesus, not only upon the lowly mercy-seat, but upon a throne
high and lifted up. I pray you, brethren, settle this in your hearts: our Lord
is highly exalted as Lord of all. When you see evil occurrent, do not imagine
that it defeats the eternal purposes of Jehovah: when you hear blasphemy and
your blood runs cold, do not think that Christ has lost his glory: when men riot
in sin, do not dream that the reins of affairs are out of Jesus' hands; for
still he is "God over all, blessed for ever." My heart exalts this day, as, by
undoubting faith, I am assured that he who died on Calvary is now exalted on
high, far above all principalities and powers. "Thou art the King of glory, O
Christ!" To thee our spirits ascribe infinite honour, world without end. Though
the earth be removed, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea,
yet the Lord reigneth. He that died upon the tree is crowned with majesty, and
all the angels of God worship him. "He must reign till he hath put all enemies
under his feet." Let us have no question about this; for if we have, we shall
not be prepared to speak in the Lord's name with this evil generation. Amid the
anarchy of the ages we see the glorious high throne of our redeeming Lord
unmoved, unmovable: this is the rock of our refuge when the unsettled times rage
about us like the waters of the troubled sea. We cannot be afraid, for Christ is
on the throne.Observe that in Isaiah's vision he not only saw the Lord "upon a
throne high and lifted up," but he saw that "his train filled the temple." so
that in that temple there was room for no one else. The robes of this great King
filled all the holy place; and neither priests nor offerers could there find
standing room. It is a great thing to see how Jesus fills the heavenly places;
in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. Let it be acknowledged to be so
in heaven, for the glory of our Redeemer fills every street of the upper city,
every mansion of the Father's house. In the church below, which is also his
temple, among his spiritual people, the glory of the Lord Jesus engages and
occupies every heart. They feel that there is none other in whom they can trust,
none other whose words they will receive, none other in whom they glory; the
Lord Christ is all in all to us, and we know no other Master or Saviour. His
train fills the temple. I trust it is so among us. From Sabbath to Sabbath the
one glory of this Tabernacle is the person and work of Jesus. What a glory hath
God put upon the Only Begotten Son, whom he hath raised from the dead that he
should be head over all things to his church, which he fills with his life,
light, and love. Nor may we forget that all the things that exist are in a sense
his temple, and the whole universe is filled with his train; for "he hath
ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things." Glory be unto
our ascended and reigning Lord. In this vision Isaiah saw the flaming spirits
that wait upon Christ of God. He calls them "seraphims." The best interpretation
we can give is "burning ones:" they burn in the sense of consuming. They burn up
that which ought to be consumed, namely, all kinds of evil. There are powers
around our Lord which will destroy evil. You ask me to tell you something about
these seraphim; how can I? They have covered their faces, and covered their
feet. Since nothing is to be seen, what can I tell you? Neither would it be
right for us to speak concerning them, for manifestly it is their desire to be
hidden. Who will violate their wish to be concealed? They covered their faces,
they covered their feet, and therein they did as good as they say, "Look not on
us, but look on him who sits upon the throne, whose attendants we are." This
much is all we know, -- exalted intelligences are in waiting upon our Lord, and
are able to fly swiftly at his bidding. Tremble not concerning this error, or
that, it shall be burnt up by those agencies which are at the command of our
exalted Lord. Spirits from God shall run to and fro, and smite, as with the fire
of God, those powers of darkness which now oppress our race. God himself is a
consuming fire: who can dwell with him but those that are like him? He maketh
his ministers a flame of fire. Around our Lord are the chariots of God, which
are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels. His power knows no limit. His
word runneth very swiftly; he speaks, and it is done; he commands, and it stands
fast. Glory be unto thee, O Christ! We will not fear nor be discouraged, since
these thy servants are ready to flame forth at thy bidding. Truly thou art
Jehovah of hosts.This vision of the body-guard of the Prince of peace was enough
to strengthen Isaiah: thus comforted, he would calmly confront that rebellious
generation. If the prophet, when he opened the young man's eyes strengthened his
heart by making him see horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha, shall
not we be comforted as we behold legions of burning ones surrounding our King,
and standing ready to fulfil his decrees?Further, we find that Isaiah saw in
that vision the perpetual adoration which is rendered unto Christ concerning his
holiness. Those bright spirits had never tasted of his mercy, for they had never
sinned: they understood nothing of his grace, for they had not been guilty; but
being pure in heart they gazed on the Lord with opened eye and adored his
holiness. Their whole souls were filled with the contemplation of that one
all-embracing attribute; and in responsive song they said each one to his
fellow, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." They emphasized their words by
repeating them three times; and perhaps they alluded also to the Trinity in
Unity as they cried, "Holy, holy, holy." This is the supreme glory of Christ,
that in him is seen the holiness of God. Oh my friends, let us be like these
seraphim, ravished with the holiness of the atonement, awe-struck with the
justice of God in the great sacrifice. Reflect with reverence that God when he
willed to save his elect would not commit a breach upon his laws; though he
would redeem them from going down into the pit, yet he would not violate his
word, nor change that most righteous penalty of death, which is the due desert
of sin. Rather than stain his holiness he spared not his own Son, but freely
delivered him up for us all. Consider the great love of holiness which must have
been in the heart of the Father, that he would give up his Son to bleed sooner
than his law should be dishonoured; and think of the great holiness of Christ,
that he would rather give his back to the smiters and his cheeks to them that
pluck off the hair, yea, rather stretch out his hands to the nails and expire
forsaken of his God, than suffer sin to go unpunished. God would not even for
mercy's sake issue an unjust pardon to the souls he loved.As I stand here this
morning I also have visions of God, and the cross seems to me transformed into a
burning throne, whereon justice is high and lifted up to the uttermost, as I see
God himself in Christ Jesus bowing his head to death, that he might be just, and
yet the Justifier of him that believeth. Around that cross I see troops of
angels gathering, and I hear one crying unto another and saying, "Holy, holy,
holy, is Jehovah Jesus, the great sacrifice for sin." Do you not unite in their
reverent homage? If you do you will go forth and tell of pardon bought with
blood, and of the atonement finished once for all. With hallowed confidence you
will tell it out among the people that the holy Lord reigneth from the tree,
until all creatures fall down and worship him that was slain, because his
holiness was thereby revealed in noonday splendour.This was not all that was
revealed to the prophet; for he heard the seraphim say, "Holy, holy, holy, is
the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." Even when men rejected
Christ, even when hearts were fat, and eyes were dim, and ears were heavy, even
then the whole earth was full of the glory of Christ. When scientists tell us
that they cannot see God, I am amazed. To me it is impossible not to see him.
Though I cannot pry with the scalpel into the anatomy of the human frame, yet
when I look upon the mere skin of the human countenance I see the handiwork of
God. Though I cannot dig into the lower strata of the earth and disentomb the
fossil and decipher its stone preserved memorial, yet to me rock, and clay, and
sand, and relic of the past, bear the sure hieroglyph of God. Though I cannot
inform you of all the interesting details of insect life, or descant upon the
secrets of botany, yet to me bees bring honeyed thoughts of God, and flowers
breathe the perfume of his love. Where is God? Say rather, Where is he not? Not
with these grosser senses, but by higher faculties I see and hear my God; yea,
he doth surround me, and my faith embraceth him. I am no fool for this; the best
authority declares that he is the fool who saith in his heart "There is no God."
Yes, the whole earth is full of the glory of Christ, and above the earth in
every cloud it is seen, and above the cloud every star shines out concerning
him. Alas, for the blind-eyes that cannot see that which is evidently set forth
in every place. Alas for the ears which cannot hear when earth, and sea, and
heaven, and hell, are all echoing to the tread of the Omnipotent Christ of God.
Oh brethren, have you ever seen this vision, have you ever seen God's glory
filling the whole earth? If so, you are prepared for the times that are and are
to be times of gloom, and darkness, and sin, and blasphemy -- and yet your heart
does not tremble for the ark of the Lord. When all this was seen of the prophet,
he noted that the posts of the doors moved. If I am rightly informed, there were
two huge columns before the temple called Jachin and Boaz. These were made with
singular skill, and were the wonder of the age. They were of brass, cast by
Solomon; but in the course of ages they had no doubt mellowed into bronze, and
there they stood, two tremendous erections, upbearing massive doors. We are
told, I know not whether it be correct, that the gates that swung upon these
columns required at least twenty men either to open or to shut them; but as the
prophet saw that vision he noticed that these massive columns trembled, and thus
did obeisance to the God who was within their gates. Our Revised Version reads
it, "The foundations of the thresholds were moved." Even to its foundations the
house trembled with solemn awe of the divine presence. Brethren, heaven, and
earth, and hell, and all created things reflect the glory of the Lord, and thus
adore him. Oh Lord Jesus, thou art worthy of all honour. "All the earth doth
worship thee." If it was so with posts and doors, shall not our hearts rejoice
with trembling? shall not our souls be moved in the presence of the Most High?
and will we not fall down before the glorified Christ, as John did, who wrote,
"When I saw him I fell at his feet as dead?" Everything is filled with awe in
his majestic presence, save only man, the impious rebel who dares defy his
God.Then came the best part of the vision for Isaiah. At the glorious sight, he
felt, "Woe is me, for I am undone, I am stricken dumb. I can never speak again,
for my lips are unclean, and I dwell among an unclean people." Then, swift as
lightning flew a seraph, bringing a coal more burning than himself from off the
altar of sacrifice, wherewith he touched the prophet's lip. Beloved, this is
what we need. We need to feel the atonement laid home to us, to feel the power
of the great sacrifice of Christ, to hear a voice saying within our spirit,
"Thine iniquity is put away, and thy sin is purged." Though that live coal must
have blistered the lip which it covered, yet it made it eloquent. Common fire
would destroy the organs of speech, but the fire of sacrifice does not so, but
it unlooses a grateful tongue, and helps a grateful heart to tell the love
immense, unsearchable, which offered itself upon the altar of sacrifice, that
holiness and love might save the sinner. Our peace comes from the Holy, Holy,
Holy One, who is just, and yet forgives his people's sin. Brother, if you are to
proclaim the glory of your Lord, you must feel the sacrificial coal applied to
the place where your impurity is most seen, even to your lips; you must know
that you are forgiven; for your conviction that you are clean before God will
give you confidence in telling out to others the story of the cross. This is
what Isaiah saw.Listen for a minute to that further word that follows: -- Isaiah
when he saw his glory "spake of him." He that hath seen this sight must speak.He
spake in deep humility. Never braver man than Isaiah, but never one who walked
in lowlier reverence before his God. He never forgot to his dying day that "woe
is me! for I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."Yet, observe that he spake
with very willing obedience. "Here am I," he said, "send me." He offers himself
to be God's mouth to the people, whatever the message may be. He seems to say,
"Here am I in the entirety of my being, purchased to thee by thy great pardoning
love; use me as thou wilt, and send me where thou wilt." He continued to report
his Lord's message under constant rebuffs, and despite the ceaseless obduracy of
Israel. Though he cried, "Who hath believed our report?" yet he continued that
report. That chapter which begins with his complaint, has in it not only a
continuation of the report, but a fuller version of it than he had ever given
before. He was sad but resolute, grieved yet persevering, broken in heart, but
not broken down in constancy. Brethren, it needs great grace to go upon a
fruitless errand. One had need see the glory of the Lord to be enabled to fight
a losing battle. I am sometimes afraid that I have to do this myself; but if it
be so, it is not ours to bargain for success, but to yield implicit obedience.
It is ours to abide faithful to our commission, whether men will hear or whether
they will forbear. Brethren, be it ours to serve the Lord gladly, and testify to
what we have seen, even though no man should receive our witness.But then it is
said of Isaiah that he "spake of him," that is, of our Lord Jesus Christ. In all
that Isaiah said he had an eye to Christ. It was all his business among men to
speak of the glories of the coming Son of God. May the Lord give us such a sight
of Christ in his glory that from this day forth we shall be absorbed in
glorifying him. May our life be a perpetual ministry concerning Christ. Remember
that word concerning John the Baptist, "John did no miracle, but all things that
John spake of this man were true." If we can do no miracle and achieve no
success, let us at least cry without ceasing. "Behold the Lamb of God." Though
we decrease, it matters not so long as he doth increase; we are glad to
disappear, as the morning star is lost at the rising of the sun. It is our
delight to imitate the seraphim, and with veiled face and covered feet to attend
about the throne of Jehovah Jesus our Lord. II. I now ask your kind attention to
the second part of my subject, which is a very painful one, CONCERNING THE
NATION TO WHICH ISAIAH SPAKE. Their terrible sin lay in this, that they were
willingly blinded by the light which ought to have been to them a help to see
Christ, and they were hardened by those very truths which ought to have melted
them. They became more and more adverse to Christ through beholding in him such
a character as ought to have won their hearts. To the prophet's teaching they
were entirely dead. A specimen of this we find in the succeeding chapters of
Isaiah. Israel and Syria attacked Ahaz, whose reign followed those of Uzziah and
Jotham. The prophet came and said to Ahaz, "Take heed, and be quiet; fear not,
neither fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands." Ahaz was
assured that God would help him if he would but trust in him; but instead of
doing so, the king determined to petition for the help of the great king of
Assyria, with the result in the long run that "the king of Assyria came unto him
and distressed him, but helped him not." Isaiah, to confirm his message, bade
the king choose any sign either in the depth or in the height above; but the
infidel king replied, "I will not ask, neither will I test Jehovah." He had so
defiantly cast off allegiance to the true God that he would not even accept a
sign, though it was left to his own choice. Thus Isaiah's message was rejected
though put in the most winning form, for the hearts of the people were blinded
and hardened so as to choose the way of destruction. Ultimately, as you know,
the Assyrians carried the whole people away; for they had rejected God's message
willfully, and wrath came upon them. What a grievous task to be called to preach
to such a people!They went on from bad to worse as a nation; they turned aside
grievously, but not in heart, so that when Christ came they were unable to
discern him, for had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory. This blindness was in part a punishment for their long rebellion. If men
willfully shut their eyes, do you wonder that they become blind? If men will not
hear, do you wonder that they grow deaf? He that perverts truth shall soon be
incapable of knowing the true from the false. If you persist in wearing glasses
that distort, everything will be distorted to you."Hear the just law, the
judgment of the skies!He that hates truth shall be the dupe of lies."But
although this blindness was a punishment for former sin, it was itself a sin.
They willfully rejected the testimony of God against themselves; they refused
the self-evident Christ who would so greatly have blessed them. This wilful
rejection was carried out so effectually that it became impossible to convert
and heal them; they could not be instructed, or reformed, and therefore they
were given over to destruction. Nothing remained but to allow the Romans to burn
the temple and plough the site of the city. It was a dreadful thing that they
should deliberately choose destruction, and obstinately involve themselves in
the most tremendous of woes. Poor Israel, we pity thee! It was sad indeed to
fall from so great a height! Yet we are bound to admit that God dealt with thee
justly, for thou didst choose thine own delusions. The Lord cries, "Oh that my
people had harkened unto me." Our Saviour weeps and cries, "O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not! Behold, your house is
left unto you desolate."What I have to say this morning is this -- that I am
growingly fearful lest our own country should furnish a parallel to all this.
Read the story of England, beginning where you will, and see how gracious God
has been to us. Note well our great deliverances, from the destruction of the
Spanish Armada to the overthrow of Napoleon. Do not forget how often this little
country has been made victorious in wars against great peoples, who thought to
swallow her up. Then reflect how God sent the light to us; how the gospel spread
all over England, and how it has in many ways been rejected. How often since the
days of Cromwell Rome has been allowed to dim the light of our Protestantism,
and how it labours to do so still! See how this people have received the truth
of heaven, but again and again have proved false to it, turning at one time to
superstition and at another time to infidelity. At this moment we are rich, and
despite depression in business, we are less tried by it than any other nation.
And what comes of all this mercy but increased sin? Why, at this moment we have
sin rampant among us almost beyond precedent. Think how the poor are oppressed
and ground down with awful poverty in many parts of this great city. Shall not
God avenge the cry of starving women? Worse still, if worse can be: those who
dare walk our streets after sundown tell us that Sodom, in its most putrid days,
could scarce exceed this metropolis for open vice. To our infinite disgust and
horror, the names of certain of the greatest in the land are at this hour openly
mentioned in connection with the filthiest debauchery. This is not the place for
details, nor can I mention the matter, or even think of it without feeling my
very soul on fire. Faithfulness requires plain speech; but it is a hideous evil
that the dregs of vice should be the chosen luxury of certain of our hereditary
legislators and rulers. Woe unto thee, Oh land, when thy great ones love the
harlot's house! Deep is our shame when we know that our judges are not clear in
this matter, but social purity has been put to the blush by magistrates of no
mean degree; yea, it is said that the courts of justice have lent themselves to
the covering and hushing up of the iniquities of the great. Shall not God be
grieved by such a nation as this? He who has read a certain story, which is but
too-well known, must have felt his ears tingle and his heart tremble. What is
coming over us? What horrible clouds are darkening our skies? There were judges
once who would not have suffered the laws to be trampled on by the great, but
would have dealt out equal justice to rich and poor: I cannot persuade myself
that it will be otherwise now, and yet I fear the worst. O God, have mercy upon
the land whose judgment-seats and palaces are defiled with vice. This is not
all: a general indifference to all religion is creeping over the country; at
least over this vast metropolis. Ask those who visit from door to door among our
crowded populations, and they will tell you that never before in their life-time
were there so few persons attendant upon the means of grace. Street after street
of this city scarcely possesses more than one regular attendant upon the
preaching of the word. The Sabbath is no longer a day of worship with millions.
What continual efforts are made to rob us of the Sabbath-day; to degrade it into
a common work-day, and to make a slave of the working-man. To-day the revelation
of God is treated with indifference, or talked of as if it deserved no reverence
or credit. Unbelief has sapped the foundations of the social fabric. Worst of
all, -- I must not hold back the charge, many of the avowed ministers of Christ
are no ministers of faith at all, but promoters of unbelief. The modern pulpit
has taught men to be infidels. What truth is there which has not been doubted by
divines, questioned by doctors of divinity, and at length been denounced by the
priests of "modern thought?" Nothing remains upon which a certain school of
preachers have not spit their scepticism. The experience of the unbelief of
Germany is being repeated here. Among those who are ordained to be the preachers
of the gospel of Christ, there are many who preach not faith but doubt, and
hence they are servants of the devil rather than of the Lord. Think not that I
am aiming at the Church of England. With all my objection to a state-church, I
am not so unjust as to conceal my belief, that I see in the Episcopal Church at
this time less of unbelief than among certain Dissenters: in fact, Nonconformity
in certain quarters is eaten through and through with a covert Unitarianism,
less tolerable than Unitarianism itself. So frequently are the fundamental
doctrines of the gospel assailed, that it becomes needful, before you cross the
threshold of many a chapel, to ask the question, "Shall I hear the gospel here
to-day, or shall I come out hardly knowing whether the Bible is inspired or not?
Shall I not be made to doubt the atonement, the work of the Holy Ghost, the
immortality of the soul, the punishment of the wicked, or the deity of Christ?"I
know I shall stir a hornet's nest by these honest rebukes but I cannot help it.
I am burdened and distressed with the state of religion; a pest is in the air;
no truth is safe from its withering infection. No signs can be more alarming
than the growing infidelity and worldliness which I see among those who call
themselves Christians. Does this nation really intend to cast off the fear of
God and the doctrines of Holy Scripture to follow the vain imaginings of the
sophists and the fashionable follies of the great? Are we to see again unbelief
and luxurious sin walking hand in hand? If so, there be some of us who mean to
take up our sorrowful parable, and speak as plainly as we can for truth and
holiness, whether we offend or please. Be it ours still to thunder out the law
of God, and proclaim with trumpet clearness the gospel of Jesus, not bating one
jot of firm belief in the revelation of God, nor winking at sin, nor toning down
truth, even though we fear that the only result will be to make this people's
hearts gross, and their ears heavy, and their eyes blind. If it must be so, my
soul shall weep in secret; but still, Oh Lord, here am I, send me. Be of good
courage, Oh my heart, for the faithful have not ceased from among men; other
voices will cry aloud and spare not, if haply our land may be purged of its
present defilement.Hearken yet again while I press this subject personally home
to you. Has not this word a personal bearing upon some of you? Certain of you
have heard the gospel preached plainly and honestly, and yet you have never
received it: is there not creeping over you a fatal indifference? Are not your
hearts turning to stone? Possibly you are professors of religion, and yet you do
not feel the power of it; what does this mean? If you are not a praying people,
nor a holy people, and yet you are a professing people, what an awful doom
awaits you! Shall my ministry be a savour of death unto you? It may be that my
voice grows stale to you, and what I say seems common-place: but is this to be
the reason for your refusing Christ and his salvation, refusing the power of his
word, refusing holiness which we would work in you? Oh, shall it be so? Will you
die? Dear hearers, I should not like to meet one of you at that day of judgment
and have to feel that I preached you into a greater blindness than you might
have known. Oh, be converted! Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? May God in
infinite mercy speak to you that you may believe in Jesus now, lest that should
come upon you which is spoken of by the prophet, "Behold, ye despisers, and
wonder, and perish!"Ere I have done, hear the sweet whisper which closes the
sixth of Isaiah. Notwithstanding all the terrible work that Isaiah had to do he
was not left without comfort; the Lord said to him, "In it there shall be a
tenth." You know how the prophet cried, "Except the Lord of hosts had left us a
seed we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrah." The Lord has his
sacred tithe and these he will not lose. The tree has lost its leaves, for it is
winter time; but still it is alive, and the sap will flow again, for its
substance is in it! The tree is leveled by the axe; but weep not despairing
tears, for it shall sprout again, for life is still in it. Even so the Church
must live; truth must be victorious; purity must conquer, the Christ must reign.
Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. Reject Christ if you
will to-day, Oh ye who think yourselves so exceeding wise, but there is a people
who love him, a secret people who cling to him; and when he comes, as come he
must ere long, they will welcome him and partake in his glory. As for you that
refuse him this day, how will you stand when he appeareth? Whither will you
flee? You shall ask the hills to cover you, but they will refuse. You shall bid
the mountains hide you, but they will not yield a cavern for your shelter. Be
wise now, therefore, and no more resist your Lord. "Kiss the Son lest he be
angry, and ye perish from the way while his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him!" May you and I and all of us
be of that blessed number. Amen and Amen. Portion of Scripture read before
Sermon -- John 12:37-50.Hymns from "Our Own Hymn Book" -- 93, 12, 518.


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  CHAPTER 6: COMING JUDGMENT OF THE SECRETS OF MEN
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A Sermon (No.1849) Delivered on Lord's Day Morning, July 12th, 1885, by C. H.
SPURGEON, At the [6]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "The day when God shall
judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." -- Romans
2:16. IT IS impossible for any of us to tell what it cost the apostle Paul to
write the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans. It is a shame even to
speak of the things which are done of the vicious in secret places; but Paul
felt it was necessary to break through his shame, and to speak out concerning
the hideous vices of the heathen. He has left on record an exposure of the sins
of his day which crimsons the cheek of the modest when they read it, and makes
both the ears of him that heareth it to tingle. Paul knew that this chapter
would be read, not in his age alone, but in all ages, and that it would go into
the households of the most pure and godly as long as the world should stand; and
yet he deliberately wrote it, and wrote it under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit. He knew that it must be written to put to shame the abominations of an
age which was almost past shame. Monsters that revel in darkness must be dragged
into the open, that they may be withered up by the light. After Paul has thus
written in anguish he bethought himself of his chief comfort. While his pen was
black with the words he had written in the first chapter, he was driven to write
of his great delight. He clings to the gospel with a greater tenacity than ever.
As in the verse before us he needed to mention the gospel, he did not speak of
it as "the gospel," but as "my gospel." "God shall judge the secrets of men by
Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." He felt he could not live in the midst of
so depraved a people without holding the gospel with both hands, and grasping it
as his very own. "My gospel," saith he. Not that Paul was the author of it, not
that Paul had an exclusive monopoly of its blessings, but that he had so
received it from Christ himself, and regarded himself as so responsibly put in
trust with it, that he could not disown it even for a instant. So fully had he
taken it into himself that he could not do less than call it "my gospel." In
another place he speaks of "our gospel;" thus using a possessive pronoun, to
show how believers identify themselves with the truth which they preach. He had
a gospel, a definite form of truth, and he believed in it beyond all doubt; and
therefore he spoke of it as "my gospel." Herein we hear the voice of faith,
which seems to say, "Though others reject it, I am sure of it, and allow no
shade of mistrust to darken my mind. To me it is glad tidings of great joy: I
hail it as 'my gospel.' If I be called a fool for holding it, I am content to be
a fool, and to find all my wisdom in my Lord." "Should all the forms that men
devise Assult my faith with treacherous art, I'd call them vanity and lies, And
bind the gospel to my heart." Is not this word "my gospel" the voice of love?
Does he not by this word embrace the gospel as the only love of his soul -- for
the sake of which he had suffered the loss of all things, and did count them but
dung -- for the sake of which he was willing to stand before Nero, and proclaim,
even in Caesar's palace, the message from heaven? Though each word should cost
him a life, he was willing to die a thousand deaths for the holy cause. "My
gospel," saith he, with a rapture of delight, as he presses to his bosom the
sacred deposit of truth. "My gospel." Does not this show his courage? As much as
to say, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth." He says, "my gospel," as a soldier
speaks of "my colours," or of "my king." He resolves to bear this banner to
victory, and to serve this royal truth even to the death. "My gospel." There is
a touch of discrimination about the expression. Paul perceives that there are
other gospels, and he makes short work with them, for he saith, "Though we, or
an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let me be accused." The apostle was of a gentle spirit; he
prayed heartily for the Jews who persecuted him, and yielded his life for the
conversion of the Gentiles who maltreated him; but he had no tolerance for false
gospellers. He exhibited great breadth of mind, and to save souls he became all
things to all men; but when he contemplated any alteration or adulteration of
the gospel of Christ, he thundered and lightninged without measure. When he
feared that something else might spring up among the philosophers, or among the
Judaizers, that should hide a single beam of the glorious Sun of Righteousness,
he used no measured language; but cried concerning the author of such a
darkening influence, "Let him be accursed." Every heart that would see men
blessed whispers an "Amen" to the apostolic malediction. No greater curse can
come upon mankind than the obscuration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul saith
of himself and his true brethren, "We are not as many, which corrupt the word of
God;" and he cries to those who turned aside from the one and only gospel, "O
foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?" Of all new doctrines he speaks as of
"another gospel, which is not another; but there be some that trouble you." As
for myself, looking at the matter afresh, amidst all the filthiness which I see
in the world at this day, I lay hold upon the pure and blessed Word of God, and
call it all the more earnestly, my gospel, -- mine in life and mine in death,
mine against all comers, mine for ever, God helping me: with emphasis -- "my
gospel."Now let us notice what it was that brought up this expression, "My
gospel." What was Paul preaching about? Certainly not upon any of the gentle and
tender themes, which we are told nowadays ought to occupy all our time; but he
is speaking of the terrors of the law, and in that connection he speaks of "my
gospel."Let us come at once to our text. It will need no dividing, for it
divides itself. First, let us consider that on a certain day God shall judge
mankind; secondly, on that day God will judge the secrets of men; thirdly, when
he judges the secrets of men, it will be by Jesus Christ; and fourthly, this is
according to gospel.I. We begin with the solemn truth, that ON A CERTAIN DAY GOD
WILL JUDGE MEN. A judgment is going on daily. God is continually holding court,
and considering the doings of the sons of men. Every evil deed that they do is
recorded in the register of doom, and each good action is remembered and laid up
in store by God. That judgment is reflected in a measure in the consciences of
men. Those who know the gospel, and those who know it not, alike, have a certain
measure of light, by which they know right from wrong; their consciences all the
while accusing or else excusing them. This session of the heavenly court
continues from day to day, like that of our local magistrates; but this does not
prevent but rather necessitates the holding of an ultimate great assize.As each
man passes into another world, there is an immediate judgment passed upon him;
but this is only the foreshadowing of that which will take place in the end of
the world.There is a judgment also passing upon nations, for as nations will not
exist as nations in another world, they have to be judged and punished in this
present state. The thoughtful reader of history will not fail to observe, how
sternly this justice had dealt with empire after empire, when they have become
corrupt. Colossal dominions have withered to the ground, when sentenced by the
King of kings. Go ye and ask to-day, "Where is the empire of Assyria? Where are
the mighty cities of Babylon? Where are the glories of the Medes and Persians?
What has become of the Macedonian power? Where are the Caesars and their
palaces?" These empires were forces established by cruelty, and used for
oppression; they fostered luxury and licentiousness, and when they were no
longer tolerable, the earth was purged from their polluting existence. Ah me!
what horrors of war, bloodshed, and devastation, have come upon men as the
result of their iniquities! The world is full of the monuments, both of the
mercy and the justice of God: in fact the monuments of his justice, if rightly
viewed, are proofs of his goodness; for it is mercy on the part of God to put an
end to evil systems when, like a nightmare, they weigh heavily upon the bosom of
mankind. The omnipotent, Judge has not ceased from his sovereign rule over
kingdoms, and our own country may yet have to feel his chastisements. We have
often laughed among ourselves at the idea of the New Zealander sitting on the
broken arch of London Bridge amid the ruins of this metropolis. But is it quite
so ridiculous as it looks? It is more than possible it will be realized if our
iniquities continue to abound. What is there about London that it should be more
enduring than Rome? Why should the palaces of our monarches be eternal if the
palaces of Koyunjik have fallen? The almost boundless power of the Pharaohs has
passed away, and Egypt has become the meanest of nations; why should not England
come under like condemnation? What are we? What is there about our boastful
race, whether on this side of the Atlantic or the other, that we should
monopolize the favour of God? If we rebel, and sin against him, he will not hold
us guiltless, but will deal out impartial justice to an ungrateful race.Still,
though such judgments proceed every day, yet there is to be a day, a period of
time, in which, in a more distinct, formal, public, and final manner, God will
judge the sons of men. We might have guessed this by the light of nature and of
reason. Even heathen peoples have had a dim notion of a day of doom; but we are
not left to guess it, we are solemnly assured of it in the Holy Scripture.
Accepting this Book as the revelation of God, we know beyond all doubt that a
day is appointed in which the Lord will judge the secrets of men.By judging is
here meant all that concerns the proceedings of trial and award. God will judge
the race of men; that is to say, first, there will be a session of majesty, and
the appearing of a great white throne, surrounded with pomp of angels and
glorified beings. Then a summons will be issued, bidding all men come to
judgment, to give in their final account. The heralds will fly through the
realms of death, and summon those who sleep in the dust: for the quick and the
dead shall all appear before that judgment-seat. John says, "I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God;" and he adds, "The sea gave up the dead which
were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them." Those
that have been so long buried that their dust is mingled with the soil, and has
undergone a thousand transmutations, shall nevertheless be made to put in a
personal appearance before the judgment-seat of Christ. What an issue will that
be! You and I and all the myriad myriads of our race shall be gathered before
the throne of the Son of God. Then, when all are gathered, the indictment will
be read, and each one will be examined concerning things done in the body,
according to that he hath done. Then the books shall be opened, and everything
recorded there shall be read before the face of heaven. Every sinner shall then
hear the story of his life published to his everlasting shame. The good shall
ask no concealment, and the evil shall find none. Angels and men shall then see
the truth of things, and the saints shall judge the world. Then the great Judge
himself shall give the decision: he shall pronounce sentence upon the wicked,
and execute their punishment. No partiality shall there be seen; there shall be
no private conferences to secure immunity for nobles, no hushing up of matters,
that great men may escape contempt for their crimes. All men shall stand before
the one great judgment-bar; evidence shall be given concerning them all, and a
righteous sentence shall go forth from his mouth who knows not how to flatter
the great. This will be so, and it ought to be so: God should judge the world,
because he is the universal ruler and sovereign. There has been a day for
sinning, there ought to be a day for punishing; a long age of rebellion has been
endured, and there must be a time when justice shall assert her supremacy. We
have seen an age in which reformation has been commanded, in which mercy has
been presented, in which expostulation and entreaty have been used, and there
ought at last to come a day in which God shall judge both the quick and the
dead, and measure out to each the final result of life. It ought to be so for
the sake of the righteous. They have been slandered; they have been despised and
ridiculed; worse than that, they have been imprisoned and beaten, and put to
death times without number: the best have had the worst of it, and there ought
to be a judgment to set these things right. Besides the festering iniquities of
each age cry out to God that he should deal with them. Shall such sin go
unpunished? To what end is there a moral government at all, and how is its
continuance to be secured, if there be not rewards and punishments and a day of
account? For the display of his holiness, for the overwhelming of his
adversaries, for the rewarding of those who have faithfully served him, there
must be and shall be a day in which God will judge the world.Why doth it not
come at once? And when will it come? The precise day we cannot tell. Man nor
angel knoweth that day, and it is idle and profane to guess at it, since even
the Son of man, as such, knoweth not the time. It is sufficient for us that the
Judgment Day will surely come; sufficient also to believe that it is postponed
on purpose to give breathing time for mercy, and space for repentance. Why
should the ungodly want to know when that day will come? What is that day to
you? To you it should be darkness, and not light. It shall be your day of
consuming as stubble fully dry: therefore bless the Lord that he delayeth his
coming, and reckon that his longsuffering is for your salvation.Moreover, the
Lord keeps the scaffold standing till he hath built up the fabric of his church.
Not yet are the elect all called out from among the guilty sons of men; not yet
are all the redeemed with blood redeemed with power and brought forth out of the
corruption of the age into the holiness in which they walk with God. Therefore
the Lord waiteth for a while. But do not deceive yourselves. The great day of
his wrath cometh on apace, and your days of reprieve are numbered. One day is
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Ye shall
die, perhaps, before the appearing of the Son of man: but ye shall see his
judgment-seat for all that, for ye shall rise again as surely as he rose. When
the apostle addressed the Grecian sages at Athens he said, "God now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day, in the which he
will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."
See ye not, O ye impenitent ones, that a risen Saviour is the sign of your doom.
As God hath raised Jesus from the dead, so shall he raise your bodies, that in
these you may come to judgment. Before the judgment-seat shall every man and
woman in this house give an account of the things done in the body, whether they
be good or whether they be evil. Thus saith the Lord.II. Now I call your
attention to the fact that "GOD WILL JUDGE THE SECRETS OF MEN." This will happen
to all men, of every nation, of every age, of every rank, and of every
character. The Judge will, of course, judge their outward acts, but these may be
said to have gone before them to judgment: their secret acts are specially
mentioned, because these will make judgment to be the more searching.By "secrets
of men," the Scripture means those secret crimes which hide themselves away by
their own infamy, which are too vile to be spoken of, which cause a shudder to
go through a nation if they be but dragged, as they ought to be, into the
daylight. Secret offences shall be brought into judgment; the deeds of the night
and of the closed room, the acts which require the finger to be laid upon the
lip, and a conspiracy of silence to be sworn. Revolting and shameless sins which
must never be mentioned lest the man who committed them should be excluded from
his fellows as an outcast, abhorred even of other sinners -- all those shall be
revealed. All that you have done, any of you, or are doing, if you are bearing
the Christian name and yet practising secret sin, shall be laid bare before the
universal gaze. If you sit here amongst the people of God, and yet where no eye
sees you, if you are living in dishonesty, untruthfulness, or uncleanness, it
shall all be known, and shame and confusion of face shall eternally cover you.
Contempt shall be the inheritance to which you shall awake, when hypocrisy shall
be no more possible. Be not deceived, God is not mocked; but he will bring the
secrets of men into judgment. Specially our text refers to the hidden motives of
ever action; for a man may do that which is right from a wrong motive, and so
the deed may be evil in the sight of God, though it seem right in the sight of
men. Oh, think what it will be to have your motives all brought to light, to
have it proven that you were godly for the sake of gain, that you were generous
out of ostentation, or zealous for love of praise, that you were careful in
public to maintain a religious reputation, but that all the while everything was
done for self, and self only! What a strong light will that be which God shall
turn upon our lives, when the darkest chambers of human desire and motive shall
be as manifest as public acts! What a revelation will that be which makes
manifest all thoughts, and imaginings, and lustings, and desires! All angers,
and envies, and prides, and rebellions of the heart -- what a disclosure will
these make!All the sensual desires and imaginings of even the best-regulated,
what a foulness will these appear! What a day it will be, when the secrets of
men shall be set in the full blaze of noon!God will also reveal secrets, that
were secrets even to the sinners themselves, for there is sin in us which we
have never seen, and iniquity in us which we have never yet discovered.We have
managed for our own comfort's sake to blind our eyes somewhat, and we take care
to avert our gaze from things which it is inconvenient to see; but we shall be
compelled to see all these evils in that day, when the Lord shall judge the
secrets of men. I do not wonder that when a certain Rabbi read in the book of
Ecclesiastes that God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret
thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil, he wept. It is enough to make
the best men tremble. Were it not for thee, O Jesus, whose precious blood hath
cleansed us from all sin, where should we be! Were it not for thy righteousness,
which shall cover those who believe in thee, who among us could endure the
thought of that tremendous day? In thee, O Jesus, we are made righteous, and
therefore we fear not the trial-hour; but were it not for thee our hearts would
fail us for fear!Now if you ask me why God should judge, especially the secrets
of men -- since this is not done in human courts, and cannot be, for secret
things of this kind come not under cognizance of our short-sighted tribunals --
I answer it is because there is really nothing secret from God. We make a
difference between secret and public sins, but he doth not; for all things are
naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. All deeds are done in
the immediate presence of God, who is personally present everywhere. He knows
and sees all things as one upon the spot, and every secret sin is but conceived
to be secret through the deluded fantasy of our ignorance. God sees more of a
secret sin than a man can see of that which is done before his face. "Can any
hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord."The
secrets of men will be judged because often the greatest of moral acts are done
in secret. The brightest deeds that God delights in are those that are done by
his servants when they have shut the door and are alone with him; when they have
no motive but to please him; when they studiously avoid publicity, lest they
should be turned aside by the praise of men; when the right hand knoweth not
what the left hand doeth, and the loving, generous heart deviseth liberal
things, and doeth it behind the screen, so that it should never be discovered
how the deed was done. It were a pity that such deeds should be left out at the
great audit. Thus, too, secret vices are also of the very blackest kind, and to
exempt them were to let the worst of sinners go unpunished. Shall it be that
these polluted things shall escape because they have purchased silence with
their wealth? I say solemnly "God forbid." He does forbid it: what they have
done in secret, shall be proclaimed upon the house-tops.Besides, the secret
things of men enter into the very essence of their actions. An action is, after
all, good or bad very much according to its motive. It may seem good, but the
motive may taint it; and so, if God did not judge the secret part of the action
he would not judge righteously. He will weigh our actions, and detect the design
which led to them, and the spirit which prompted them.Is it not certainly true
that the secret thing is the best evidence of the man's condition? Many a man
will not do in public that which would bring him shame; not because he is
black-hearted enough for it, but because he is too much of a coward. That which
a man does when he thinks that he is entirely by himself is the best revelation
of the man. That which thou wilt not do because it would be told of thee if thou
didst ill, is a poor index of thy real character. That which thou wilt do
because thou wilt be praised for doing well, is an equally faint test of thy
heart. Such virtue is mere self-seeking, or mean-spirited subservience to thy
fellow-man; but that which thou doest out of respect to no authority but thine
own conscience and thy God; that which thou doest unobserved, without regard to
what man will say concerning it -- that it is which reveals thee, and discovers
thy real soul. Hence God lays a special stress and emphasis upon the fact that
he will in that day judge "the secrets" of men by Jesus Christ. Oh, friends, if
it does not make you tremble to think of these things, it ought to do so. I feel
the deep responsibility of preaching upon such matters, and I pray God of his
infinite mercy to apply these truths to our hearts, that they may be forceful
upon our lives. These truths ought to startle us, but I am afraid we hear them
with small result; we have grown familiar with them, and they do not penetrate
us as they should. We have to deal, brethren, with an omniscient God; with One
who once knowing never forgets; with One to whom all things are always present;
with One will conceal nothing out of fear, or favour of any man's person; with
One who will shortly bring the splendour of his omniscience and the impartiality
of his justice to bear upon all human lives. God help us, where'er we rove and
where'er we rest, to remember that each thought, word, and act of each moment
lies in that fierce light which beats upon all things from the throne of
God.III. Another solemn revelation of our text lies in this fact, that "GOD WILL
JUDGE THE SECRETS OF MEN BY JESUS CHRIST." He that will sit upon the throne as
the Vice-regent of God, and as a Judge, acting for God, will be Jesus Christ.
What a name for a Judge! The Saviour-Anointed -- Jesus Christ: he is to be the
judge of all mankind. Our Redeemer will be the Umpire of our destiny.This will
be, I doubt not, first for the display of his glory. What a difference there
will be then between the babe of Bethlehem's manger, hunted by Herod, carried
down by night into Egypt for shelter, and the King of kings and Lord of lords,
before whom every knee must bow! What a difference between the weary man and
full of woes, and he that shall then be grit with glory, sitting on a throne
encircled with a rainbow! From the derision of men to the throne of universal
judgment, what an ascent! I am unable to convey to you my own heart's sense of
the contrast between the "despised and rejected of men," and the
universally-acknowledged Lord, before whom Caesars and pontiffs shall bow into
the dust. He who was judged at Pilate's bar, shall summon all to his bar. What a
change from the shame and spitting, from the nails and the wounds, the mockery
and the thirst, and the dying anguish, to the glory in which he shall come whose
eyes are as a flame of fire, and out of whose mouth there goeth a two-edged
sword! He shall judge the nations, even he whom the nations abhorred. He shall
break them in pieces like a potter's vessel, even those who cast him out as
unworthy to live among them. Oh, how we ought to bow before him now as he
reveals himself in his tender sympathy, and in his generous humiliation! Let us
kiss the Son lest he be angry; let us yield to his grace, that we may not be
crushed by his wrath. Ye sinners, bow before those pierced feet, which else will
tread you like clusters in the wine-press. Look ye up to him with weeping, and
confess your forgetfulness of him, and put your trust in him; lest he look down
on you in indignation. Oh, remember that he will one day say, "But those mine
enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay
them before me." The holding of the judgment by the Lord Jesus will greatly
enhance his glory. It will finally settle one controversy which is still upheld
by certain erroneous spirits: there will be no doubt about our Lord's deity in
that day: there will be no question that this same Jesus who was crucified is
both Lord and God. God himself shall judge, but he shall perform the judgment in
the person of his Son Jesus Christ, truly man, but nevertheless most truly God.
Being God he is divinely qualified to judge the world in righteousness, and the
people with his truth.If you ask again, Why is the Son of God chosen to be the
final Judge? I could give as a further answer that he receives this high office
not only as a reward for all his pains, and as a manifestation of his glory, but
also because men have been under his mediatorial sway, and he is their Governor
and King. At the present moment we are all under the sway of the Prince
Immanuel, God with us: we have been placed by an act of divine clemency, not
under the immediate government of an offended God, but under the reconciling
rule of the Prince of Peace. "All power is given unto him in heaven and in
earth." "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." We are
commanded to preach unto the people, and "to testify that it is he which was
ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead." (Acts 10:42) Jesus is our
Lord and King, and it is meet that he should conclude his mediatorial
sovereignty by rewarding his subjects to their deeds.But I have somewhat to say
unto you which ought to reach your hearts, even if other thoughts have not done
so. I think that God hath chosen Christ, the man Christ Jesus, to judge the
world that there may never be a cavil raised concerning that judgment. Men shall
not be able to say -- We were judged by a superior being who did not know our
weaknesses and temptations, and therefore he judged us harshly, and without a
generous consideration of our condition. No, God shall judge the secrets of men
by Jesus Christ, who was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
He is our brother, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, partaker of our
humanity, and therefore understands and knows what is in men. He has shown
himself to be skilful in all the surgery of mercy throughout the ages, and at
last he will be found equally skilful in dissecting motives and revealing the
thoughts and intents of the heart. Nobody shall ever be able to look back on
that august tribunal and say that he who sat upon it was too stern, because he
knew nothing of human weakness. It will be the loving Christ, whose tears, and
bloody sweat, and gaping wounds, attest his brotherhood with mankind; and it
will be clear to all intelligences that however dread his sentences, he could
not be unmerciful. God shall judge us by Jesus Christ, that the judgment may be
indisputable. But harken well -- for I speak with a great weight upon my soul --
this judgment by Jesus Christ, puts beyond possibility all hope of any
after-interposition. If the Saviour condemns, and such a Saviour, who can plead
for us? The owner of the vineyard was about to cut down the barren tree, when
the dresser of the vineyard pleaded, "Let it alone this year also;" but what can
come of that tree when that vinedresser himself shall say to the master, "It
must fall; I myself must cut it down!" If your Saviour shall become your judge
you will be judged indeed. If he shall say, "Depart, ye cursed," who can call
you back? If he that bled to save men at last comes to this conclusion, that
there is no more to be done, but they must be driven from his presence, then
farewell hope. To the guilty the judgment will indeed be a"Great day of dread,
decision, and despair."An infinite horror shall seize upon their spirits as the
words of the loving Christ shall freeze their very marrow, and fix them in the
ice of eternal despair. There is, to my mind, a climax of solemnity in the fact
that God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.Does not this also show
how certain the sentence will be? for this Christ of God is too much in earnest
to play with men. If he says, "Come, ye blessed," he will not fail to bring them
to their inheritance. If he be driven to say, "Depart, ye cursed," he will see
it done, and into the everlasting punishment they must go. Even when it cost him
his life he did not draw back from doing the will of his Father, nor will he
shrink in that day when he shall pronounce the sentence of doom. Oh, how evil
must sin be since it constrains the tender Saviour to pronounce sentence of
eternal woe! I am sure that many of us have been driven of late to an increased
hatred of sin; our souls have recoiled within us because of the wickedness among
which we dwell; it has made us feel as if we would fain borrow the Almighty's
thunderbolts with which to smite iniquity. Such haste on our part may not be
seemly, since it implies a complaint against divine long-suffering; but Christ's
dealing with evil will be calm and dispassionate, and all the more crushing.
Jesus, with his pierced hand, that bears the attestation of his supreme love to
men, shall wave the impenitent away; and those lips which bade the weary rest in
him shall solemnly say to the wicked, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his angels." To be trampled beneath the foot which
was nailed to the cross will be to be crushed indeed: yet so it is, God shall
judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.It seems to me as if God in this
intended to give a display of the unity of all his perfections. In this same
man, Christ Jesus, the Son of God, you behold justice and love, mercy and
righteousness, combined in equal measure. He turns to the right, and says,
"Come, ye blessed," with infinite suavity; and with the same lip, as he glances
to the left, he says, "Depart, ye cursed." Men will then see at one glance how
love and righteousness are one, and how they meet in equal splendour in the
person of the Well-beloved, whom God has therefore chosen to be Judge of quick
and dead.IV. I have done when you have borne with me a minute or two upon my
next point, which is this: and ALL THIS IS ACCORDING TO THE GOSPEL. That is to
say, there is nothing in the gospel contrary to the solemn teaching. Men gather
to us, to hear us preach of infinite mercy, and tell of the love that blots out
sin; and our task is joyful when we are called to deliver such a message; but
oh, sirs, remember that nothing in our message makes light of sin. The gospel
offers you no opportunity of going on in sin, and escaping without punishment.
Its own cry is, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Jesus has not
come into the world to make sin less terrible. Nothing in the gospel excuses
sin; nothing in it affords toleration for lust or anger, or dishonesty, or
falsehood. The gospel is as truly a two-edged sword against sin, as ever the law
can be. There is grace for the man who quits his sin, but there is tribulation
and wrath upon every man that doeth evil. "If ye turn not, he will whet his
sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready." The gospel is all tenderness to
the repenting, but all terror to the obstinate offender. It has pardon for the
very chief of sinners, and mercy for the vilest of the vile, if they will
forsake their sins; but it is according to our gospel that he that goeth on in
his iniquity, shall be cast into hell, and he that believeth not shall be
damned. With deep love to the souls of men, I bear witness to the truth that he
who turns not with repentance and faith to Christ, shall go away into punishment
as everlasting as the life of the righteous. This is according to our gospel:
indeed, we had not needed such a gospel, if there had not been such a judgment.
The background of the cross is the judgment-seat of Christ. We had not needed so
great an atonement, so vast a sacrifice, if there had not been an exceeding
sinfulness in sin, an exceeding justice in the judgment, and an exceeding terror
in the sure rewards of transgression. "According to my gospel," saith Paul; and
he meant that the judgment is an essential part of the gospel creed. If I had to
sum up the gospel I should have to tell you certain facts: Jesus, the Son of
God, became man; he was born of the virgin Mary; lived a perfect life; was
falsely accused of men; was crucified, dead, and buried; the third day he rose
again from the dead; he ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of
God; from whence he shall also come to judge the quick and the dead. This is one
of the elementary truths of our gospel; we believe in the resurrection of the
dead, the final judgment, and the life everlasting.The judgment is according to
our gospel, and in times of righteous indignation its terrible significance
seemeth a very gospel to the pure in heart. I mean this. I have read this and
that concerning oppression, slavery, the treading down of the poor, and the
shedding of blood, and I have rejoiced that there is a righteous Judge. I have
read of secret wickednesses among the rich men of this city, and I have said
within myself, "Thank God, there will be a judgment day." Thousands of men have
been hanged for much less crimes than those which now disgrace gentlemen whose
names are on the lips of rank and beauty. Ah me, how heavy is our heart as we
think of it! It has come like a gospel to us that the Lord will be revealed in
flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess.1:8) The secret wickedness of London
cannot go on for ever. Even they that love men best, and most desire salvation
for them, cannot but cry to God, "How long! How long! Great God, wilt thou for
ever endure this?" God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world,
and we sigh and cry until it shall end the reign of wickedness, and give rest to
the oppressed. Brethren, we must preach the coming of the Lord, and preach it
somewhat more than we have done; because it is the driving power of the gospel.
Too many have kept back these truths, and thus the bone has been taken out of
the arm of the gospel. Its point has been broken; its edge has been blunted. The
doctrine of judgment to come is the power by which men are to be aroused. There
is another life; the Lord will come a second time; judgment will arrive; the
wrath of God will be revealed. Where this is not preached, I am bold to say the
gospel is not preached. It is absolutely necessary to the preaching of the
gospel of Christ that men be warned as to what will happen if they continue in
their sins. Ho, ho, sir surgeon, you are too delicate to tell the man that he is
ill! You hope to heal the sick without their knowing it. You therefore flatter
them; and what happens? They laugh at you; they dance upon their own graves. At
last they die! Your delicacy is cruelty; your flatteries are poisons; you are a
murderer. Shall we keep men in a fool's paradise? Shall we lull them into soft
slumbers from which they will awake in hell? Are we to become helpers of their
damnation by our smooth speeches? In the name of God we will not. It becomes
every true minister of Christ to cry aloud and spare not, for God hath set a day
in which he will "judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my
gospel." As surely as Paul's gospel was true the judgment will come. Wherefore
flee to Jesus this day, O sinners. O ye saints, come hide yourselves again
beneath the crimson canopy of the atoning sacrifice, that you may be now ready
to welcome your descending Lord and escort him to his judgment-seat. O my
hearers, may God bless you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.Portion of Scripture read
before Sermon -- John 12:37-50.Hymns from "Our Own Hymn Book" -- 93, 12, 518.


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  CHAPTER 7: IMMEASURABLE LOVE
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A Sermon (No.1850) Intended for reading on Lord's-Day, July 26th, 1885,
Delivered by C. H. SPURGEON, At [7]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, On
the evening of June 7th, 1885 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." -- John 3:16 I WAS very greatly surprised the other day, in
looking over the list of texts from which I have preached, to find that I have
no record of ever having spoken from this verse. This is all the more singular,
because I can truly say that it might be put in the forefront of all my volumes
of discourses as the sole topic of my life's ministry. It has been my one and
only business to set forth the love of God to men in Christ Jesus. I heard
lately of an aged minister of whom it was said, "Whatever his text, he never
failed to set forth God as love, and Christ as the atonement for sin." I wish
that much the same may be said of me. My heart's desire has been to sound forth
as with a trumpet the good news that "God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." We are about to meet around the communion table, and I cannot
preach from this text anything but a simple gospel sermon. Can you desire a
better preparation for communion? We have fellowship with God and with one
another upon the basis of the infinite love which is displayed in Jesus Christ
our Lord. The gospel is the fair white linen cloth which covers the table on
which the Communion Feast is set. The higher truths, those truths which belong
to a more enlightened experience, those richer truths which tell of the
fellowship of the higher life -- all these are helpful to holy fellowship; but I
am sure not more so than those elementary and foundation truths which were the
means of our first entrance into the kingdom of God. Babes in Christ and men in
Christ here feed upon one common food. Come, ye aged saints, be children again;
and you that have long known your Lord, take up your first spelling-book, and go
over your A B C again, by learning that God so loved the world, that he gave his
Son to die, that man might live through him. I do not call you to an elementary
lesson because you have forgotten your letters, but because it is a good thing
to refresh the memory, and a blessed thing to feel young again. What the old
folks used to call the Christ-cross Row contained nothing but the letters; and
yet all the books in the language are made out of that line: therefore do I call
you back to the cross, and to him who bled thereon. It is a good things for us
all to return at times to our starting place, and make sure that we are in the
way everlasting. The love of our espousals is most likely to continue if we
again and again begin where God began with us, and where we first began with
God. It is wise to come to him afresh, as we came in that first day when,
helpless, needy, heavy-laden, we stood weeping at the cross, and left our burden
at the pierced feet. There we learned to look, and live, and love; and there
would we repeat the lesson till we rehearse it perfectly in glory. To-night, we
have to talk about the love of God: "God so loved the world." That love of God
is a very wonderful thing, especially when we see it set upon a lost, ruined,
guilty world. What was there in the world that God should love it? There was
nothing lovable in it. No fragrant flower grew in that arid desert. Enmity to
him, hatred to his truth, disregard of his law, rebellion against his
commandments; those were the thorns and briars which covered the waste land; but
no desirable thing blossomed there. Yet, "God loved the world," says the text;
"so" loved it, that even the writer of the book of John could not tell us how
much; but so greatly, so divinely, did he love it that he gave his Son, his only
Son, to redeem the world from perishing, and to gather out of it a people to his
praise. Whence came that love? Not from anything outside of God himself. God's
love springs from himself. He loves because it is his nature to do so. "God is
love." As I have said already, nothing upon the face of the earth could have
merited his love, though there was much to merit his displeasure. This stream of
love flows from its own secret source in the eternal Deity, and it owes nothing
to any earth-born rain or rivulet; it springs from beneath the everlasting
throne, and fills itself full from the springs of the infinite. God loved
because he would love. When we enquire why the Lord loved this man or that, we
have to come back to our Saviour's answer to the question, "Even so, Father, for
so it seemed good in thy sight." God has such love in his nature that he must
needs let it flow forth to a world perishing by its own wilful sin; and when it
flowed forth it was so deep, so wide, so strong, that even inspiration could not
compute its measure, and therefore the Holy Spirit gave us that great little
word SO, and left us to attempt the measurement, according as we perceive more
and more of love divine.Now, there happened to be an occasion upon which the
great God could display his immeasurable love. The world had sadly gone astray;
the world had lost itself; the world was tried and condemned; the world was
given over to perish, because of its offenses; and there was need for help. The
fall of Adam and the destruction of mankind made ample room and verge enough for
love almighty. Amid the ruins of humanity there was space for showing how much
Jehovah loved the sons of men; for the compass of his love was no less than the
world, the object of it no less than to deliver men from going down to the pit,
and the result of it no less than the finding of a ransom for them. The
far-reaching purpose of that love was both negative and positive; that,
believing in Jesus, men might not perish, but have eternal life. The desperate
disease of man gave occasion for the introduction of that divine remedy which
God alone could have devised and supplied. By the plan of mercy, and the great
gift which was needed for carrying it out, the Lord found means to display his
boundless love to guilty men. Had there been no fall, and no perishing, God
might have shown his love to us as he does to the pure and perfect spirits that
surround his throne; but he never could have commended his love to us to such an
extent as he now does. In the gift of his only-begotten Son, God commended his
love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. The black background of sin makes the bright line of love shine out the
more clearly. When the lightning writes the name of the Lord with flaming finger
across the black brow of the tempest, we are compelled to see it; so when love
inscribes the cross upon the jet tablet of our sin, even blind eyes must see
that "herein is love."I might handle my text in a thousand different ways
to-night; but for simplicity's sake, and to keep to the one point of setting
forth the love of God, I want to make you see how great that love is by five
different particulars.I. The first is the GIFT: "God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son." Consider, then, what this gift was that God gave. I
should have to labour for expression if I were to attempt to set forth to the
full this priceless boon; and I will not court a failure by attempting the
impossible. I will only invite you to think of the sacred Person whom the Great
Father gave in order that he might prove his love to men. It was his
only-begotten Son -- his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased. None of us
had ever such a son to give. Ours are the sons of men; his was the Son of God.
The Father gave his other self, one with himself. When the great God gave his
Son he gave God himself, for Jesus is not in his eternal nature less than God.
When God gave God for us he gave himself. What more could he give? God gave his
all: he gave himself. Who can measure this love?Judge, ye fathers, how ye love
your sons: could ye give them to die for your enemy? Judge, ye that have an only
son, how your hearts are entwined about your first-born, your only-begotten.
There was no higher proof of Abraham's love to God than when he did not withhold
from God his son, his only son, his Isaac whom he loved; and there can certainly
be no greater display of love than for the Eternal Father to give his
only-begotten Son to die for us. No living thing will readily lose its
offspring; man has peculiar grief when his son is taken; has not God yet more? A
story has often been told of the fondness of parents for their children how in a
famine in the East a father and mother were reduced to absolute starvation, and
the only possibility of preserving the life of the family was to sell one of the
children into slavery. So they considered it. The pinch of hunger became
unbearable, and their children pleading for bread tugged so painfully at their
heart-strings, that they must entertain the idea of selling one to save the
lives of the rest. They had four sons. Who of these should be sold? It must not
be the first: how could they spare their first-born? The second was so strangely
like his father that he seemed a reproduction of him, and the mother said that
she would never part with him. The third was so singularly like the mother that
the father said he would sooner die than that this dear boy should go into
bondage; and as for the fourth, he was their Benjamin, their last, their
darling, and they could not part with him. They concluded that it were better
for them all to die together than willingly to part with any one of their
children. Do you not sympathize with them? I see you do. Yet God so loved us
that, to put it very strongly, he seemed to love us better than his only Son,
and did not spare him that he might spare us. He permitted his Son to perish
from among men "that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have
everlasting life." If you desire to see the love of God in this great procedure
you must consider how he gave his Son. He did not give his Son, as you might do,
to some profession in the pursuit of which you might still enjoy his company;
but he gave his Son to exile among men. He sent him down to yonder manger,
united with a perfect manhood, which at the first was in an infant's form. There
he slept, where horned oxen fed! The Lord God sent the heir of all things to
toil in a carpenter's shop: to drive the nail, and push the plane, and use the
saw. He sent him down amongst scribes and Pharisees, whose cunning eyes watched
him, and whose cruel tongues scourged him with base slanders. He sent him down
to hunger, and thirst, amid poverty so dire that he had not where to lay his
head. He sent him down to the scourging and the crowning with thorns, to the
giving of his back to the smiters and his cheeks to those that plucked off the
hair. At length he gave him up to death -- a felon's death, the death of the
crucified. Behold that cross and see the anguish of him that dies upon it, and
mark how the Father has so given him, that he hides his face from him, and seems
as if he would not own him! "Lama sabachthani" tells us how fully God gave his
Son to ransom the souls of the sinful. He gave him to be made a curse for us;
gave him that he might die "the just for the unjust, to bring us to God."Dear
sirs, I can understand your giving up your children to go to India on her
Majesty's service, or to go out to the Cameroons or the Congo upon the errands
of our Lord Jesus. I can well comprehend your yielding them up even with the
fear of a pestilential climate before you, for if they die they will die
honourably in a glorious cause; but could you think of parting with them to die
a felon's death, upon a gibbet, execrated by those whom they sought to bless,
stripped naked in body and deserted in mind? Would not that be too much? Would
you not cry, "I cannot part with my son for such wretches as these. Why should
he be put to a cruel death for such abominable beings, who even wash their hands
in the blood of their best friend"? Remember that our Lord Jesus died what his
countrymen considered to be an accursed death. To the Romans it was the death of
a condemned slave, a death which had all the elements of pain, disgrace, and
scorn mingled in it to the uttermost. "But God commendeth his love to- ward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Oh, wondrous stretch of
love, that Jesus Christ should die!Yet, I cannot leave this point till I have
you notice when God gave his Son, for there is love in the time. "God so loved
the world that he gave his Only Begotten Son." But when did he do that? In his
eternal purpose he did this from before the foundation of the world. The words
here used, "He gave his Only Begotten Son," cannot relate exclusively to the
death of Christ, for Christ was not dead at the time of the utterance of this
third chapter of John. Our Lord had just been speaking with Nicodemus, and that
conversation took place at the beginning of his ministry. The fact is that Jesus
was always the gift of God. The promise of Jesus was made in the garden of Eden
almost as soon as Adam fell. On the spot where our ruin was accomplished, a
Deliverer was bestowed whose heel should be bruised, but who should break the
serpent's head beneath his foot.Throughout the ages the great Father stood to
his gift. He looked upon his Only Begotten as man's hope, the inheritance of the
chosen seed, who in him would possess all things. Every sacrifice was God's
renewal of his gift of grace, a reassurance that he had bestowed the gift, and
would never draw back therefrom. The whole system of types under the law
betokened that in the fulness of time the Lord would in very deed give up his
Son, to be born of a woman, to bear the iniquities of his people, and to die the
death in their behalf. I greatly admire this pertinacity of love; for many a man
in a moment of generous excitement can perform a supreme act of benevolence, and
yet could not bear to look at it calmly, and consider it from year to year; the
slow fire of anticipation would have been unbearable. If the Lord should take
away yonder dear boy from his mother, she would bear the blow with some measure
of patience, heavy as it would be to her tender heart; but suppose that she were
credibly informed that on such a day her boy must die, and thus had from year to
year to look upon him as one dead, would it not cast a cloud over every hour of
her future life? Suppose also that she knew that he would be hanged upon a tree
to die, as one condemned; would it not embitter her existence? If she could
withdraw from such a trial, would she not? Assuredly she would. Yet the Lord God
spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all, doing it in his
heart from age, to age. Herein is love: love which many waters could not quench:
love eternal, inconceivable, infinite!Now, as this gift refers not only to our
Lord's death, but to the ages before it, so it includes also all the ages
afterwards. God "so loved the world that he gave" -- and still gives -- "his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have
everlasting life." The Lord is giving Christ away to-night. Oh, that thousands
of you may gladly accept the gift unspeakable! Will anyone refuse? This good
gift, this perfect gift, -- can you decline it? Oh, that you may have faith to
lay hold on Jesus, for thus he will be yours. He is God's free gift to all free
receivers; a full Christ for empty sinners. If you can but hold out your empty
willing hand, the Lord will give Christ to you at this moment. Nothing is freer
than a gift. Nothing is more worth having than a gift which comes fresh from the
hand of God, as full of effectual power as ever it was. The fountain is eternal,
but the stream from it is as fresh as when first the fountain was opened. There
is no exhausting this gift. "Dear dying Lamb, thy precious bloodShall never lose
it powerTill all the ransomed church of GodBe saved to sin no more."See, then,
what is the love of God, that he gave his Son from of old, and has never revoked
the gift. He stands to his gift, and continues still to give his dear Son to all
who are willing to accept him. Out of the riches of his grace he has given, is
giving, and will give the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the priceless gifts which
are contained in him, to all needy sinners who will simply trust him.I call upon
you from this first point to admire the love of God, because of the transcendent
greatness of his gift to the world, even the gift of his only begotten Son.II.
Now notice secondly, and, I think I may say, with equal admiration, the love of
God in THE PLAN OF SALVATION. He has put it thus: "that whosoever believeth on
him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The way of salvation is
extremely simple to understand, and exceedingly easy to practise, when once the
heart is made willing and obedient. The method of the covenant of grace differs
as much from that of the covenant of works as light from darkness. It is not
said that God has given his Son to all who will keep his law, for that we could
not do, and therefore the gift would have been available to none of us. Nor is
it said that he has given his Son to all that experience terrible despair and
bitter remorse, for that is not felt by many who nevertheless are the Lord's own
people. But the great God has given his own Son, that "whosoever believeth in
him" should not perish. Faith, however slender, saves the soul. Trust in Christ
is the certain way of eternal happiness.Now, what is it to believe in Jesus? It
is just this: it is to trust yourself with him. If your hearts are ready, though
you have never believed in Jesus before, I trust you will believe in him now. O
Holy Spirit graciously make it so.What is it to believe in Jesus?It is, first,
to give your firm and cordial assent to the truth, that God did send his Son,
born of a woman, to stand in the room and stead of guilty men, and that God did
cause to meet on him the iniquities of us all, so that he bore the punishment
due to our transgressions, being made a curse for us. We must heartily believe
the Scripture which saith, -- "the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and
with his stripes ye are healed." I ask for your assent to the grand doctrine of
substitution, which is the marrow of the gospel. Oh, may God the Holy Spirit
lead you to give a cordial assent to it at once; for wonderful as it is, it is a
fact that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them. Oh that you may rejoice that this is true, and be
thankful that such a blessed fact is revealed by God himself. Believe that the
substitution of the Son of God is certain; cavil not at the plan, nor question
its validity, or efficacy, as many do. Alas! they kick at God's great sacrifice,
and count it a sorry invention. As for me, since God has ordained to save man by
a substitutionary sacrifice, I joyfully agree to his method, and see no reason
to do anything else but admire it and adore the Author of it. I joy and rejoice
that such a plan should have been thought of, whereby the justice of God is
vindicated, and his mercy is set free to do all that he desires. Sin is punished
in the person of the Christ, yet mercy is extended to the guilty. In Christ
mercy is sustained by justice, and justice satisfied by an act of mercy. The
worldly wise say hard things about this device of infinite wisdom; but as for
me, I love the very name of the cross, and count it to be the centre of wisdom,
the focus of love, the heart of righteousness. This is a main point of faith --
to give a hearty assent to the giving of Jesus to suffer in our place and stead,
to agree with all our soul and mind to this way of salvation.The second thing is
that you do accept this for yourself. In Adam's sin, you did not sin personally,
for you were not then in existence; yet you fell; neither can you now complain
thereof, for you have willingly endorsed and adopted Adam's sin by committing
personal transgressions. You have laid your hand, as it were, upon Adam's sin,
and made it your own, by committing personal and actual sin. Thus you perished
by the sin of another, which you adopted and endorsed; and in like manner must
you be saved by the righteousness of another, which you are to accept and
appropriate. Jesus has offered an atonement, and that atonement becomes yours
when you accept it by putting your trust in him. I want you now to say,"My faith
doth lay her handOn that dear head of thine,While, like a penitent, I stand,And
here confess my sin."Surely this is no very difficult matter. To say that Christ
who hung upon the cross shall be my Christ, my surety, needs neither stretch of
intellect, nor splendor of character; and yet it is the act which brings
salvation to the soul.One thing more is needful; and that is personal trust.
First comes assent to the truth, then acceptance of that truth for yourself, and
then a simple trusting of yourself wholly to Christ, as a substitute. The
essence of faith is trust, reliance, dependence. Fling away every other
confidence of every sort, save confidence in Jesus. Do not allow a ghost of a
shade of a shadow of a confidence in anything that you can do, or in anything
that you can be; but look alone to him whom God has set forth to be the
propitiation for sin. This I do at this very moment; will you not do the same?
Oh, may the sweet Spirit of God lead you now to trust in Jesus! See, then, the
love of God in putting it in so plain, so easy a way. Oh, thou broken, crushed
and despairing sinner, thou canst not work, but canst thou not believe that
which is true? Thou canst not sigh; thou canst not cry; thou canst not melt thy
stony heart; but canst thou not believe that Jesus died for thee, and that he
can change that heart of thine and make thee a new creature? If thou canst
believe this, then trust in Jesus to do so, and thou art saved; for he that
believes in him is justified. "He that believeth in him hath everlasting life."
He is a saved man. His sins are forgiven him. Let him go his way in peace, and
sin no more.I admire, first, the love of God in the great gift, and then in the
great plan by which that gift becomes available to guilty men.III. Thirdly, the
love of God shines forth with transcendent brightness in a third point, namely,
in THE PERSONS FOR WHOM THIS PLAN IS AVAILABLE, and for whom this gift is given.
They are described in these words -- "Whosoever believeth in him." There is in
the text a word which has no limit -- "God so loved the world"; but then comes
in the descriptive limit, which I beg you to notice with care: "He gave his Only
Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish." God did not so
love the world that any man who does not believe in Christ shall be saved;
neither did God so give his Son that any man shall be saved who refuses to
believe in him. See how it is put -- "God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish." Here is
the compass of the love: while every unbeliever is excluded, every believer is
included. "Whosoever believeth in him." Suppose there be a man who has been
guilty of all the lusts of the flesh to an infamous degree, suppose that he is
so detestable that he is only fit to be treated like a moral leper, and shut up
in a separate house for fear he should contaminate those who hear or see him;
yet if that man shall believe in Jesus Christ, he shall at once be made clean
from his defilement, and shall not perish because of his sin. And suppose there
be another man who, in the pursuit of his selfish motives, has ground down the
poor, has robbed his fellow-traders, and has even gone so far as to commit
actual crime of which the law has taken cognisance, yet if he believes in the
Lord Jesus Christ he shall be led to make restitution, and his sins shall be
forgiven him. I once heard of a preacher addressing a company of men in chains,
condemned to die for murder and other crimes. They were such a drove of beasts
to all outward appearances that it seemed hopeless to preach to them; yet were I
set to be chaplain to such a wretched company I should not hesitate to tell them
that "God so loved the world, that he gave his Only Begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." O man, if thou
wilt believe in Jesus as the Christ, however horrible thy past sins have been
they shall be blotted out; thou shalt be saved from the power of thine evil
habits; and thou shalt begin again like a child newborn, with a new and true
life, which God shall give thee. "Whosoever believeth in him," -- that takes you
in, my aged friend, now lingering within a few tottering steps of the grave. O
grey-headed sinner, if you believe in him, you shall not perish. The text also
includes you, dear boy, who have scarcely entered your teens as yet: if you
believe in him, you shall not perish. That takes you in, fair maiden, and gives
you hope and joy while yet young. That comprehends all of us, provided we
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither can all the devils in hell find out
any reason why the man that believes in Christ shall be lost, for it is written,
"Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Do they say, "Lord, he has
been so long in coming"? The Lord replies, -- "Has he come? Then I will not cast
him out for all his delays." But, Lord, he went back after making a profession.
"Has he at length come? Then I will not cast him out for all his backsliding."
But, Lord, he was a foul-mouthed blasphemer. "Has he come to me? Then I will not
cast him out for all his blasphemies." But, says one, "I take exception to the
salvation of this wicked wretch. He has behaved so abominably that in all
justice he ought to be sent to hell." Just so. But if he repents of his sin and
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, whoever he may be, he shall not be sent
there. He shall be changed in character, so that he shall never perish, but have
eternal life.Now, observe, that this "whosoever" makes a grand sweep; for it
encircles all degrees of faith. "Whosoever believeth in him." It may be that he
has no full assurance; it may be that he has no assurance at all; but if he has
faith, true and childlike, by it he shall be saved. Though his faith be so
little that I must needs put on my spectacles to see it, yet Christ will see it
and reward it. His faith is such a tiny grain of mustard seed that I look and
look again but hardly discern it, and yet it brings him eternal life, and it is
itself a living thing. The Lord can see within that mustard seed a tree among
whose branches the birds of the air shall make their nests. "My faith is feeble,
I confess,I faintly trust thy word;But wilt thou pity me the less?Be that far
from thee, Lord!"O Lord Jesus, if I cannot take thee up in my arms as Simeon
did, I will at least touch thy garment's hem as the poor diseased woman did to
whom thy healing virtue flowed. It is written, "God so loveth the world that he
gave his Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life." That means me. I cannot preach at length to you
to-night; but I would preach with strength. Oh that this truth may soak into
your souls. Oh you that feel yourselves guilty; and you that feel guilty because
you do not feel guilty; you that are broken in heart because your heart will not
break; you that feel that you cannot feel; it is to you that I would preach
salvation in Christ by faith. You groan because you cannot groan; but whoever
you may be, you are still within the range of this mighty word, that "whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."Thus have I commended
God's love to you in those three points -- the divine gift, the divine method of
saving, and the divine choice of the persons to whom salvation comes.IV. Now
fourthly, another beam of divine love is to be seen in the negative blessing
here stated, namely, in THE DELIVERANCE implied in the words, "that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish."I understand that word to mean that
whosoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish, though he is ready
to perish. His sins would cause him to perish, but he shall never perish. At
first he has a little hope in Christ, but its existence is feeble. It will soon
die out, will it not? No, his faith shall not perish, for this promise covers it
-- "Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish." The penitent has believed in
Jesus, and therefore he has begun to be a Christian; "Oh," cries an enemy, "let
him alone: he will soon be back among us; he will soon be as careless as ever."
Listen. "Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish," and therefore he will not
return to his former state. This proves the final perseverance of the saints;
for if the believer ceased to be a believer he would perish; and as he cannot
perish, it is clear that he will continue a believer. If thou believest in
Jesus, thou shalt never leave off believing in him; for that would be to perish.
If thou believest in him, thou shalt never delight in thine old sins; for that
would be to perish. If thou believest in him, thou shalt never lose spiritual
life. How canst thou lose that which is everlasting? If thou wert to lose it, it
would prove that it was not everlasting, and thou wouldst perish; and thus thou
wouldst make this word to be of no effect. Whosoever with his heart believeth in
Christ is a saved man, not for to-night only, but for all the nights that ever
shall be, and for that dread night of death, and for that solemn eternity which
draws so near. "Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish;" but he shall have
a life that cannot die, a justification that cannot be disputed, an acceptance
which shall never cease.What is it to perish? It is to lose all hope in Christ,
all trust in God, all light in life, all peace in death, all joy, all bliss, all
union with God. This shall never happen to thee if thou believest in Christ. If
thou believest, thou shalt be chastened when thou dost wrong, for every child of
God comes under discipline; and what son is there whom the Father chasteneth
not? If thou believest, thou mayest doubt and fear as to thy state, as a man on
board a ship may be tossed about; but thou hast gotten on board a ship that
never can be wrecked. He that hath union with Christ has union with perfection,
omnipotence and glory. He that believeth is a member of Christ: will Christ lose
his members? How should Christ be perfect if he lost even his little finger? Are
Christ's members to rot off, or to be cut off? Impossible. If thou hast faith in
Christ thou are a partaker of Christ's life, and thou canst not perish. If men
were trying to drown me, they could not drown my foot as long as I had my head
above water; and as long as our Head is above water, up yonder in the eternal
sunshine, the least limb of his body can never be destroyed. He that believeth
in Jesus is united to him, and he must live because Jesus lives. Oh what a word
is this, "I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them to me
is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."I
feel that I have a grand gospel to preach to you when I read that whosoever
believeth in Jesus shall not perish. I would not give two pins for that
trumpery, temporary salvation which some proclaim, which floats the soul for a
time and then ebbs away to apostasy. I do not believe that the man who is once
in Christ may live in sin and delight in it, and yet be saved. That is
abominable teaching, and none of mine. But I believe that the man who is in
Christ will not live in sin, for he is saved from it; nor will he return to his
old sins and abide in them, for the grace of God will continue to save him from
his sins. Such a change is wrought by regeneration that the newborn man cannot
abide in sin, nor find comfort in it, but he loves holiness and makes progress
in it. The Ethiopian may change his skin, and the leopard his spots, but only
grace divine can work the change; and when divine grace has done the deed the
blackamore will remain white, and the leopard's spots will never return. It
would be as great a miracle to undo the work of God as to do it; and to destroy
the new creation would require as great a power as to make it. As only God can
create, so only God can destroy; and he will never destroy the work of his own
hands. Will God begin to build and not finish? Will he commence a warfare and
end it before he has won the victory? What would the devil say if Christ were to
begin to save a soul and fail in the attempt? If there should come to be souls
in hell that were believers in Christ, and yet did perish, it would cast a cloud
upon the diadem of our exalted Lord. It cannot, shall not, be. Such is the love
of God, that whosoever believeth in his dear Son shall not perish: in this
assurance we greatly rejoice. V. The last commendation of his love lies in the
positive -- IN THE POSSESSION. I shall have to go in a measure over the same
ground again, let me therefore be the shorter. God gives to every man that
believes in Christ everlasting life. The moment thou believest there trembles
into thy bosom a vital spark of heavenly flame which never shall be quenched. In
that same moment when thou dost cast thyself on Christ, Christ comes to thee in
the living and incorruptible word which liveth and abideth for ever. Though
there should drop into thy heart but one drop of the heavenly water of life,
remember this, -- he hath said it who cannot lie, -- "The water that I shall
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
When I first received everlasting life I had no idea what a treasure had come to
me. I knew that I had obtained something very extraordinary, but of its
superlative value I was not aware. I did but look to Christ in the little
chapel, and I received eternal life. I looked to Jesus, and he looked on me; and
we were one for ever. That moment my joy surpassed all bounds, just as my sorrow
had aforetime driven me to an extreme of grief. I was perfectly at rest in
Christ, satisfied with him, and my heart was glad; but I did not know that this
grace was everlasting life till I began to read in the Scriptures, and to know
more fully the value of the jewel which God had given me. The next Sunday I sent
to the same chapel, as it was very natural that I should. But I never went
afterwards, for this reason, that during my first week the new life that was in
me had been compelled to fight for its existence, and a conflict with the old
nature had been vigorously carried on. This I knew to be a special token of the
indwelling of grace in my soul; but in that same chapel I heard a sermon upon "O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And
the preacher declared that Paul was not a Christian when he had that experience.
Babe as I was, I knew better than to believe so absurd a statement. What but
divine grace could produce such a sighing and crying after deliverance from
indwelling sin? I felt that a person who could talk such nonsense knew little of
the life of a true believer. I said to myself, "What! am I not alive because I
feel a conflict within me? I never felt this fight when I was an unbeliever.
When I was not a Christian I never groaned to be set free from sin. This
conflict is one of the surest evidences of my new birth, and yet this man cannot
see it; he may be a good exhorter to sinners, but he cannot feed believers." I
resolved to go into that pasture no more, for I could not feed therein. I find
that the struggle becomes more and more intense; each victory over sin reveals
another army of evil tendencies, and I am never able to sheathe my sword, nor
cease from prayer and watchfulness.I cannot advance an inch without praying my
way, nor keep the inch I gain without watching and standing fast. Grace alone
can preserve and perfect me. The old nature will kill the new nature if it can;
and to this moment the only reason why my new nature is not dead is this --
because it cannot die. If it could have died, it would have been slain long ago;
but Jesus said, "I give unto my sheep eternal life"; "he that believeth on me
hast everlasting life"; and therefore the believer cannot die. The only religion
which will save you is one that you cannot leave, because it possesses you, and
will not leave you. If you hold a doctrine which you can give up, give it up;
but if the doctrines are burnt into you so that as long as you live you must
hold them, and so that if you were burnt every ash would hold that same truth in
it, because you are impregnated with it, then you have found the right thing.You
are not a saved man unless Christ has saved you for ever. But that which has
such a grip of you that its grasp is felt in the core of your being is the power
of God. To have Christ living in you, and the truth ingrained in your very
nature -- O sirs, this is the thing that saves the soul, and nothing short of
it. It is written in the text, "God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." What is this but a life that shall last through your
three-score years and ten; a life that shall last you should you outlive a
century; a life that will still flourish when you lie at the grave's mouth; a
life that will abide when you have quitted the body, and left it rotting in the
tomb; a life that will continue when your body is raised again, and you shall
stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; a life that will outshine those stars
and yon sun and moon; a life that shall be co-eval with the life of the Eternal
Father? As long as there is a God, the believer shall not only exist, but live.
As long as there is a heaven, you shall enjoy it; as long as there is a Christ,
you shall live in his love; and as long as there is an eternity, you shall
continue to fill it with delight. God bless you and help you to believe in
Jesus. -- Amen.Portion of Scripture read before Sermon -- John 3.Hymns from "Our
Own Hymn Book" -- 291, 538, 539.


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  CHAPTER 8: THE TRUE TABERNACLE, AND ITS GLORY OF GRACE AND PEACE
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A Sermon (No.1862) Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, September 27th, 1885, by C.
H. SPURGEON, At [8]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." -- John 1:14. "For the law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." -- John 1: 17.
THERE WAS A TIME when God freely communed with men. The voice of the Lord God
was heard walking in the garden in the cool of the day. With unfallen Adam the
great God dwelt in sweet and intimate fellowship; but sin came and not only
destroyed the garden, but destroyed the intercourse of God with His creature
man. A great gulf opened between man as evil, and God as infinitely pure; and
had it not been for the amazing goodness of the most High, we must all of us
forever have been banished from His presence, and from the glory of His power.
The Lord God in infinite love resolved that He Himself would bridge the
distance, and would again dwell with man; and in token of this He made Himself
manifest to His chosen nation Israel when they were in the wilderness. He was
pleased to dwell in type and symbol among His people, in the very center and
heart of their camp. Do you see yonder tent with its curtains of goats' hair in
the center of the canvas city? You cannot see within it; but it was all glorious
within with precious wood, and pure gold, and tapestry of many colors. Within
its most sacred shrine shone forth a bright light between the wings of cherubim,
which light was the symbol of the presence of the Lord. But if you cannot see
within, yet you can see above the sacred tent a cloud, which arises from the top
of the Holy of Holies, and then expands like a vast tree so as to cover all the
host, and protect the chosen of God from the intense heat of the sun, so apt to
make the traveler faint when passing over the burning sand. If you will wait
till the sun is down, that same cloud will become Alimonies, and light up the
whole camp. Thus it was both shade and light; and by its means was enjoyed that
safety which was afterwards set forth in the promise, "The sun shall not smite
thee by day, nor the moon by night." Over all the glory was a defense and a
comfort. The Lord dealt not so with any nation, save only His people Israel, of
whom He said, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people." The day of the type is over; we see no more a
nation secluded from all others and made to be as "the church in the
wilderness." God doth not now confine His abode to one people; for "The God of
the whole earth shall he be called." There is now no spot on earth where God
dwells in preference to another. Did not our Lord say, at the well of Sychar,
"Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor
yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." "But . . . the true worshipers shall
worship the Father it spirit and in truth"? Wherever true hearts seek the Lord,
He is found of them. He is as much present on the lone mountain's side as in the
aisles of yonder above, or in the galleries of this tabernacle. "Howbeit the
most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven
is my throne, and earth is my footstool; what house will ye build me? saith the
Lord: or what is the place of my rest?" Yet there is a true house of, a real
temple of the infinite, a living abode of the Godhead. The epistle to the
Hebrews speaks of "the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man."
There is still a trysting-place where God doth still meet with man, and hold
fellowship with him. That place is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, "in whom
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. "The manhood of Christ is
become to us the anti-type of that tent in the center of the camp. God is in
Christ Jesus; Christ Jesus is God; and in His blessed person God dwells in the
midst of us as in a tent; for such is the force of the original in our text.
"The Word was made flesh, and tabernacled, or tented, among us." That is to say,
in Christ Jesus the Lord dwelt among men, as God of old dwelt in His sanctuary
in the midst of the tribes of Israel. This is very delightful and hopeful for
us: the Lord God doth dwell among us through the incarnation of His Son. But the
substance far excels the shadow; for in the wilderness the Lord only dwelt in
the abode of man, but now His approach to us is closer, for He dwells in the
flesh of man. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Note that word
"flesh." It doth not say, "The Word was made man": it means that, but the use of
the word "flesh brings the Lord Jesus still closer to us, and shows that He took
on Him the very nature and substance of manhood: He did not merely assume the
name and notion, and appearance, of manhood, but the reality: the weakness, the
suffering, the mortality of our manhood He actually took into union with
Himself. He was no phantom, or apparition, but He had a human body and a human
soul. "The Word was made flesh." When the Lord became bone of our bone, and
flesh of our flesh, His incarnation in a human body brought Him far nearer to
man than when He only abode within curtains, and occupied a tent in the midst of
Israel. Moreover, it is to be noted that God does in the person of Jesus not
merely dwell among men; but He hath joined Himself unto men -- the Word not only
dwelt in flesh, but "was made flesh." It is impossible to use words which are
exactly accurate to describe the wonderful incarnation of the Son of God in
human flesh; but these words are used to show that our Lord is as truly and as
really man as He is God. Not only does God dwell in the body of man; but our
Lord Jesus is God and man in one person. He is not ashamed to speak of men as
His brethren. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same with us. This approach to us is
exceeding close. God was never one with the tabernacle, but in Christ Jesus He
is one with us. This union hath in it a sweetness of sympathy, a tenderness of
relationship, and a condensation of fellowship greatly to be admired. Now we
listen to the music of that blessed name Emmanuel, "God with its." In the person
of the only begotten, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we see God reconciling
the world unto Himself. Let us rejoice and be glad that we have in Jesus more
than Israel had in the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. The
ancient believer gazed upon the sacred tent, he thought of the holy place of
sacrifice, and the Holy of Holies, the inner shrine of the Lord's indwelling;
but we have unfeignedly more, we have God in our nature, and in Him "truly our
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."In and around the
tent wherein the Lord dwelt in the center of the camp there was a manifestation
of the presence of God. This was the glory of that house: but how scanty was the
revelation! A bright light which I have already mentioned, the Shekinah, is said
to have shone over the mercy-seat; but the high priest only could see it, and he
only saw it once in the year when he entered with blood within the veil.
Outside, above the holy place, there was the manifest glory of the pillar of
cloud by day, and of fire by night. This sufficed to bear witness that God was
there; but still, cloud and fire are but physical appearances, and cannot convey
a true appearance of God, who is a spirit. God cannot be perceived by the
senses; and yet the fiery, cloudy pillar could appeal to the eyes only. The
excellence of the indwelling of God in Christ is this -- that there is in Him a
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, the moral and spiritual glory of
Godhead. This is to be seen, but not with the eyes; this is to be perceived, but
not by the carnal senses: this is seen, and heard, and known, by spiritual men,
whose mental perceptions are keener than those of sight and hearing. In the
person of the Lord there is a glory which is seen by our faith, which is
discerned of our renewed spirits, and is made to operate upon our hearts. The
glory of God in the sanctuary was seen only by the priest of the house of Aaron;
the glory of God in the face of Christ is seen by all believers, who are all
priests unto God. That glory the priest beheld but once in the year; but we
steadily behold that glory at all times, and are transformed by the sight. The
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is not a thing of outward appearance,
to be beheld with the eyes, like the pillar of cloud and fire; but there is an
abiding, steady luster of holy, gracious, truthful character about our Lord
Jesus Christ, which is best seen by those who by reason of sanctification are
made fit to discern it. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;
yea, they do see Him in Christ Jesus. "No man hath seen God at any time; the
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."
Many of us besides the apostles can say, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." We have not seen
Jesus raise the dead; we have not seen I Jim cast out devils; we have not seen
Him hush the winds and calm the waves, but we do see, with our mind's eye, His
spotless holiness, His boundless love, His superlative love and truth, His
wondrous heavenliness; in a word, we have seen, and do see, His fullness of
grace and truth; and we rejoice in the fact that the tabernacling of God among,
men in Christ Jesus is attended with a more real glory than the mere brilliance
of light and the glow of flame. The condescension of Christ's love is to us more
glorious than the pillar of cloud, and the zeal of our Lord's self-sacrifice is
more excellent than the pillar of fire. As we think of the divine mysteries
which meet in the person of the Lord, we do not envy Israel the gracious
manifestation vouchsafed her when "a cloud covered the tent of the congregation,
and the glory of the Lord covered the tabernacle"; for we have all this and more
in our incarnate God, who is with us always, even to the end of the world.As the
Holy Spirit shall help me, I shall at this time say, first of all, Let us behold
this tabernacling of God; and secondly, Let us avail ourselves of this
tabernacling of God in all the ways for which it was intended. 1. First, then,
LET US BEHOLD THIS 'TABERNACLING OF GOD WITH US. "We beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. "In Jesus Christ
all the attributes of God are to be seen; veiled, but yet verily there. You have
only to read the gospels, to look with willing eyes, and you shall behold in
Christ all that can possibly be seen of God. It is veiled in human flesh, as it
must be; for the glory of God is not to be seen by us absolutely; it is toned
down to these dim eyes of ours; but the Godhead is there, the perfect Godhead in
union with the perfect manhood of Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory
forever and ever.Two divine things are more clearly seen in Jesus than aught
else. Upon these I would speak at this time, considering the two together, and
then each one separately -- "Full of grace and truth."Observe the two glorious
qualities, joined inseparably -- grace and truth -- and observe that they are
spoken of in the concrete. The apostle says that the only begotten is "full of
grace and truth." He did not come to tell us about grace, but actually to bring
us grace. He is not full of the news of grace and truth, but of grace and truth
themselves. Others had been messengers of gracious tidings, but He came to bring
grace. Others teach us truth, but Jesus is the truth. He is that grace and truth
whereof others spoke. Jesus is not merely a teacher, an exhorter, a worker of
grace and truth; but these heavenly things are in Him: He is full of them. I
want you to note this. It raises such a difference between Christ and others:
you go to others to hear of grace and truth, but you must go to Christ to see
them. There may be, there is, grace in other men; but not as it is in Christ:
they have take it as water flowing through a pipe, but He has it as water in its
fountain and source. He has grace to communicate to the sons of men, grace
without measure, grace essential and abiding. There is truth in others where God
has wrought it, by His Spirit; but it is not in them as it is in Christ. In Him
dwell the depth, the substance, the essence of the fact. Grace and truth come to
us by Him, and yet they evermore abide in Him. I say again, our Lord did not
merely come to teach grace and truth, or to impress them upon us; but He came to
exhibit in His own person, life, and work, all the grace and truth which we
need. He has brought us grace in rivers and truth in streams: of these He has an
infinite fullness; of that fullness all His saints receive.This grace and truth
are blended. The "and" between the two words I would treat as more than a common
conjunction. The two rivers unite in one fullness -- "Full of grace and truth":
that is to say. The grace is truthful grace, grace not in fiction nor in fancy,
grace not to be hoped for and to be dreamed of, but grace every atom of which is
fact; redemption which does redeem, pardon which does blot out sin, renewal
which actually regenerates, salvation which completely saves. We have not here
blessings which charm the ear and cheat the soul; but real, substantial favors
from God that cannot lie. Then blend these things the other way. "Grace and
truth": the Lord has come to bring us truth, but it is not the kind of truth
which censures, condemns, and punishes; it is gracious truth, truth steeped in
love, truth saturated with mercy. The truth which Jesus brings to His people
comes not from the judgment-seat, but from the mercy-seat; it hath a gracious
drift and aim about it, and ever tends unto salvation. His light is the life of
men. If thou art overshadowed with a dark truth which seems to deepen thy
despair, look thou to it again and thou wilt perceive within it a hidden light
which is sown for the righteous. The darkness of convincing and humbling truth
maketh for light: by engendering despair of self, heart-searching truth is meant
to drive thee to the true hope. There is grace to God's people in everything
that falls from the lips of'.Jesus Christ. His lips are like lilies dropping
sweet smelling myrrh; myrrh in itself is bitter, but such is the grace of our
Lord Jesus that His lips impart sweetness to it. See how grace and truth thus
blend, and qualify each other! The grace all true, and the truth is all
gracious, This is a wondrous compound made according to the art of the divine
Apothecary. Where else is grace so true, or truth so gracious?Furthermore, it is
grace and truth balanced. I wish I were able to communicate my thoughts this
morning as they came to me when I was meditating upon this passage; but this
thought almost speaks for itself. The Lord Jesus Christ is full of grace; but
then He has not neglected the other quality which is somewhat sterner, namely,
that of truth. I have known many in this world very loving and affectionate, but
they have not been faithful: on the other hand, I have known men to be sternly
honest and truthful, but they have not been gentle and kind: but in the Lord
Jesus Christ there is no defect either way. He is full of grace which doth
invite the publican and the sinner to Himself; but He is full of truth which
doth repel the hypocrite and Pharisee. He does not hide from man a truth however
terrible it may be, but He plainly declares the wrath of God against all
unrighteousness. But when He has spoken terrible truth, He has uttered it in
such a gracious and tender manner, with so many tears of compassion for the
ignorant and those that are out of the way, that you are much won by His grace
as convinced by His truth. Our Lord's ministry is not truth alone, nor grace
alone; but it is a balanced, well-ordered system of grace and truth. The Lord
Himself is in His character "just and having salvation." He is both King of
righteousness and King of peace. He does not even save unjustly, nor does He
proclaim truth unlovingly. Grace and truth are equally conspicuous in Him.
Beloved, notice here that these qualities in our Lord are at the full. He is
"full of grace." Who could be more so? In the person of Jesus Christ the
immeasurable grace of God is treasured up. God has done for us by Christ Jesus
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask, or even think. It is not possible
even for imagination to conceive of any person more gracious than God in Christ
Jesus. You cannot desire, certainly you cannot require, anything that should
exceed what is found of grace in the person, offices, work, and death of the
only begotten. Come, ye that have large minds, and intellects that are creative,
and see if ye can devise anything that should be mentioned in the same day with
what God, in the infinite glory of His grace, has given us in the person of His
Son. And there is an equal fullness of truth about our Lord. He Himself, as He
comes to us as the revelation and manifestation of God, declares to us, not some
truth, but all truth. All of God is in Christ; and all of God means all that is
true, and all that is right, and all that is faithful, and all that is just, all
that is according to righteousness arid holiness. Christ Jesus has brought to us
the justice, truth, and righteousness of God to the full: He is the Lord our
righteousness. There are no reserves of disagreeable faith in Christ. There is
nothing hidden from us of truth that might alarm us, nor anything that might
have shaken our confidence; nor, on the other hand, is any truth kept back which
might have increased our steadfastness. He says, "If it were not so I would have
told you." Admire the full-robed splendor of the Sun of Righteousness. Ask not
with Pilate, "What is truth?" but behold it in God's dear Son. Oh, I know not
how to speak to you upon themes so full and deep! How shall 1, that am but as a
twinkling dewdrop on a blade of grass, reflect the full glory of this Sun of
Righteousness? But all truth and all grace dwell in Christ in all their fullness
beyond conception, and the two lie in each other's bosoms forever, to bless us
with boundless, endless joy and glory.Thus have I taken the two together. Now I
want to dwell briefly on each one by itself.Grace is put first. "We beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace." Jesus
Christ is the Son of God; He is His only begotten Son. Others are begotten of
God, but no other was ever begotten of God as Christ was; consequently, when He
came into this world the glory that was about Him was a glory as of the only
begotten. A very singular, and very special, and incommunicable glory abides in
the person of our Lord. Part of this was the glory of His grace. Now, in the Old
Testament, in that thirty-fourth chapter of Exodus, which we read in part this
morning, you notice that the glory of God lay in His being "the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." The
glory of the only begotten of the Father must lie in the same things as the
glory of the Father, namely, in longsuffering and truth. In Christ there is a
wonderful gentleness,.patience, pity, mercy, and love of God. Not merely did He
teach the grace of God, and invite us to the grace of God, but in Himself He
displayed the grace of God.This is seen, first, in His incarnation, It is a
wonderful instance of divine grace that the word should be made flesh and dwell
among us, and reveal His glory to us. Apart from anything that springs out of
the incarnation of Christ, that incarnation itself is a wondrous act of grace.
There must be hope for men now that man is next akin to God through Jesus
Christ. The angels were not mistaken when they not only sang, "Glory to God in
the highest," but also, "on earth peace, goodwill towards men," because in
Bethlehem the Son of God was born of a virgin. God in our nature must mean God
with gracious thoughts towards us. If the Lord had meant to destroy the race, He
never would have espoused it and taken it into union with Himself. There is
fullness of grace in the fact of the Word made flesh tabernacling among us.More
than this, there is fullness of grace in the life of Christ when we consider
that He lived in order to perfect Himself as our High Priest. Was He not made
perfect through His sufferings, that He might sympathize with us in all our
woes? He was compassed with infirmities, and bore our sorrows, and endured those
crosses of the human life which press so heavily on our own shoulders; and all
this to make Himself able to deal graciously with us in a tender and brotherly
way. Apart from that which comes wonderful brotherhood, there is a bottomless
depth of grace about the fellowship itself. The Lord Jesus cannot curse me, for
He has borne my curse: He cannot be unkind to me, for He has shared my sorrows.
If every pang that tends my heart has also rent His heart, and if into all my
woes He has descended even deeper than I have gone, it must mean love to me, it
cannot mean anything else; and it must mean truth, for Jesus did not play at
fellowship, His griefs were real. I say then that this manifestation of God in
the person of Christ Jesus is seen in His sorrowing life to be full of grace and
truth. Then think for a minute of what He did. He was so full of grace that when
He spoke His words dropped a fatness of grace, the dew of His own love was upon
all His discourses; and when He moved about and touched men here and there,
virtue went out of Him, because He was so full of it. At one time He spoke and
pardoned a sinner, saying, "Thy sins be forgiven thee"; at another moment He
battled with the consequences of sin, raising men from sickness and from death:
He again He turned Himself and fought with the prince of darkness himself, and
cast him out from those whom he tormented. He went about like a cloud which is
big with rain, and therefore plentifully waters waste places. His life was
boundless compassion. There was a power of grace about His garments, His voice,
His look; and in all He was so true that none ever thought Him capable of
subterfuge. Everywhere He went He scattered grace among the children of men; and
He is just the same now; fullness of grace abides in Him still.When it came to
His death, which was the pouring out of His soul, then His fullness of grace was
seen. He was full of grace indeed, forasmuch as He emptied Himself to save men.
He was Himself not only man's Saviour, but his salvation. He gave Himself for
us. He was indeed full of grace when He bore our sins in His own body on the
tree. His was love at its height, since He died on the cross, "the just for the
unjust, to bring us to God," pronounce the word "Substitution, " and you cannot
help feeling that the Substitute fori guilty man was full of grace; or use that
other word, " representative," and remember that whatever Jesus did, He did as
the covenant Head of His people. If He died, they died in Him; if He rose again,
they rose in Him; if He ascended up on high, they ascended in Him; and if He
sits at the right hand of God, they also sit in the heavenly places in Him. When
He shall come a second time it shall be to claim the kingdom for His chosen as
well as for Himself; and all the glory of the future ages is for them, and not
for Himself alone. He saith, "Because I live, ye shall live also." Oh, the
richness of the grace and truth that dwell in our Lord as the representative of
His people! He will enjoy nothing unless His people enjoy it with Him. "Where I
am, there also shall my servant be." "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit
with me in Thy throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father
in his throne."There is yet another word higher than "substitution," higher than
"representation," and that is "union." We are one with Christ, joined to Him by
a union that never can be broken. Not only does He do what He does, representing
us, but we are joined unto Him in one spirit, members of His body, and partakers
of His glory. Is it not a miracle of love that worms of earth should ever be one
with incarnate Deity, and so one that they never can be separated throughout the
ages?Thus I have shown you that there is in our Lord a fullness of grace. Your
own thoughts will dig deeper than mine.But then it is said there is in Him also
a fullness of truth, by which I understand that in Christ Himself, not merely in
what He said, and did, and promised, there is a fullness of truth. And this is
true, first, in the fact that He is the fulfillment of all the promises that
went before concerning Him. God had promised great things by His prophets
concerning the coming Messiah, but all those predictions are absolutely matters
of fact in the person of the Well-beloved. "All the promises of God are yea and
Amen in Christ Jesus." Verily He hath bruised the serpent's head. Verily He hath
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Verily He hath proclaimed liberty to
the captives. Verily He hath proved Himself a prophet like unto Moses.According
to my second text, in verse seventeen, I understand our Lord Jesus to be "truth"
in the sense of being the substance of all the types. The law that was given by
Moses was but symbolical and emblematical; but Jesus is the truth. He is really
that blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel; He is
in very deed the Paschal lamb of God's Passover: He is the burnt-offering, the
sin-offering, and the peace-offering -- all in one! He is the true scapegoat,
the true morning and evening Lamb; in fact, He is in truth what all the types
and figures were in pattern. Blessed by God, brethren, whenever you see great
things in the Old Testament in the type, you see the real truth of those things
it the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jew had nothing that we have not; he
had nothing even in outline and shadow which we have not obtained in substance.
The covenant in its fullness is in Christ: the prophecy is in Moses, the
fulfillment is in Jesus: the foreshadowing is in the law, the truth is in the
Word made flesh.Further than that, our Lord Jesus Christ is said to be grace and
truth in this sense, that He truthfully deals with matters of fact in the case
of our salvation. I know the notion of the world is that the salvation of Christ
is a pretty dream, a handsome piece of sentiment. But there is nothing dreamy,
about it: it is no fiction; it is fact upon fact. The Lord Jesus Christ does not
gloss over or conceal the condition of man in his salvation; He finds man
condemned, and takes him as condemned in the very worst sense, condemned of a
capital offense; and as man's substitute He endures the capital penalty, and
dies in the sinner's stead. The Lord Jesus views the sinner as depraved, yea, as
dead in trespasses and sins, and He quickens him by His resurrection life. He
does not wink at the result of the fall and of actual sin; but He comes to the
dead sinner and quickens him; He comes to the diseased heart and heals it. To me
the gospel is a wonderful embodiment of omnipotent wisdom and truth. If the
gospel had said to men, "The law of God is certainly righteous, but it is too
stern, too, exacting, and therefore God will wink it at many sins, and make
provision for salvation by omitting to punish much of human guilt," why, my
brethren, we should always have been in jeopardy. If God could be unjust to save
us, He could also be changeable, and cast us away. If there was anything rotten
in the state of our salvation, we should fear that it would fail its at last.
But our foundation is sure, for the Lord has excavated down to the rock; He has
taken away every bit of mere sentiment and sham, and His salvation is real
throughout. It is a glorious salvation of grace and truth, in which God takes
the sinner as God is, on the principles of true righteousness; and yet saves
him. But it means more than that. The Lord deals with us in the way of grace,
and that grace encourages a great many hopes, but those hopes are all realized,
for He deals with us in truth. Our necessities demands great things, and grace
actually supplies those great things. The old law could never make the comers
thereunto perfect as pertaining to the conscience, but the grace of God makes
believers perfect as pertaining to the conscience. If I were to sit down and try
to imagine a flaw in the ground of my salvation by Christ, I could not do it.
Believing as I do in Him who bore my sins in His own body on the tree, I feet
that by no possibility can His atonement fail me. I have not imagination strong
enough to feign a reason for distrust: I do not see hole or corner in which any
charge could lurk against the man that believes in Jesus Christ. My conscience
is satisfied, and more than satisfied. Sometimes it even seems to me that my
sins could not have deserved that the Son of God should die. The atonement is
greater than the sin. Speak of the vindication of the law! -- not the
vindication even greater than the dishonor? Does not the law of God shine out
more lustrous in its indescribable glory through the sacrifice of Christ as the
penalty for sin, than it would have done had it never been broken, or had all
the race of law-breakers been swept into endless destruction? O brothers in the
salvation of Jesus there is a truth of grace unrivaled! There is a deep verity,
a substantiality, an inward soul-satisfaction in the sacrifice of Christ, which
makes us feel it is a full atonement -- a fountain of "grace and truth."Nor have
I yet quite brought out all the meaning, even if I have succeeded so far. Christ
has brought to us "grace and truth"; that is to say, He works in believers both
grace and truth. We want grace to rescue us from sin; He has brought it: we need
truth in the inward parts; He has wrought it. The system of salvation by
atonement is calculated to produce truthful men. The habit of looking for
salvation through the great sacrifice fosters the spirit of justice, begets in
us a deep abhorrence of evil, and a love for that which is right and true. By
nature we are all liars, and either love or make a lie: for this cause we are
content t with refuges of ties, and we compass ourselves with deceit. In our
carnal state we are as full of guile as an egg is full of meat; but when the
Lord comes to us it Christ, no longer imputing our trespasses to us, then He
takes out of our heart that deceit and desperate wickedness which had else
remained there. I say it, and dare avow it, that the system of salvation by the
indwelling of God in Christ and the atonement offered by Him for men has a
tendency in it to infuse grace into the soul and to produce truth in the life.
The Holy Ghost employs it to that end. I pray that you and I may prove it so by
the grace which causes us to love both God and man, Santa and the truthfulness
with which we deal in all the affairs of life.Thus has our Lord displayed the
glory of God in the grace and truth with which He is filled. I am sorry have
spoken so feebly on a theme so grand. May the Spirit bless you even through the
infirmities of my speech!II. Now I want a few minutes to say to you, Come
brothers and sisters, LET US AVAIL OURSELVES OF THIS TABERNACLING OF GOD AMONG
US.First, then, if God has come to dwell among men by the Word made flesh let us
pitch our tent around this central tabernacle; do not let us live as if God were
a long way off. To the Israelites God was equally near from every near from
every quarter of the camp. The tabernacle was in the center, and the center is
equally near to every point of the circumference. No true Israelite could say,
"I must go across the sea, or soar up into the air, or dive into the depths to
find my God." Every Israelite could say "He dwelleth between the cherubim: I
have but to go to His tabernacle to be in His presence and speak with Him." Our
God is not far from any one of His people this day. We are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. God is everywhere present, but there is a higher presence of
effectual grace in the person of the only begotten. Do not let us feel as if we
worshiped a far-off God. Let us not repine as if we were deserted. Let us not
feel alone, for the Father is with us.God is near thee, therefore cheer the sad
soul.Open thy window towards Jerusalem, as Daniel did; pray, with thine eye upon
Christ, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead bodily the greatest nearness to
us. God is never far away since Christ has come to dwell among men.Next, let us
resort to this central tabernacle to obtain grace tto help in time of need. Let
us come to Christ without fear, for He hath grace to give, and He will give it
to us abundantly whenever we need it. I like to think of the wording if my text.
Leave out the parentheses, and it runs, "He dwelt among us full of grace." He
could not have dwelt among such provoking ones if he had not been full of
grace." But if He dwells among us full of grace, we need not fear that He will
cast us away because of our sins and failings. I invite you, therefore to come
boldly to Him who is full of forgiving love. I beg you to come and receive of
His fullness, for grace is truly grace when it is communicated: grace which is
not distributed is grace in name only. "Alas!" you say, "I want so much grace."
Brother, it is treasured up in Christ for you without measure. It is placed in
Him that you may have it. Do we not try to persuade the sinner that there is
life in a look? Shall I need to persuade saints that grace is equally free to
them? Do we tell the sinner that God is not be sought for as far away, but that
He is waiting to be gracious? Must I tell the believer the same? You may at this
moment obtain all the grace you need. The door is open; enter and take what you
will. Do not stop till you reach home and go through a set of religious
exercises; but here, and now, believe in Jesus to the full. In the center of the
camp is the incarnate God; Israel had but to go the central tent to find present
help in time of trouble. In the person of Christ, who hath said, "I am with you
always, even to the end of the world," there is, in truth, all the grace you can
possibly need. Come to this well and drink. Receive of His fullness, and go on
your way rejoicing. What next shall we do? Brethren, since God in Christ is in
the midst of us, let us abide in joyful, peaceful confidence in Him who is grace
and truth to us. Do not let us wander to other sources. To whom should we go?
Shall we leave our God? Shall we leave His grace, His truth? Do not let us dream
that He has changed, for He is God. Do not imagine that He has removed, for He
hath said. "This my rest forever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it." Do
not let us conceive that His grace and truth are exhausted; for His fullness is
eternal. Let us receive strong consolation, and remain steadfast, unmovable. Let
us quietly rest in the firm belief that all we can want between here and heaven,
all that we need this moment and in all moments yet to come, is treasured up in
Christ Jesus, who is abidingly the center of His church and the manifestation of
God.Once more: if this be so, and God really in Christ dwell in the midst of His
people "full of grace and truth," let us tell everybody of it. I am sure if I
had been an Israelite in the wilderness, and had met an Amalekite or an Edomite,
I should have gloried in the privileges which His presence secured me. We know
that Amalekites and Edomites could not have come into the house of the Lord: but
nowadays, if we meet with one who is a stranger, we can tell him of our
privilege, with sweet persuasion that the stranger can be brought nigh through
the blood of the Lamb. Therefore let us abundantly speak of the dwelling of God
with men. Let us tell to all that the Lord has come to man, not in wrath, not in
judgment, but "full of grace and truth." O my unconverted hearer, come to Jesus!
He is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by Him. Draw night
to the meek and lowly Jesus, and you draw night to God. He saith, "He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father." Publish the invitation of grace to the four
winds. Ring out your silver trumpets, or if you have them not, sound your ram's
horns; but somehow let all people know that the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He doth dwell among them. Tell out his news in the far country, that the
wandering prodigal son may hear it, and cry, "I will arise, and go to my
Father." God has come to men' will not come to receive grace and truth?One more
lesson remains, And that is -- what manner of people ought we to be among whom
Jehovah dwells? It must have been a very solemn thing to be a member of that
great camp of two million in the wilderness of Sinai. God's presence in the
midst of the camp must have made every tent sacred. As we walked through the
streets of that canvas city, if we had been Israelites, and in our right minds,
we should have said, "These tents are none other than the house the house of God
and the very gate of heaven; for see, Jehovah is in the midst of us. Mark you
not the bright light that shines about His sanctuary?" We should have felt that
in such in such a camp all should be holy. The pollution of sin should be
unknown there. In such a camp constant prayer and praise should be presented to
Him whose presence was its glory and defense. Today let our congregation be a
holy convocation; and as for ourselves, let us be holiness unto the Lord. We are
consecrated men and women, seeing the Lord has come so very near to us. I spoke
of solemnity; I meant not dread and sorrow, but a solemnity full of joy. It is a
solemn thing to have God so near, but the joy is equal to the solemnity. Glory
be unto God most high, for He is here! Let us spend our days and nights in
gladness and delight. God is reconciled to us in the person of His dear Son, and
we have fellowship with God in Christ Jesus; Wherefore let us rejoice evermore.
Amen and amen.PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE THE SERMON -- Exodus 34:1-8;
40:34-38; JOHN 1:1-18.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"-249, 256, 250.


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