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  SPURGEONS SERMONS VOLUME 36 1890
  by C.H. Spurgeon
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Volume 36 of Spurgeon's collected sermons, containing messages preached during
1890 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: 3

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    0. Spurgeons Sermons Volume 36 1890
    1. Lama Sabachthani?
    2. Noah's Faith, Fear, Obedience, and Salvation

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  CHAPTER 0: SPURGEONS SERMONS VOLUME 36 1890
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  CHAPTER 1: LAMA SABACHTHANI?
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A Sermon (No.2133) Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, March 2nd, 1890, C. H.
SPURGEON, At [1]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "And about the ninth hour
Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to
say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" -- Matthew 27:46. THERE WAS
DARKNESS over all the land unto the ninth hour": this cry came out of that
darkness. Expect not to see through its every word, as though it came from on
high as a beam from the unclouded Sun of Righteousness. There is light in it,
bright, flashing light: but there is a centre of impenetrable gloom, where the
soul is ready to faint because of the terrible darkness. Our Lord was then in
the darkest part of his way. He had trodden the winepress now for hours, and the
work was almost finished. He had reached the culminating point of his anguish.
This is his dolorous lament from the lowest pit of misery -- "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?" I do not think that the records of time or even of
eternity, contain a sentence more full of anguish. Here the wormwood and the
gall, and all the other bitternesses, are outdone. Here you may look as into a
vast abyss; and though you strain your eyes, and gaze till sight fails you, yet
you perceive no bottom; it is measureless, unfathomable, inconceivable. This
anguish of the Saviour on your behalf and mine is no more to be measured and
weighed than the sin which needed it, or the love which endured it. We will
adore where we cannot comprehend. I have chosen this subject that it may help
the children of God to understand a little of their infinite obligations to
their redeeming Lord. You shall measure the height of his love, if it be ever
measured, by the depth of his grief, if that can ever be known. See with what a
price he hath redeemed us from the curse of the law! As you see this, say to
yourselves: What manner of people ought we to be! What measure of love ought we
to return to one who bore the utmost penalty, that we might he delivered from
the wrath to come? I do not profess that I can dive into this deep: I will only
venture to the edge of the precipice, and bid you look down, and pray the Spirit
of God to concentrate your mind upon this lamentation of our dying Lord, as it
rises up through the thick darkness -- "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Our first subject of thought will be the fact; or, what he suffered -- God
had forsaken him. Secondly, we will note, the enquiry; or, why he suffered: this
word "why" is the edge of the text. "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Then, thirdly,
we will consider the answer; or, what came of his suffering. The answer flowed
softly into the soul of the Lord Jesus without the need of words, for he ceased
from his anguish with the triumphant shout of, "It is finished." His work was
finished, and his bearing of desertion was a chief part of the work he had
undertaken for our sake. I. By the help of the Holy Spirit, let us first dwell
upon THE FACT; or, what our Lord suffered. God had forsaken him. Grief of mind
is harder to bear than pain of body. You can pluck up courage and endure the
pang of sickness and pain, so long as the spirit is hale and brave; but if the
soul itself be touched, and the mind becomes diseased with anguish, then every
pain is increased in severity, and there is nothing with which to sustain it.
Spiritual sorrows are the worst of mental miseries. A man may bear great
depression of spirit about worldly matters, if he feels that he has his God to
go to. He is cast down, but not in despair. Like David, he dialogues with
himself, and he enquires, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou
disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him." But if the Lord
be once withdrawn, if the comfortable light of his presence be shadowed even for
an hour, there is a torment within the breast, which I can only liken to the
prelude of hell. This is the greatest of all weights that can press upon the
heart. This made the Psalmist plead, "Hide not thy face from me; put not thy
servant away in anger." We can bear a bleeding body, and even a wounded spirit;
but a soul conscious of desertion by God it beyond conception unendurable. When
he holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it, who can
endure the darkness? This voice out of "the belly of hell" marks the lowest
depth of the Saviour's grief. The desertion was real. Though under some aspects
our Lord could say, "The Father is with me"; yet was it solemnly true that God
did forsake him. It was not a failure of faith on his part which led him to
imagine what was not actual fact. Our faith fails us, and then we think that God
has forsaken us; but our Lord's faith did not for a moment falter, for he says
twice, "My God, my God." Oh, the mighty double grip of his unhesitating faith!
He seems to say, "Even if thou hast forsaken me, I have not forsaken thee."
Faith triumphs, and there is no sign of any faintness of heart towards the
living God. Yet, strong as is his faith, he feels that God has withdraw his
comfortable fellowship, and he shivers under the terrible deprivation.It was no
fancy, or delirium of mind, caused by his weakness of body, the heat of the
fever, the depression of his spirit, or the near approach of death. He was clear
of mind even to this last. He bore up under pain, loss of blood, scorn, thirst,
and desolation; making no complaint of the cross, the nails, and the scoffing.
We read not in the Gospels of anything more than the natural cry of weakness, I
thirst." All the tortures of his body he endured in silence; but when it came to
being forsaken of God, then his great heart burst out into its "Lama
sabachthani?" His one moan is concerning his God. It is not, "Why has Peter
forsaken me? Why has Judas betrayed me?" These were sharp griefs, but this is
the sharpest. This stroke has cut him to the quick: "My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?" It was no phantom of the gloom; it was a real absence which
he mourned.This was a very remarkable desertion. It is not the way of God to
leave either his sons or his servants. His saints, when they come to die, in
their great weakness and pain, find him near. They are made to sing because of
the presence of God: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me." Dying saints have clear
visions of the living God. Our observation has taught us that if the Lord be
away at other times, he is never absent from his people in the article of death,
or in the furnace of affliction. Concerning the three holy children, we do not
read that the Lord was ever visibly with them till they walked the fires of
Nebuchadnezzar's furnace; but there and then the Lord met with them. Yes,
beloved, it is God's use and wont to keep company with his afflicted people; and
yet he forsook his Son in the hour of his tribulation! How usual it is to see
the Lord with his faithful witnesses when resisting even unto blood! Read the
Book of Martyrs, and I care not whether you study the former or the later
persecutions, you will find them all lit up with the evident presence of the
Lord with his witnesses. Did the Lord ever fail to support a martyr at the
stake? Did he ever forsake one of his testifiers upon the scaffold? The
testimony of the church has always been, that while the Lord has permitted his
saints to suffer in body he has so divinely sustained their spirits that they
have been more than conquerors, and have treated their sufferings as light
afflictions. The fire has not been a "bed of roses," but it has been a chariot
of victory. The sword is sharp, and death is bitter; but the love of Christ is
sweet, and to die for him has been turned into glory. No, it is not God's way to
forsake his champions, nor to leave even the least of his children in the trial
hour.As to our Lord, this forsaking was singular. Did his Father ever leave him
before? Will you read the four Evangelists through and find any previous
instance in which he complains of his Father for having forsaken him? No. He
said, "I know that thou hearest me always." He lived in constant touch with God.
His fellowship with the Father was always near and dear and clear; but now, for
the first time, he cries, "why hast thou forsaken me?" It was very remarkable.
It was a riddle only to be solved by the fact that he loved us and gave himself
for us and in the execution of his loving purpose came even unto this sorrow, of
mourning the absence of his God.This forsaking was very terrible. Who can fully
tell what it is to be forsaken of God? We can only form a guess by what we have
ourselves felt under temporary and partial desertion. God has never left us,
altogether; for he has expressly said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee"; yet we have sometimes felt as if he had cast us off. We have cried, "Oh,
that I know where I might find him!" The clear shinings of his love have been
withdrawn. Thus we are able to form some little idea of how the Saviour felt
when his God had forsaken him. The mind of Jesus was left to dwell upon one dark
subject, and no cheering theme consoled him. It was the hour in which he was
made to stand before God as consciously the sin-bearer, according to that
ancient prophecy, "He shall bear their iniquities." Then was it true, "He hath
made him to be sin for us." Peter puts it, "He his own self bare our sins in his
own body on the tree." Sin, sin, sin was every where around and about Christ. He
had no sin of his own; but the Lord had "laid on him the iniquity of us all." He
had no strength given him from on high, no secret oil and wine poured into his
wounds; but he was made to appear in the lone character of the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world; and therefore he must feel the weight of
sin, and the turning away of that sacred face which cannot look thereon. His
Father, at that time, gave him no open acknowledgment. On certain other
occasions a voice had been heard, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased"; but now, when such a testimony seemed most of all required, the
oracle was dumb. He was hung up as an accursed thing upon the cross; for he was
"made a curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a
tree"; and the Lord his God did not own him before men. If it had pleased the
Father, he might have sent him twelve legions of angels; but not an angel came
after the Christ had quitted Gethsemane. His despisers might spit in his face,
but no swift seraph came to avenge the indignity. They might bind him, and
scourge him, but none of all the heavenly host would interpose to screen his
shoulders from the lash. They might fasten him to the tree with nails, and lift
him up, and scoff at him; but no cohort of ministering spirits hastened to drive
back the rabble, and release the Prince of life. No, he appeared to be forsaken,
"smitten of God, and afflicted," delivered into the hands of cruel men, whose
wicked hands worked him misery without stint. Well might he ask, "My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?"But this was not all. His Father now dried up
that sacred stream of peaceful communion and loving fellowship which had flowed
hitherto throughout his whole earthly life. He said himself, as you remember,
"Ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet
I am not alone, because the Father is with me." Here was his constant comfort:
but all comfort from this source was to be withdrawn. The divine Spirit did not
minister to his human spirit. No communications with his Father's love poured
into his heart. It was not possible that the Judge should smile upon one who
represented the prisoner at the bar. Our Lord's faith did not fail him, as I
have already shown you, for he said, "My God, my God": yet no sensible supports
were given to his heart, and no comforts were poured into his mind. One writer
declares that Jesus did not taste of divine wrath, but only suffered a
withdrawal of divine fellowship. What is the difference? Whether God withdraw
heat or create cold is all one. He was not smiled upon, nor allowed to feel that
he was near to God; and this, to his tender spirit, was grief of the keenest
order. A certain saint once said that in his sorrow he had from God
"necessaries, but not suavities"; that which was meet, but not that which was
sweet. Our Lord suffered to the extreme point of deprivation. He had not the
light which makes existence to be life, and life to be a boon. You that know, in
your degree, what it is to lose the conscious presense and love of God, you can
faintly guess what the sorrow of the Saviour was, now that he felt he had been
forsaken of his God. "If the foundations be removed, what can the righteous do?"
To our Lord, the Father's love was the foundation of everything; and when that
was gone, all was gone. Nothing remained, within, without, above, when his own
God, the God of his entire confidence, turned from him. Yes, God in very deed
forsook our Saviour.To be forsaken of God was much more a source of anguish to
Jesus than it would be to us. "Oh," say you, "how is that?" I answer, because he
was perfectly holy. A rupture between a perfectly holy being and the thrice holy
God must be in the highest degree strange, abnormal, perplexing, and painful. If
any man here, who is not at peace with God, could only know his true condition,
he would swoon with fright. If you unforgiven ones only knew where you are, and
what you are at this moment in the sight of God, you would never smile again
till you were reconciled to him. Alas! we are insensible, hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin, and therefore we do not feel our true condition. His
perfect holiness made it to our Lord a dreadful calamity to be forsaken of the
thrice holy God.I remember, also, that our blessed Lord had lived in unbroken
fellowship with God, and to be forsaken was a new grief to him. He had never
known what the dark was till then: his life had been lived in the light of God.
Think, dear child of God, if you had always dwelt in full communion with God,
your days would have been as the days of heaven upon earth; and how cold it
would strike to your heart to find yourself in the darkness of desertion. If you
can conceive such a thing as happening to a perfect man, you can see why to our
Well-beloved it was a special trial. Remember, he had enjoyed fellowship with
God more richly, as well as more constantly, than any of us. His fellowship with
the Father was of the highest, deepest, fullest order; and what must the loss of
it have been? We lose but drops when we lose our joyful experience of heavenly
fellowship; and yet the loss is killing: but to our Lord Jesus Christ the sea
was dried up -- I mean his sea of fellowship with the infinite God.Do not forget
that he was such a One that to him to be without God must have been an
overwhelming calamity. In every part he was perfect, and in every part fitted
for communion with God to a supreme degree. A sinful man has an awful need of
God, but he does not know it; and therefore he does not feel that hunger and
thirst after God which would come upon a perfect man could he be deprived of
God. The very perfection of his nature renders it inevitable that the holy man
must either be in communion with God, or be desolate. Imagine a stray angel! a
seraph who has lost his God! Conceive him to be perfect in holiness, and yet to
have fallen into a condition in which he cannot find his God! I cannot picture
him; perhaps a Milton might have done so. He is sinless and trustful, and yet he
has an overpowering feeling that God is absent from him. He has drifted into the
nowhere -- the unimaginable region behind the back of God. I think I hear the
wailing of the cherub: "My God, my God, my God, where art thou?" What a sorrow
for one of the sons of the morning! But here we have the lament of a Being far
more capable of fellowship with the Godhead. In proportion as he is more fitted
to receive the love of the great Father, in that proportion is his pining after
it the more intense. As a Son, he is more able to commune with God than ever a
servant-angel could be; and now that he is forsaken of God, the void within is
the greater, and the anguish more bitter. Our Lord's heart, and all his nature
were, morally and spiritually, so delicately formed, so sensitive, so tender,
that to be without God, was to him a grief which could not be weighed. I see him
in the text bearing desertion, and yet I perceive that he cannot bear it. I know
not how to express my meaning except by such a paradox. He cannot endure to be
without God. He had surrendered himself to be left of God, as the representative
of sinners must be, but his pure and holy nature, after three hours of silence,
finds the position unendurable to love and purity; and breaking forth from it,
now that the hour was over, he exclaims, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" He
quarrels not with the suffering, but he cannot abide in the position which
caused it. He seems as if he must end the ordeal, not because of the pain, but
because of the moral shock. We have here the repetition after his passion of
that loathing which he felt before it, when he cried, "If it be possible let
this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." "My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" is the holiness of Christ amazed at the
position of substitute for guilty men.There, friends; I have done my best, but I
seem to myself to have been prattling like a little child, talking about
something infinitely above me. So I leave the solemn fact, that our Lord Jesus
was on the tree forsaken of his God.II. This brings us to consider THE ENQUIRY
or, why he suffered.Note carefully this cry -- "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" It is pure anguish, undiluted agony, which crieth like this; but
it is the agony of a godly soul; for only a man of that order would have used
such an expression. Let us learn from it useful lessons. This cry is taken from
"the Book." Does it not show our Lord's love of the sacred volume, that when he
felt his sharpest grief, he turned to the Scripture to find a fit utterance for
it? Here we have the opening sentence of the twenty-second Psalm. Oh, that we
may so love the inspired Word that we may not only sing to its score, but even
weep to its music!Note, again, that our Lord's lament is an address to God. The
godly, in their anguish, turn to the hand which smites them. The Saviour's
outcry is not against God, but to God. "My God, my God": he makes a double
effort to draw near. True Sonship is here. The child in the dark is crying after
his Father -- "My God, my God." Both the Bible and prayer were dear to Jesus in
his agony.Still, observe, it is a faith-cry; for though it asks, "Why hast thou
forsaken me?" yet it first says, twice over, "My God, my God." The grip of
appropriation is in the word "my"; but the reverence of humility is in the word
"God." It is "'My God, my God,' thou art ever God to me, and I a poor creature.
I do not quarrel with thee. Thy rights are unquestioned, for thou art my God.
Thou canst do as thou wilt, and I yield to thy sacred sovereignty. I kiss the
hand that smites me, and with all my heart I cry, 'My God, my God.'" When you
are delirious with pain, think of your Bible still: when your mind wanders, let
it roam towards the mercy seat; and when your heart and your flesh fail, still
live by faith, and still cry, "My God, my God."Let us come close to the enquiry.
It looked to me, at first sight, like a question as of one distraught, driven
from the balance of his mind -- not unreasonable, but too much reasoning, and
therefore tossed about. "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Did not Jesus know? Did he
not know why he was forsaken? He knew it most distinctly, and yet his manhood,
while it was being crushed, pounded, dissolved, seemed as though it could not
understand the reason for so great a grief. He must be forsaken; but could there
be a sufficient cause for so sickening a sorrow? The cup must be bitter; but why
this most nauseous of ingredients? I tremble lest I say what I ought not to say.
I have said it, and I think there is truth -- the Man of Sorrows was overborne
with horror. At that moment the finite soul of the man Christ Jesus came into
awful contact with the infinite justice of God. The one Mediator between God and
man, the man Christ Jesus, beheld the holiness of God in arms against the sin of
man, whose nature he had espoused. God was for him and with him in a certain
unquestionable sense; but for the time, so far as his feeling went, God was
against him, and necessarily withdrawn from him. It is not surprising that the
holy soul of Christ should shudder at finding itself brought into painful
contact with the infinite justice of God, even though its design was only to
vindicate that justice, and glorify the Law-giver. Our Lord could now say, "All
thy waves and thy billows are gone over me" and therefore he uses language which
is all too hot with anguish to be dissected by the cold hand of a logical
criticism. Grief has small regard for the laws of the grammarian. Even the
holiest, when in extreme agony, though they cannot speak otherwise than
according to purity and truth, yet use a language of their own, which only the
ear of sympathy can fully receive. I see not all that is here, but what I can
see I am not able to put in words for you. I think I see, in the expression,
submission and resolve. Our Lord does not draw back. There is a forward movement
in the question: they who quit a business ask no more questions about it. He
does not ask that the forsaking may end prematurely, he would only understand
anew its meaning. He does not shrink, but the rather dedicates himself anew to
God by the words, "My God, my God," and by seeking to review the ground and
reason of that anguish which he is resolute to bear even to the bitter end. He
would fain feel anew the motive which has sustained him, and must sustain him to
the end. The cry sounds to me like deep submission and strong resolve, pleading
with God.Do you not think that the amazement of our Lord, when he was "made sin
for us" (2 Cor.5:21), led him thus to cry out? For such a sacred and pure being
to be made a sin-offering was an amazing experience. Sin was laid on him, and he
was treated as if he had been guilty, though he had personally never sinned; and
now the infinite horror of rebellion against the most holy God fills his holy
soul, the unrighteousness of sin breaks his heart, and he starts back from it,
crying, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Why must I bear the dread
result of contact I so much abhor?Do you not see, moreover, there was here a
glance at his eternal purpose, and at his secret source of joy? That "why" is
the silver lining of the dark cloud, and our Lord looked wishfully at it. He
knew that the desertion was needful it order that he might save the guilty, and
he had an eye to that salvation as his comfort. He is not forsaken needlessly,
nor without a worthy design. The design is in itself so dear to his heart that
he yields to the passing evil, even though that evil be like death to him. He
looks at that "why," and through that narrow window the light of heaven comes
streaming into his darkened life."My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Surely our Lord dwelt on that "why," that we might also turn our eyes that way.
He would have us see the why and the wherefore of his grief. He would have us
mark the gracious motive for its endurance. Think much of all your Lord
suffered, but do not overlook the reason of it. If you cannot always understand
how this or that grief worked toward the great end of the whole passion, yet
believe that it has its share in the grand "why." Make a life-study of that
bitter but blessed question, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Thus the Saviour
raises an inquiry not so much for himself as for us; and not so much because of
any despair within his heart as because of a hope and a joy set before him,
which were wells of comfort to him in his wilderness of woe.Bethink you, for a
moment, that the Lord God, in the broadest and most unreserved sense, could
never, in very deed, have forsaken his most obedient Son. He was ever with him
in the grand design of salvation. Towards the Lord Jesus, personally, God
himself, personally, must ever have stood on terms of infinite love. Truly the
Only Begotten was never more lovely to the Father than when he was obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross! But we must look upon God here as the Judge
of all the earth, and we must look upon the Lord Jesus also in his official
capacity, as the Surety of the covenant, and the sacrifice for sin. The great
Judge of all cannot smile upon him who has become the substitute for the guilty.
Sin is loathed of God; and if, in order to its removal his own Son is made to
bear it, yet, as sin, it is still loathsome, and he who bears it cannot be in
happy communion with God. This was the dread necessity of expiation; but in the
essence of things the love of the great Father to his Son never ceased, nor ever
knew a diminution. Restrained in its flow it must be, but lessened at its
fountain-head it could not be. Therefore, wonder not at the question, "Why hast
thou forsaken me?"III. Hoping to be guided by the Holy Spirit, I am coming to
THE ANSWER, concerning which I can only use the few minutes which remain to me.
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" What is the outcome of this
suffering? What was the reason for it? Our Saviour could answer his own
question. If for a moment his manhood was perplexed, yet his mind soon came to
clear apprehension; for he said, "It is finished"; and, as I have already said,
he then referred to the work which in his lonely agony he had been performing.
Why, then, did God forsake his Son? I cannot conceive any other answer than this
-- he stood in our stead. There was no reason in Christ why the Father should
forsake him: he was perfect, and his life was without spot. God never acts
without reason; and since there were no reasons in the character and person of
the Lord Jesus why his Father should forsake him, we must look elsewhere. I do
not know how others answer the question. I can only answer it in this one
way."Yet all the griefs he felt were ours,Ours were the woes he bore;Pangs, not
his own, his spotless soulWith bitter anguish tore."We held him as condemn'd of
heaven,An outcast from his God; While for our sins he groaned, he bled,Beneath
his Father's rod."He bore the sinner's sin, and he had to be treated, therefore,
as though he were a sinner, though sinner be could never be. With his own full
consent he suffered as though he had committed the transgressions which were
laid on him. Our sin, and his taking it upon himself, is the answer to the
question, "Why hast thou forsaken me?"In this case we now see that His obedience
was perfect. He came into the world to obey the Father, and he rendered that
obedience to the very uttermost. The spirit of obedience could go no farther
than for one who feels forsaken of God still to cling to him in solemn, avowed
allegiance, still declaring before a mocking multitude his confidence in the
afflicting God. It is noble to cry, "My God, my God," when one is asking, "Why
hast thou forsaken me?" How much farther can obedience go? I see nothing beyond
it. The soldier at the gate of Pompeii remaining at his post as sentry when the
shower of burning ashes is falling, was not more true to his trust than he who
adheres to a forsaking God with loyalty of hope.Our Lord's suffering in this
particular form was appropriate and necessary. It would not have sufficed for
our Lord merely to have been pained in body, nor even to have been grieved in
mind in other ways: he must suffer in this particular way. He must feel forsaken
of God, because this is the necessary consequence of sin. For a man to be
forsaken of God is the penalty which naturally and inevitably follows upon his
breaking his relation with God. What is death? What was the death that was
threatened to Adam? "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Is death annihilation? Was Adam annihilated that day? Assuredly not: he lived
many a year afterwards. But in the day in which he ate of the forbidden fruit he
died, by being separated from God. The separation of the soul from God is
spiritual death; just as the separation of the soul from the body is natural
death. The sacrifice for sin must be put in the place of separation, and must
bow to the penalty of death. By this placing of the Great Sacrifice under
forsaking and death, it would be seen by all creatures throughout the universe
that God could not have fellowship with sin. If even the Holy One, who stood the
Just for the unjust, found God forsaking him, what must the doom of the actual
sinner be! Sin is evidently always, in every case, a dividing influence, putting
even the Christ himself, as a sin-bearer, in the place of distance.This was
necessary for another reason: there could have been no laying on of suffering
for sin without the forsaking of the vicarious Sacrifice by the Lord God. So
long as the smile of God rests on the man the law is not afflicting him. The
approving look of the great Judge cannot fall upon a man who is viewed as
standing in the place of the guilty. Christ not only suffered from sin, but for
sin. If God will cheer and sustain him, he is not suffering for sin. The Judge
is not inflicting suffering for sin if he is manifestly succouring the smitten
one. There could have been no vicarious suffering on the part of Christ for
human guilt, if he had continued consciously to enjoy the fall sunshine of the
Father's presence. It was essential to being a victim in our place that he
should cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"Beloved, see how
marvellously, in the person of Christ, the Lord our God has vindicated his law!
If to make his law glorious, he had said, "These multitudes of men have broken
my law, and therefore they shall perish," the law would have been terribly
magnified. But, instead thereof, he says, "Here is my Only Begotten Son, my
other self; he takes on himself the nature of these rebellions creatures, and he
consents that I should lay on him the load of their iniquity, and visit in his
person the offences which might have been punished in the persons of all these
multitudes of men: and I will have it so." When Jesus bows his head to the
stroke of the law, when he submissively consents that his Father shall turn away
his face from him, then myriads of worlds are astonished at the perfect holiness
and stern justice of the Lawgiver. There are, probably, worlds innumerable
throughout the boundless creation of God, and all these will see, in the death
of God's dear Son, a declaration of his determination never to allow sin to be
trifled with. If his own Son is brought before him, bearing the sin of others
upon him, he will hide his face from him, as well as from the actually guilty.
In God infinite love shines over all, but it does not eclipse his absolute
justice any more than his justice is permitted to destroy his love. God hath all
perfections in perfection, and in Christ Jesus we see the reflection of them.
Beloved, this is a wonderful theme! Oh, that I had a tongue worthy of this
subject! but who could ever reach the height of this great argument?Once more,
when enquiring, Why did Jesus suffer to be forsaken of the Father? we see the
fact that the Captain of our salvation was thus made perfect through suffering.
Every part of the road has been traversed by our Lord's own feet. Suppose,
beloved, the Lord Jesus had never been thus forsaken, then one of his disciples
might have been called to that sharp endurance, and the Lord Jesus could not
have sympathized with him in it. He would turn to his Leader and Captain, and
say to him, "Didst thou, my Lord, ever feel this darkness?" Then the Lord Jesus
would answer, "No. This is a descent such as I never made." What a dreadful lack
would the tried one have felt! For the servant to bear a grief his Master never
knew would be sad indeed. There would have been a wound for which there was no
ointment, a pain for which there was no balm. But it is not so now. "In all
their affliction he was afflicted." "He was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin." Wherein we greatly rejoice at this time, and so often as
we are cast down. Underneath us is the deep experience of our forsaken Lord.I
have done when I have said three things. The first is, you and I that are
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and are resting in him alone for salvation,
let us lean hard, let us bear with all our weight on our Lord. He will bear the
full weight of all our sin and care. As to my sin, I hear its harsh accusings no
more when I hear Jesus cry, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" I know that I deserve
the deepest hell at the hand of God's vengeance; but I am not afraid. He will
never forsake me, for he forsook his Son on my behalf. I shall not suffer for my
sin, for Jesus has suffered to the full in my stead; yea, suffered so far as to
cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Behind this brazen wall of
substitution a sinner is safe. These "munitions of rock" guard all believers,
and they may rest secure. The rock is cleft for me; I hide in its rifts, and no
harm can reach me. You have a full atonement, a great sacrifice, a glorious
vindication of the law; wherefore rest at peace, all you that put your trust in
Jesus.Next, if ever in our lives henceforth we should think that God hath
deserted us, let us learn from our Lord's example how to behave ourselves. If
God hath left thee, do not shut up thy Bible; nay, open it, as thy Lord did, and
find a text that will suit thee. If God hath left thee, or thou thinkest so, do
not give up prayer; nay, pray as thy Lord did, and be more earnest than ever. It
thou thinkest God has forsaken thee, do not give up thy faith in him; but, like
thy Lord, cry thou, "My God, my God," again and again. If thou hast had one
anchor before, cast out two anchors now, and double the hold of thy faith. If
thou canst not call Jehovah "Father," as was Christ's wont, yet call him thy
"God." Let the personal pronouns take their hold -- "My God, my God." Let
nothing drive thee from thy faith. Still hold on Jesus, sink or swim. As for me,
if ever I am lost, it shall be at the foot of the cross. To this pass have I
come, that if I never see the face of God with acceptance, yet I will believe
that he will be faithful to his Son, and true to the covenant sealed by oaths
and blood. He that believeth in Jesus hath everlasting life: there I cling, like
the limpet to the rock. There is but one gate of heaven; and even if I may not
enter it, I will cling to the posts of its door. What am I saying? I shall enter
in; for that gate was never shut against a soul that accepted Jesus; and Jesus
saith, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."The last of the three
points is this, let us abhor the sin which brought such agony upon our beloved
Lord. What an accursed thing is sin, which crucified the Lord Jesus! Do you
laugh at it? Will you go and spend an evening to see a mimic performance of it?
Do you roll sin under your tongue as a sweet morsel, and then come to God's
house, on the Lord's-day morning, and think to worship him? Worship him! Worship
him, with sin indulged in your breast! Worship him, with sin loved and pampered
in your life! O sirs, if I had a dear brother who had been murdered, what would
you think of me if I valued the knife which had been crimsoned with his blood?
-- if I made a friend of the murderer, and daily consorted with the assassin,
who drove the dagger into my brother's heart? Surely I, too, must be an
accomplice in the crime! Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin
pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it? Oh, that there was an
abyss as deep as Christ's misery, that I might at once hurl this dagger of sin
into its depths, whence it might never be brought to light again! Begone, sin!
Thou art banished from the heart where Jesus reigns! Begone, for thou hast
crucified my Lord, and made him cry, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" O my hearers,
if you did but know yourselves, and know the love of Christ, you would each one
vow that you would harbour sin no longer. You would be indignant at sin, and
cry,"The dearest idol I have known,Whate'er that idol be,Lord, I will tear it
from its throne,And worship only thee,"May that be the issue of my morning's
discourse, and then I shall be well content. The Lord bless you! May the Christ
who suffered for you, bless you, and out of his darkness may your light arise!
Amen.PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Psalm 22.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK" -- 313, 299, 22 (Part II).


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  CHAPTER 2: NOAH'S FAITH, FEAR, OBEDIENCE, AND SALVATION
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A Sermon (No.2147) Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, June 1st, 1890, C. H.
SPURGEON, At [2]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington "By faith Noah, being
warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the
saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the
righteousness which is by faith." -- Hebrews 11:7. THE APOSTLE COULD NOT AVOID
mentioning Noah; for in him faith shone forth eminently. He has placed him in
due order of time after Abel and Enoch; but he had also another reason for the
arrangement. These three ancient believers are declared in Holy Writ to have
pleased God. Of Abel, it is said that God testified of his gifts. Enoch, before
his translation, had this testimony, that he pleased God: and Noah "found grace
in the eyes of the Lord." Again, it was meet that Noah should follow close upon
Enoch, as one of two who are described as having "walked with God." "Enoch
walked with God: and he was not; for God took him"; and we read in the sixth
chapter of Genesis, verse eight, that Noah also "walked with God." These two
spent their lives in such constant communion with the Most High that they could
be fully described as walking with God. Oh, that we may, through almighty grace,
be so pleasing unto the Lord that we may abide in fellowship with him! We may
take pleasure in thinking of Noah as a kind of contrast to Enoch. Enoch was
taken away from the evil to come: he saw not the flood, nor heard the wailing of
those who were swept away by the waterfloods. His was a delightful deliverance
from the harvest of wrath which followed the universal godlessness of the race.
It was not his to fight the battle of righteousness to the bitter end; but by a
secret rapture he avoided death, and escaped those evil days in which his
grandson's lot was cast. Noah is the picture of one who is the Lord's witness
during evil days, and lives through them faithfully, enduring unto the end. It
was his to be delivered from death by death. The ark was, so to speak, a coffin
to him: he entered it, and became a dead man to the old world; and within its
enclosure he was floated into a new world, to become the founder and father of a
new race. As in the figure of baptism we see life by burial, so was it with this
chosen patriarch; he passed by burial in the ark into a new life. In Enoch we
see a type of those of God's people who will go home peacefully before the last
closing struggle. Ere the first clash of swords at Armageddon, such Enochs will
be taken from the evil to come. But in Noah we see those who will engage in the
conflict, and bear themselves bravely amid backsliding and apostasy, until they
shall see the powers of evil trodden under their feet as straw is trodden for
the dunghill. The fire-flood will devour the wicked, and only the righteous
shall inherit the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Let these few words
stand as the preface to my discourse; and now let us carefully consider Noah's
faith, trusting that the Holy Spirit may bless its teaching to our own souls. I.
First, notice that in Noah's case FAITH WAS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE. The text
begins, "By faith Noah." We shall have to speak about his fear -- being "moved
by fear"; we shall also remember his obedience, for he "prepared an ark to the
saving of his house." But you must take distinct note that at the back of
everything was his faith in God. His faith begat his fear: his faith and his
fear produced his obedience. Nothing in Noah is held up before us as an example,
but that which grew out of his faith. To begin with, we must look well to our
faith. May I pass the question round these galleries, and put it to you also in
this vast area? Have you faith? Let each one hear the question in the singular
number. "Hast thou faith? Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Art thou resting
in the promise of a faithful God?" If not, thou art nothing as to spiritual
things. Without faith thou art out of the kingdom of grace, a stranger to the
commonwealth of Israel. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter if thou
hast no faith. But if thou hast even a trembling faith, thou hast the root of
the matter within thee. Even if other gracious things be not in thee as yet,
they will be ere long produced by faith. Faith is the acorn, from which the oak
of holiness will grow. Faith is that handful of corn, the fruit whereof shall
shake like Lebanon. Without faith it is impossible to please God, but with faith
we become "accepted in the Beloved." Notice, first, that Noah believed in God in
his ordinary life. Before the great test came, before he heard the oracle from
the secret place, Noah believed in God. We know that he did, for we read that he
walked with God, and in his common conduct he is described as being "a just man,
and perfect in his generations." To be just in the sight of God is never
possible apart from faith; for "the just shall live by faith." It is a great
thing to have faith in the presence of a terrible trial; but the first essential
is to have faith for ordinary every-day consumption. Hast thou faith in God as
to thy daily bread? Hast thou faith as to thy children and thy house? Hast thou
faith about thy trade and business? Hast thou faith in the God of providence? --
faith in the God who answers prayer? Is it habitual with thee to roll thy burden
upon the Lord? If it be not so with thee, what wilt thou do when the floods
break forth? Faith will not come to thee all of a sudden, in the dark night, if
thou hast shut it out through all the bright days. Faith must be a constant
tenant, not an occasional guest. I have heard of Latter-day Saints, and I do not
think much of them: I far more admire Every-day Saints. Thou needest faith this
Sabbath-day: have it, and come to the communion-table with it. But thou needest
faith on Monday, when the shutters are taken down to begin another six days'
trading. Thou wilt need faith the next day; for who can tell thee what will
happen? To the end of the week thou wilt need to look to the hills whence cometh
thine help. Thou needest faith anywhere and everywhere. A man of God alone in
his chamber still needs faith, or solitude may be a nest for temptation. When
the servant of Christ is at his ease, and has no work pressing upon him, he has
need of faith to keep him, lest, like David, he fall into temptation, and commit
folly. Rest days or work days, we alike need faith. By faith Noah did everything
before he entered the ark. This is an important observation, though it may
appear a very simple one. I could not omit it; for I feel that a practical
work-day faith is what we most of all need. Men think that they need faith in
building a temple; but faith is also needed in building a haystack. We need
faith for ploughing, for buying, for selling, for working, quite as much as for
praying, and singing, and preaching. We want faith on the market as well as in
the prayer-meeting. We wish everywhere to please God, and we cannot do it
anywhere unless we have unfeigned faith in him. The Lord teach us to have faith
seven days in the week! Note, next, that Noah had faith in the warning and
threatening of God. Faith is to be exercised about the commandments; for David
says, "I have believed thy commandments." Faith is to be exercised upon the
promises; for there its sweetest business lies. But, believe me, you cannot have
faith in the promise unless you are prepared to have faith in the threatening
also. If you truly believe a man, you believe all that he says. He who does not
believe that God will punish sin, will not believe that God will pardon it
through the atoning blood. He who does not believe that God will cast
unbelievers into hell, will not be sure that he will take believers into heaven.
If we doubt God's Word about one thing, we shall have small confidence in it
upon another thing. Sincere faith in God must treat all God's Word alike; for
the faith which accepts one word of God and rejects another is evidently not
faith in God, but faith in our own judgment, faith in our own taste. Only that
is true faith which believes everything that is revealed by the Holy Spirit,
whether it be joyous or distressing. Noah had, in this case, received a promise;
but, as the dark background to it, he had listened to the terrible threatening
that God would destroy all living things with a flood: his faith believed both
the warning and the promise. If he had not believed the threat, he would not
have prepared an ark, and so would not have received the promise. Men do not
prepare an ark to escape from a flood unless they believe that there will be a
flood. I charge you who profess to be the Lord's not to be unbelieving with
regard to the terrible threatenings of God to the ungodly. Believe the threat,
even though it should chill your blood; believe, though nature shrinks from the
overwhelming doom; for, if you do not believe, the act of disbelieving God about
one point will drive you to disbelieve him upon the other parts of revealed
truth, and you will never come to that true, child-like faith which God will
accept and honour. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as
yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark." With solemn awe believe the bitter word
of judgment, that the word of mercy may be sweet to you. Furthermore, Noah
believed what seemed highly improbable, if not absolutely impossible. There was
no sea where Noah laid the keel of his ark: I do not even know that there was a
river there. He was to prepare a sea-going vessel, and construct it on dry land.
How could water be brought there to float it? O mad old man! how canst thou play
the fool on so huge a scale as to build a three-decked vessel of vast dimensions
where no waters can ever come? Yet he was bidden of the Lord to do it, and he
was persuaded that the Lord's command involved no blunder. The floods would fill
the valley, rise up the hills, and prevail above the tops of the mountains. He
believed all this, although it did seem an unlikely thing. That faith which
believes in the probable is anybody's faith: publicans and sinners can so
believe. The faith which believes that which is barely possible is in better
form; but that faith which cares nothing for probability or possibility, but
rests alone in the Word of the Lord, is the faith of God's elect. God deserves
such faith, "for with God all things are possible." Not probability, but
certainty, is the groundwork of faith when God has spoken. Noah believed firmly,
and therefore prepared his ship on dry land, quite as cheerfully as he would
have built it by the sea.At times you and I are assailed as to our faith in the
Bible, by people who say, "How do you make that out? It is in the Scriptures,
certainly, but how do you reconcile it with science?" Let your reply be -- We no
longer live in the region of argument as to the Word of the Lord; but we dwell
in the realm of faith. We are not squabblers, itching to prove our superiority
in reasoning, but we are children of light, worshipping our God by bowing our
whole minds to the obedience of faith. We would be humble, and learn to believe
what we cannot altogether comprehend, and to expect what we should never have
looked for, had not the Lord declared it. It is our ambition to be great
believers, rather than great thinkers; to be child-like in faith, rather than
subtle in intellect. We are sure that God is true! Like Noah, we stagger not at
the Word of God, because of evident improbability and apparent impossibility.
What the Lord has spoken he is able to make good; and none of his words shall
fall to the ground.Note well, that Noah believed alone, and preached on though
none followed him. There were no other believers, if you except his wife and his
sons and daughters. There were eight in all; but I am afraid that some of these
rather believed in father Noah than in the living God. Noah shone as a lone
star. He stood like yonder solitary column in the midst of a ruined temple. He
believed with an unbuttressed faith. How pleasant it is to associate with our
fellow-believers! It is a great refreshment for a solitary Christian to get into
a large congregation, and to feel in unison with the child's hymn -- "Lord, how
delightful 'tis to seeA great assembly worship thee!At once they sing, at once
they pray,They hear of heaven and learn the way.I have been there, and still
would go,'Tis like a little heaven below."But how would you fare if you were
alone, or were surrounded by those who called you a fool for believing in the
Lord? To dwell where everybody is sceptical is as injurious to faith as for a
man to live where the yellow fever is raging. To have your faith pulled to
pieces, and held up to ridicule, is an ordeal which some cannot stand. What if
you should be like Noah, a preacher of righteousness; how stern the duty of
being a solitary witness! He preached for one hundred and twenty years, and at
the end of it not one person was ready to go with him into the ark. His own
family was saved, but nobody else -- not a solitary one. What a trial! How it
has made my heart glad, during the month of May, to see and propose for
church-fellowship no less than sixty-nine! But if I had to preach for a year
with no converts, what should I do? I hope I should persevere, in the name of
the Lord God; but what a trial! What if life were prolonged for one hundred and
twenty years, and after all that preaching nobody believed your word! That would
be an infliction indeed. Many people may have been converted under Noah, and may
have died before the deluge came; but he had not one convert in the ark with
him. His wife had not even a servant to help her in domestic work, and his sons'
wives had to wait on themselves. There was not even a boy to clean the shoes, or
help feed the animals. Many were called, but only the eight were chosen. Noah
had preached apparently in vain, and yet he believed with none the less of
dogged resolve. The old man was not to be moved. That ark of his would float; he
knew it would. The world would be destroyed; he was sure of it; as sure as if he
had seen it. "Things not seen as yet" were to his faith substantial and
evident.Noah believed through a hundred and twenty solitary years! It was a long
martyrdom. Our life is quite long enough for the trial of faith. Even if a man
lives to be eighty, and has sixty years of that life spent in the exercise of
faith, it is only by almighty grace that he holds out. Noah lived two of our
lives in this way. If a little flood had happened and moved his ark a little, he
would have had some evidence for his faith; but there was no flood at all; and
his ark lay high and dry for a century and a quarter! How few could endure this!
Yonder dear friend has been praying for the last six months, and the Lord has
not heard him, and he begins to doubt whether the Lord does hear prayer at all.
You are not much like Noah. You can hardly believe for one hundred and twenty
days. "Alas!" says one, "I have prayed for my husband these twenty years!" It is
a long time to wait; but what would you do with a hundred added on to it? Years
made Noah's faith more mature, and not more feeble. This grey father of the age
went on with his preaching, went on with his intercession, and, without a doubt,
waited for God in his own time to justify his servant before the eyes of men.
Once more: Noah believed even to separation from the world. See Noah and his
family entering the ark! I do not think I should have selected the ark as a
place of residence myself, nor would you have chosen to live in a place pitched
within and without with pitch, with only one door and one window to it, and a
great menagerie of birds, and beasts, and reptiles inside it. Whether that
window ran all round the top just under the roof, so as to let light into the
whole structure, I cannot tell; but I have no doubt that the jeering world said
to Noah, "Well, old man, you have built a prison for yourself, and the sooner
you go inside and shut yourself in the better; for we have had enough of your
preaching!" When the good man and his family went in, and the Lord shut the
door, they were dead to the world. Had Mrs. Noah been like some of you she would
have said, "The girls cannot go out to any more parties, and our sons are shut
out from all society. We are out of the world, and shall soon be forgotten."
Yes, yes, and Noah was glad of it, since it was the Lord that shut him in. When
the Lord shuts you off from the world, you are best alone. Nowadays professors
have not faith enough to dwell alone. They want two or three doors in the back
of the ark, so that they may slip out every now and then, and do a little
pleasuring with the world, and then glide back again and look like saints. As to
being shut in with God and separated from the world -- religious and irreligious
-- how few will endure it! How little is ever heard of that cry -- "Come out
from among them, and be ye separate!" "You might as well be dead," cries one,
"as be out of society." Exactly so: and that is what the child of God looks for.
"Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." "Buried with him by
baptism into death." "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world." That separatedness which Noah took upon himself so willingly was
involved in his salvation; for if he had lived with the world, he would have
died with the world. Only in separation is salvation.Thus have I worked out the
idea that the first principle which actuated Noah's heart was faith in the
living God.II. Secondly, FEAR WAS THE MOVING FORCE. Faith was the living
principle, but fear was the moving power; for the text puts it, "By faith Noah,
being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear." Faith moulded
him, but fear moved him. How was this? "I thought," says one, "that perfect love
casteth out fear." Yes, fear of a certain sort; but there is another fear which
perfect love embraces and nourishes.Noah had no evil fear. He had not a servile
fear: he was not afraid of God as a culprit is afraid of a judge, or a convict
of the hangman. He knew whom he believed, and was persuaded that he had a favour
towards him. Noah had not a careless fear, as some here have. Fools say, "We
never shall be saved, and therefore it would be useless to care about it. We may
as well gather the rosebuds while we may. There is no heaven for us hereafter,
let us make the best of the present." No, Noah was a witness against such
sensual carelessness. He so believed, that fear came upon him, and that fear
made him act as God bade him. Beware of the unbelief which enables you to
trifle; for trifling with eternal things is the suicide of the soul. Noah, on
the other hand, had not a despairing fear, as some have. They say, "There is no
hope. We have gone too far in sin already to dream of pardon and favour. We may
as well let things take their course." Beware of the poison-cup of despair.
While life lasts hope lasts; and we beseech you not to lie down in sullen
hopelessness. Noah was a stranger to this paralyzing fear: he bestirred himself,
and built an ark. Some allow a presuming fear: "If I am to be saved," say they,
"I shall be saved; and if I am to be lost, I shall be lost. I may as well be
hung for a sheep as a lamb, and so I will have my fling, and go into sin even as
I please." Noah never spoke thus; for with his fear he had a good hope. He
prepared an ark. He knew that none could save him but God; but as God bade him
prepare an ark, an ark he prepared, and thus he was saved and his house.What
kind of fear was that of Noah? Well, Noah had a loyal reverence of God. He
feared him as the King of kings and Lord of lords, and when he went about
through the wicked world Noah often said to himself, "I wonder the Judge of all
the earth does not destroy these rebels, who dare to be so vile and violent."
When he saw their gluttony, their infidelity, their lasciviousness, their
oppression of one another, the preacher of righteousness had a holy fear of
judgment. Often his righteous spirit indignantly cried, "Cut it down; why
cumbereth it the ground?" He wondered how God could be so long-suffering. When
it was revealed to him that God was going to destroy the whole race from off the
face of the earth by a flood, he said to himself, "I thought he would." He felt
exceedingly afraid; for he knew that when God once makes bare his arm for
vengeance, the pillars of the earth must shake, and the stars of heaven cease
their shining. Thus the holy man of God passed the time of his sojourning here
in fear. Who among us would not fear if we were to consider at this time the
holiness of God, and the provocations inflicted upon him by our guilty race?
What sin defiles this earth! Oh, the wrath to come! How awful will the judgment
be! It has not come yet; it may not come for years; but, when the Lord begins to
deal with men in justice, how will that day burn as an oven! "Who may abide the
day of his coming?" Noah by faith heard the cries of men and women swept from
their feet by the torrent. He heard the cries of strong swimmers in their agony
yielding to the overflowing death, and sinking to their doom. Do you wonder that
his heart sank within him, and that he was moved with fear? He had a holy awe of
God, and a solemn dread of the judgments which sin was drawing down upon the
giddy world. Noah had a very humble distrust of himself. I wish we all had such
a fear. Let us fear God because of his greatness; let us fear ourselves because
of our sinfulness. Let us fear lest we should fall into sin, and perish with the
rest of the sinners. Let no man say, "I shall never fall." Alas! those are the
most likely to slip. Did you never note that those who seem least likely to fall
into a sin are the very people who commit it? You would not have dreamed that
sober Noah should be found drunk; nor that righteous Lot should commit incest;
nor that David, whose heart smote him when he only cut off the lap of Saul's
garment, should be guilty of murder; nor that Peter, who said, "Though all men
should forsake thee, yet will not I," would have denied his Master with oaths
and cursing. Ah, friends! we may not trust ourselves; but we ought to stand in
daily fear lest we be guilty before God. Here was Noah filled with such a holy
fear of himself, that he took care to do what the Lord bade him, even to the
most minute particular. He did not choose another sort of wood, nor alter the
shape of the vessel, nor make more stories, nor more windows, nor more doors;
but he distrusted his own judgment, and leaned not to his own understanding. He
did exactly what he was told to do, and thus left the consequences with the Lord
who commanded him. He feared his own wisdom: for he knew that man is like to
vanity, and no more to be relied upon than the mist of the morning.Fear made
Noah hew the trees and square the timbers, and wield the axe and the hammer.
Fear wrought in him diligence and speed. It made him despise the observations of
onlookers, and build for his life in brave defiance of the spirit of the age,
and the judgment of the wise. Perhaps I speak to persons who are in fear of the
wrath to come. I rejoice that you have faith enough to fear. By the way of that
faith which brings you unto fear, you will be brought out of it. Believe God in
justice till you tremble; then see that justice vindicated in the suffering and
death of the Lord Jesus, and rest in the mercy of God, which, through the cross,
comes justly down to guilty men. A holy fear will put wings upon your heels, and
help you to fly to Jesus. Moved by fear, may you be drawn and driven to the Lord
Jesus!III. Thirdly, OBEDIENCE WAS THE GRACIOUS FRUIT. Faith and fear together
led Noah to do as God commanded him. When fear is grafted upon faith, it brings
forth good fruit, as in this case.Noah obeyed the Lord exactly. How often does
the Scripture say, "Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so
did he"! See again and again, "Noah did according unto all that the Lord
commanded him." Those who have faith in God should show it by a holy fear, which
makes them zealous to leave nothing undone which is commanded of the Lord, and
to add nothing of will-worship to the perfect law of God. "Whatsoever he saith
unto you, do it;" was the wise word of the Virgin. Obey the Lord with all your
mind and all your heart, in the way of faith, if you would find salvation. Prove
that you have grace, by your accurate obedience.Noah obeyed the Lord very
carefully. God said to him, "Make an ark"; and we read in answer thereto that he
prepared an ark. There was careful preparation, and not hurried, thoughtless
activity. He prepared the right materials; he prepared the different parts so as
to fit together: he prepared his mind, and then prepared his work. In seeking
the Lord, let us exercise our best thoughts. People do not go to heaven in the
fashion of "hop, skip, and jump." Carelessness cannot tread the highway of
holiness. If you would know the way to hell, you may shut your eyes and find it:
a little matter of neglect will surely ruin you -- "How shall we escape, if we
neglect so great salvation?" But if you desire to go to heaven, I beg you to
remember that "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it
by force." There must be determination, thought, care, attention; and faith must
work with all these to produce obedience to the will of the Lord. Men are never
right by accident, nor obedient to the Lord by chance; preparation of heart is
wanted, and this the Lord must give. Alas! I fear some of you will miss eternal
life, for you trifle about it! If you had a business to settle which involved
the gain or loss of ten thousand pounds, how particular you would be; but when
your whole soul is at stake, how many take up such matters at haphazard and risk
eternal destruction! Not so Noah: he was precise in his obedience, and careful
to remain so.Noah obeyed at all costs. To build the huge vessel called "the ark"
must have cost Noah a great deal of money and labour. He could not get everybody
to work at the absurd task of building a vessel on dry land. As they would be
laughed at, his workmen would be sure to demand extra pay. Possibly he had to
pay double wages to every wright employed on the ark. The patriarch was content
to sink all his capital and all his income in this singular venture. It was a
poor speculation -- so everybody told him; and yet he was quite willing to put
all his eggs into that one basket. God had bidden him build, and build he would,
feeling that the divine command insured him against risk. Can we do the same?
Noah went on obeying under daily scorn. The men of that generation mocked him.
He went out and preached to them; but many would not hear him, for they thought
him mad. Those who did listen to him said to each other, "He is building a
vessel upon dry land: is he sane? We are scientific, and therefore we know how
absurd his preaching is; for none ever heard of the world being drowned by a
flood." They called his warning "an old wives' fable," and he himself was "an
old fossil." Doubtless he was the frequent subject of sarcastic remark. I cannot
reproduce the letters that were written about the sturdy patriarch, nor can I
recount the spiteful things which were said by the gossips; but I have no doubt
they were very clever, and very sarcastic. Those productions of genius are all
forgotten now; but Noah is remembered still. For all the scorning of many he
went on obeying his God: he stuck to the lines on which God had placed him, and
he could not be turned to the right hand or to the left, because he had a real
faith in God.Noah's obedience followed the command as he learned it. I admire
his going into the ark without a question. All the cattle and the beasts and
flying things are in the ark with him, and he does not pray to be let out. We
may equally admire him for coming out again when called upon to do so. After we
have once been shut in, some of us had rather stop in. We are not fond of
changes. We grow accustomed to a certain line of things, and find in use a
second nature; and we wish to remain as we are. It is so safe in the ark, and we
are so peaceful, so conscious of being in the hollow of God's hand, that we fear
to come forth into a world so lately cursed. Noah came out without a question,
and the first thing he did was to build an altar to the Lord, and so to prove
that he was at home with God. Oh, for faith that will obey God anyhow and
anywhere! You remember how God said to Elijah, "Hide thyself"; and away went the
prophet to the brook Cherith, where none saw him but the fowls of heaven. A
brave prophet like Elijah finds it hard to be in hiding; yet he does not
disobey. Presently comes the command, "Go, show thyself"; and out he comes from
his exile and stands before King Ahab, according to the word of the Lord.
Whether God bids his true servants show themselves or hide themselves, they do
his will at once."Theirs not to reason why,Theirs but to dare and die."The will
of the Lord is to be done by his servants, whether on earth or in heaven. If he
saith, "Go," they go; if he saith, "Stay," they abide in their places. Oh, for
such a faith as this! It was easier for Noah to build the ark than to render so
complete an obedience; but the Lord wrought in him by his grace.IV. And now I
come to my last point, upon which hear me patiently. RESULTS DID NOT FAIL TO
COME. One hundred and twenty years preaching, and no converts remaining! One
hundred and twenty years building a ship, and yet no water to float it! One
hundred and twenty years warning people that God is about to destroy them, and
yet no flood! Surely, the good man's life is a failure. No doubt wise folks said
of him, "He is a good old man, but he is uncharitable, and has become an
alarmist." Some style him a "pessimist," others say, "He is a bigot"; others,
again, affect to deplore that the good man has made such a great mistake, and is
wasting his influence under a delusion. I hear fine gentlemen saying, "Do not
take much notice of the old gentleman. No doubt he is a very good man, but at
the same time he is only one, and his views are very peculiar. He has gone on
chopping this logic for one hundred and twenty years, and the world is not
drowned yet: it is really too ridiculous." The wilder spirits meet him in the
morning, and they say, "Well, father Noah, when is this flood coming? The
country would be improved by a good soaking. You have raised our expectations so
long, that it ought to pour when it does come. You ought to have minded the old
saying, 'Never prophesy till you are sure.'" Thus would they jest at the
preacher of righteousness; but Noah knew what he was at, and was not silenced.
All that he did was simply to repeat his warning, and go on with his
ship-building. God's time was coming on: the storm was gathering, and before
long the deluge would end the mirth of the godless.What did come of it? The
first result was, He was saved and his house. Oh, that God would give to every
preacher of righteousness this full reward -- himself and his house! O my
brothers in the ministry, there is no greater joy for us than to know that our
children walk in the truth! Perhaps some of you fear the Lord; and yet he has
never given you your Shem, Ham, and Japhet. Alas! it may even happen that she
that lieth in your bosom does not yet know the Lord. Nevertheless, be you
faithful to your God, and to the souls of men. Hold the truth, if you stand
alone. Even if in your own house you find your worst foes, hold on, and never
doubt. Do not come down a stop or two as to holiness, nor seek a lower platform
upon which to meet more cordially an ungodly world. Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and in the power of the ever-blessed gospel. That is the one business of
your life; and I believe that if you have faith in the Lord as to your family,
your beloved ones shall be given you as a prey. Remember the Philippian jailer,
to whom Paul said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,
and thy house." Do not rest content with half the promise. Grasp firmly the
words, "and thy house." Have you an Ishmael? then get alone, and, like Abraham,
cry to God, "O that Ishmael might live before thee!" God will hear your prayer
and bless Ishmael also. Oh, what a privilege it will be if you yourself and all
your house are saved! The next result was, that he condemned the world. Read,
"By which he condemned the world." "Ha! ha! ha!" they said, "we judge the old
man to be out of his mind." But he was their judge. The merriest jest that
flashed forth at the banquet of wine was pointed with a sarcasm about old Noah
and his dry-land ship; but all the while he was solemnly judging and condemning
that ribald world. The Lord had made him serenely bear witness against iniquity;
yes, and even to sit on the throne and condemn the world. I do not read that
Noah ever entered into any dispute with the men of his times. He never argued or
cavilled, much less did he wish them ill; he simply believed and told them the
truth, kept his own faith intact, and went on building his ark; thus practising
what he believed. In this way he condemned those who criticized him. Ah! you may
laugh, ye worldlings; but the man of God is your master after all! His preaching
condemned them: they know the way, and wickedly refused to run in it. His
warning condemned them: they would not regard it and escape. His life condemned
them, for he walked with the God whom they despised. Most of all, the ark
condemned them. Did none of them ever say, as he passed it in the morning, "This
is the strangest fabric that ever was. There is not, in all the world besides,
such another thing as this. Yet Noah is no fool. He can make a bargain, as I
found to my cost, when he was buying nails, and I tried to get double their
value from him. The man is cool and calm, shrewd and sharp. He bought my wood
upon the hill; but he first made an accurate estimate of the timber in it, and
its worth: he bought as well as any man could do. How is it that on this one
particular point he is so strange?" Did not such men at times think that there
must be something in it after all? If they did not think so, at any rate the
fact that Noah carried out his principles to the full, and invested all he had
in the building of this strange ark, would have forced them to conviction if
they had not been hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. How his faith
condemned them! When the floods began to rise, and the door was shut, how the
sight of the ark condemned them! I can imagine, when the water began to get
knee-deep, there would be frightened ones around the ark door; but it could not
be opened, since God had shut it. When the ark began to float, some of them fled
to the sides of the mountains; and what a condemnation the sight of the floating
ark was to them! Noah could not help them then. The day in which they might have
entered was gone by. If they ever saw Noah look out of the ark, how the face
which once pleaded with them would condemn them! Oh, my hearers, how often have
I warned you to flee from the wrath to come! I have warned you of those dread
waves of fire, and of that horrible tempest, which will sweep over all the
earth, and destroy ungodly men and their works. How often have I spoken of the
pit which God hath digged for the wicked, into which your feet will slide in due
time unless you seek the Saviour! May be, in those days of terror, the face of
the preacher will condemn you, as you remember how he looked at you with earnest
love, but you would have none of his pleading, and chose to perish in your sin.
Your blood shall be upon your own heads. It is a solemn thought, that one lone
man condemned a world. It was one against millions! Yet the one condemned the
millions. If God is with a man, though that man be only one, he is in the
majority. Men of the world wilt soon become a weeping, wailing, and despairing
company; but he that stands alone for God shall be had in honour, and shall both
judge and condemn the guilty world.The last thing Noah earned by his faith was
this, he became heir of the righteousness which is by faith; for God said of
him, when he bade him come into the ark, "Thee have I seen righteous before me
in this generation." God declared him righteous; not righteous by his works,
although his works, following upon his faith, proved him to be righteous; but
righteous by his faith. He believed God, and found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. He received the righteousness which God gives through Jesus Christ to all
them that believe. Wrapt in this he stood before the Lord, justified and
approved. By faith he was adopted and became a son, an heir. For him the promise
of the woman's seed, though it was all the Bible that he had, was quite enough.
The woman's seed, and the Lamb's sacrifice, which Abel had seen, these were
almost all the revelation he had known. He had no Pentateuch, no Psalms, no
Gospels, no Epistles; but he so believed that little Bible of his, that he
expected that Christ in him would bruise the serpent in the world. God honoured
his faith, and he condemned the world. He lived when the rest perished; he was
secure in his ark when the myriads were sinking in the deluge: he became "heir
of the righteousness which is by faith" when others were condemned. May God make
us all so, and unto his name shall be the glory through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Amen. PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON -- Genesis 6:5 -- 22; Hebrews
11:1-7.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK" -- 913, 652, 504.


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