__________________________________________________________________ Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 56: 1910 Creator(s): Spurgeon, Charles Haddon (1834-1892) CCEL Subjects: All; Sermons; LC Call no: BV42 LC Subjects: Practical theology Worship (Public and Private) Including the church year, Christian symbols, liturgy, prayer, hymnology Times and Seasons. The church year __________________________________________________________________ The Preparatory Prayers of Christ (No. 3178) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30TH, 1909, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 7, 1873. "Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus, also being baptized, and praying, the Heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from Heaven, which said, You are My Beloved Son, in You I am well pleased." Luke 3:21,22. "And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called unto Him, His disciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named Apostles." Luke 6:12,13. "And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, the fashion of His Countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistening." Luke 9:28,29. "And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there alone. But the boat was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea." Matthew 14:23-25. "Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead were laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You hear Me always: but because of the people here, I said it, that they may believe that You have sent Me." John 11:41,42. "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not: and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren." Luke 22:31,32. "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He sad, Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost." Luke 23:46. THERE is one peculiarity about the life of our Lord Jesus Christ which everybody must have noticed who has carefully read the four Gospels, namely, that He was a Man of much prayer. He was mighty as a Preacher, for even the officers who were sent to arrest Him said, "Never man spoke like this Man." But He appears to have been even mightier in prayer, if such a thing could be possible! We do not read that His disciples ever asked Him to teach them to preach, but we are told that, "as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray." He had no doubt been praying with such amazing fervor that His disciples realized that He was a master of the holy art of prayer and they, therefore, desired to learn the secret for themselves. The whole life of our Lord Jesus Christ was one of prayer. Though we are often told about His praying, we feel that we scarcely need to be informed of it, for we know that He must have been a Man of prayer. His acts are the acts of a prayerful Man. His words speak to us like the words of One whose heart was constantly lifted up in prayer to His Father. You could not imagine that He would have breathed out such blessings upon men if He had not first breathed in the atmosphere of Heaven! He must have been much in prayer or He could not have been so abundant in service and so gracious in sympathy. Prayer seems to be like a silver thread running through the whole of our Savior's life and we have the record of His prayers on many special occasions. It struck me that it would be both interesting and instructive for us to notice some of the seasons which Jesus spent in prayer. I have selected a few which occurred either before some great work or some great suffering, so our subject will really be the preparatory prayers of Christ--the prayers of Christ as He was approaching something which would put a peculiar stress and strain upon His Manhood, either for service or for suffering. And if the consideration of this subject shall lead all of us to learn the practical lesson of praying at all times--and yet to have special seasons for prayer just before any peculiar trial or unusual service--we shall not have met in vain! I. The first prayer we are to consider is OUR LORD'S PRAYER IN PREPARATION FOR HIS BAPTISM. It is in Luke 3:21, 22--"Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus, also being baptized, and praying," (it seems to have been a continuous act in which He had been previously occupied), "the Heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from Heaven, which said, You are My Beloved Son, in You I am well pleased." The Baptism of our Lord was the commencement of His manifestation to the sons of men. He was now about to take upon Himself in full all the works of His Messiahship and, consequently, we find Him very specially engaged in prayer. And, Beloved, it seems to me to be peculiarly appropriate that when any of us have been converted and are about to make a Scriptural profession of our faith--about to take up the soldier's life under the great Captain of our salvation--about to start out as pilgrims to Zion's city--I say that it seems to me to be peculiarly appropriate for us to spend much time in very special prayer! I would be very sorry to think that anyone would venture to come to be baptized, or to be united with a Christian Church without having made that action a matter of much solemn consideration and earnest prayer. But when the decisive step is about to be taken, our whole being should be very specially concentrated upon our supplication at the Throne of Grace. Of course we do not believe in any sacramental efficacy attaching to the observance of the ordinance, but we receive a special blessing in the act, itself, because we are moved to pray even more than usual before it takes place and at the time. At all events, I know that it was so in my own case. It was many years ago, but the remembrance of it is very vivid at this moment and it seems to me as though it only happened yesterday! It was in the month of May and I rose very early in the morning so that I might have a long time in private prayer. Then I had to walk about eight miles, from Newmarket to Isleham, where I was to be baptized in the river. I think that the blessing I received that day resulted largely from that season of solitary supplication and my meditation, as I walked along the country roads and lanes, upon my indebtedness to my Savior and my desire to live to His praise and Glory. Dear young people, take care that you start right in your Christian life by being much in prayer! A profession of faith that does not begin with prayer will end in disgrace. If you come to join the Church, but do not pray to God to uphold you in consistency of life, and to make your profession sincere, the probability is that you are already a hypocrite! Or if that is too uncharitable a suggestion, the probability is that if you are converted, the work has been of a very superficial character and not of that deep and earnest kind of which prayer would be the certain index. So again I say to you that if any of you are thinking of making a profession of your faith in Christ, be sure, then, in preparation for it, you devote a special season to drawing near to God in prayer. As I read the first text, no doubt you noticed that it was while Christ was praying that, "the Heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from Heaven, which said, You are My Beloved Son, in You I am well pleased." There are three occasions of which we read in Scripture when God bore audible testimony to Christ And on each of these three occasions He was either in the act of prayer or He had been praying but a very short time before. Christ's prayer is especially mentioned in each instance side by side with the witness of His Father--and if you, beloved Friends, want to have the witness of God either at your Baptism or on any subsequent act of your life--you must obtain it by prayer! The Holy Spirit never sets His seal to a prayerless religion! It has not in it that of which He can approve. It must be truly said of a man, "Behold, he prays," before the Lord bears such testimony concerning him as He bore concerning Saul of Tarsus, "He is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles." So we find that it was while Christ was praying at His Baptism that the Holy Spirit came upon Him, "in a bodily shape like a dove," to qualify Him for His public service! And it is through prayer that we, also, receive that spiritual enrichment that equips us as co-workers together with God. Without prayer you will remain in a region that is desolate as a desert! But bend your knees in supplication to the Most High and you have reached the land of promise, the country of benediction! "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you," not merely as to His gracious Presence, but as to the powerful and efficacious working of the Holy Spirit! More prayer--more power! The more pleading with God that there is, the more power will there be in pleading with men, for the Holy Spirit will come upon us while we are pleading and so we shall be fitted and qualified to do the work to which we are called of God! Let us learn, then, from this first instance of our Savior's preparatory prayer at His Baptism, the necessity of special supplication on our part in similar circumstances. If we are making our first public profession of faith in Him, or if we are renewing that profession. If we are moving to another sphere of service, if we are taking office in the Church as deacons or elders, if we are commencing the work of the pastorate. If we are in any way coming out more distinctly before the world as the servants of Christ, let us set apart special seasons for prayer--and so seek a double portion of the Holy Spirit's blessing to rest upon us! II. The second instance of the preparatory prayers of Christ which we are to consider is OUR LORD'S PRAYER PREPARATORY TO CHOOSING HIS TWELVE APOSTLES. It is recorded in Luke 6:12, 13--"And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. [See Sermon #798, Volume 14--SPECIAL PROTRACTED PRAYER.] And when it was day, He called unto Him, His disciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named Apostles." Our Lord was about to extend His ministry. His one tongue, His one voice might have delivered His personal message throughout Palestine, but He was desirous of having far more done than He could individually accomplish in the brief period of His public ministry upon earth. He would therefore have 12 Apostles and afterwards 70 disciples who would go forth in His name and proclaim the glad tidings of salvation. He was infinitely wiser than the wisest of mere men, so why did He not at once select His 12 Apostles? The men had been with Him from the beginning and He knew their characters and their fitness for the work He was about to entrust to them, so He might have said to Himself, "I will have James, John, Peter and the rest of the twelve, and send them forth to preach that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and to exercise the miraculous powers with which I will endow them." He might have done this if He had not been the Christ of God--but being the Anointed of the Father, He would not take such an important step as that without long continued prayer. So He went alone to His Father, told Him all that He desired to do and pleaded with Him, not in the brief fashion that we call prayer which usually lasts only a few minutes--but His pleading lasted through an entire night! What our Lord asked for, or how He prayed, we cannot tell, for it is not revealed to us. But I think we shall not be guilty of vain or unwarranted curiosity if we use our imagination for a minute or two. In doing so, with the utmost reverence, I think I hear Christ crying to His Father whom the right men might be selected as the leaders of the Church of God upon the earth. I think I also hear Him pleading that upon these chosen men a Divine influence might rest, that they might be kept in character, honest in heart and holy in life--and that they might also be preserved in sound Doctrine and not turn aside to error and falsehood. Then I think I hear Him praying that success might attend their preaching. That they might be guided where to go, where the blessing of God would go with them and that they might find many hearts willing to receive their testimony. And that when their personal ministry should end, they might pass on their commission to others so that as long as there should be a harvest to be reaped for the Lord, there should be laborers to reap it--as long as there should be lost sinners in the world, there would also be earnest, consecrated men and women seeking to pluck the brands from the burning. I will not attempt to describe the mighty wrestling of that night of prayer when, in strong cries and tears, Christ poured out His very soul into His Father's ear and heart! But it is clear that He would not dispatch a solitary messenger with the glad tidings of the Gospel unless He was assured that His Father's authority and the Spirit's power would accompany the servants whom He was about to send forth. What a lesson there is in all this to us! What Infallible Guidance there is here as to how a missionary society should be conducted! Where there is one committee meeting for business, there ought to be 50 for prayer! Whenever we get a missionary society whose main business it is to pray, we shall have a society whose distinguishing characteristic will be that it is the means of saving a multitude of souls! And to you, my dear young Brothers in the College, I feel moved to say that I believe we shall have a far larger blessing than we have already had when the spirit of prayer in the College is greater than it now is, though I rejoice to know that it is very deep and fervent even now! You, Brothers, have never been lacking in prayerfulness. I thank God that I have never had occasion to complain or to grieve on that account, but still, who knows what blessing might follow a night of prayer at the beginning or at any part of the session--or an all-night wrestling in prayer in the privacy of your own bedrooms? Then, when you go out to preach the Gospel on the Sabbath, you will find that the best preparation for preaching is much praying! I have always found that the meaning of a text can be better learned by prayer than in any other way. Of course we must consult lexicons and commentaries to see the literal meaning of the words and their relation to one another--but when we have done all that, we shall still find that our greatest help will come from prayer! Oh, that every Christian enterprise were commenced with prayer, continued with prayer and crowned with prayer! Then might we, also, expect to see it crowned with God's blessing! So once again I remind you that our Savior's example teaches us that for seasons of special service, we need not only prayers of a brief character, excellent as they are for ordinary occasions, but special protracted wrestling with God like that of Jacob at the Brook Jabbok, so that each one of us can say to the Lord, with holy determination-- " With You all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of day." When such sacred persistence in prayer as this becomes common throughout the whole Church of Christ, Satan's long usurpation will be coming to an end and we shall be able to say to our Lord, as the 70 disciples did when they returned to Him with joy, "Even the devils are subject unto us through Your name!" III. Now, thirdly, let us consider OUR LORD'S PRAYER PREPARATORY TO HIS TRANSFIGURATION. You will find it in Luke 9:28, 29--"And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, the fashion of His Countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistening." You see that it was as He prayed that He was transfigured. Now, Beloved, do you really desire to reach the highest possible attainments of the Christian life? Do you, in your inmost soul, pine and pant after the choicest joys that can be known by human beings this side of Heaven? Do you aspire to rise to full fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and to be transformed into His image from glory to glory? If so, the way is open to you! It is the way of prayer--only there will you find these priceless blessings! If you fail in prayer, you will assuredly never come to Tabor's top! There is no hope, dear Friends, of our ever attaining to anything like a transfiguration and being covered with the Light of God so that whether in the body or out of the body we cannot tell, unless we are much in prayer! I believe that we make more real advance in the Divine Life in an hour of prayer than we do in a month of hearing sermons. I do not mean that we are to neglect the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but I am sure that without the praying, the hearing is of little worth! We must pray. We must plead with God if we are to really grow spiritually. In prayer, very much of our spiritual digestion is done. When we are hearing the Word, we are very much like the cattle when they are cropping the grass--but when we follow our hearing with meditation and prayer, we do, as it were, lie down in the green pastures--and get the rich nutriment for our souls out of the Truth of God. My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, would you shake off the earthliness that still clings to you? Would you get rid of your doubts and your fears? Would you overcome your worldliness? Would you master all your besetting sins? Would you glow and glisten in the brightness and Glory of the holiness of God? Then be much in prayer, as Jesus was! I am sure that it must be so and that, apart from prayer, you will make no advance in the Divine Life--but that in waiting upon God, you shall renew your spiritual strength, you shall mount up with wings as eagles, you shall run and not be weary--you shall walk and not faint! IV. I must hasten on lest time should fail us before I have finished. And I must put together two of OUR LORD'S PRAYERS PREPARATORY TO GREAT MIRACLES. The first, which preceded His stilling of the tempest on the Lake of Gennesaret, is recorded in Matthew 14:23-25-- "And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there alone. But the boat was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea." He had been pleading with His Father for His disciples and then, when their ship was tossed by the waves, and driven back by the contrary winds, He came down to them from the lofty place where He had been praying for them, making a pathway for Himself across the turbulent waters that He was about to calm. Before He walked upon those tossing billows, He had prayed to His Father. Before He stilled the storm, He had prevailed with God in prayer. Am I to do any great work for God? Then I must first be mighty upon my knees! Is there a man here who is to be the means of covering the sky with clouds and bringing the rain of God's blessing on the dry and barren Church which so sorely needs reviving and refreshing? Then he must be prepared for that great work as Elijah was when, on the top of Carmel, "He cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees," and prayed as only he could pray! We shall never see a little cloud like a man's hand, which shall afterwards cover all the sky with blackness, unless first of all we know how to cry mightily unto the Most High! But when we have done that, then shall we see what we desire. Moses would never have been able to control the children of Israel as he did if he had not first been in communion with his God in the desert, and afterwards in the mountain. So if we are to be men of power, we also must be men of prayer! The other instance to which I want to refer, showing how our Lord prayed before working a mighty miracle, is when He stood by the grave of Lazarus. You will find the account of it in John 11:41, 42--"Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You hear Me always: but because of the people here, I said it, that they may believe that You have sent Me." He did not cry, "Lazarus, come forth," so that the people heard it, and Lazarus heard it, until first He had prayed, "My Father, grant that Lazarus may rise from the dead," and had received the assurance that he would do so as soon as he was called by Christ to come forth from the grave. But, Brothers and Sisters, do you not see that if Christ, who was so strong, needed to pray thus, what need there is for us, who are so weak, to also pray? If He, who was God as well as Man, prayed to His Father before He worked a miracle, how necessary it is for us, who are merely men, to go to the Throne of Grace and plead there with importunate fervency if we are ever to do anything for God! I fear that many of us have been feeble out here in public because we have been feeble out there on the lone mountainside where we ought to have been in fellowship with God. The way to be fitted to work what men will call wonders, is to go to the God of Wonders and implore Him to gird us with His all-sufficient strength so that we may do exploits to His praise and Glory! V. The next prayer we are to consider is OUR LORD'S PRAYER PREPARATORY TO PETER'S FALL. We have the record of that in Luke 22:31, 32--"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not: and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren." [See Sermons #2620, Volume 45--CHRIST'S PRAYER FOR PETER; #2034, Volume 34--PETER'S RESTORATION and #2035, Volume 34--PETER AFTER HIS RESTORATION.] There is much that is admirable and instructive in this utterance of our Lord. Satan had not then tempted Peter, yet Christ had already pleaded for the Apostle whose peril He clearly foresaw! Some of us would have thought that we were very prompt if we had prayed for a Brother or Sister who had been tempted and who had yielded to the temptation. But our Lord prayed for Peter before he was tempted. As soon as Satan had desired to have him in his sieve, that he might sift him as wheat, our Savior knew the thought that was formed in the diabolic mind--and He at once pleaded for His imperiled servant who did not even know the danger that was threatening him! Christ is always beforehand with us. Before the storm comes, He has provided the harbor of refuge. Before the disease attacks us, He has the remedy ready to cure it. His mercy outruns our misery! What a lesson we ought to learn from this action of Christ! Whenever we see any friend in peril through temptation, let us not begin to talk about him, but let us at once pray for him! Some persons are very fond of hinting and insinuating about what is going to happen to certain people with whom they are acquainted. I pray you, beloved Friends, not to do it! Do not hint that So-and-So is likely to fall, but pray that he may not fall. Do not insinuate anything about him to others, but tell the Lord what your anxiety is concerning him. "But So-and-So has made a lot of money and he is getting very purse-proud." Well, even if it is so, do not talk about him to others, but pray God to grant that he may not be allowed to become purse-proud. Do not say that he will be, but pray constantly that he may not be--and do not let anyone but the Lord know that you are praying for him. "Then there is So-and-So. He is so elated with the success he has had that one can scarcely get to speak to him." Well then, Brother, pray that he may not be elated. Do not say that you are afraid he is growing proud, for that would imply what you would be if you were in his place! Your fear reveals a secret concerning your own nature, for what you judge that he would be is exactly what you would do in similar circumstances! We always measure other people's corn with our own bushel--we do not borrow their bushel. And we can judge ourselves by our judgment of others. Let us cease these censures and judgments--and let us pray for our Brothers and Sisters. If you fear that a minister is somewhat turning aside from the faith, or if you think that his ministry is not so profitable as it used to be, or if you see any other imperfection in him, do not go and talk about it to people in the street, for they cannot set him right--go and tell his Master about him! Pray for him and ask the Lord to make right whatever is wrong. There is a sermon by old Matthew Wilks about our being Epistles of Christ, written not with ink, and not on tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart. And he said that ministers are the pens with which God writes on their hearts' hearts--and that pens need sharpening every now and then--but even when they are sharp, they cannot write without ink! So he said that the best service that the people could render to the preacher was to pray the Lord to give them new pens and dip them in the fresh ink that they might write better than before! Do so, dear Friends--do not blot the page with your censures and unkind remarks, but help the preacher by pleading for him even as Christ prayed for Peter! VI. Now I must close with our LORD'S PREPARATORY PRAYER JUST BEFORE HIS DEATH. You will find it in Luke 23:46--"And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost." [See Sermons #2311, Volume 39--OUR LORD'S LAST CRY FROM THE CROSS and #2644, Volume 45-- THE LAST WORDS OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS.] Our Lord Jesus was very specially occupied in prayer as the end of His earthly life drew near. He was about to die as His people's Surety and Substitute. The wrath of God, which was due to them, fell upon Him! Knowing all that was to befall Him, "He set His face steadfastly to go unto Jerusalem" and, in due time, "He endured the Cross, despising the shame." But He did not go to Gethsemane and Golgotha without prayer! Son of God as He was, He would not undergo that terrible ordeal without much supplication. You know how much there is about His praying in the later chapters of John's Gospel. There is especially that great prayer of His for His Church in which He pleaded with amazing fervor for those whom His Father had given Him. Then there was His agonized pleading in Gethsemane when "His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground." We will not say much about that, but we can well imagine that the bloody sweat was the outward and visible expression of the intense agony of His soul which was "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." All that Christ did and suffered was full of prayer, so it was but fitting that His last utterance on earth should be the prayerful surrender of His spirit into the hands of His Father. He had already pleaded for His murderers, "Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do." He had promised to grant the request of the penitent thief, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom." Now nothing remained for Him to do but to say, "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost." His life, which had been a life of prayer, was thus closed with prayer--an example well worthy of His people's imitation! Perhaps I am addressing someone who is conscious that a serious illness is threatening. Well then, dear Friend, prepare for it by prayer! Are you dreading a painful operation? Nothing will help you to bear it so well as pleading with God concerning it! Prayer will help you mentally as well as physically--you will face the ordeal with far less fear if you have laid your care before the Lord and committed yourself--body, soul and spirit--into His hands. If you are expecting, before long, to reach the end of your mortal life either because of your advanced age, or your weak constitution, or the inroads of the deadly consumption--pray much. You need not fear to be baptized in Jordan's swelling flood if you are constantly being baptized in prayer! Think of your Savior in the Garden and on the Cross--and pray even as He did--"Not my will, but yours be done...Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit." While I have been speaking to Believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, there may have been some here who are still unconverted--who have imagined that prayer is the way to Heaven--yet it is not! Prayer is a great and precious help on the road, but Christ, alone, is the Way! And the very first step heavenward is to trust ourselves wholly to Him. Faith in Christ is the all-important matter and if you truly believe in Him, you are saved! But the very first thing that a saved man does is to pray--and the very last thing that he does before he gets to Heaven is to pray. Well did Montgomery write-- "Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice, Returning from his ways While angels in their songs rejoice, And cry, 'Behold, he prays!' Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, The Christian's native air! His watchword at the gates of death He enters Heaven with prayer! EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 18:1-14 Verse 1. And he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. [See Sermon #2519, Volume 43--WHEN SHOULD WE PRAY?] An old writer says that many of Christ's parables need a key to unlock them. Here, the key hangs outside the door, for at the very beginning of the parable we are told what Christ meant to teach by it--"that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." And this is the parable. 2. Saying, There was in a city a judge who feared not God, neither regarded man. It is a great pity for any city and for any country where the judges do not fear God--where they feel that they have been put into a high office in which they may do just as they please. There were such judges in the olden times even in this land--God grant that we may not see any more like them! 3. And there was a widow in that city and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary. She had no friend to plead for her. She had nobody to help her and, therefore, when she was robbed of her little patrimony, she went to the court and asked the judge for justice. 4. And he would not for a while. He preferred to be unjust. As he could do as he liked, he liked to do as he should not. 4, 5. But afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.She seems to have gone to him so often that he grew quite fatigued and pained by her persistence! The Greek words are very expressive, as though she had beaten him in the eyes and so bruised him that he could not endure it any longer. Of course, the poor woman had not done anything of the kind--but the judge thus describes her continual importunity as a wounding of him, as an attacking of him, an assault upon him--for he had, perhaps, a little conscience left. He had, at least, enough honesty to confess that he did not fear God, nor regard man. There are some of whom that is true, who will not admit it, but this judge admitted it--and though he was but little troubled about it--he said, "that I may not be worried to death by this woman's continual coming, I will grant her request and avenge her of her adversary." 6, 7. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge says. And shall not God avenge His own elect who cry day and night unto Him, though He bears long with them?[See Sermon #2836, Volume 6--PRAYERFUL IMPORTUNITY.] He is no unjust judge! He is One who is perfectly holy, just, true and who appears in a nearer and dearer Character than that of judge, even as the One who chose His people from eternity! "Shall not God avenge His own elect?" Yes, that He will--only let them persevere in prayer and "cry day and night unto Him." 8. I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?[See Sermon #1963, Volume 33--THE SEARCH FOR FAITH.] If anybody can find it, He can, for He is the Creator of it! Yet, when He comes, there will be so little of it in proportion to what He deserves, and so little in proportion to the loving kindness of the Lord, that it will seem as if even He could not find it-- although if there were only as much faith as a grain of mustard seed He would be the first to spy it out! 9. And He spoke this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. It seems as if these two things went together--as our esteem of ourselves goes up, our esteem of others goes down--the scales seem to work that way. 10. Two men went up into the Temple to pray. [See Sermon #2395, Volume 41--THE BLESSINGS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.] It was the place that was specially dedicated for prayer. It was the place where God had promised to meet with suppliants. They did well, in those days, to go up into the Temple to pray to God. Though, in these days-- " Wherever we seek Him, He is found, And everyplace is hallowed ground." It is sheer superstition which imagines that one place is better for prayer than another! So long as we can be quiet and still, let us pray wherever we may be. 10, 11. The one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You that I am not as other men are--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican It is possible that this was all true. We have no indication that he was a hypocrite--and if what he said was true--there was something in it for which he might well thank God. It was a great mercy not to be an extortioner, nor unjust, nor an adulterer--but what spoilt his expression of thankfulness was that back-handed blow at the other man who was praying in the same Temple-- "or even as this publican." What had the Pharisee to do with him? He had quite enough to occupy his thoughts if he could only see himself as he really was in God's sight! 12. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I posses. Observe that there is no prayer in all that the Pharisee said. There was a great deal of self-righteousness and self-congratulation, but nothing else. There was certainly no prayer at all in it! 13. And the publican, standing afar off-- Just on the edge of the crowd, keeping as far away as he could from the Most Holy Place-- 13. Would not lift up so much as his eyes unto Heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinne. [See Sermon #1949, Volume 33--A SERMON FOR THE WORST MAN ON EARTH.] That was allprayer--it was a prayer for mercy, it was a prayer in which the suppliant took his right place, for he was, as he said, "a sinner." He does not describe himself as a penitent sinner, or as a praying sinner, but simply as a sinner. And as a sinner, he goes to God asking for mercy. Our English version does not give the full meaning of the publican's prayer, it is, "God be propitious to me," that is, "be gracious to me through the ordained Sacrifice." And that is one of the points of the prayer that made it so acceptable to God. There is a mention of the Atonement in it. There is a pleading of the sacrificial blood. It was a real prayer and an acceptable prayer--while the Pharisee's boasting was not a prayer at all. 14. I tell you, this man--This publican, sinner as he had been, though he had no broad phylacteries like the Pharisee had, though he may not have washed his hands before he came into the Temple, as, no doubt the Pharisee did--this man, who could not congratulate himself upon his own excellence, "this man"-- 14. Went down to his house justified rather than the other He obtained both justification and the peace of mind that comes from it! God smiled upon him and set him at ease concerning his sin. The other man received no justification--he had not sought it and he did not get it. He had a kind of spurious ease of mind when he went into the Temple and he probably carried it away with him! But he certainly was not justified in the sight of God. [See Sermon #2687, Volume 46-- TOO GOOD TO BE SAVED!] 14. For everyone that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. God turns things upside down! If we think much of ourselves, He makes us little, and if we make little of ourselves, we shall find that a humble and contrite heart He will not despise! May He teach us so to pray that we may go down to our house justified, as the publican was! __________________________________________________________________ A Comprehensive Benediction (No. 3179) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, who has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work." 2 Thessalonians 2:16,17. [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon the same text, are Sermons, #1542, Volume 26--FREE GRACE A MOTIVE FOR FREE GIVING; #2363, Volume 40--COMFORT AND CONSTANCY and #2991, Volume 52--WHAT WE HAVE, AND ARE TO HAVE.] ALL through his Epistles, Paul is continually expressing his best wishes for the friends to whom he writes. The Christian should be a well-wisher to all men. No cursing should ever come out of his mouth, but his lips should always distil blessings even upon his enemies--and much more upon his friends. Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, it should be a part of our religion to be desiring the best of blessings for our fellow men. As the high priest of old blessed the people, so should those whom God has made to be priests and kings unto Himself--a privilege that pertains to all saints-- exercise the function of blessing the people by desiring good things for them! The blessing invoked in the text is very comprehensive, but although there is much to crave, there is much more to acknowledge with gratitude. Blessings already secured in the Covenant are the foundation of a rich expectancy for the supply of all our present needs. We may reasonably hope that God will do in the future what He has done in the past. Hence the Apostle speaks very plainly of what God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ have already bestowed--and then he couples therewith the kindest wishes as to the future of his friends at Thessalonica. With as much brevity as possible, I shall first speak on that part of the text which contains two positive facts. And then upon that part of it which expresses two holy desires. I. The 16th verse contains A VERY CLEAR STATEMENT OF THE TWO POSITIVE FACTS. Paul, writing concerning believers in Christ at Thessalonica and everywhere else, says, "Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, who has loved us and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace." From this we gather that every true Believer--everyone who rests upon Christ and is saved through the effectual working of the Holy Spirit--is, at the present moment, first of all, the object of the love of God--"who has loved us." So, my Friends, Paul does not speak of God as though we were strangers to Him and He is a stranger to us, but he says, "who has loved us." Concerning this matter, he does not speak as one who was in doubt--with mingled hope and fear-- but he says positively, "Our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and God, even our Father, who has l oved us." He is quite sure of it! He is certain that these people to whom he is writing, and all believers in Jesus, are the objects of Divine Love! Will you turn that Truth of God over in your minds, dear Friends, making a personal application of it at this moment? If you are now trusting in Jesus Christ, God loves you! That He should think of you is something! That He should pity you is more. That He should bear with you and have patience with you is no small thing--but think of God loving you! That Infinite Being whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain, whose years are eternal, whose existence knows no limit nor shadow of a change--He loves you and yet you are, compared with Him, nothing--yes, less than nothing and vanity! Could you conceive of an angel loving an ant? Could you imagine one of the seraphs being in love with the gnat which dances in the sunbeam? It would be wonderful condescension for the august spirits to love such insignificant creatures, yet it would be only one creature loving another creature! And between one creature and another, the distance cannot be as great as between the Creator and the created one! That God, the Eternal, Infinite, Almighty I AM, should actually condescend to love us, who are but as worms compared with Him and who are but as things of yesterday, soon gone, oh, 'tis strange, 'tis passing strange, 'tis amazing! Yet though it exceeds marvel, it does not, thank God, exceed belief! But were it not that God has, Himself, revealed it, we might have cause enough to suppose it to be impossible that the Lord Jesus Christ and God, even our Father, should have loved us! Being spoken of in the past tense, I infer that the love which God has for Believers is no novelty. He did not commence to love them yesterday. Brothers and Sisters, we believe that as many as have been called by Grace have been the objects of a love that never knew a beginning! Long before the stars were lit, or the sun's refulgent ray had pierced through primeval shade, the heart of Deity had fixed itself upon the chosen! The prescient eyes of God had seen them when as yet they were not--and in His book all their names were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there were none of them! They were not merely foreknown, but they were foreloved! They were the favorites of His heart, the dear ones of His choice. He "has loved us." Fly back as far as you will--till time has not begun, the work of Creation is not accomplished and God dwells alone--it was still true of all Believers, even then, that "God, even our Father, has loved us." Is it not marvelous that we should have been the objects of a love that has been so constant? For, as there never was any beginning to it, so there never has been a period in which that love has grown dim towards those who were the objects of it! The river of God's Love has gone flowing on in one undiminished stream even until now! He "has loved us." He loved us when our father Adam plunged us into the ruins of the Fall. He loved us when He spoke the first promise in the Garden of Eden, that the Seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head. He loved us all through the prophetic days when He was writing the Book of Love upon which our delighted eyes were afterwards to gaze. He loved us when He sent His Son, His only Son, to live our life and to die our death! He loved us when He exalted that Son of His to His own right hand--and in His Person exalted us there, too, and made us to sit in heavenly places together with Him. He loved us when we were little children, in the weakness of infancy hanging upon our mother's breasts. He loved us when, in the follies of our youth, we seemed determined to destroy ourselves while He was determined that we should be saved. He loved us when we loved not Him. He drew us with the cords of a man and with the bands of love--and now, even at this day--we can, each one of us, look up to Him and say, "Abba! Father! You are mine and I am Yours by the Spirit of adoption." Yes, we can say this! We can look back all along our past lives and right beyond our birth into eternity past, and we can thank Him that we can truly say, "God, even our Father, has loved us." Now, my dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you must not be satisfied unless you can speak about God's love to you in the same positive terms as those which were used by the Apostle Paul. Never rest contented if you do not know that God loves you! Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids until, by a living faith, you have been able to read your title clear to this love of God! It may be that you have lost the sensible presence of that love--then ask for Divine Grace to search until you find it again. You may be saved and yet you may not be happy, but you ought never be content unless you are certain that you are saved--and then such certainty will infallibly bring you peace and joy. If now your full assurance has departed and your faith is under a cloud, come and knock again at Mercy's door and cling to the posts thereof, looking up at the Crucified One. Turn your tearful eyes to Calvary, trusting afresh to Him whose wounds will give you healing and in the crimson lines of whose agonies you must read your acceptance. Go there, I say, and be not content till you can say with Paul, "Our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and God, even our Father, has loved us." This is the first positive fact which is here mentioned. There is another fact which is equally positive--"and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through Graced It is absolutely certain that God has given His people this double blessing. What a delightful blessing this is, "everlasting consolation"! There is music in the word, "consolation." Barnabas was called "the son of consolation." No, more than that, it is the name of One who is far greater than Barnabas, for the Lord Jesus is called "the Consolation of Israel." But God is here said to have given this blessing to His people in a very special form-- "everlasting consolation." A man goes to work to make money and, after toiling hard for it, he gets it and it is a consolation to him. But it is not an everlastingconsolation, for he may spend or he may lose all his money. He may invest it in some company (limited or unlimited), and very soon find it vanish! Or he may be compelled by death to leave it. It cannot be, at the best, more than a temporary consolation. A man toils hard for knowledge. He acquires it. He becomes eminent, his name is famous. This is a consolation to him for all his toil, but it cannot last long, for when he comes to feel the headache or the heartache, his degrees and his fame cannot cheer him. Or when his soul becomes a prey to despondency, he may turn over many a learned tome before he will find a cure for melancholy. His consolation is but frail and fickle--it will only serve to cheer him at intermittent seasons--it is not "everlasting consolation." But I venture to say that through the consolation which God gives to His people, they are unsurpassed for their endurance! They can stand all tests--the shock of trial, the bursting out of passion, the lapse of years--no, more--they can even endure the passage to eternity, for God has given to His people "everlasting consolation." What is this "everlasting consolation"? It includes a sense of pardoned sin. A Christian, when his heart is right, knows that God has pardoned his sins, that He has cast them behind His back, and that they will never be mentioned against him again. He has received in his heart the witness of the Spirit that God has blotted out, as a thick cloud, his transgressions and, as a cloud, his sins. Well, if sin is pardoned, is not that a consolation? Yes, and an everlasting consolation, too--one that will do to live with and that will do to die with--and that will do to rise again with! Oh, joy! My sins are pardoned! Now do what You will with me, my God! As my sins are put away, You have given me "everlasting consolation." This "everlasting consolation" also gives an abiding sense of acceptance in Christ. The Christian knows that God looks upon him as he is in Christ and, inasmuch as God put Christ into his place, and punished Christ for his sin, He now puts the Believer into Christ's place and rewards that Believer with His love just as if he had been obedient unto death, as Christ was! It is a blessed thing to know that God accepts us and to be able to sing, with Hart-- " With my Savior's garments on, Holy as the Holy One"-- and this is a consolation which is abiding. It is, in fact, everlasting! Now let sickness come--the consolation still abides. Have we not seen hundreds of Believers as happy in the weakness of disease as they would have been in the strength of hale and vigorous health? Let death come--the consolation still remains. Have not these ears often heard the songs of dying saints as they have rejoiced because the love of God was shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit? Yes, a sense of acceptance in the Beloved is an "everlasting consolation." Moreover, the Christian has a conviction of his security in Christ. God has promised to save all those who trust in Jesus. The Christian does trust in Him and he believes that God will be as good as His word and will save him. He feels, therefore, that whatever may occur in Providence, whatever onslaughts there may be of inward corruption, or of outward temptation, he is safe by virtue of his union to Christ--is not this a source of consolation? Why, some of you might freely give your eyes to know that you are saved! It would be a good bargain for men even to be lame or maimed if they did but enter into life. The Christian knows that he is secure--beneath the shield of the Divine Omnipotence he laughs at the rage of Hell, feeling that no fiery dart can ever pierce that sacred protection! Are you rejoicing in this everlasting consolation? If not, you should seriously question whether you know what true religion means. Do you find that your losses make you wretched? Do bereavements in your family make you murmur and complain? Are you never happy? Does not joy ever come into your spirit? Do you always hang your head like a bulrush? Have you no peace of mind, no sacred mirth? Do the bells of your heart never ring? Do the heart-strings of your soul never sound out the music of grateful praise? Then gravely question whether you can be a child of God, for concerning the children of God it is written, "God, even our Father, has given us everlasting consolation." I am sure there are many here who, if they were to speak from experience, would say, "Well, we are very poor, but we are rich in faith, and faith makes us rich toward God. We have not anything to spare, yet surely goodness and mercy have followed us all the days of our life. We are sick in body, yet our afflictions are so sanctified that we rejoice in deep distress. We are ridiculed and slandered by the ungodly, but we rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer anything for Christ's sake. Yes, God has given us everlasting consolation!" John Bunyan said that the man who wears the flower, "heart's ease," in his bosom need not envy a king! And that is a flower which the Christian always wears in his buttonhole--or if he does not always wear it there, it is his own fault, for God has given it to him--He has given unto us everlasting, unchanging, unfading, inexhaustible fountains of consolation! Another thing which God has given us is "good hope through Grace"--a hope, a good hope--a "good hope through Grace." What is the Christian's hope? It is a hope that he shall be preserved in this life by God's love and kindness. A hope that when he comes to die--for die he must unless the Lord shall come first--he shall have all-sufficient Grace to be able to play the man in the last solemn article. He has the hope that, after death, his soul, out-soaring sun, Volume 56 www.spurgeongems.org 3 moon and stars, shall enter into the realm of spirits and be with Christ! He believes that the day shall come when his very body, though it has become food for worms, shall be quickened and called by the voice of the archangel from its bed of dust and its silent sleeping place. He believes that those bones of his shall live again and that his soul and body shall be reunited and that, when the Lord Jesus shall stand at the Last Day upon the earth, in his flesh he shall see God! So he sings with Toplady-- "These eyes shall see Him in that Day, The God that died for me! And all my rising bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto Thee?" This is the Christian's hope, that he shall then live, world without end, in the perfection of enjoyment! That he shall have all spiritual joys in communion with Christ--and all joys that shall be suitable to his new and spiritual body as he shall walk the golden streets and forever praise the love which brought him into an existence of perfect bliss! This is the Christian's hope and, consequently, the thought of death does not alarm him--rather, he looks forward to it with joy! As the toil-worn laborer does not dread the eventide when he shall put off his dusty robes, but longs for the night that he may rest in his bed, so the Christian, when he is in his right mind-- "Longs for evening, to undress, That he may rest with God." He is willing to put off the cumbrous clay of his body and commit it to the purifying earth, that he may, as a disembodied spirit, depart to be "with Christ, which is far better," expecting that, afterwards, body and soul together shall be forever gratified with Christ! This is the Christian's hope and it is a good hope. It is good for what it brings us, but it is especially good for that upon which it is grounded. The reason why the Christian expects this eternal happiness is because God has promised it to him and has given him an earnest of it. He has Heaven in his heart even now. That is to say, he has within him the beginning of that life which shall, in due time, become the heavenly life. In olden times, when men bought an estate, it was customary for the seller to give to the purchaser a tuft of grass and a leaf from one of the trees on the land, signifying that the purchaser then had what was called seizin of the property, and they were proofs that it belonged to him. And when God gives true faith in Christ and enables a soul to have peace with God through the precious blood, this is the earnest of Heaven, a foretaste of its bliss and sure evidence that Heaven is, indeed, ours. I trust that there are many of us who have this earnest and feel comforted by it. We have a good hope because it is founded upon God's promise in His Word and upon the witness of the Spirit within our heart that we are born of God! And it is said to be a good hope through Grace." Ah, Friends, there is no good hope except "through Grace." You cannot have a good hope through merit. If anybody expects to have a good hope through baptism, he is very much mistaken! Baptism is simply the testimony of a good conscience toward God--it cannot give any hope of Heaven. If we were to build upon such a foundation as baptism, confirmation, the Lord's Supper, or anything of the kind, we should be sad losers, for there is nothing in all these things put together to make a Christian's hope! Nor must we build our hopes on our prayers or our tears, or on anything that we can do, for if so, it will be a sandy foundation and when the time of trial comes, it will give way under us. But to have a good hope through Divine Grace--such a hope as this--that I, a poor unworthy sinner, have been invited by God to put my trust in His dear Son, and that He has promised that if I do, I shall be saved! I do trust in Jesus and, therefore, if God has promised truly, I shall be saved--this is indeed a foundation on which I may build without fear! Is not this, my Brothers and Sisters, the top and bottom of the Christian's hope, that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," and that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life? You do believe in Him and, therefore, you can say that you do possess eternal life! I do solemnly declare that if I have ever at any time begun to say in my own mind, "I shall be saved, for I have preached the Gospel, I have experienced such-and-such enjoyments, I have drawn near to God in secret prayer"--if ever I have talked to myself like that, I have soon been led to see that if I had not something infinitely better than all that to trust to, I would be resting on a broken reed. But, oh, to come to Jesus just as one came, at the first, saying-- "Nothing in my hands I bring-- Simply to Your Cross I cling. Naked, come to You for dress. Helpless, look to You for Grace. Foul, I to the Fountain fly-- Wash me, Savior, or I die!' This is, indeed, to have a "good hope through Grace." Now let us take these two statements, look at them again, and then lay them up among our choicest treasures. The one statement is that God has loved us. O Christian Friends, do try to drink in that great Truth of God! Do not be satisfied simply to hear the words repeated, but get them right into your very spirits--"Our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and God, even our Father, has loved us." O you angels, you have not even in Heaven a greater joy than this--to know that God has loved us! The other statement is that God "has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace." So we cannot be without consolation. Whatever your trouble may be, my dear Christian Friend, though you may have lost your dearest one, though your property may have melted as the snowflake melts into the sea, yet God has given you eternal consolation--and whatever you may have to fear concerning the future, you have a hope that is broader than your fears!-- "This is the hope, the blissful hope, The hope by Jesus given! The hope when days and years are past, We all shall meet in Heaven!' As I turned this text over, I could not help pitying those who have no hope, no good hope through Divine Grace. When I opened my letters this afternoon, on coming back from Liverpool, the first one I opened was to tell me of the death of one with whom I spent a very happy day about a fortnight ago. He seemed to me to be in perfect health when I spoke to him, then, but now he is gone to his eternal rest. The next letter I opened came from the deacon of a Church in Devonshire, to say that one of our students, who was settled there as a minister, had been suddenly taken ill and had just died. I did not care to open any more letters, just then, for fear that I would read of somebody else being gone. But I thought, "Well, both of these dear Brothers have served their generation by the will of God, and they have fallen asleep, and it is well." I could only look forward with hope to the day when somebody would read just such a letter about me-- and could only trust that they would be there to say of me what I could say of these Brothers--"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." But what a sad thing it is to live in this world and to have no hope! It would have been better not to have lived at all than to live without a "good hope through Grace." I do not really know how some of you manage to live. I know you have your troubles--troubles at home and troubles in business--and I cannot make out how you manage to put up with this poor existence without the hope of a better one! Knowing what we do about a future state, if we had not a good hope concerning it, we really might wish that we had never been born. And we sometimes wonder how some of you can be so easy and so careless about the unknown state when you, perhaps, know that you will soon be in that state and also know that if it is not a better state than this one, it will be a very sad thing for you to have had an existence at all! Oh, "seek you the Lord while He may be found! Call upon Him while He is near." A good hope can be had through Divine Grace and that Grace is free even to the chief of sinners! If we come to God on the footing of Divine Grace, He will never cast us out. Oh, that we might all have this infinite treasure of a "good hope through Grace"! II. Now I can spend only a few minutes upon the second part of the subject in which we have TWO GOOD WISHES, TWO HOLY DESIRES. The first part of the text has told us what God has given us. The second part tells us what we ought to desire God to give us--"Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work." I pray God for those who are about to be baptized and also for you who have long made a profession of your faith, that you may get the first blessing, namely, Divine comfort. May God comfort you! It is a bad case when a Christian is not happy, when he is not full of comfort. I know it is treated by some people as though it were a very insignificant matter whether a Christian is happy or not, but I am sure it is an exceedingly important matter that he should have comfort. A wretched, miserable Christian is, to a great extent, an injury to the Church, and a dishonor to the Cross of Christ, for worldly people will pick out such an one and say, "That is what your religion does for a man!" Now, genuine godliness gives peace and joy. In its first beginning, when a man is under a sense of sin, it does make him wretched to feel his sin, but when the soul is obedient to the command of Christ and trusts in Him, it gives him joy and peace. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace"--and for a Christian not to have this fruit of the Spirit is to libel Christianity! When one's heart is sad, it is not always best to show it. "When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that you appear not unto men to fast." Even if you have some sorrow of heart, tell it not at once to your neighbor, who may have quite enough trouble of his own to bear without having yours added to it! Do, Christian, seek to get the comfort of which the Apostle here speaks. Is there ever a position into which you and I can be cast where there is no comfort for us in the Divine promises? There is, in God's Word, a key to open all the locks of trouble in Doubting Castle! If we will but turn over the sacred pages, we shall find there a promise exactly suited to our case. Do you lack comfort, Christian? How can you while there is a Mercy Seat to go to and One there whose ears are always open to hear your petition and to relieve your trouble? Do you lack comfort while you can pray? Surely it must be neglect of prayer that makes your burdens so heavy. How can you be without comfort while your Savior lives? If Jesus Christ still bears your name upon His heart, that should be enough for you! Is it not really a comfort to think that the Father, Himself, loves you? My Father, who is in Heaven, knows my needs--ought not that to cheer me? Midst darkest shades, if I feel that He is with me--yes, even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death--if His rod and His staff comfort me, what have I to fear? Yes, Christian Friends, you have abundant ground for comfort, so be not content unless you enjoy that comfort! May God, even your Father, put you and keep you in a comfortable frame of mind! I would say especially to young Christians--Do not imagine that as soon as you become believers in Christ, you are to cast away those cheerful looks and those bright eyes of yours. God forbid! If you were happy, before, be far happier now! You need not have levity--that is to be avoided--and the pleasure which consists in sin should be no pleasure to you, but now your joy should be deeper as it is purer, more lively as it is more sound! "And establish you in every good word and work" These are the two forms of establishment in good Doctrine and in good practice. When a Christian receives good words, the devil would like to drive them from him and to drive him from them. It is one of the masterpieces of Satan to try to spoil our faith. If he can lead us to believe falsely, he will the more easily lead us to actfalsely. So may God "establish you in every good word."You cannot help noticing, if you look upon the spiritual firmament just now, how like it is to what the natural firmament was the other night. It is said that there were thousands of shooting stars visible within an hour! And I might almost say that if you look out into the Christian world, you can see thousands of shooting stars within a minute! I do not know what new error we shall have within the next 24 hours. There are some people who are so fond of novelties that they have advanced pretty nearly every form of error that our poor imagination can conceive of, yet they seem to be studious to make fresh ones! We have new "isms" and "ites" of all sorts, but old-fashioned Truths of God, which we thought would never have been doubted, are, nowadays, contested! An age of great religious activity is pretty sure to be also an age in which error is active and, therefore, it is the more necessary that we should pray for Believers that they may be established in every good word! I should like you who are members of this Church not only to believe the Truth, but to know why you believe itand to be so sure and certain of it that you cannot be shaken from it! I would have you be not like the dry leaves in autumn, which are carried away by the first wind because they have lost their vitality, but like the green leaves in spring which will bear the March winds and cannot be torn off because their sap is flowing in them and they are fresh and vigorous. I would that you were always able to give a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. The faith which we have has been handed down to us by martyrs' hands all along the ages--not through the corrupt Church of Rome--but down along the line of martyrs and confessors who have sealed their testimony with their blood! And that testimony is still with us this day! Search God's Word and if we teach you anything that is inconsistent with it, then reject us as we would have you reject all false teachers! If we set before you anything which is of ourmaking, and not of God's making, cast it to the dogs and have none of it! But if it is God's Truth, be established in it. Garner it in your soul. Hold it fast as for dear life and never let it go! Believe that the Truth of God as it is in Jesus, is worth the blood which martyrs have shed in its defense--and will be worth all that it can possibly cost you in holding it! May you be established in every good word--not merely in some good words--but in every good word! Believe all the Truths of God. Many Christians, alas, believe only one Truth or so. One man gets a hold of the Doctrine of Predestination and he is like a child with a doll--it is all the world to him! Another man gets a hold of the Doctrine of Human Responsibility and he looks at it, as Luther says, "like a cow at a new gate." He stands staring at that and can see nothing beyond it! But I would have you see all the Truth and be always ready to receive anything that God has revealed! Be you steadfast "in every good word." But the blessing invoked by the Apostle is that you may be established in every good work as well as in every good word. Alas, there are some Christians who like the Word of God very well, though they do not like the work--but unless our godliness extends to our daily work, it is not godliness at all! May you, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, be established in every good work! May there be the good work of holiness in all the relationships of life! May you be the best of sons, the best of daughters, the best of parents, the best of husbands, the best of wives, the best of employers, the best of employees! Wherever your lot may be cast, may you be established in every good work in all the relationships of life! Then, in this Christian Church, may you work in prayer, may you work in teaching, may you work according to the ability which God has given you--and may you be established in it! If there is any good work which you have not yet attempted, but to which you are called of God, may you have Grace to enter upon it and, once engaged in it, may you never take your hands from the plow till you have finished the task that God has sent you! O Beloved, I can pray this prayer from my heart for everyone of you! May you who have served the Master for years, still be kept serving Him! Oh, may none of you turn your backs in the day of battle! May you be faithful unto death and so obtain the great reward! May the Grace which has helped you forward up to now, impel you forward till your hairs are gray and until you throw yourselves back upon the couch of death to sleep with God! So may you be established in every good word and work! Every Christian ought to be a member of the established Church--I do not mean the church which is established by the English law--but the Church which is established by God! Oh, to be established by Divine Grace--to be established by knowing what we believe, by practicing it--and by being established in that practice! These Apostolic good wishes I leave with you--may you inherit them! But remember that we must first come to Christ, or these good wishes will be only wishes. We must first trust the Savior, or else these blessings can never be ours! May Divine Grace bring us to Jesus and keep us at His feet--and Divine Grace shall have the praise forever and ever! EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 THESSALONIANS 2. Verses 1, 2. Now we beseech you, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him, that you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. In the Church of Christ, the teaching has always been that Christ is coming quickly and that teaching must never be withdrawn, for He is coming quickly, as He said to John in the Revelation. At the same time, this teaching has given an opportunity to certain presumptuous people to prophesy that at such-and-such a time, Christ will come. They know nothing about it and their prophecies are not worth the breath they spend in uttering them! And we have, today, what the Apostle wrote to the Thessalonians-- 3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that Day shallnot come, except there comes a falling away, first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.I believe that to a large extent this has already happened and that the "man of sin" has been revealed. This "son of perdition" has had a long, dark and terrible reign over myriads of men, and he still sits on the seven hills of Rome, and rules over multitudes of his fellow sinners. Paul held that it was consistent to expect the Lord to come quickly and yet to know that certain events must occur before He did come. That is just the condition, I think, to which a man's mind will come if he diligently and impartially reads the Scriptures--especially the prophetic parts of them. The Lord will come in such an hour as we think not, yet there are clear indications of certain things which are to happen before He does come. 4. Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. It has been said that the Pope of Rome is infallible, that his interpretation of Scripture, whatever it may be, is as valid as the Scripture, itself, and that whatever he chooses to decree must be obeyed by the faithful. Such are some of the pretensions, even at this day, of the "man of sin." 5-7. Do you not remember that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity is already at work.There were certain rea-Volume 56 www.spurgeongems.org 7 sons why that gigantic iniquity should begin to be developed, even while the Roman Empire was in power to keep it in check. And when that passed away, there was the opportunity for "the mystery of iniquity" to become the despot of the world! 7-10. Only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working ofSatan with allpower and signs andlying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. This is the last sin of all--that ungodly men do not receive "the love of the truth." If they were, themselves, true, they would love the Truth of God. If the Grace of God was in them, His own precious Truth would be prized by them above everything else! But when men finally reject the Truth by which they might be saved, God visits them with terrible judgments! 11-17. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasured in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation through sanc- tification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto He called you by our Gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and God, even ourFather, which has loved us, andhasgiven us everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work So may it be, for Jesus' sake! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ Christ the Creator (No. 3180) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 7, 1873. "All things were created by Him and for Him." Colossians 1:16. THERE can be no mistake as to the Person concerning whom Paul is writing under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit--it is Jesus of Nazareth, the Incarnate Son of God who was crucified on Calvary for, writing concerning the same Person in the 14th verse, the Apostle says, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." It is, therefore, that Savior whose blood was shed for His people's redemption who is here declared to be the Creator of all things and by whom all things consist! The first verse of the Book of Genesis tells us that, "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," so someone may ask, "How do you reconcile that statement with Paul's declaration that all things were created by Christ and for Him?" No reconciliation is needed, for the two statements are identical, as Jesus is God, and "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Jesus said, "I and My Father are One," and so they are! We know not how it is, but the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct Personalities, yet there are not three Gods, but only one, as the Apostle John writes, "There are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit; and these Three are One." The one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the Father, Son and Spirit--Three in One and One in Three! The subject I have to speak about is the honor and glory of the Second Person of the blessed Trinity, even our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! But it is so vast a theme that the preacher, at the outset, confesses that the task is too great for him to accomplish! He staggers beneath the weight of his theme which seems to him too great for the human mind to compass or for human lips adequately to express! All I can hope to do is to be lost in my subject that Jesus Christ may be All-in-All. The text tells us that all things were created by Christ and for Him, so we will, first, consider Paul's statement. And, secondly, we will review the rejections arising from it. I. First, then, let us CONSIDER PAUL'S STATEMENT--"All things were created by Him and for Him." So, first of all, Heaven, itself was created by and for Christ Jesus. Then there is such a place, as well as such a state, and of that place Jesus is the center! There is such a place, for Enoch is there. "Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took him." God took him bodily to some place--and that place is Heaven. Elijah is also there--the horses of fire and the chariots of fire took not merely his spirit, but the entire Elijah--and he is in Heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has gone back to Heaven, went there in His own body. When He passed into the skies, He went up into the heavenly places, as well as into the heavenly state--and there He lives at the right hand of God, even the Father, enthroned in the New Jerusalem, the Holy City of God-- "See how the Conqueror mounts aloft, And to His Father flies! With scars of honor in His flesh, And triumph in His eyes! There our exalted Savior reigns, And scatters blessings down-- His Father well rewards His pains, And bids Him wear the crown." God, absolutely considered as a pure Spirit, needed no such place as Heaven. God is everywhere! Long ago He asked, "Do not I fill Heaven and earth?" The idea of there being needed any celestial court or place of abode falls short of the true idea of the Omnipresent Jehovah. Neither do I suppose that it would have been necessary to have a place for angels, for the holy spirits would have been able to behold the face of God everywhere--wherever they might be, there they would see God and, consequently, no special place would have been needed to be set apart for them! But it was ordained, in the eternal purpose of God, that there should be created a race of beings who should not be pure spirits, but who should have bodies made of material substances. And it was resolved by Jesus Christ that He would become one of these beings--that He would take upon Himself their nature and would become, in fact, a Man! Now, when a spirit becomes linked with a material substance, it must have a place in which to dwell and, therefore, Heaven was created both for Christ and for His people. When the Son of Man shall come in His Glory, He will say to those on His right hand, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Prepared, that is, with this view--that there might be a special central place for the display of Christ's Glory--and that all His people might be there with Him. These are His own words--"Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may behold My Glory." They are not merely to be as He is, but to be with Him where He is and, therefore, Heaven was created by Him and for Him--and for His people who are vitally united with Him! O Beloved, when we get to Heaven, we shall see that everything there glows with the Glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! The print of His pierced hands will be upon everything. The city of pure gold was created by Him and created for Him. The foundations of the walls of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones by Him and for Him. The jasper, sapphire, emerald, beryl and all the rest--and the gates of pearl are all for Him--all shall be to His glory! For Him each harp of gold, each palm of victory, each shout of victory, each song of adoration--all Heaven shall ring with the praises of Jesus! Heaven shall be, as it were, set with mirrors and every one of which you will be able to see a reflection of the glorious Person of Jesus Christ, even as in every dewdrop you may see the image of the sun. Everyone in Heaven will feel it to be his bliss to praise Jesus! Towards the august Throne of the Most High this anthem will triumphantly ascend, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory and blessing!" And with the variation of which John tells us in the Revelation, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto Him that sits upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever." There will be nothing in Heaven that will be derogatory to Jesus, but everyone and everything there will be to His praise and glory! I cannot believe that any of His chosen people will be missing on the Last Great gathering Day. No David's seat will be empty there! No Thomas will be absent then! I cannot conceive of one whom He has purchased with His precious blood being lost! Not one sheep or lamb will be missing from the great Shepherd's flock in the day when they pass under the hand of Him that counts them--they shall all be there! The army of the Great Captain of our salvation shall be complete there! When the muster-roll is read, they shall all answer to their names--and all who are gathered there will owe their salvation to the Lamb who was slain! There will not be one Pharisee there to boast, "God, I thank You that I am not as other men are." There will not be one atheist there blasphemously shouting, "There is no God!" Nor one Unitarian seeking to drag Christ from the Throne that is rightly His--but all will be adoring and magnifying, and delighting to adore and magnify Him by whom and for whom Heaven itself was created-- "All the chosen of the Father, All for whom the Lamb was slain, All the Church appear together, Washed from every sinful stain!" Next, all angels were created by Jesus and for Him. However great and strong, and swift they are, there is not one angel that ever flies from Jehovah's Throne that was not created by Christ! Read the whole verse from which our text is taken--"For by Him were all things created that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him." If there are rank upon rank of blessed spirits, "that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word," all were created by Him and for Him! Gabriel was sent to foretell Christ's coming to earth. Angels announced His birth at Bethlehem. Others of them ministered to Him in the wilderness and in Gethsemane. They watched over His empty sepulcher and joyfully attended Him as He returned to Heaven as the victorious King of Glory! It is written that He was "seen of angels," and it must have been with awe and wonder that they gazed upon Him from the manger to the tomb! We read, also, "which things the angels desire to look into"--and there must have been many mysteries which even their lofty intelligence could not comprehend until He explained it to them! They delight to praise and worship Him! And they help to swell the mighty chorus of adoring homage that is always ascending to Him-- "Bright angels, strike your loudest strings, Your sweetest voices raise! Let Heaven and all created things Sound our Immanuels praise!' Angels were created by Christ and for Him--not merely to admire and adore Him, but actually to serve Him. Truly did the Psalmist write, "who makes His angels spirits; His ministers a flaming fire." And Paul reveals a most important part of their service when he asks, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" We will not enter into any speculations about their battles with evil spirits on our behalf, though we believe that this is one of the many ways in which they minister for us. We cannot describe all the service that these heavenly messengers render to the Lord's own people. I remind you of how one of them killed 185,000 of Sennacherib's army in a single night! And of how the Prophet Elisha, besieged by the Syrians in Dothan, saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire for his protection. You will recall many other instances of angelic interposition and you know, too, how it is written, "He shall give His angels charge over You, to keep You in all Your ways. They shall bear You up in their hands, lest You dash Your foot against a stone." As for the fallen angels who rebelled against God and who have sunk forever into hopeless alienation from Him-- even these were created by Christ and for Him! And though they hate Him, they shall be compelled to obey Him and to acknowledge that He is Lord over all! Even their malice against the people of God shall only draw out His love toward them and manifest His vigilance, wisdom and power on their behalf. In the wilderness the Son of Man met "the prince of the power of the air" in mortal conflict. Evil stood there endowed with all the attributes it could desire to have upon its side--evil ancient with long and varied experience, evil backed up by a powerful angelic intellect, evil with ferocious malice glaring in its eyes--evil with diabolic cunning tempting the Son of God to sin! There, too, stood the Prince of Life--alone, yet undaunted--the Incarnation of holiness and love! Three times they wrestled, foot to foot, but the tempter had to retire beaten. And when he came again, hoping to take the Son of God and Son of Man at a disadvantage in Gethsemane--when He was full of anguish and was shortly to die in still greater agony on the Cross--it was again a desperate struggle, but the Master flung him to the ground! Our Samson tore the old roaring lion as if he had been a kid, and left him prostrate and defeated, while He passed on to complete the great work of His people's redemption and to conquer all the powers of darkness before He gave up the ghost! Glory be to Jesus! He has gotten Glory to Himself out of the devil and all his angels! And even Hell, itself, terrible as it is, was created by Christ as a necessary part of the moral government of the universe so that sin might not go unpunished. Even there Christ reigns! His Sovereignty is supreme down to its lowest depths. He has the keys of Hell and of death--and when the appointed time comes, He will send an angel with the key of the bottomless pit and bid him lay hold on "the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan," and bind him for a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit. And then, after the Millennium, and Satan has been again loosed for a little season, he shall be "cast into the Lake of Fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophets are--and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." Christ is King even over that dark sad part of His domains! And amidst all the confusion and tumult of the Pit, His enemies shall "confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father." The verse from which our text is taken also reminds us that this world was created by Christ and for Christ. "By Him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in earth." John tells us, "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him: and without Him was not anything made that was made." The eternal Logos was the Creator of this lower world as well as of the realms on high! There is neither hill nor valley, sparkling fountain nor foaming sea which He has not made. "The sea is His and He made it: and His hands formed the dry land." Truly is He the Creator of this earth! It was formed for Him as well as by Him! It was especially made to be the place of residence for His people, the place on which they would fall through sin and the place on which they would be restored through the redemption accomplished there by Christ Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. This world was created by Christ as the place where He, Himself, would live and labor--and suffer and die. He would be laid as a Baby in an earthly manger. As a Boy and a Man He would walk through the streets and lanes of this world! He would fare as human beings fared and suffer as the dwellers upon the earth suffered, though never through any sin of His own. I might truly say that the whole world was created for Calvary. "Why leap you, you high hills?" That little mound outside Jerusalem's gate explains your very existence! The world itself was created that Christ might die on Calvary! This earth was to be a sort of stage upon which Christ was to take the principal part in the greatest drama that the whole universe has ever witnessed! The world was made by Him and for Him--and it will remain until His great purpose of love and mercy is fully accomplished! We must not forget that even the lower orders of Creation were made by Christ and for Him. They were needed by man--and man was necessary to the completeness of Christ's plan of Salvation--so the lower forms of creatures are links in the chain that could not be spared. There is a wonderful sympathy between the various portions of Creation, as the Apostle Paul tells us, "for we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves, also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Treat all creatures kindly, then, as far as you can, for the great Creator's sake. I would not have a sparrow needlessly killed, nor even a worm trod on that might be spared. My Lord and Master made them all--and when I look at them, I see traces of His wonderful wisdom and power! And when I see how bountifully He provides for them, I note the tokens of His goodness and care. He opens His hands and satisfies the desire of every living thing! There is not a little bird that picks up a seed by the roadside that was not created by Christ and for Him! And, perhaps, answers its end better than some of you who lift your brows to yonder Heaven only to defy your Maker! There is not an animal upon the common, nor a lion in the forest, nor a fish in the sea, nor a fowl in the air that was not made by Him--and that does not in some way promote His Glory! And to come to ourselves, men were created by Christ and for Him. Perhaps the Creator resolved to manifest His power and skill in a new order of created beings. He had made pure spirits and He had made material substances. He had created various forms of life rising from the vegetable to the animal. But He resolved that there should be a spirit created that would be affiliated with materialism and that this spirit should, in the end, when it had passed through all its graduations, become the most wonderful creature in the whole universe--a creature that should know evil, not merely by report, but by actual personal experience--a creature that would, after that, be delivered from the power of evil and so should be bound to God by ties of gratitude so strong that it would never revolt from Him again! This creature, knowing evil and knowing good, strengthened by Divine Grace, would, of its own free will, cling to the good and eschew the evil--and would forever be God's best ally against all revolt in His dominions--for this creature, though it had known evil, was to become a child of God and to be a partaker of the Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. These creatures, partly spiritual and partly material, were to have at their head, Christ Jesus, who was to be the model of them all! And they were to be like He and to be His companions forever! But they were to be to Him more than companions--to be His friends with whom He might hold familiar conversation and to be to Him even more than friends--to be united to Him in personal relationship--to be so completely one with Him that they should be "members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones," that His life should be their life and that their life should be derived from Him! What a wonderful creature a man will be when He gets to Heaven with His body, soul and spirit all complete! No other creature will be so near to God as man will be through his union to the God-Man, Christ Jesus the Lord! Yet this glorified man will never presume upon his position, but will always keep his proper place. He will have been so trained and educated by his falls, his regeneration and his redemption that he will be always humble, and yet will rejoice that he is a son of the Most High who may say to Him, "Abba, Father." I do not know how such a creature as a perfect man could have been made by God except through the fall in Eden, the birth of Christ at Bethlehem and His death on Calvary. In making man, God had produced a new type of being, that in him, Jesus Christ might find an opportunity of displaying His wondrous condescension in taking upon Himself man's nature--and His wondrous Grace in taking upon Himself man's sin and dying in his place! Through glorified men becoming Christ's companions, friends and faithful servants by reason of His mysterious union with them, a new race of beings has been created who can have greater sympathy with God than any others of His creatures can have. Devils can have no sympathy with God, for they are only evil. The holy angels cannot have as much sympathy with God as man who has fallen by sin and then been saved by Divine Grace! It is of those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, that it is written, "Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He who sits upon the Throne shall dwell among them." He will be our God and we shall be His people! He will be our Father and we shall be His children forever and ever! But oh, if you reject the Savior! If you turn the wondrous opportunity of immortal glory which God presents to you in the Gospel, into the dread alternative of eternal wrath--if you are resolved that you will not be among those privileged beings who will be next to God, Himself. If you spurn the dignity that is held before you. Then, notwithstanding all that, you will have to glorify Christ! Even in this life and against your own will--you shall scarcely know how--you shall be made to subserve Christ' s purpose! And at the last He will make you realize how terrible He is as He breaks you in pieces as a potter's vessel! If you will not touch His silver scepter of Mercy, you shall feel the weight of the iron rod of His inflexible Justice! If you will not lie at His feet as a penitent, you shall be driven from His Presence into the outer darkness where there will be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth forever! God grant that none of you may ever know experimentally what this means!-- "You sinners, seek His Grace, Whose wrath you cannot bear! Fly to the shelter of His Cross And find salvation there!' II. Now I must pass on briefly to REVIEW THE REFLECTIONS ARISING FROM THIS STATEMENT--"All things were created by Him and for Him." And the first clear reflection from this declaration is, then, Jesus is God. If all things were made by Him and for Him, how is it possible for us to get away from the conviction that He is, indeed, God? I will not attempt to argue about the matter, but whatever others may say or do, as for me, Jesus of Nazareth is my Lord and my God--and I will love and adore, and worship Him forever and ever! The second reflection is that Jesus is the key of the universe--its center and its explanation. Creation and history are enigmas which can only be understood in the light of the Cross. When we look at the planets, their motions seem irregular from our standpoint. But if we could stand in the sun, we would see the planets revolving in their orbits in an orderly manner around it. Calvary is the sun of the universe! Stand there, believe in God making Propitiation for sin by the death of His Son, and you can understand everything in the light that streams from Calvary! Get away from that great center and you understand nothing. The great question to ask concerning everything is--Will it glorify Christ? How will it affect His infinitely wise designs? Try, beloved Friends, wherever you are, to see all things in the light of Christ. I think this will teach you not to look with scorn upon any of the things that are around you. See how the Lord Jesus has purged all things for His people so that they shall no longer be common or unclean. That lovely river, those fertile valleys, that dense forest, yonder snow-clad Alps and everything else that Christ has created, you need not say, as some have done, "I will not gaze upon the beauties of Nature, lest they should take my thoughts away from my Master." Scorn not His works, lest you should also scorn the great Maker of them! His are the mountains. And the valleys are His--sun, moon and stars all shine to His praise and glory! Go up and down, then, in the world and be not troubled by many things that now disquiet you. Say, "I do not know how this will glorify Christ, but I am persuaded that in some mysterious way which I cannot yet fully comprehend, His eternal purposes are being accomplished." See Christ in everything and see everything in the light of Christ! And, Beloved, another clear inference from Paul's declaration is that to live to Christ is to live as we ought to live. If He made us for Himself, then we who live unto Him have found out the true purpose of our existence! Put a thing to a wrong purpose and it is a failure. But use it for the purpose for which it was made and it will answer that end. Christian, Christ made you for Himself! Yes, He has twice made you for Himself! Therefore lay yourself out for Him--body, soul and spirit--spend all your time, and all your strength, and all your means for Him and Him alone! So you will be in accord with the great purpose of your creation. If we do not live unto Christ, we have to make the sorrowful reflection that we are out of gear with all things that He has made. Although by the mysterious working of His Divine Power, He will get glory out of us, yet we are not consciously in harmony with Jesus and all discords must have an end. All opposition to Omnipotence must be futile and must also be transient. However long He may allow evil to continue, there is an end even to His long-suffering patience! And then, woe be to those who are still at enmity against the Almighty! Another reflection from the text is that we can only live for Christ as we live by Christ We cannot glorify Him except as He gives us the Grace to do so--if we attempt to do it by our own power, we shall most certainly fail. Wait at His Cross, Beloved! Cry to Him to give you the aid of His almighty Spirit and then, through the effectual working of the Holy Spirit, you shall be able to live for Jesus, alone, by whom and for whom you were made both at your first creation and also when you were created anew in Christ Jesus! And, lastly, it is clear from all this that Christ must triumph. Some of us have been almost breaking our hearts as we look around at the follies of the generation in which we live. They are going on pilgrimages to the shrines of their idols--the gods that are not gods! They are bowing down to their priests and confessing in their ears the sad stories that should be told only to God! They are setting up the calves and images that their fathers worshipped and turning away from the only living and true God! All this we mourn and grieve over, but let us not imagine that Christ's true Kingdom is suffering loss! Beneath the dark clouds that hide the sun, we mourn the absence of the great orb of day, but think how brightly the sun is shining above those clouds! Borrow an eagle's wings and soar above the clouds, and then you shall see the sun shining in his strength. So is it with Christ, the Sun of Righteousness! Get away, by faith, from this poor earth, and you shall see Him shining in His Glory, whether it is day or night, summer or winter! Christ must reign. "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us." But it is still true, "Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion." And He shall reign forever and ever, and let all His people say, "Hallelujah!" And again and again cry, "Hallelujah!" He must reign. What power is there that can stand against Him who created all things? What arm can dare to be lifted up against His almighty arm? Be of good courage, you soldiers of the Cross! Dream not of defeat, nor think for a moment of fleeing from the foe in terror. Victory must come to the Lamb that was slain! He shall come from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah. His apparel shall be red, like the garments of him that treads in the wine vat, for all His enemies shall be trodden down in His wrath! And Rome, the harlot church, the chief of all His foes, shall be hurled down like a millstone into the flood and sink to rise no more-- "He shall reign from pole to pole With illimitable sway! He shall reign when, like a scroll, Yonder heavens have passed away! Then the end--beneath His rod, Man's last enemy shall fall! Hallelujah! Christ in God, God in Christ is All-in-All." Happy is he who is the lowliest page in the retinue of such a King! Happy is he who shall be privileged to sprinkle a few drops of water to lay the dust in the road over which our conquering King shall ride! Blessed is he who shall spread his garments in the way, or wave a palm branch in honor of the royal Victor in His triumphal procession! Happy shall he be, then, who has been laughed to scorn for Christ's sake! Or who has been lying in a dungeon till the moss has grown on his eyelids! Or who has been burned at the stake and his ashes cast to the four winds of Heaven because he would not deny his Lord! Oh to be wholly on His side, now, that we may be among His faithful followers on that Day! Here we are, O glorious Son of David! Take us and all that we have, and make us more than ever Yours from this time forward, and unto You shall be the glory forever and ever! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: COLOSSIANS1. Verses 1, 2. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Kindness is the very breath of Christianity, so the Apostle will not begin the subject matter of his letter until first of all he has breathed out a benediction upon those to whom he writes. 3. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you Paul very graciously blends his giving of thanks and his constant prayer for these Christians at Colosse and, therein, sets us an example that we may well imitate. 4-6. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel, which has come unto you, as it has, also, in all the world and is bringing forth fruit, as it has also among you, since the day you heard of it, and knew the Grace of God in truth. If there is a way of knowing the Grace of God which is of no value, it is when it is not known in truth, that is to say, when it is only head-knowledge, not heart-knowledge. But, oh, when in truth the Grace of God sinks into the soul and changes the whole nature, then it is an experience for which we may well give thanks to God! 7, 8. As you also learned ofEpaphra our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. Epaphras told them of Paul's prayers for them and when he came back from Colosse, he told Paul of their great love in the Spirit. 9. For this cause we, also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. [See Sermon #1742, Volume 29--spiritual knowledge AND ITS PRACTICAL RESULTS.] See, the Apostle asks even more for them than faith, hope and love--that they "might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." This shows what a valuable thing it is to know and understand the will of God! 10, 11. That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. If we have faith, hope, and love, it is desirable that we add to these a fullness of knowledge-- and to this holiness of life and fruitfulness of service--that we may have patience to endure the afflictions of this life and long-suffering with which to put up with the provocations of the ungodly. 12-14. Giving thanks unto the Father who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son: in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And now Paul, having mentioned his Master's great work--redemption by blood and the forgiveness of sins--goes on a tangent, as it were. He is so enthusiastic with regard to Christ and His great atoning Sacrifice that the very thought of Christ's blood stirs his own blood and he seems like a man all on fire with holy fervor as he writes-- 15-17. Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: for by Him were all things created that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist How can anyone ever read this passage and yet say that Christ Jesus is only a Man? By what twisting of words can such language as this be applied to the most eminent Prophet or Apostle who ever lived? Surely He must be God by whom all things were created, and by whom all things consist! But Paul's next sentence is, to us, the sweetest of all-- 18. And He is the head of the body, the Church. [See Sermon #839, Volume 14--THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH.] He is joined by an indissoluble union to His people and is the Head of their glory, their wisdom and their strength! 18. Who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence. Are we giving Him the preeminence in all things? That theology must be false which puts Jesus in the second place, or even lower than that! And that experience is a wrong one which does not put Christ always in the front. He must in all things always stand first! 19. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell [See Sermons #978, Volume 17--all fullness in christ and #1169, Volume 20--THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST THE TREASURY OF THE SAINTS.] That we might have to go to Him for it, it pleased the Father to make errands for us so as to take us to Christ and to thus make our very emptiness to minister to the Glory of Christ! 20-23. And having made peace through the blood of His Cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they are things in earth, or things in Heaven. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight--if, indeed, you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast This is a text that ought to be read and pondered every day by the many unstable professors who are in the Church at this present time-- "if, indeed, you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast," like a building that will have no further settling, no more splitting of the stones, no more cracking of the walls--because your foundation is secure and you are firmly built upon it! 23, 24. And are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under Heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister; who now rejoices in my sufferings for you Oh how blessed it is when a man has so mastered himself that his sufferings for his fellow Christians become a matter of rejoicing for himself! He not only accepts them and bears them with patience, but he says-- 24. And fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church. There is nothing "behind" as to the atoning efficacy of the sufferings of Christ, but there is much yet to be endured in order that all the elect may be brought to Christ. Some must suffer through their extraordinary labors in preaching the Gospel, others through bearing reproach for the Truth of God's sake--and Paul was glad to take in his mortal body, his share of the sufferings to be endured for the sake of Christ's Church--which is His mystical body. 25-27. Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God, the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints: to whom God wouldmake known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory [See Sermon #1720, Volume 29--CHRIST IN YOU.] This is the most blessed of all mysteries! I trust that many of us understand it--may the Holy Spirit reveal it to any who know it not! 28. Whom we preach. That is, Christ. It is not so much what we preach as whom we preach. We preach the Person of Christ--"whom we preach"-- 28, 29. Warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily. [See Sermon #914, Volume 16-- WORK IN US AND WORK BY US.] There will never be any mighty work come from us unless there is first a mighty work in us--no man truly labors for souls unless the Holy Spirit has first worked mightily in him. __________________________________________________________________ A Sermon for a Winter's Evening (No. 3181) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals, for it was cold: and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself." John 18:18. WE note from this incident that it was a cold night in which our Redeemer agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane. [See Sermon #2767, Volume 48--JESUS IN GETHSEMANE.] A cold night and yet He sweat! A cold night and yet there fell from Him, not the sweat of a man who earns the staff of life, but the sweat of One who was earning life, itself. "His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground." No natural heat of the sun, or of a sultry evening caused this! The heat within His soul distilled those sacred drops! His heart's throbs were so mighty that it seemed to empty itself and His life-floods rushed with such awful force that the veins, like overfilled rivers, burst their banks and covered His blessed Person with gory drops! On such a wintry night as this, while you wrap your garments about you, I would ask you to remember the olive garden and the lone Sufferer, all unsheltered, entering into the dread anguish by which He won our souls from death and Hell! The sharp frost may be a useful monitor to us if it makes us think of Him and remember that dark, that doleful night when all the powers of evil met and, even unto blood, He strove with them for our sakes! Now we will take you away from the Garden to the high priest's hall where the incident occurred which is regarded in the text--and we will make as good a use as we can of it. I suppose it was a large dark hall in which the soldiers, the priests and the rabble were gathered together. There may have been a few lamps lighting up the far end where Christ was with His judge and His accusers. But the greater part of the hall would have no other light than the glare of the fire which had been kindled--a charcoal fire, around which the band of men who had seized Christ and the servants of the high priest gathered to keep themselves warm. We are going to make five observations upon that and upon the fact that Peter was among those who warmed themselves at that fire. I. The first observation is this. THIS IS A TYPICAL INCIDENT AS TO THE MOST OF MEN. Jesus Christ was being tried. Some were very busy about it, being full of malice and burning with rage. But a great many more were indifferent--and in the Presence of a rejected and maltreated Savior were carelessly warming their hands. It was not a matter that interested them. They did not care whether He escaped or was condemned--it was very cold and so they warmed their hands. Now, in a land like this, where Jesus Christ is preached, it is a sad circumstance that there are individuals who oppose Him and His Gospel. There is the infidel who denies the Gospel altogether. There is the superstitious man who sets up another way of salvation. And there is the persecutor who rages at Christ and His people. Yet these active enemies are comparatively few--the great bulk of those who hear the Gospel are not open opponents-- but like Gallio, care for none of these things. They know that there is a Christ and they have some idea of His salvation, but it does not interest them, or awaken any sympathy in their minds. "What shall we eat and what shall we drink?"-- these are the great questions of their catechism! But as to who this glorious Sufferer is and why He died, and what are the blessings which He bought with His precious blood--none of these things move them--and they forget, neglect, or despise the great salvation and the Savior, too! They are full of the business of warming their hands! The death of Jesus may be important to other people. It may concern ministers, clergymen and professors, but it is nothing at all to them. They have other matters to attend to and their own comfort is their main concern. Around that charcoal fire the servants of the high priest warmed their hands and so, in their temporal comforts, or in murmuring at the lack of them, the most of men spend their lives. To them it is nothing that Jesus should die! A rise in their wages, a fall in provisions, or a change in the money market is far more important to them! If you think of it, this is a very terrible thing. Christ came into the world to save men, yet men do not think it worth their while to turn their gaze upon Him! He takes their nature, but His Incarnation does not interest them. He dies that men may not perish--and men care not one whit for His great love! One goes away to his farm and another to his merchandise. One has bought a yoke of oxen and goes to test them. Another has married a wife and, therefore, he cannot come. They are eager for the bread which perishes, but they make light of the meat which endures the everlasting life! They think much of this world, but nothing of the world to come. Jesus is over yonder at His trial and they are warming their hands! I pray you think this over a few minutes, any of you who have been indifferent to the great realities of redemption, and see what it is and who it is that you thus treat with discourtesy. It is the Son of God, the Redeemer of men, whom you neglect! Can you imitate those who rattled the dice-box at the foot of the Cross, in utter hardness of heart, though Christ's blood was falling upon them as they cast lots for His clothes? Can you trifle in the Presence of a dying Savior? Can you, did I say? Alas, some have done so for thirty, forty, fifty and even 60 years! And unless the almighty Grace of God prevents, they will continue to trifle, still--to sport, play and seek their own welfare in the Presence of the bleeding Son of God, within earshot of His dying groans! Look, He dies and they place His body in the sepulcher! But on the third day, according to His promise, He rises again from the dead! That risen Savior is surrounded by the glory of unspeakably precious promises, for He has risen for the justification of His people and as the first fruits of them that slept--the great pledge that all those who sleep in Him shall rise as He has risen! An august mystery--a mystery which brought angels out of Heaven, the one to sit at the head and the other at the feet, where His body had lain! And yet men eat, drink, sleep and wake as if no risen Jesus had been here! In the Presence of the risen Christ many only warm their hands, for it is cold. The animal has mastered the mental. The body, which is the baser part of man, and cleaves to the dust, has subdued the soul, and so the man allows himself to trifle in the Presence of Jesus risen from the dead! Nor is this all, for He that rose from the dead ascended after 40 days! A cloud received Him out of the sight of His disciples and He rose into Glory and now He sits at the right hand of the Father, reigning there, head over all principalities and powers--King of kings and Lord of lords! Men do not generally trifle in the presence of a king. If they have petitions to present, they put on an air of reverence. In the Presence of the Royal Intercessor who pleads for us day and night, one would think there would be some interest excited! But no, the multitude warm their hands and think nothing of Him. In His Presence, they forget His redeeming love, neglect His great salvation and remain without God and without Christ. This is terrible! As I see the worldling merely caring for his personal comfort while Christ is in Glory, I marvel, first, at the insolence of the sinner and, secondly, at the Infinite Patience of the Savior! The Lord Jesus is to come a second time to judge the earth in righteousness. When He shall appear, no man knows, but come He will--and everyone of us must stand before Him. If we are alive and remain, we shall join in that great throng. And if we fall asleep before His coming, we shall rise from the dead at the sound of the trumpet which proclaims His Advent--and shall all be judged of the Most High. The hour of His appearing is not revealed in order that we may always stand on tiptoe, expecting it to be today, or tomorrow, for He has said, "Behold, I come quickly." Oh, how can you still be money-grubbing, pleasure-seeking, enjoying yourselves, living only for this world, living to got a competence, living to be what is called, "respectable," and to feed yourselves like the beasts of the field? Have you no thoughts for the Judge and the day of His coming? Shall our immortal spirits spend all their energies on these trifling temporary things in prospect of that great tremendous Day when Christ with clouds shall come? Surely the solemnities of judgment should constrain us to think of something nobler than earth and time! There was no harm in their warming their hands, neither is there any harm in our attending to the things of this life. Indeed, they ought to be seen to, and seen to with care--but there is something higher, something nobler and loftier for us to do than to serve ourselves! And as it was horrible that we should be so callous in the presence of the suffering Jews, so is the widespread indifference of sinners a terrible thing! I would to God that the unthinking portion of those who hear the Gospel might be startled out of their groveling care for the things of this life and each one of them be led to ask, "What have I to do with this Jesus of Nazareth? Is His blood sprinkled upon me? Has He cleansed me from my sin? May I hope for salvation through Him?" Oh, consider these things and give an answer to your consciences! And God do so with you as you shall think of Christ, your Lord. II. Secondly, we remark that FOR A DISCIPLE TO MAKE HIS OWN COMFORT THE CHIEF THING IN THE PRESENCE OF HIS SUFFERING MASTER IS MOST INCONSISTENT. One does not wonder at the high priest's servants making a fire of coals, for it was cold--and one is not surprised at their standing to warm their hands, for they knew but little, comparatively, of Christ. They had never tasted of His love, they had never seen His miracles, they had not been asked to watch with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, they had never heard Him say, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you." The marvel is that Peter should stand there among them warming his hands! Why did he do so? Not because he was indifferent to his Master. Let us do him justice--it is plain that he was in a dreadful state of mind that night. He was so attached to his Master that he followed Him up to the door of the hall and stopped there till John came out and admitted him. He went up to the fire because he thought he must act as others did, so as to escape suspicion. And as they warmed their hands, he did the same, so as to appear as one of them. It so happened, however, that the light of the fire shone upon his face and lit up his countenance, so that one said, "You are one of His disciples." Then, to get away from observation, we find Peter passing into another part of the hall, where, I suppose, it was darker. The people were talking and Peter must talk, for it was his weakness to do so, and, moreover, he might have been suspected again had he been silent. Then another remarked, "You also are of Galilee, for your speech betrays you." He was discovered, again, and so made for the door, but was known there, also. He was all in a tremble. He did love his Master, weak as his faith was and, therefore, he could not leave Him--and yet he was afraid to confess Him. He was worried and troubled, tossed to and fro between a desire to rush forward and do some rash thing for his Lord--and a fear for his own life! He went to the fire because nobody would think that a follower of Jesus could warm his hands while his Master was being despitefully entreated. You see the gist of my observation, that for a disciple of Christ to make his own ease and comfort the main thing is most palpably inconsistent with the Christian character! Ah, dear Brothers and Sisters, our Lord had not where to lay His head. Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor--can it be consistent for the Christian to make the getting of money the main business of life? Is such a disciple like his Master? The Master gives up everything--shall the disciple labor to aggrandize himself? Some warm their hands, not at the fire of wealth so much as at the fire of honor. They want approbation, respect, esteem--and they will do anything to gain it. Conscience is violated and principle is forgotten to gain the approbation of their fellow men. Whatever happens, they must be respected and admired. Is this as it should be? Are they really disciples of the Nazarene? Is that their Master, despised and rejected, spit upon and jeered? Is He their Lord who made Himself of no reputation? If so, how can they court the smiles of men and sacrifice the Truth of God to popularity? What can be more inconsistent than the disciple warming his hands and the Master enduring the contradiction of sinners against Himself? Dear Brothers and Sisters, every time our cheek crimsons with shame because of the taunts of the wicked and we lower our colors because of the jeers of the godless, we are guilty at heart of the meanness of seeking to fare better than our Lord! Every time we check a testimony because it would involve us in censure, every time we stay from a labor because we covet ease, every time we are impatient at the suffering which the Cross involves, every time we "make provision for the flesh, to obey the lusts thereof," every time we seek ease where He toiled, honor where He was put to shame and luxury where He endured an ignominious death--we are like Peter among the ribald throng--warming our hands at the fire while our Lord is buffeted and shamefully entreated! May the Holy Spirit keep us from this! III. We now come to our third observation. IT IS MUCH BETTER TO BE COLD THAN TO WARM OURSELVES WHERE WE ARE EXPOSED TO TEMPTATION. Peter, if he had known it, was better off outside the door than in the hall. I suppose he had forgotten the Master's warnings, for if he had thought of them, he would have said to himself, "Peter, you had better go home. Did not Jesus, in fact, tell you to go home when He said to those who came to seize Him, 'If you seek Me, let these go their way'?" It would seem to have been the path of humble obedience to have gone his way and not to have pressed into the hall. Though no doubt the motives which led both Peter and John into the high priest's house were commendable, Peter's position among the soldiers and hangers-on around the fire was extremely full of peril and offered no corresponding advantages. Did he not know that "evil communications corrupt good manners"? Did he not know that the men who had taken his Lord prisoner were not fit associates for him? Should he not have felt that though he might have his hands warmed, he would be likely to get his heart blackened by mixing with such company? Brothers and Sisters, I like to warm my hands, but if I cannot warm them without burning them, I would rather keep them cold! Many things are in a measure desirable, but if you cannot obtain them without exposing yourself to the smut of sin, you had better leave them alone. I have known professors far too anxious to mix with what is called, "good society." Now, for the most part, good society, as things are, nowadays, is very bad society for a Christian. The best society in the world for me, I know, is to associate with my Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Title, rank and wealth are a poor compensation for the lack of true religion! Yet some professors covet the honors of the ungodly world and they say, "It is not so much for ourselves--we are advanced in years--but we want to bring the girls out, and our young men, you know, our sons must have some society." Yes, and for the sake of this dangerous luxury our churches are deprived of successors to godly fathers! Instead of seeing the younger members of Christian households drafted into our ranks, we have continually to begin again with new converts from the outer world. Full often professors who God prospers in this world so train their children that they forsake the spiritual worship of God and turn their backs on principles for which their forefathers dared to bleed and die! I charge you, Brothers and Sisters, remember that if you cannot be admitted into "society" without concealing your principles, you are far better off without society! Has not our Lord called us to go outside the camp? Are we not warned against being conformed to this world? Deny yourselves the warm place around society's charcoal fire, for its sulfurous vapor will do you more harm than the cold! Some whom I have known have ventured very far upon very dangerous ground to win the affection of a chosen object. There is no wiser precept in Holy Scripture than that which commands Christians to marry "only in the Lord." It never can conduce to take comfort of any Christian man or woman to be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever-- you had far better remain in the cold of your bachelor or spinster life than warm your hands at the fire of unhallowed marriage! Not a few are tempted by the cleverness of certain literature to defile their minds with skeptical and even blasphemous writings. Such-and-such a "Quarterly" or, "Fortnightly," is so very clever that you are regarded as a Philistine and an ignoramus if you do not read it! Yet if you do read it, you are never the better, but very much the worse for your pains--why, then, yield to its more than doubtful influence? Do you pray the better for such reading? Have you more faith in God after perusing such works? No, but doubts which would not otherwise have occurred to you are sown in your mind, difficulties which only exist in ungodly brains are conjured up--and the time which ought to have been spent in devotion and in growing in Grace, and in bringing others to Jesus--you waste in battling for the very life of your faith which you have needlessly exposed to assault! I do not believe it to be essential to roll in a ditch every day for the sake of proving the efficacy of the clothes brush! Neither is it worthwhile to seek out infidel doubts in order to try our logical powers upon them! Some tell us that we must keep abreast of the times, but if the times run the wrong way, I see no reason why we should run with them! Rather let us leave the times and dwell in the eternities. If I can be cheered and refreshed by good literature, and be the better and wiser for it, I am thankful. But if I must, in warming my hands, defile them with unbelief, I will sooner let them become blue with cold! Perhaps, dear Friends, our liability to be injured by that which renders us comfortable is one reason why God does not subject some of His best people to the trials of prosperity. Have you not sometimes wished that you were rich? I daresay you have. But perhaps you never will be. You did prosper, once, but it came to an end. Once or twice the prize of wealth seemed within your reach--others seized it--and you are still working hard and earning a bare crust. We do not know what you might have been if you had been allowed to succeed. In warming your hands you might have burned them. Many Christians have been impoverished by their wealth and brought to inward wretchedness by outward prosperity. You have flourished best in the soil in which the Lord has kept you--anywhere else you might have run to seed. Some years since, when the first larch tree was introduced into England, the person who had brought home the specimen put it into his hothouse to grow. It did not flourish, and no wonder, for it delights in a colder atmosphere! The gardener therefore pulled up the spindly thing by the roots and threw it upon the dunghill! And there, to everybody's surprise, it grew wonderfully! It was created to flourish under trying circumstances--and perhaps you are of the same order. Learn the lesson and be content to be where you are! IV. A fourth observation is this--IF A CHRISTIAN ACTS INCONSISTENTLY, HE IS PRETTY SURE TO BE FOUND OUT. Here was Peter warming his hands and he thought that nobody would know him--but his face, as we said before, was illuminated by the light of the fire and one said, "Surely you are one of His disciples." The fire did not merely warm, but it threw light on him and showed him up. And so, when it comes to pass that a Christian gets into association with the ungodly and figures with them, his sin will find him out. I have noticed, in a very wide sphere of observation, that bad men may do wrong for years and not be discovered--and that hypocrites may contrive to carry on their hypocrisy half a lifetime without being unmasked. But a true man, a real child of God, if he shall only do a tenth as much wrong as others, will be certain to be detected! Peter tried to look uncommonly comfortable and calm while at the fire, but he could not do it. He revealed himself by the twitches of his face and the very look of him! And when he spoke, as we have already said, the tones of his voice betrayed him. A Philistine helmet will not sit well upon an Israelite! He wears it awkwardly and is known, though in disguise. Ah, Christian, you had better keep to your own company--it is of no use for you to try to travel incognito through this world, for it will detect you! Never go where you will be ashamed to be seen, for you will be seen. A city set on a hill cannot be hid! A lighted candle must be seen. A speckled bird will be noticed where no note is taken of others. Worldlings have lynx eyes with which to spy out erring professors--and they are sure to publish your faults for they are sweet morsels to them! "Report it! Report it!" they say. In vain will you try to pass yourself off as a stranger to Christ--your speech will betray you and the finger of scorn will be justly pointed at you for your inconsistency! Therefore, keep to your own company and walk not in the way of the wicked. V. The fifth point is this--and you all know it to be true--IT IS A GREAT DEAL EASIER TO WARM YOUR HANDS THAN YOUR HEARTS. A few coals in a fire suffice to warm Peter's hands, but even the Infinite Love of Jesus did not, just then, warm his heart. O Sirs, what was the scene at the end of the hall? Was not that enough to set all hearts aglow? It was a bush that burned with fire and was not consumed! It was the Son of God struck on the mouth and vilely slandered--and yet bearing it all for love of us! O Sirs, there was a furnace at the other end of the hall--a furnace of Divine Love! If Peter had but looked at his Master's face, marred with agony, and seen upon it the mark of His terrible night's sweat, surely, had his heart been right, it would have burned within him! One marvels that with such a sight before him--if Peter had been Peter--if he had only been true to that true heart of his, he would have braved the malice of the throng, placed himself side by side with his Lord and said, "Do to me whatever you do to Him. If you smite Him, smite me. Take me and let me suffer with Him." If he might not have done that, one would not have wondered if Peter had sat there and wept till he broke his heart to see his Master treated so! But alas, the sight of his Lord, accused and betrayed, did not warm Peter's heart. My Brothers and Sisters, we sometimes wish that we had actually seen our Lord, but seeing Christ after the flesh was of small service to Peter. It was when the Holy Spirit used the glance of Jesus as a special means of Grace that Peter's heart was thawed and his eyes dropped with tears of repentance! O Lord and Master, though a bodily sight of You would not warm us if You should walk up these aisles and should show Your pierced hands in this pulpit. Yet, if Your blessed Spirit will come upon us tonight, we shall see You by faith and the sight will make our hearts burn within us, though it is winter! Come, sacred Spirit, shed abroad the love of Jesus in our souls and so shall our love be kindled, and burn vehemently! Grant it, therefore, we pray You, for Your love's sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN18:1-27. Verse 1. When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where was a garden, into which He entered, and His disciples. From our Lord's example, we should learn, when trouble is near, to meet it with composure. Our Savior did not sit still, but, as the hour approached for His betrayal and death, "He went out with His disciples." The passing over the black Brook Kidron, through which flowed the filth of the Temple, was very significant. King David had crossed that brook long before when he had been driven from his home by Absalom's rebellion--and now the Greater David went "over the Brook Kidron, where was a garden." He especially wanted solitude, just then, for one of the best preparations for suffering is to get alone with God. Learn this lesson, also, from your Lord's example and, as He put Gethsemane before Calvary, if you can put an hour of prayerful contemplation before your expected suffering, it will be a great help to you. 2. And Judas, also, who betrayed Him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted there with His disciples. That dark and gloomy olive garden was no pleasure garden that night! It had often been a place of retirement and of prayer for the Master. What happy memories His disciples must have had of being with Him there for a season of prayer! It was a very choice privilege for them to be with Him when He preached, but it must have been, if possible, a still greater privilege to be with Him when He prayed. It is not recorded that His disciples ever said to Him, "Lord, teach us how to preach," but at least one of them was so struck with His prayers that he said, "Lord, teach us to pray." We may well ask Him to do that for us now. Perhaps some of you would like to be taught how you can become great--it is much more important for you to be taught to become prayerful! 3. Then Judas, having received a detachment of men and of officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches and weapons.It does not matter much about the band of men and officers with lanterns and torches and weapons, but the dreadful part of the narrative is that they were led by one who had been a disciple of Christ, one who had been numbered with the Apostles! Is Christ still betrayed by His professed friends? Yes, it is so, but may you and I never be guilty of that terrible crime! Yet why should we not unless the Grace of God should prevent it? We are of the same flesh and blood as Judas--and although we might not be tempted by a sum of money, we may be tempted by a sinful pleasure or by a sinful shame. Lest we should be led astray, let us pray that we may not enter into temptation and especially ask that we may be preserved from betraying our Lord as Judas did. 4. Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth and said to them, Whom are you seeking?Because of His Divinity, He knew all that would come upon Him, but what a wondrous Manhood His was that although He knew all that would befall Him, He went forth calm and composed, resigned to His Father's will and said to those who had come to seize Him, "Whom are you seeking?" I think He is saying to some of us, "whom are you seeking?" We have not come here to slay Him. We have not come here to fight against Him and lead Him away to crucify Him. Yet I hope that we can truly say that we have come seeking Jesus. If this is really your heart's desire, it shall surely be fulfilled to you! 5. They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am H. Or, rather, "I Am," pronouncing the words with a Divine dignity which had a startling effect upon them. 5, 6. And Judas, also, who betrayed Him, stood with them. As soon, then, as He had said to them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the groundIt seems as if our Lord intended to let them realize something of His Divine Power and Glory, for the utterance of that august expression, I Am, which is His Father's name, staggered them and they fell to the ground. Do you not wonder that they did not rise up and go away and leave Him after they had fallen at His feet and asked His forgiveness? They did not act so, for the power of fear, when it is not accompanied by love, is very small. There was enough power in it to make them fall down to the ground, but there was not power enough in it to make them fall at Christ's feet confessing their sin! 7, 8. Then He asked them again, Whom are you seeking? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am He: if, therefore, you seek Me, let these go their way. [See Sermons #2616, Volume 45--christ's care of his disciples and #2368, Volume 40--THE LIVING CARE OF THE DYING CHRIST.] It is very cheering to us to think of our Lord meeting all the enemies of His people, gathering up all their weapons into His own heart, that His people might go free. You and I, if we had been in such a case, would have been hurried and worried--and our fears would have made us selfish--we would have forgotten our poor friends who were with us! But Jesus thought not of Himself--He thought of His poor trembling disciples and, therefore, He said, "If, therefore, you seek Me, let these go their way." 9. That the saying might be fulfilled which He spoke, Of them which You gave Me have I lost none. He had only said that just a little while before, but this verse shows us that the New Testament is as sure to be fulfilled as the Old Testament. It was a new saying, not then written, yet it had all the life and power of God in it! So it must live and must be fulfilled. 10. Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, and cut offhis right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Here is every prospect of a fight! Simon Peter has begun it and the armed men will be eager to continue it. We always have our Simon Peters about--men of emotion, men of impulse, men of impetuosity. They are not a bad sort of Christians and I do not know what we would do without them. Our cold, frozen thinkers would not do much without our warm-hearted Peters to help to thaw them! Still, Peter was only one of the 12 Apostles and though they call him the head of the church, he made a very poor head of the church just then! He drew a sword and began to use that carnal weapon by cutting off the right ear of Malchus! It was a great mercy that the Lord was there to heal the ear and to forbid the use of the sword in His defense. 11. Then Jesus said unto Peter, Put your sword into the sheath. Shalllnot drink the cup which My Father has given Me?Here is another helpful lesson for any of you who have a trial before you. Do not seek to set the trial aside--use no wrong means to escape from affliction--drink your ordained cup! Though Peter's sword is handy, put it up into its sheath and do not use it. Bear and forbear, on and on and on to the end of the chapter! Drink the cup that your Father gives you. However bitter it is, it is sweetened by the fact that He gives it to you! Shall not a true son of God drink the cup that his Father presents to him? There can be no harm in it and it must work you some real good--so put up your sword and lift the cup to your lips--and drink it to the dregs. 12. Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him. When you are bound with sickness, or bound with weakness, or bound in any other way, do not complain. Your Master was bound and I think we ought to be willing to be anything that Christ was. What was good enough for Him is good enough for us. "They took Jesus and bound Him." 13. 14. And led Him away to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he who gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. Christ could not die without the question of expediency turning up. I never knew any great sin in the world, nor any great heresy, nor any great combination of men to maintain it without the question of expediency coming under consideration. Expediency is the great Christ-killer! Many, nowadays, say to us, "Do not preach against error--it is not expedient to do so. Do not break away from evil associations--it is not expedient." How many there are of even good men who do certain thing, not because they are right, but because they are expedient! But, Believers in Jesus, in the name of your Lord I implore you to hate expediency, since it put Jesus to death! It was a wicked expediency that would murder Christ in order to save a nation! But it did not really do so, after all, for the guilt of slaying Christ brought upon the nation the growing crime of Deicide. 15. And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple: that disciple was known unto the high priest and went in with Jesus into the palace of the high priest. This other disciple was, no doubt, John, who thus veiled himself as he did on other occasions. 16. But Peter stood at the door outside. It would have been better for him if he had stayed there--he would probably have been more out of the way of temptation than he was inside the palace of the high priest. 16. Then went out that other disciple, who was known to the high priest and spoke unto her whom kept the door, and brought in Peter. John doubtless acted thus out of kindness to Peter, but he was the means of bringing his friend into a place where he was not strong enough to keep his feet. You and I may act like that, perhaps, in perfect innocence and even with commendable kindness--yet we may be unintentionally doing our friends a great wrong! I notice that John seems to have been the first of the Apostles to associate with Peter after that terrible fall of his. And in his record of Peter's denial of his Lord, he does not mention his cursing and swearing as Matthew and Mark do. He appears to have felt great tenderness towards Peter--perhaps all the more so because he had been the innocent means of getting him into the place of temptation. 17. Then said the damsel who kept the door unto Peter, Are not you, also, one of this Man's disciples? He said, I am not. Ah, Peter! Ah, myself! If anyone is trusting in himself, he may soon utter a lie concerning his Lord as Peter did. Keep us, O God, by Your Grace, or else it will be so with us. It was nothing but a poor maidservant that cowed this brave Peter--the man whose sword was drawn just now in his Master's defense is not able, truthfully, to answer the maid's question, "Are not you, also, one of this Man's disciples? He said, I am not." 18. And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals, for it was cold: and they warmed themselves. And Peter stood with them and warmedhimself.'While his Lord and Master was being maltreated and abused over yonder at the end of the hall, Peter was warming himself at the servant's fire. Ah, he was getting cold spiritually while warming himself physically! And it sometimes happens that when men are warming their bodies, they are at the same time cooling their hearts. I have known a man warm himself at a very big fire through coming into possession of a large amount of property--but he has also grown very cold, spiritually, for these coals of fire do not warm the heart. 19-21. The high priest then asked Jesus of His disciples and of His doctrine. Jesus answered Him, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in the synagogue, and in the Temple, where the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why do you ask Me? Ask them which heardMe, what Ihave said unto you: behold, theyknow what Isaid.Our Lord's teaching was never deceptive. He did not say one thing and mean another. He could truly appeal to His hearers concerning His teaching. It is a great thing for a preacher to be able to feel that his hearers know what he has said to them. We cannot always say that, for some of them forget and some of them do not understand what we say. Some of them do not give sufficient attention to know what it is that is said, but Christ's preaching was so clear and plain that He could truly say, "Ask them which heard Me, what I have said to them: behold, they know what I said." 22, 23. And when He had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Do you answer the high priest so? Jesus answered him-- Not as Paul did, "God shall smite you, you whited wall." The Master is superior to the disciple at all points. Jesus said-- 23. If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why did you strike Me?Let us pray that whenever we are despitefully treated, we may keep our temper and be as composed as our Lord was. And if we must make an answer to our accusers, let it be as discreet and as justifiable as this answer of our Lord's. 24, 25. Now Annas had Him sent bound to Caiaphas the high priest. And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself John thus resumes the narrative concerning Peter from the 17th verse--"Simon Peter stood and warmed himself." 25. They said, therefore, to him. Two or three or more of them speaking at a time said to him-- 26-27. Are not you, also, one of His disciples? He denied it and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, being the kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, said, Did not I see you in the garden with Him? Peter then denied it again. Ah, me, they who lie once will be all too apt to lie again! Those who deny Christ once will be apt to go to still greater lengths in their denial of Him. May they be stopped as Peter was! 27. And immediately the cock crew. May the cock crow for some who have been asleep up till now--and warn them that the night is far spent and that it is time for them to awake out of sleep--and wash their eyes with tears and repent of having denied their Lord! __________________________________________________________________ Boldness at the Throne (No. 3182) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S DAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 14, 1873. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." Hebrews 4:16. [Another sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, upon the same subject, is #1024, Volume 17--"The Throne of Grace."] PRAYER occupies a most important place in the life of the Christian. "Behold, he prays," was one of the first and also one of the surest indications of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. No one begins to live the life of faith who has not also begun to pray--and as prayer is necessary at the commencement of the Christian career, so is it necessary all through. A Christian's vigor, happiness, growth and usefulness all depend upon prayer. It is-- "His watchword at the gates of death, He enters Heaven with prayer." I suppose that even there we shall continue to pray. At all events, we read of the souls under the altar crying with a loud voice and saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" I imagine that in Heaven we shall still lift up our hearts in prayer for the spread of Christ's Kingdom, though our principal occupation there will be that of praise. But prayer is always needed here--every day, every hour, every moment we have cause for crying unto the Most High-- "Long as they live should Christians pray," for only while they pray do they truly live! It is because of the supreme importance of prayer that we find so much about it in the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit continually encourages us to pray by precept, promise and example. One conspicuous instance of that encouragement is the exhortation we are now to consider--"Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." So, coming at once to the text, notice that we have here, first, a description of our great resort for prayer--"The Throne of Grace." Secondly, we have a loving exhortation--"Let us come unto the Throne of Grace." Thirdly, we have a qualifying adverb, telling us how we are to come--"Let us come boldly'" Fourthly, we have a reason given for boldness. The reason is in the context. We shall also think of other reasons and then shall close with the reason upon which Paul laid the stress of the argument in writing to the Hebrews--"Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." I. First, then, dear Friends, we have A DESCRIPTION OF OUR GREAT RESORT FOR PRAYER--"The Throne ofGrace." Under the Law of God, there was to be an ark overlaid inside and outside with pure gold. And above the ark was to be the Mercy Seat of pure gold with the golden cherubim covering the Mercy Seat with their wings. This mysterious emblem no one ever saw except the high priest--and he saw it only once a year--and then but dimly, for he saw it through the smoke of the incense which he presented before the Lord. It was a secret thing, but now it is revealed to us, for the veil has been torn and the symbol taken away that we may now come boldly right up to the Throne of heavenly Grace. I was conversing, some time ago, with a member of the Catholic and Apostolic Church who took great pains to instruct me as to the meaning of the various offices and ordinances of the body with which he was connected. After he had explained a great many mysteries to his own satisfaction, if not to my edification, he pointed out the position of the saints at the present day. And then I felt that it was time to answer him, so I said, "I do not believe that Christians are intended to go crawling about the outer court and keeping far off from the Holy Place, for the Apostle Paul said, 'Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace,' right into the Holy of Holies, for there is no longer any separating veil to keep us away from the Mercy Seat. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, my place is not in the outer court, nor even in the court of the priests. I have advanced beyond them and come right up to the Throne of Grace that I may there obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need." That is the position of all true Christians, not only on one day of the year, but every day! I wish that all Believers could realize the privileges to which they were born when they were created anew in Christ Jesus. You may have heard a whole congregation saying, "Lord, have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law," and you may have seen them all shivering there at the foot of Sinai with the lightning flashing above them, and the thunder pealing around them! Yet it is possible that at least some of them may have had the right to come before the Lord as His own dear children through faith in Jesus Christ. And if so, they might have said to Him, "Lord, You have had mercy upon us. You have blotted out all our transgressions and now we are not under the Law, but under Grace, and are completely delivered from the thralldom of the old Covenant of Works and are put under the new Covenant of Grace, that we may serve You in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." Blessed are they who are enjoying the liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free and who, therefore, come boldly right up to the Throne of Grace! The Mercy Seat, then, is where the high priest typically came once each year. But our Great High Priest, "by His own blood entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." As He died, He tore down the separating veil and threw the Holiest of All open to all who believe in Him! And He has made them kings and priests unto God, so that where the high priest stood, is where they stand in Christ Jesus! That place is so solemn and awe-inspiring that we might fear and quake at the very thought of coming to it were it not for this and other similar exhortations, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need." Our Mercy Seat is called "a throne" because we come there to God as a King and we, by faith, behold Him in His excellent glory and majesty. He is our Father and our Friend, but He is also "the King eternal, immortal, invisible," so we approach even the Throne of Grace with the deepest awe and reverence. We come to this Throne with the utmost confidence, for God gives as a King and, therefore, we ask largely and expectantly! John Newton caught the very spirit of this verse when he wrote-- " You are coming to a King, Large petitions with you bring! For His Grace and power are such, None can ever ask too much." It is a Throne of Grace where no ordinary monarch presides, but where One is sitting who is Infinite and All-Sufficient, One who can bestow upon us more than we ask, or ever think of asking, and yet not impoverish Himself in the slightest degree! Always remember, Beloved, in coming to the Mercy Seat, that you are coming to a King and to One who gives like a King! Always open your mouth wide and ask great things of the King who is so ready to bestow them upon you! In drawing near to God in prayer, we come to a King who sits upon a Throne of Grace. That word, "Grace," is one of the choicest in the whole description of our great resort for prayer. We might well have trembled if we had been bid to come to a throne of justice! We might have been afraid to come to a throne of power, alone. But we need not hesitate to come to the Throne of Grace where God sits on purpose to dispense Divine Grace! It would be terrible if we had to pray to a just God if He were not also a Savior--if we could only see the awful glare of Sinai without the blessed attractions of the Atonement made on Calvary! If we can see the "rainbow round about the Throne, in sight like unto an emerald," the token of God's Covenant Love and Grace, then we can pray very differently from the way in which we would pray if we could only see the naked sword of Divine Justice brandished to and fro to keep us back from the holy God who would not have His peerless Majesty polluted by our sinful presence! Let us always remember that when we pray aright, we deal with God on terms of Grace--and answers to our petitions come to us not according to what we deserve, but according to His Infinite Mercy and Grace in Christ Jesus our Lord! It is also very comforting to us to observe that the God who hears prayer is enthroned and glorified. The God of Grace sits upon the Throne of Grace and so Grace reigns supreme at the place where God meets with us in prayer! The hands of Grace are full of blessings through the atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ--and those hands are happily employed in dispensing royal largess among the poverty-stricken sons and daughters of men! Come here, then, all you who feel your need of Grace! Be not afraid to approach the Throne of Grace. Since Jesus Christ has taken upon Himself our nature and suffered in our place, the Throne to which the sinner is bid to draw near is a Throne of superlative, unlimited, reigning Grace--Grace that pardons, Grace that regenerates, Grace that adopts, Grace that preserves, Grace that sanctifies, Grace that perfects and makes meet for Glory! Happy is the preacher whose privilege it is to invite sinners to come to such a blessed meeting place with God, but happier far will be the sinners who shall have the Grace to come to that meeting place! May many here be among them! II. Now, secondly, we have A LOVING EXHORTATION--"Let us come unto the Throne of Grace." Who is it that gives this exhortation? Why did he put it in this form? We might have expected the exhortation to be simply, "Come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." Or even, "Go boldly unto the Throne of Grace." But it is put in the form of an invitation from someone who urges us to go with him--who is this? Well, first, it is from Paul who had, himself, proved the power of prayer. "Paul? Have I not heard his name before?" Oh, yes! "But had he not once another name?" Yes, his name was Saul. "Then, surely, that must have been the man who persecuted the saints of God, who was exceedingly mad against them and against the Christ whom they loved more than they loved their own lives." Yes, that is the man! Only he has been so changed by Divine Grace that he is a new man in Christ Jesus! And now he confesses that he was the chief of the sinners whom Jesus came to save. It is this saved sinner who is now a saint of God, an Apostle of Jesus Christ and who writes to his fellow Believers, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." I think that I can summon up courage to go to the Mercy Seat in such company as this! If the chief of sinners is going to the Throne of Grace, I, also, may go! Under another aspect I may be the chief of sinners, too, and if so, there will be a pair of us and we will go together! Yes, it was Paul who gave this exhortation. A man of like passions with ourselves who was once as great a sinner as any of us have ever been. He puts out his hand to us and he says, "Come along, Brothers and Sisters--let us go boldly to the Throne of Grace." When he gave this exhortation, Paul had become an experienced Believer who had often gone to the Throne of Grace and there proved the power of prayer. He was no stranger at the Mercy Seat. He had done much heavenly business with his Master there--so now, having proved the power of prayer--he does not speak as a mere theorist, but as a practical man who had put the matter to the test and, therefore, knew that God answered prayer! So he wrote to those who had not had such a wonderful experience as his had been, to those whose knowledge of Divine things was far inferior to his own and, linking himself with them, he said, "Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." It always does me good to hear an aged Christian talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. I recollect, at this moment, a venerable minister who has long gone to Glory. I heard him make almost his dying speech. He had been blind for many years and when he rose at the Communion Table and told us of the loving kindness of the Lord toward him, of how he had tried and tested his God in the deep waters of affliction and had always found Him faithful--and when he bade us, "Young people, be sure to put your trust in the Lord, for He is well worth trusting," he did us all good. I think it is in some such way as this that the Apostle Paul, a man of deep and varied experience, writes to the Hebrews--and through them to us--and says, as one who has tried and proved the power of prayer, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." It is, however, not only Paul who speaks in this exhortation, but it seems to me that this exhortation comes through Paul from the whole Church of Christ Paul was a representative man. And as he penned these lines, it seems as though the entire Church of God was speaking through his words. Even the saints in Glory appear to cry out to us, "Come boldly to the Throne of Grace! We can urge you to do so from a remembrance of our own experience, for we long ago tried and proved the efficacy of prayer in every emergency that we had to face." It is certain that all the saints on earth unite in this exhortation, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." From many a sick bed where aged Christians have been for years pining away--no, I correct myself and say--where they have been melting into Glory as the morning star melts into the sunlight--from many such a bed whose faith has triumphed over physical weakness and pain, I hear the cry, "Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." From many a night-watcher compelled by terrible pain to lie awake and guard the night with prayer, as the sentinels of the Church of God, I hear the cry, "Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." From many another child of God, who, in the midst of activities and trials combined, has daily and hourly to draw his strength from the Most High by fervent supplication, I hear the cry, "Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." And from many who, through prayer, have been enabled to do great exploits in the name of Jesus, having cast themselves by faith upon a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God--and who are today the living evidences of what Divine Grace can accomplish through human instrumentality--from these, also, I hear the cry, "Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." The Church militant, with its blood-red banner floating in the breeze, marches bravely on to the conflict, crying, "Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need." But I also hear in this exhortation a voice much more powerful than that of the Apostle Paul, or even of the whole Church of Christ, for it seems to me to come from the Holy Spirit Himself, for Paul wrote as he was moved by the Holy Spirit. I think I am not going too far when I say that the Divine Spirit, who dwells in all the saints, is now speaking through the Inspired page and says to us, "Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." Paul wrote to the Romans, "We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered. And He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." It appears to me that in our text the Spirit, speaking in the soft and gentle accents that the Comforter delights to use, is not so much bidding us go to the Throne of Grace, as promising that He will go there with us! And, surely we will go if He will accompany us! As it is His Divine voice that says, "Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace," let us obey the gracious exhortation! This is not the only time that the Spirit and the Church of Christ say the same thing, for we read in the Revelation, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come." So here the Spirit and the bride both seem to me to say, "Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." Therefore all you who form part of the mystical bride of Christ, hear the Spirit's gentle call--comply with His exhortation and come boldly unto the Throne of Grace! III. Now, thirdly, we have A QUALIFYING ADVERB--"Let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." We must not mistake the meaning of this word, "boldly." Paul does not say, "Let us come proudly unto the Throne of Grace." God forbid that we should do that! Abraham's prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah is an admirable model of how we are to come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, for although he pleaded again and again for the guilty cities of the plain, he said, "Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes." The greatest boldness in prayer is perfectly consistent with the lowest self-humiliation. Neither must we ever think of coming before the Lord arrogantly or presumptuously, for it is to a "Throne" that we are bid to come, although that Throne is "the Throne of Grace." I have heard prayers that have seemed to me like dictating to God rather than the humble, reverent petitions which should be presented by the creature to the Creator, or by the children of God to their loving Father in Heaven. We are to come boldly to the Throne of Grace, yet always with submission in our hearts, even as our Lord, Himself, prayed, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." I think that by this adverb, "boldly," is meant that we may come constantly--at all times. Eastern potentates would only admit petitioners to their presence when they pleased. Though Esther was made queen by Ahasuerus, she was not allowed to go near him unless she was especially called. But it is not so with us! The path to the Throne of Grace is always open--there are no guards to bar the way of those who come in the right spirit. There are no set times for prayer--one hour is as good as any other for coming to the Throne of Grace. Whenever the Spirit of God inclines the heart to pray, the ear of God is open to hear our supplications--and the mouth of God is open to grant us gracious answers of peace! "Boldly" also means that we may come unreservedly, with all sorts of petitions. Whatever it is that lies as a burden upon your heart, come with it to the Throne of Grace! Do you really need some great thing? Then come and ask for it! Or do you need some little thing? Then come and ask for it! Have you some care that is crushing you into the very dust? Come and leave it at the Mercy Seat! Have you some little care that worries you, some thorn in the flesh, some messenger from Satan to buffet you? Come and tell your God all about it! Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Think not that God will be angry with you for asking too much from Him--and imagine not that you will insult Him by asking Him for little things. If you are a believer in Jesus, God is your Father, so speak to Him as you would to your earthly father--only have far more confidence in coming to Him than you would have in approaching the most affectionate earthly parent. Further, "boldly," also means that we may come freely, with simple words. Do not say, "My words are not good enough to present to God. I must get a book of prayers and try to find suitable words with which to approach the Most High." Oh, do not it! It is true that in private prayer, in family prayer and even in public prayer it is better to use a form than not to pray at all. I have often said that it is better to walk with crutches than not to walk at all, but what need have you of crutches--for that is what forms of prayer really are? Your Father in Heaven does not want you to come to Him in a stiff, formal way, but just to proclaim, as simply and naturally as possible, the desires of your heart. If one of my boys wanted a new suit of clothes, or anything else that it was proper for him to have, I would not like him to come with a written request, as if he were presenting a petition to parliament! I would not feel that he loved me very much if he came in such a fashion as that! But when he asks me for what he needs in a bold, familiar and yet respectful manner, I am only too pleased to supply his needs! You who are parents know that you do not make your children offenders for a word. When they first learn to talk to you, they pronounce their words very imperfectly and make many blunders. They break all the rules of grammar and their prattle is often so indistinct that strangers who come to your house do not know what they are saying. But you know, Mother. You know, Father. You understand them all right and you like to hear them talk like that--it is the natural speech for little children--and there is the accent of love in it that endears it to you. Well, now, go to your God as your little child comes to you! Tell Him all that is on your heart. Never mind about your words--use such language as your heart dictates--and when you find that you cannot pray as you would, tell Him so. Say to Him, "O Lord, I cannot put my words together properly, but I pray You to take my meaning, O my Father--do not judge my prayer by my broken, faulty speech, but read the desires of my heart and grant them if they are in accordance with Your gracious will!" Perhaps the best prayers of all are those that have no words at all--those that are too deep down in your heart to get shaped into words. We hardly know how they got there, except that we believe God put them there by His Holy Spirit-- so He accepts them even if they are never formed into words! "Boldly" means, too, that we may come hopefully, with full confidence of being heard. It is not a matter of doubt as to whether God hears and answers prayer--if there is any fact in the world that is proved by the testimony of honest men, this is that fact! You know that at a trial before an earthly judge there are often many witnesses who give their testimony as to the facts of the case as far as they are known to them. And the weight of their evidence is very largely determined by their personal character. Now, if this were the right time and I was the counsel in charge of the case, I could bring forward hundreds--even thousands of the best men and women who have ever lived--I mean those who are admitted to be so by all who know them--honest, straightforward witnesses whose evidence would carry weight in any court of law, who would calmly and deliberately declare that, over and over and over again, God has answered their prayers! Answered them so often that it has now become with them a matter of course that when they really need anything, to go to God and get it. "Oh," says someone, "that is only a delusion! There is no such thing as answers to prayer." No, Sir, you have no right to say that, for the witnesses have as much right to be believed as you have! Possibly even more, for you may not have the character to support your infidel assertion that these witnesses have to back up their Christian testimony! We can bring forward men who are the equals in learning of any unbeliever, men who are eminent in the ranks of literature, men who are masters of scientific knowledge--yet these very men have been simple as little children in the matter of prayer and they all testify that God has heard them again and again--and granted their requests! That is a strange "delusion" which is a daily fact in the history of millions and which has been proved to be true in the lives of millions who are now before the Throne of God on high! So let us still pray knowing that God will hear us and be fully persuaded that He will give us whatever is for His own Glory and our own and others' good! The Apostle James reminds us that we must "ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." Once more, this word, "boldly," means that we should come perseveringly, with a fervent importunity that will not be denied. If at our first coming to the Throne of Grace, we do not get what we want, let us come again and keep on coming until we do get it. God sometimes makes us wait for a blessing in order that we may value it all the more when we do receive it. He would have us ask, and seek, and knock again and again--and not be content until we obtain the blessing we crave. If we are sure that what we are asking is in accordance with the will of God, let us keep on coming like the importunate widow came to the unjust judge--until the desire of our heart is granted to us! I think this is what is meant by coming "boldly unto the Throne of Grace." IV. Now, lastly, we have A REASON GIVEN FOR BOLDNESS--"let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." There are a great many other reasons besides the one to which Paul here alludes. I will give them to you in brief. First, we are invited to pray. God would never have invited us to pray if He had not intended to hear and answer us. No right-minded man would invite his fellows to a feast and then send them away empty. So, the very invitation to us to pray implies that there are blessings waiting for us at the Mercy Seat--"Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." Let us remember, too, that Grace is for sinners, and we are invited to come to the Throne of Grace. It is only on terms of Grace that we can expect to obtain the blessings that we need--but it is to the Throne of Grace that we are bid to come. So let the sinner come, for it is the Throne of Grace! Let the needy saint come and at the Throne of Grace, "find Grace" to help in time of need." Let us all come, good or bad, prepared or unprepared, whoever or whatever we may be--let us come boldly because it is the Throne of Grace--and Divine Grace is what we all need. Let us also remember the Character of the King who sits upon the Throne of Grace. He is Infinite in mercy and love and He delights to bless His creatures. He is Infinite in power and is, therefore, "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." He is Infinite in wisdom and is, therefore, able to give us whatever is best for us in the best possible way. He is altogether unlimited in His Nature and, therefore, we cannot exceed His power or His willingness to help us, let our requests be as large as they may! Oh, when I think of what God is as He is revealed in Christ Jesus, and remember that it is He who sits upon the Throne of Grace, I feel that I may well repeat Paul's exhortation, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace!" Remember also, O Christian, your relationship to the King who sits upon the Throne of Grace! You are not merely His servant--you are His child--an heir of God, and joint-heir with Jesus Christ! All that you ask for is already yours by right of inheritance and shall be in your possession in due time. Shall a child tremble in his loving Father's presence? Shall a son act as if he were a slave? Shall I, with tremulous hands, present a petition to my own Father whom I love? If I have perfect love to Him, it casts out all fear. So, because we are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, "let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." I have already reminded you that the Holy Spirit has been given to teach us how to pray. Now the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and, therefore, He never moves us to pray for anything which God does not intend to give us. Prayer is often the shadow of God's coming blessing. Before the Divine Decrees are fulfilled, they often cast their blessed shadow across the Believer's heart by the power of the Holy Spirit so that when the Believer prays in the Spirit, he is only asking God to do what He has from all eternity determined to do! If we came to the Throne of Grace with petitions which we had ourselves prepared, we might well tremble! But when we come with a Spirit-written petition, we may well "come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." Then, Beloved, there is one sweet thought which should always encourage you to "come boldly unto the Throne of Grace," and that is, the many "exceedingly great and precious promises" in the Scriptures. If we had to ask for unpro-mised blessings, we might come tremblingly. But there are promises in God's Word to meet every emergency. "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." "As your days, so shall your strength be." "Whatever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give to you." I might go on quoting promises by the hour, together, but it will be more profitable for you to search them out for yourselves, especially if you remember what Paul writes concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, "for all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him, Amen, unto the glory of God by us." These promises are all the more precious to us because they are free promises, not made to us because of our merits, but solely because of God's Grace! And all the promises are made by that faithful God who cannot lie, and by that Almighty God who is as able to fulfill the promises as He was to make them! "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." If we need any more reasons to encourage us to come boldly to the Throne of God, let us remember that God has already given us His dear Son, and let us ask again the question that Paul asked so long ago, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" You and I, if we are believers in Christ, are already saved with an everlasting salvation! Then after God has given us this greatest of all blessings, will He refuse to bestow upon us the lesser mercies? Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as the Lord has already done such great things for us, He cannot turn a deaf ear to our petitions, especially when they are inspired by His own gracious Spirit! "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." Besides, some of us have had many years' experience in the power of prayer. Some of you have had 50 years of soul-enriching communion with God at the Mercy Seat. Do you not remember many times when you were in deep trouble and prayer brought you deliverance from it? Do you not recollect some seasons of terrible depression of spirit when prayer brought the sunlight back to you? Do you not recall that time when you were bereaved and when, as you stood weeping by the open grave, prayer brought you sweet relief and dried up your tears? Do you not remember when you were in poverty and prayer obtained bread for you? The ravens did not bring it, nor did a widow sustain you, yet you were fed by the God of Elijah in answer to your earnest supplication! What is there that prayer has not done for us? Oh, there are multitude of instances which come to our memory when prayer has unlocked Mercy's door--and they all say, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." Now I will close by briefly referring to the reason which the Apostle gives why we should come boldly to the Throne of Grace. I have given you many good reasons, but this is the best reason of all--"We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy, and find Grace to help in time of need." That is to say, we are to come with boldness to the Throne of God because there is pleading for us there, a Man who is also God, to whom every petition put up by those who trust in Him is a very precious thing which He, as the great representative Man before the Throne presents to His Father, for He is God's own dear Son! Yes, He is one with the Eternal and His will is the will of the Infinite Jehovah to whom we address our prayers in Christ' s name! This glorious God-Man Mediator continually presents before His Father His one great Sacrifice for sin. There will never be a repetition of it and it will never need to be offered again, "for by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified," that is, those who are set apart unto Himself. This one Sacrifice He perpetually pleads before the Throne--and our prayers, therefore, ascend to God with the merit of Christ's atoning blood giving them acceptance with His Father. So they must have power with God, for they come before Him signed, as it were, with the name of His well-beloved Son. He lays His hand upon each petition and so leaves the print of the nails upon it--and therefore it must prevail with God! Remember, too, that this same Jesus Christ was once a Man upon earth like ourselves, except that He was "without sin." When your prayer is broken through grief, recollect that He also knew what a broken-hearted prayer meant. The sighs and tears of Gethsemane taught Him that. He was made perfect through suffering that He might perfectly sympathize with all His suffering saints. Do not imagine that you can ever get into any condition in which Jesus Christ cannot comprehend you and, consequently, cannot sympathize with you. If you are in the depths, as Jonah was, remember that Jonah was but a type of Christ, who therefore knows all about your present experience and also knows how to deliver you out of it! If you seem to be altogether deserted by God and know not why it is so that you have to cry, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" that is an experience through which Jesus, Himself, passed. Yet-- "In every pang that rends the heart The Man of Sorrows had a part'-- so that we have, before the Throne of God, a High Priest who is as sympathetic as He is powerful! "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace." Remember, too, that every blessing which you have a right to ask for through Christ is yours already, "for all things are yours; things present, or things to come; all are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's." Every right prayer that you offer is but putting in a claim for that which is rightly yours through your union to Christ. Therefore come boldly to the Throne of Grace because you have such a Pleader to appear there for you and such a plea to urge with God through Him! Dear Brothers and Sisters, let us begin to pray more boldly for sinners! Let us pray more boldly for London! Let us pray more boldly for our country! Let us never cease praying to the Lord to send a great revival throughout the whole world! And O, you sinners, you may come, too, for it is, "the Throne of Grace" to which we are invited! And it is before that Throne that Jesus stands interceding for the transgressors. Come and welcome to Jesus Christ! This is your "time of need." You are full of sin and need mercy to forgive it and cleanse you from it. You are full of weakness and need the help of God. Come to the Throne of Grace and ask for His Grace to help you in your time of need and you shall surely have it! God has not left off being a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God, so come to Him! Yes, let us all "come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find Grace to help in time of need." What I have been saying to you, I have said far more to myself than to anyone else here, for if there is one who needs more prayer than all the rest, I am that one, burdened as I am with incessant service and overwhelming responsibilities. Yet, after taking to myself more of the sermon than I pass on to any of you, I venture to say that there is not one person in this building whose condition does not make prayer necessary for him. I do not know what the special need of each one of you may be, but I think everyone here who seriously thinks about the matter, must say, "Well, if there is anybody in this place who can do without prayer, I am not the one! I must pray! There is something about my case that drives me to the Mercy Seat." Thank God that it is so, but be sure that you go to the Throne of Grace that you may obtain the help you need. It is a blessed trouble that drives us to the Mercy Seat, yet one would scarcely wish to have the kind of trouble that Mr. Fraser, a good old Scotch minister, had. He had a wife who tormented him dreadfully, yet, when someone jestingly said to him that he would not drink to her health, he replied, "I hope she will live long, for she has driven me to my knees ten times a day when, otherwise, I might not have prayed." One would not wish to be driven to prayer in such a fashion as that, yet I venture to say that Mr. Fraser was a gainer by it! Real prayer must make us more like our Master. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find Grace to help in time of need." __________________________________________________________________ Cheer for Despondency (No. 3183) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "You know not what a day may bring forth." Proverbs 27:1. [Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, upon the whole verse is #94, Volume 2--TOMORROW.] WHAT a great mercy it is that we do not know "what a day may bring forth"! We are often thankful for knowledge, but in this case we may be particularly grateful for ignorance. It is the Glory of God, we are told, to conceal a thing and it most certainly is for the happiness of mankind that He should conceal their future. Supposing that bright lines were written for us in the book of destiny and that we could read those bright lines now, and be sure of them--we would probably loiter away our time until we arrived at them--and would have no heart for the present. If, on the other hand, we knew that there were dark days of trouble in store for us, and had a full conviction as to when they would come, probably the thought of them would overshadow the present so that the joys which we now drink would be left untasted by reason of our nervous fears as to the distant future! To know the good might lead us to presumption--to know the evil might tempt us to despair. Happy for us is it that our eyes cannot penetrate the thick veil which God hangs between us and tomorrow, that we cannot see beyond the spot where we now are and that, in a certain sense, we are utterly ignorant as to the details of the future. We may, indeed, be thankful for our ignorance! Although, however, we do not know what a day may bring forth or though we cannot see into what I may call, "the immediate future," yet we have reason to be thankful that we do know something about what is to come and that we do know what is in the far-reaching future. We differ from the animals in this respect. When, two or three nights in the week, I pass on my way home a flock of sheep, or a little herd of bulls--all going down to the butcher's, travelling in the cold, bright moonlight towards the slaughterhouse--I feel thankful that they do not know where they are going, for what would be their misery if they knew anything about death? The lamb's thoughts are in the fold and all unconscious of the shambles. It licks the hand that kills it, not knowing of its coming speedy death. It is the happiness of the brute not to know the future! But in our case, we know that we must die--and if it were not for the hope of the Resurrection and of the hereafter, this knowledge would distinguish us from the brutes only by giving us greater misery. There must be an intention on God's part for us to live in a future state or else He would, out of mere benevolence, have left us ignorant of the fact of death. If He had not meant our souls to begin to prepare for another and a better existence, He would have kept us ignorant, even, of the fact that this one will pass away. But having given us an intellect and a mind which, both from observation and inward consciousness must know that death will come, we believe that He would have us prepare for that which will follow and look out for that which is beyond. We do know the future in its great rough outlines. We know that if the Lord comes not first, we shall die. We know that our soul shall live forever in happiness or in woe and that, according to whether we are found in Christ or without Christ, our eternal portion shall be one of never-ending agony or of ceaseless bliss! We may be thankful that we do know this, so that we may be prepared for it. But still--to return to that with which we started--we may also be thankful that we do not really know the great future in its details, that it is shut from our eyes lest it should have an evil influence upon our life. Now, Solomon, in the Book of Proverbs, applied the Truth that we know not about tomorrow to the boaster, the man who said, "Tomorrow I will go into such a city and buy, and sell, and get gain, and then go to another city, and get more gain, and then, when I have amassed so much wealth, I will say, 'Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years; take your ease--eat, drink and be merry.'" Solomon seems to come in and put his hand upon the man's shoulder and to say, virtually, "You fool, you know nothing about all this! You do not know what shall be on the morrow--your goods may never come to you, or you may not be here to trade with these goods at all. So you build a castle in the air! You think your fancies are true. You are as one that dreams of a feast and wakes to find himself hungry! How can you be so foolish?" Solomon dwells upon the text very solemnly and says, "Boast not yourself of tomorrow, for you know not what a day may bring forth." I do not intend, however, to use the text with this objective tonight. It struck me that as Solomon uses it here with one design, it might be very properly used for another. That as he intends to shame our growing pride and certainty of prosperity, so it might be used especially to cheer those who have a tendency to gloom--and to shed a ray of light into the thick darkness of their fear. I. It will, first, comfort THOSE WHO ARE FEARING AND TREMBLING CONCERNING SOME EVIL WHICH IS YET TO COME. My Friend, you are afraid tonight. You cannot enjoy anything you have because of this terrible and fearful shadow which has come across your path of an evil which you say is coming tomorrow, or in one or two months' time--or even in six months. Now, at least, you are not quite certain that it will come, for you know not what may be on the morrow. You are as alarmed and as afraid as if you were quite certain that it would appear. But it is not so, "You know not what a day may bring forth," and since it is uncertain whether it shall be or not, had you not better leave your sorrow till it is certain? And meanwhile, leave the uncertain matter in the hands of God, whose Divine Purposes will be wise and good in the end, and will be even seen to be so! At the very least, slender as the comfort may be, yet there is still comfort in the fact that you know not what may be on the morrow! Let us expand this thought a little to those of you who are fearing about tomorrow. We very often fear what never will occur. I think that the major part of our troubles are not those which God sends us, but those which we invent for ourselves. As the poet speaks of some who-- "Feel a thousand deaths in fearing one"-- so there are many who feel a thousand troubles in fearing one trouble, which trouble, perhaps, never will have any existence except in the workshop of their own misty brain! It is an ill task for a child to whip himself--it might be good for him to feel the whip from his father's hand, but it is of little service when the child applies it himself! And yet, very often the strokes which we dread never come from God's hand at all, but are the pure inventions of our own imagination and our own unbelief working together. There are more who have to howl under the lash of unbelief than there are who have to weep under the gentle rod of God's Providential dispensation. Now, why should you go about to fill your pillow with thorns grown in your own garden? Why so busy, good Sir, about gathering nettles with which to strew your own bed? There are clouds enough without your thinking that every little atom of mist will surely bring a storm. There are difficulties enough on the road to Heaven without your taking up stones to throw into your own path to make your own road more rough than there was any need that it should be! You know not what may be on the morrow. Your fears are absurd! Perhaps your neighbor knows they are absurd, but certainly you ought to know it is so! Do you not know that the trouble you are dreading, God can utterly avert? Perhaps tomorrow morning there will come a letter which will entirely change the face of the matter. A friend may interpose when least you could expect one, or difficulties which were like mountains may be cast into the depths of the sea. "You know not what a day may bring forth," and the trouble which you so much dread may never occur at all! Moreover, do you not know that even if the trouble should come, God has a way of overruling it?So that even you, poor Trembler, shall stand by and see the salvation of God and wonder at two things--your own unbelief and God's faithfulness! You say that the sea is before you, that the mountains are on either side and that the foe is behind you--but you know not what shall be on the morrow! Your God shall lead you through the depths of the sea and put such a song in your mouth as you never could have known if there had been no sea, no Pharaoh and no mountains to shut you in! These trials of yours shall be the winepress out of which shall come the wine of consolation to you! This furnace shall rob you of nothing but your dross, which you will be glad to be rid of--but your pure gold shall not be diminished by so much as a drachma, but shall only be the purer after it all! The trouble, then, may not come to you at all, or if it comes, it may be overruled. And there is one thing more. Supposing the trial does come, your God has promised that as your days, so shall your strength be. Has He not said it many times in His Word, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you"? He never did promise you freedom from trouble. He speaks of rivers and of your going through them! He speaks of fires and of your passing through them! But He has added, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you." What matters it to you, then, whether there is fire or not if you are not burned? What matters it to you whether there are floods or not if you are not drowned? As long as you escape with spiritual life and health and come up out of all your trials the better for them, you may rejoice in tribulations! Thank God when your temptations abound! And be glad when He puts you into the furnace because of the blessing which you are sure to receive from it. So then, since you know not what may be on the morrow, take heart, you fearing one, and put your fears away! Do as you have been told-- delight yourself in the Lord--and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved. Did not David say, speaking by the Holy Spirit, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all"? I charge you, therefore, to be of good comfort since you know not what may be on the morrow. This is the message to fearful saints. II. But now we will use the text to another class of Christians whose painful position really deserves more pity than that of those who only invent their fears, or who are troubled about the future. I mean THOSE WHO ARE AT THE PRESENT MOMENT DISCONSOLATE THROUGH IMMEDIATE DISTRESS AND PRESENT AFFLICTION. We little know, my Brothers and Sisters, when we gather here, how many cases of distress may be assembled in this house at any one time. Verily the poor have not ceased out of the land! The poor we have always with us and some of the poor, too, who need to have other mouths to speak for them, since from their very independence of spirit and their Christian character they are slow to speak for themselves. There may be a trouble in my neighbor's heart which is almost bursting it while I am sitting peacefully enjoying the Word. We should remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them--and sympathize with those who are troubled as being ourselves, also, in the body. It will not be a waste of time, then, if I say to you who are troubled about worldly matters that there is comfort for you in this passage. "You know not what a day may bring forth." You say, "It is all over with me! I will give up in despair." No, Friend, do not do so for one day longer, for you know not what a day may bring forth! And if tomorrow bring you not deliverance, hope on at least for one day more, for, "you know not what a day may bring forth." And I would keep on with the same advice till the last day of life! At least for one day more there is no room for despair. You cannot conclude that God has forsaken you, or that Providence has utterly turned against you! At least you know not what may be on the morrow, so wait till you have seen that day out! Give not yourself up as a hopeless victim to despair till you have seen what tomorrow may bring you! What unexpected turns there have been in the lives of those who have trusted in God! You who are trusting in yourselves may help yourselves as best you can, but you who are trusting in God have ample reasons to expect that God will come to your assistance! It is yours to watch and yours to work as if everything depended upon you, but it is yours, also, to remember that everything does notdepend upon you! Sometimes God has come in to help His servants so exactly at what we call, "the nick of time," that they have hardly been able to believe their own senses! "Strange," they say, "it is like a miracle!" And so, indeed, it is, for the difference between the old dispensation and the new is that God used to work His wonders by suspending the Laws of Nature, whereas now He does greater things than this, inasmuch as He achieves His purposes quite as marvelously and lets the Laws of Nature remain as they are! He does not make the ravens bring His people bread and meat, but He lets them have their bread and their meat when they need them. God does not, nowadays, make the manna drop down from Heaven. No doubt some people would like Him to do so, but still He brings the manna, for all that--there is the bread and there are the clothes--and therewith should the Christian be content! He supplies His people's needs by ordinary means and herein is He to be wondered at and to be adored! Look up, then! Wipe away that tear. Do not talk for a moment of murmuring against God. Do not go home with that sorry tale to your wife and children and tell them that God is not faithful to you. Wait till tomorrow, at any rate, for "you know not what a day may bring forth." And to you who are disconsolate about spiritual things I might quote the same text. You say, "Ah, I have been hearing the Word a very long time and all that I have got from it is a sense of sin, or hardly that. Oh, how I wish that God would bless the Word to my soul! I am longing to be saved! What would I not give to be a Christian--a true and sincere Christian--one in whom the Spirit of God has worked a new heart and a right spirit! Oh," you say, "I have sought it by listening to the Word and I have sought it in earnest prayer--but months have passed and I have made no advance. I have no more hope, now, than I had long ago! I seem as far off the attainment of eternal life as I was when first I heard the Word. No, if possible, I am further off! The Word has been a savor of death unto death to me, and not a savor of life unto life." Well, my dear Friend, do not give up listening to the Word! Do not give up treading the courts of the Lord's house, for if you have up to now got no blessing, yet, being in the way, the Lord may meet with you--for you know not what may be on the morrow! How many years these poor creatures waited around the pool when they expected that an angel would, at a certain season, come and trouble the water! There they waited. And though they were disappointed scores of times by others stepping in before them, yet, seeing it was the only hope they had, they waited! Now, it is in the use of the means that you are likely to get a blessing. "Faith come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Do not, therefore, be persuaded to cease hearing, for you know not what may be on the morrow! The very next sermon you shall hear may be the means of your enlightenment! The very next address at the Prayer Meeting may give you encouragement. The very next time the Gospel trumpet sounds, you may obtain your liberty--and what a blessing will that liberty be! When you do find it, you will say it was well worth waiting for. Let me add another exhortation. Do not give up praying! It is a common device of Satan to say to the seeking soul, "The Lord will never hear you. You are one of the reprobate! He has never written your name in the Book of Life." Soul, pray as long as you have breath! Let it be your firm resolve to remain at the Throne of Grace! Say to yourself-- "If I perish, I will pray, And perish only there." It is not said that the gate of Mercy will open at the first knock. If it were, there would be no room for the virtue of importunity! But the Lord, who delights in our importunity, encourages us with the promise that one day the gate will be opened. "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." And who knows how soon this may be? Why, before you close your eyes tonight, you may be able to look to Christ Crucified and find joy and peace in believing! Instead of the weeping prayer at the bedside, there may be a happy prayer of another kind--not with tears of sorrow, but with tears of holy joy--to think that the Lord has enlightened your darkness, that you have looked unto Christ and now your face is not ashamed! Why should it not be so tonight? Why should it not be so on the morrow? God grant, poor disconsolate one, that it may be so very speedily! At any rate, will you let me repeat the advice I have already given? Since you cannot know that God will not hear you. Since it never was revealed to any man and never will be, that God will notregard his cry, if you can get no further than the king of Nineveh did, yet go on and, "who can tell" what may be, for you know not what a day may bring forth! I will tell you one thing and you may take it as being God's own Truth--if you go to Christ empty-handed, guilty, yet willing to take all your salvation from Him as a free gift--and if you cast yourself upon Him, I will tell you what the day willbring forth! It will bring forth eternal life to you--salvation, joy and peace! It will bring forth adoption, for you shall be received into the Divine Family! It will bring forth to you the foretaste of the Heaven which God has prepared for His people! You shall know a blessed day here that shall be a foretaste of a never-ending day hereafter--a day that shall be as one of the days of Heaven upon earth! I wish that the Lord would bless these words of mine to disconsolate ones. I think there may be some who may be sustained for a while and kept up by what I have said. But it will be better, still, if they shall now be filled with a desperate resolve to cast themselves at the foot of the Cross. Then little do they know what the day will bring forth! They cannot imaging the joy they shall have, nor the peace they shall receive! The pardon which Christ shall give them is far more rich than they have thought it could be--and the success with which their prayers shall be crowned is far more marvelous than even their best hopes have conceived! "You know not what a day may bring forth." III. Now thirdly, turning this time not to those who are fearing the future, nor yet to those who are disconsolate about present affliction, I thought of addressing a few words to THOSE WHO ARE WEARIED IN THE MASTER'S SERVICE. I can scarcely sympathize, as I could wish to do, with those who have worked for Christ unsuccessfully. To say, "Master, I have toiled all the night and have taken nothing," has never been my lot and, therefore, I can only speak from what I suppose to be the feeling of unsuccessful men. For these many years I have been preaching the Gospel in this great London and I know not that at any time God has blessed us more than He is blessing us now! Neither can I say that at any time He has blessed us less, for it seems as if He has always been giving us more than we can receive and blessing the Word exceedingly above what we asked or ever thought! There is room for nothing in my case but gratitude and encouragement, for humble dependence upon God for the future and adoring joy for the past and the present. But, what hard work it must be for a minister or a Sunday school teacher to go on preaching and laboring positively without success, or with so little that it is only like a cluster here and there upon the topmost bough! I can imagine such Brothers and Sisters feeling that they can speak no more in the name of the Lord. And, as they weep over their failure, saying with Isaiah, "Who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" I should not wonder but that my text may whisper in their ears a comfortable thought, "You know not what a day may bring forth." Do not cease from your labor, dear Brother! You are fainting today, but tomorrow you may arise with new strength. Or feeling as if you were but weakness, itself, in the morning, though you may hardly know how it came about, in the evening you may be happy and cheerful! The Divine Presence may overshadow your heart and drive your fears away, consoling you in your distress and making you feel as if it were well to be God's servant even if one had no present reward! And what if, coming at the back of this, you should find yourself, next time you go to your work, discharging it with unusual zest and with new power? What if the pulpit, instead of being, as it has been, a prison to you, should suddenly come to be a palace? What if, instead of there being a mere bush in the wilderness, God should dwell in the bush and make it all ablaze, like that unconsumed burning bush which Moses saw? What if the stammering tongue should suddenly be unloosed and the cold heart be all aglow with Divine enthusiasm? What if the poor tongue of clay should suddenly become a tongue of fire? What a change it would be! Ah, but "you know not what a day may bring forth." And what if, while you are yourself thus quickened, there should fall a like spirit upon the people, upon the children in the class, upon the hearers in the House of Prayer? What if, instead of the dull, lead eyes which looked as if Death, itself, were gazing from them--what if, instead of stony and motionless hearers, there should suddenly be a holy sensitiveness given to the people--what would you say to that? Yet why should there not be? Sometimes such Grace comes all at once! The rock has been long smitten, yet it would not break--but, all of a sudden there has come a blow of the hammer, and that, perhaps, not so hard as many that have fallen before, but it has hit the rock in the right place and lo!--the mass of stone flies to shivers! "Oh!" you say, "I could keep on at my work if I thought that this would happen." Keep on at your work, then, Brother, for you do not know what will come next! Pray for great things and you may then expect them! You may not make sure of such blessing, of course, if you have not prayed for it! But, having sought it, why should it not come? I believe all Sunday school teachers find that sometimes such sudden melting comes over their classes, and ministers often realize that all of a sudden, they scarcely know how, but there is a change in the very aspect of their hearers, so that it is quite a different thing to preach. I am very conscious of the difference there is between the various congregations I address. Almost every day, and sometimes twice a day, I am preaching. Occasionally it is dreadful misery because, say what we will, we know we have not a sympathizing audience. We feel as though we were dragging a plow over the rough ground! But when we feel that the Spirit of God is there, then we realize that we are sowing this Good Seed, that it is falling on good ground--and we expect the joyful sheaves which are to be our reward!And yet, Brothers and Sisters, we are as much the servants of God when we are doing the one thing, as when we are doing the other--and are as much in His service when we are unsuccessful as when we are successful! We are not responsible to God for the souls that are saved, but we are responsible for the Gospel that we preach and for the way in which we preach it. And "who can tell" whether those of us who have been least successful may not suddenly exchange our heavy toil for the most delightful service, for we know not what a day may bring forth! And how do you know, my Brothers and Sisters, what may yet happen? You were saying, this morning, "It is a dark age for the Church." Well, so it is. You were saying, "I believe it is quite a crisis." So it is. Every year, in fact, seems to be a crisis. "Ah," you say, "but there are peculiar dangers now." No doubt there are! And I think the oldest man here remembers that there were peculiar dangers when he was a boy--there always have been and always will be peculiar dangers! But if there is danger from this revival of Ritualism and, no doubt there is--yet who among us can tell what a day may bring forth? Are we certain that God will not yet turn back the tide of Romanizing error? Are we sure that He has not a man somewhere, or even 50 men who shall be the instruments of accomplishing this? Has it not often occurred that the very men who have been the hottest advocates of a certain system have afterwards been the greatest enemies of that system? The Christian Church could never have expected to get an Apostle from among the Pharisees and, least of all, could they have supposed that they would find in Saul of Tarsus, the blood-thirsty persecutor, the great Apostle of the Gentiles--not one whit behind the very chief of the twelve! You and I do not know what God has in store. There may be somewhere at this very moment a man, unknown to you, who is reading the Word and, as he reads it, he may, like the monk, Luther, get such of the Light of God through the reading that he who once helped to build up, will be the instrument in God's hand to destroy! I am getting more and more hopeful about these matters. I entertain the most sanguine expectation that the God who has put His enemies to rout in years gone by will do it now once again! And instead of sitting down in anything like heaviness of spirit, or oppression of heart, I would speak hopefully and have you, my Brothers and Sisters, be filled with hope, for we do not know what a day may bring forth! Suddenly the whole current of the public mind may be turned! There may come a great tide of conversions which shall be the strength and the joy of the Christian Church! On a sudden, slumbering Churches may awake, gracious revivals may come! Upon the land the Holy Fire may once again descend from Heaven. The Christian Church may start up to find that the God who answered by fire is still in her midst! The mourning Christian may put off his ashes and sackcloth, and put on his beautiful array and a shout ofjoy may go up, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" where you and I expected to hear nothing but, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Let us, then, if we are working for the Master, instead of growing tired with service, hear Him say to us, "Be not weary in well doing, for in due season you shall reap if you faint not." Let us, my beloved Brothers, be steadfast, unmov-able, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. You know not how soon you shall see this success, for you know not what a day may bring forth. I hope every city missionary who hears me, every Bible woman, every minister, every tract-distributor, every Sunday school teacher, will try and look this very sweet thought in the face! Expect that God is going to do great things and He will do them, for He does very much according to His people's expectations. According to your faith shall it be done unto you! IV. I will now say a few words, in the fourth place, to THOSE WHO ARE DISPIRITED IN PRAYER--to some who have been engaged in special supplication for some objective, but who, up till now, have received no answer--and are ready to give up praying. Let me encourage such to persevere by repeating to them the words of Solomon, "You know not what a day may bring forth." There is a story I have often heard told by our Methodist friends of a woman who had long prayed for her husband. She resolved that she would pray for him every day a certain number of times. I think it was for 10 years and after that, she would pray no longer, supposing that if her prayer was not heard by that time, it would be an intimation that God did not intend to grant the blessing. I do not think she was right in setting any limit to God at all, or that she had any right to act so. However, on this occasion, God winked at His servant's infirmity and, so the story goes--and I do not doubt its correctness--on the day on which she was to cease from prayer, her husband suddenly turned thoughtful and asked her the question which she had so longed to hear from him, "What must I do to be saved?" I am sure that those who have watched over their success in prayer will have met with cases quite as startling as that--things which your neighbor would not believe if you were to tell him, but which you treasure up among those inward experiences which are true to you, however improbable they may seem to other people! You know, dear Friends, that you have obtained answers to prayer, very amazing ones, and have obtained them very promptly and very punctually. You have had your prayers met just as an honest merchant meets his bills at the appointed time. On the expected day God has met with you and given you what you wanted and what you sought for--just at the very time you needed it. But now I will suppose that you are tried thus. That dear child of yours, instead of hopefully rewarding your prayers, seems to be going from bad to worse! Perhaps, dear Brother, it is your son. And I know there are many such cases. The devil has told you that it is no use to pray for him, for God will never hear you. Or else good Sister, it is your broth-er--and your prayers for him has been incessant--indeed, it has been a constant burden on your mind. Now, in such cases, I charge you, I earnestly entreat you never to listen to the malicious insinuation of Satan that, "you may as well leave off praying, for you will not be heard," for, at the very least, and I am now putting it on the very lowest ground, possible, "You know not what a day may bring forth." You cannot tell but that the hard heart may yet be softened and the rebellious will be subdued. You would be surprised to go home and find your son converted, would you not? Well, but such things have occurred! You would be surprised if your wife came in some Sunday evening and said, "I have been hearing So-and-So, and God has met with me." Yet why should it not be so? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is His arm shortened that it cannot save? Is His ear heavy that it cannot hear? Even if you should die without seeing your children converted, or your dear ones brought in--you do not know, even then, what a day may bring forth! They may be converted after you are dead--and it will tend, possibly, to swell the joy of Heaven when you shall see them, after years of wandering, brought to follow their father, their father whom in life they despised, but whom after he was gone they came to imitate! Persevere in prayer, Christian! "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." Praying breath is never sent in vain. Still besiege the Throne of God! The city may hold out for a while, but prayer should capture it. Beleaguer the Throne of Grace--it is to be taken. Never raise the siege until you get the blessing--the blessing shall certainly be yours. V. And now I cannot talk longer on this matter, so I will close with just another thought to THOSE OF US WHO ARE CHEERFUL AND HAPPY. I hope there are many of us who are neither afraid and fretting about the future, nor depressed about the present, neither worn out with toil in the Master's service, nor dispirited in prayer. There are some of us to whom the Lord is so gracious that our cup runs over. Now we may just put another drop on the top of the full cup. Dear Friend, "you know not what a day may bring forth." It may perhaps bring forth to you and to me our last day. What a blessed day that would be--our last day! Our dying day! No, do not call it so, but the day of our translation--the day of our great change, the day of our being taken up--that of our being carried away in the fiery chariot to be forever with the Lord! You know not but what this may be your case tomorrow. Oh, what joy! I am doubting and fearing, today, but I may see His face tomorrow! And see it so as never to lose sight of it again! From my poor tenement of poverty I am going to the mansions of eternal blessedness! From the sickbed, where I have tossed in pain, I shall mount to everlasting joy! The streets of gold may be trod tomorrow and the palm branch of victory may be waved tomorrow--the streets trod by these weary feet and the palm branch waved by these toil-worn hands! Yes, tomorrow the chants of angels may be in your ears and the swell of celestial music may make your soul glad. Tomorrow you may see the beautiful vision and may behold the King in His beauty in the land that is very far off. I like to live in the constant anticipation of being "with Christ, which is far better." Do not put it off, Christian, as though it were far away! If we had to wait a hundred years they would soon pass, like a watch in the night. But we shall not live as long as that. We may be with our Lord tomorrow! We may sup here on earth and breakfast in Heaven! We may breakfast on earth and hear Christ, say, "Come and dine," or we may go from our Communion Table here to the great Supper of the Lamb above, to be with Him forever! This is the best of it. When somebody said to a Christian minister, "I suppose you are on the wrong side of fifty?" "No," he said, "thank God, I am on the right side of fifty, for I am sixty and am, therefore, nearer Heaven." Old age should never be looked upon with dismay by us--it should be our joy! If our hearts were right in this matter, instead of being at all afraid at the thought of parting from this life, we should say-- "Ah me! Ah me that I In Kedar's tents here stay! No place like this on high. There, Lord! Guide my way. Ohappyplace! When shall I be, My God, with You, And see Your face?" I have not time to say much to others here who are not concerned in these sweet themes, but I will at least say this. Let thee careless and thoughtless here remember that they do not know what a day may bring forth. Tomorrow it may not be that grand party to which you are intending to go. Tomorrow it may not be that sweet sin of which your evil nature is thinking. Tomorrow may see you on a sickbed. Tomorrow may see you on your deathbed. Tomorrow, worst of all, may see you in Hell! O Sinner, what a state to live in--to be in daily jeopardy of eternal ruin, to have the wrath of God, who is always angry with the wicked, abiding on you--and not to know but that tomorrow you may be where you can find no escape, no hope, no comfort! Tomorrow in eternity! Tomorrow banished from His Presence forever! Tomorrow to have that awful sentence thrilling in your soul, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." __________________________________________________________________ Maroth--or, the Disappointed (No. 3184) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER25,1873. "For the inhabitant of Marroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem." Micah 1:12. The village of the bitter spring, for that is probably the meaning of this name, Maroth, experienced a bitter disappointment. At the time when the Assyrians invaded the land, the inhabitants expected that deliverance would come to them from some quarter or other. From the context, I judge that they placed some sort of reliance upon the Philistines. They possibly had some hope that the king of Egypt would come up to attack Sennacherib. Evidently they looked for help everywhere except to God and, consequently, as no good came to them from the men upon whom they had relied, trial and overwhelming distress came to them from the hand of God. He was angry at their trust in men and their lack of trust in Himself and, therefore, He punished their unbelief by their total overthrow! The Assyrian swept over them and stopped not till he reached the gate of Jerusalem, where Hezekiah's faith in God made the enemy pause and retreat. The fact recorded in the text suggests to us, first, sad disappointments--"the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came." And secondly, strange appointments--evil came down from the Lord." When we have considered these two things, we will change the subject, altogether, and speak about expectations which will not end in disappointment. I. First, then, we are to think of SAD DISAPPOINTMENTS. "The inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came." Disappointments are often extremely painful at the time. Even in little things, we do not like to be disappointed. If our expectations are not realized, we feel as if a sharp thorn has pierced our flesh. But in great matters, disappointment is much more serious. In the case of the inhabitants of Maroth, it was fatal--they expected to be delivered from the Assyrians, but they were either slain on the spot, or carried away captive to Nineveh. It would be the most terrible disappointment of all if our expectations concerning our souls should not be realized! It would be painful to the last degree to discover upon our dying bed that the good we had looked for had not come--to find that we had built our house upon the sand and that when we most needed its shelter, it was swept away! O Lord, disappoint not Your servant's hope! All my expectation is from You and You have said, "They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me." Any other expectation beside this, concerning our eternal interests, will only bring us pain and misery forever. Disappointments in this life, however, although they are at times very painful, are sometimes of such a character that could we know all the truth, we would not lament them. There are many who have looked forward to a change in their condition in life, or their position in society--and they have been disappointed. For a time they have been ready to wring their hands in anguish, yet if they knew what the consequences would have been if their expectations had been realized, they would fall down upon their knees and devoutly praise the Lord for the disappointment which had been so great a blessing in disguise to them! You, my Brother, had expected to be rich by this time, but God knew that had you been rich, you would have been proud and worldly and would have ceased to enjoy fellowship with him--so He kept you poor that you might still be rich in faith! You, my Friend, had expected to be in robust health at this time, but had you been so, you might not have been walking so humbly before the Lord as you are now doing. You, my oft-bereaved Brother, had hoped to see your family spared to grow up, so that you might have had sons and daughters upon whom you could have leaned in your declining days--yet they might have proved a plague and a sorrow to you instead of a comfort and a blessing. Complain not that they were taken from you in their childhood by that kind hand which made them blest forever and only deprived you for a while of their companionship, which might not have been an unmixed blessing to you. Rest assured, O child of God, that whatever happens to you is as it should be! Believe that if you could have infinite wisdom, and the helm of your life's vessel could be entrusted to your hands, you would steer it precisely as God steers it! You would not always guide the ship through smooth water any more than He does. If you could be unerring in judgment and could be your own guide, you would choose for yourself the track which God has chosen for you. It is Divine Love and Infallible Wisdom that have ordered all things for you up to this very moment, so whatever your disappointments may have been, comfort yourself with the assurance that they have been among your greatest blessings! There are some expectations which are certain to be disappointed. When a man expects to prosper through wrongdoing, his expectations will certainly not be realized--at least not in the long run, however much he may seem to prosper for a while. When a man thinks that happiness can be found in the ways of sin, he will be bitterly disappointed sooner or later. When a man expects that by self-reliance he will be able to gain all that he needs without trusting to a stronger arm than his own, his expectations will not be realized. When a man is relying upon his fellow creature--when he thinks that the all-important matter for him is to have some rich patron or powerful friend--and he is under the delusion that he can do without any help from Heaven--he is sure to be disappointed! And he who is depending upon his own good works and trusting to his own unaided resolutions to hold on in the way of holiness will be terribly disappointed unless he repents before it is too late! There are some things which only fools will expect--things which are contrary to the laws of Nature, and things which are contrary to the rules of Divine Grace! The man who never sows good corn, but yet expects to reap at harvest time, is a fool and his disappointment will come in the form of thorns and thistles all over his fields! The sluggard who lies in bed and lazily says, "A little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to sleep," may expert in that way to become wealthy, but Solomon long ago said to him, "Your poverty shall come as one that travels and your need as an armed man." This is true in spiritual things as well as in temporal. God gives blessing to effort and diligence--not to idleness and lethargy! Besides this, in many cases disappointments are highly probable. Some of our familiar proverbs relate to such cases as these. One says, "Those who wait for dead men's shoes are pretty sure to go barefoot." Another is, "If they never drink milk till they get their uncle's cow, they will be long thirsty for the lack of it." Yet there are persons who waste a great part of their lifetime in vain expectations of what they call, "windfalls." We know that the "windfalls" in the orchard generally fall because they are rotten and are not worth picking up! And other "windfalls" are often no more valuable. There are men who might have prospered if they had not foolishly sat down in the expectation that somehow or other, a great fortune would hunt them out and make them independent--such expectations are usually doomed to disappointment. If any of you have fallen into the pernicious habit of reading works of fiction and so have formed romantic ideas of what is likely to occur to you, the great probability is that your daydreams will be only dreams--and your castles in the air will never be inhabited by you! I pray you not to fritter away your time and opportunities in vain expectations which most probably will never be fulfilled. Expect to receive not quite all you earn, nor all you lend, and probably your expectations will not be disappointed, but, as another of our proverbs puts it, if you count your chickens before they are hatched, it is highly probable that your expectations will not be realized. There are also other expectations that will possibly end in disappointment. Even the most legitimate hopes are not always realized. "There's many a slip between the cup and the lips." When we feel almost sure that a certain plan will succeed, suddenly it turns out to be all a mistake. We think that as prudent men, we have arranged matters so wisely that they have to succeed, yet in the issue we are grievously disappointed. Be not hasty in condemning those who do not succeed in business, for at least in somecases, failure has come through no fault of theirs. Do not judge harshly all who are in need--no doubt there are all too many instances in which poverty is the result of idleness or drunkenness--but there are other cases in which poverty is blameless and even honorable. Men may toil hard, do the very best they can and seek God's blessing upon their efforts--and yet they may not be permitted to secure a competence. If you, my Friend, reckon upon seeing all your schemes succeed, you are very likely to be disappointed. If you, my Christian Brother, imagine that between here and Heaven, the way will be laid with smooth turf, well-rolled, you will certainly be disappointed! If you think that the sea will always be calm as a lake and that no storm will ever ruffle it, you will be disappointed. There will be some things that will fulfill your expectations, but there will be others that will not--and in those you will be like that inhabitants of Maroth who "waited carefully for good, but evil came." In every case disappointments should be borne with the greatest possible patience and equanimity. I am sorry to say that we do not all bear them so, not even all of us who profess to be Christians. Remember that God has never promised that all our expectations shall be fulfilled--it would have been a doubtful blessing if such a thing had been guaranteed to us--and we might easily have expected ourselves into utter misery! Who are you that everything should happen just as you wish? Should the weather be fine simply because you want it to be so when a thousand fields are gasping for rain? Should you have the channels of trade turned in your direction when if that were the case, scores of others would be bankrupts? Is everything in this world to be so arranged that you shall be the darling and pet of Providence? It cannot be right for such a state of things to prevail! Therefore, when we are disappointed, whether it is in little matters or great ones, let us bear the disappointment bravely and lay the whole case before the Lord in prayer. Let us ask Him why He contends with us. And if there is any reason for it which we can discover in ourselves, let us endeavor to remove it. Or if we can find no cause, let us believe that God acts in wisdom and in love--and let us cheerfully submit to whatever He appoints for us. We would bear our disappointments with all the greater equanimity if we would always remember that disappointments are often exceedingly instructive. What do they teach us? Well, first they teach us that our judgment is very fallible. We learn from them that we are not such prophets as we thought we were! We fancied that if we said that such-and-such a thing was going to happen, it would surely be so. But when the result proved to be just the opposite, we found that our judgment was not as reliable as we thought it was and, therefore, our forecast was quite inaccurate. So our disappointments teach us our need of greater wisdom than our own--and also teach us the folly of trusting to our own understanding. They also teach us the uncertainty of everything that is earthly. What is there, here, that can be depended upon for a single hour? The life of the most robust may suddenly end! The current of affairs may change more rapidly than the tide. Riches take to themselves wings and fly away. The greatest wisdom becomes the greatest folly. All is vanity and vexation of spirit. If our disappointments teach us this lesson, we shall be well repaid for having suffered them! Let them also teach us to speak correctly, as Christians should. You know how the Apostle James writes, "Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain. Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow...For that you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.'" Let our past disappointments warn us to speak with bated breath about tomorrow and the more distant future, and not to say without any qualification what we will do as if all time were at our disposal and we were the disposers of all events. Even if we do not always use the words, "If the Lord wills," "If God pleases," "If we are spared," or similar expressions, let the spirit of them always be in our mind so that we do not think and speak unconditionally concerning the unknown future! Let our disappointments also teach us to submit--absolutely and unquestioningly--to the Lord's will. We wish to have things in a certain fashion, but God plainly indicated that they are not to be so. Therefore let us cheerfully surrender our wish to His will. Surely, O child of God, you would not think of wanting to have your way when once you learn that it is contrary to your heavenly Father's way! If you are right-minded, you will at once give up your wish and will say, "Not my will, O my Father, but Your will be done!" You will probably do that all the more decidedly if some disappointment has burnt into your soul the Truth that God is wiser than you are--and that His will must always prevail above yours. Stand to the surrender at all times and say to the Lord, "Show me Your way, and let me hear the voice behind me saying, 'This is the way; walk you in it.'" Let me also add that disappointments may be greatly sanctified. They are not always so, for sometimes they irritate and so cause sin--or they create a murmuring spirit against God and so make us worse than we were before. But sanctified disappointments are part of that rod of the Covenant which is so beneficial in the hands of a chastening God. Sometimes a grievous disappointment has changed the whole current of a person's life. A man was looking forward to what he hoped would be a happy marriage, but his intended bride suddenly died--and then he surrendered his heart to Jesus, who became the Bridegroom of his soul! A son had expected to inherit a large estate, but by some means the wealth came not into his possession--and when he found himself poor, he sought true riches in Christ! A strong man had hoped to build up a prosperous business, but he was unexpectedly struck with serious illness, his former prosperity departed from him--and then he fixed his hopes upon the ever-blessed Son of God and so he attained to bliss which no earthly success could ever have brought him! I remember meeting a man who told me that he could never see spiritually until he had lost his natural eyesight! And there have, doubtless, been many who were never rich until they became poor, and others who were never happy until their earthly happiness was blighted and blasted, and then they sought and found true happiness in Jesus. What a blessed disappointment it is that leads us to a Savior's love! Disappointments are also sanctified to Believers when they help to wean them from the world. There is a sort of glue about this world that makes it adhere to us and makes us adhere to it. David found it so when he wrote, "My soul cleaves unto the dust." Earth naturally clings to earth, but I will guarantee you that David cared little enough for earth when his handsome son, Absalom, became a rebel and when his house, which had been such a comfort to him, became a terror and when his subjects, who had almost worshipped him, joined in rebelling against him! Then did he plaintively sigh, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest." Yes, disappointments wean us from the world and makes us plume our wings, ready to be up and away to that fair country where hope shall reach its full fruition and disappointment shall be unknown forever! Moreover, Brothers and Sisters, when we meet with disappointments in this life, we prize all the more, the faithfulness of our God! When you have had an unkind word from one whom you have loved, how much more closely you have nestled down in the embrace of your ever-loving Savior! When you have been betrayed by a friend in whom you trusted, what sweet communion you have had with the Friend that sticks closer than a brother! When your gourd above you has withered and you have lost its welcome shade, however more you have prized the shadow of a great Rock in a weary land! It is a good thing for us to have all earthly props knocked away, for then we value more than ever the faithfulness of the God who never fails those who put their trust in Him. Those who always remain on dry land will never learn by practical experience what the sailors know--"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters: these see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep." And it is when, like the storm-tossed mariners, our soul is melted because of trouble, that our dear Lord and Master, coming to us upon the crest of the wave, becomes tenfold more precious to us than He had ever been before! If our disappointments would only make us hold with a loose hand all we have-- house, lands, children, health, reputation and everything else, so that if God should take them all away, we would still continue to bless His name because we never reckoned that they were ours to keep, but were only lent to us during our Lord's good will and pleasure--if our disappointments only brought us to such a condition as that, they would be, indeed, most soul-enriching things! II. Now I must leave this part of the subject and turn to the second portion which is STRANGE APPOINTMENTS--"The inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the Lord." This expression must not be misunderstood. "Evil came down from the Lord." The word, "evil," here means trial, affliction, chastisement, and to a Christian this kind of, "evil," is often for his highest good! It does seem singular to a child of God that even that which he thinks to be evil should come down from the Lord. How can it be that God is loving and kind when He deprives one of His children of her husband, or takes away her babe from her bosom? How can it be that God is Infinitely Wise, yet He sometimes casts His poor weak children into difficulties where they are at their wits' end and know not what to do? How is it that He loves the righteous and is gracious to them, yet He puts some of the best of them into the hottest part of the furnace and makes it burn most furiously like that of Nebuchadnezzar of old? If our aches and pains came from Satan. If our losses were the result of chance, or if our sufferings arose only from the malevolence of the wicked--they would be comprehensible--but it is oftentimes a marvel and a mystery to a Christian why the Lord sends the trials which lays upon him! Be patient, Brothers and Sisters! What you know not, now, you shall know hereafter--so be content to wait until God reveals the mystery to you if He pleases to do so--and then it will make you marvel that your Lord should have taken such pains in training you for the service He has for you yet to render Him! Perhaps I am addressing some child of God who is sorely puzzled as to why certain things have happened to him. But, Father, does your child always understand all that you do to him and for him? It was not long ago that your boy was sent away to school--perhaps he thought you unkind in treating him so--yet is was real love to him that prompted you to send him away from you to be all the better trained for whatever may lie before him in his later life. He does not understand all that is in your mind and you can never comprehend all that is in the Infinite Mind of your Father who is in Heaven. Be satisfied that whatever God does must be right. Yet, remember that in a certain sense, all trials do come from God. There may be secondary agents coming in between, but let us not quibble at them, or quarrel with them. When Shimei cursed David, Abishai said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray you, and take off his head." But David said, "Let him curse, because the Lord has said to him, 'Curse David.'" He felt that he deserved to be cursed so he looked upon Shi-mei's insults as being a form of chastisement from God. If you strike a dog with a stick, he will bite the stick--but if he had more sense, he would try to bite you. And when we are chastened, it is foolish for us to be angry with the rod that God employs--and we dare not be angry with God! There may be sin in the person who causes us to suffer, as there was in the case of Shimei, but we must look beyond him even as David did--and learn what God's intention is in thus chastening us--and submissively accept whatever God appoints. There are some trials which come very distinctly from God. Perhaps you have lost one who was very dear to you. Let it comfort your heart that it was the Lord who took away your loved one. There is an empty chair in your house and every time you look at it your eyes fill with tears--yet never forget that it was the Lord who called to Himself the one who used to occupy that chair. Or possibly your trouble is that you are gradually fading away by consumption or some other deadly disease. Well, if it is so, that is God's appointment for you in the order of His Providence, so do not rebel against what is clearly His will. Or it may be that your trial is that you have struggled hard to gain an honest livelihood for yourself and your family, but instead of attaining that end, you are constantly getting further and further away from it. If it is so, look upon your trouble as coming from God and bear patiently what you are unable to alter! This leads me to say to every Christian whose trial is distinctly from the Lord--my Brother or Sister, this makes it all the easier for you to submit without murmuring at God's will When such a trial comes, there is nothing for a Believer to say but this, "It is the Lord: let Him do what seems good to Him." There may be cases in which submission will best be indicated by silence before the Lord. When Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, offered strange fire before the Lord and there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, it must have been a terrible trial to their father, yet we read, "Aaron held his peace." As if he thought, "Since God has done it, what can I say?" You know the oft-repeated story of the gardener who had a favorite rose, and when it was plucked, he was very angry. But when he was told that the master had taken it, he said no more about the matter. May not the owner of the garden take any flowers in it that he pleases? And may not the Lord take away His beloved ones from us whenever He chooses to do so? We ought not to be vexed with Him when He does so, but we ought to say with Job, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." No, my Lord, I must not and I will not quibble at anything that You have done. Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth, but let not man strive with his Maker. In our case, it would not only be striving with our Maker--it would be striving with our best Friend, our Father, our All-in-All--and that we must never do. So, if the trial has come distinctly from God, it should be easy to submit to it. And, further, if it comes distinctly from God, it gives us all the more powerful plea in prayer. One may plead thus, "O Lord, this trouble is not of my own making. You have sent it to me for Your own wise purposes--will You not bring me through it?" Another may say, "O Lord, I am very poor, yet this is not because I have been imprudent or extravagant, but because You have permitted it--so will You not help me in my time of need?" A Sister pleads, "O Lord, I am in deep distress. My dear husband has been taken away and I am left with many children and with very scanty means. But as You have put me into this furnace, will You not be with me in it and keep me from being consumed?" When a soldier is sent on a campaign, he is not expected to bear his own charges. And if the great Captain of Salvation has sent you out to fight for Him, He will meet your expenses. He will also cover your head in the day of battle and make you more than conqueror through His might. Did the Lord ever lay a heavier burden on any man than that man was able to bear unless He also gave him extra strength to enable him to bear it? Rest confident concerning the trial which God sends you, that He will also send you deliverance from it, or Divine Grace to glorify Him in it! If His left hand smites you, His right hand will support you. If He frowns upon you, today, He will smile upon you tomorrow. If He leads you into deep waters, He will bring you up again to the hills where He will gladden you with the light of His Countenance! The deeper your sorrows, the higher shall be your joys! As your tribulations abound, so also shall your consolations abound by Jesus Christ! The groans of earth shall be surpassed by the songs of Heaven and the woes of time shall be swallowed up in the hallelujahs of eternity! Therefore if in any of these senses evil comes down upon you from the Lord, I pray that He may give you the Grace to accept it and even to rejoice in it! III. Now we are to close by thinking of EXPECTATIONS WHICH WILL NOT END IN DISAPPOINTMENT. For instance, I expect, and so do you if you are the Lord's children, that God will keep His promises. It is not always so with men, for they make many promises which they never fulfill. There are men who are so rich and so reliable that their signature to a check is as good as gold to the full value of the check--and God's promise is His check which can be cashed at the Bank of Faith in every time of need! We are all too apt to rely upon our fellow men, even though they have failed us again and again. But we sometimes find it difficult to depend upon our God, although He has never failed anyone who has trusted Him. O Beloved, what wickedness lurks in that fact! If you believe every promise that God has given, you will be able to endorse the testimony that Joshua gave to the children of Israel just before he died, "You know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you; all are come to pass unto you and not one thing has failed thereof." Then next, expect much from the merits and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have really believed in Him, expect to be justified by Him. Expect that He will answer every accusation that can be brought against you either now or at the last great Judgment Day. Expect also to be preserved and kept by Him. Expect that He will go before you as your Shepherd, making you to lie down in green pastures and leading you beside the still waters. Expect that He will plead for you in Heaven and that He will soon come to take you up to dwell at His right hand forever! You cannot expect too much of Christ--and large as your expectations may be--none of them shall be disappointed. And, Beloved, expect much from the work of the Holy Spirit If the Spirit of God has quickened you from your death in sin, what is there that He cannot and will not do? Are you in trouble? He can comfort you. Are you depressed? He can cheer you. Are you in the dark? He can enlighten you. Are you at this moment fighting against sin? He can enable you to gain the victory! I am sure that many of God's children do not expect half as much as they ought from the Holy Spirit. They seem to imagine that there are some sins that cannot be driven out of them! They do not, in the power of the Spirit, put the sword to the throat of all their sins. Yet this should be the constant aim of every Christian--to drive out the Ca-naanites and kill the last Amalekite with the edge of the sword! The Spirit of God is able to subdue the fiercest temper. He is able to impart activity to the most slothful nature. He is able to repress the wildest and most evil desires. He is able to excite us to those virtues which seem to be directly opposite to our natural temperaments and characters. "All things are possible to him who believes." If he will but wholly trust to the Holy Spirit, he shall be able to do great exploits in the war that has to be waged within his own heart and also in the fight against evil which is raging all around him! If time would permit, I might go on urging you to cherish expectations which are not likely to be disappointed, but I can only summarize them very briefly. Expect tonight that God will bless you as you offer up your evening prayer. Expect that the Lord will be with you tomorrow sustaining you amid all the cares and toils of the day. Expect for all the days of your active life that as your days, so shall your strength be. And when your declining years come, expect that consolation will be given to you to meet every emergency. In sickness, expect to receive sustaining Grace. In death, itself, expect the Lord's very special Presence. Expect a glorious Resurrection! Expect the triumph that you shall share with Christ in His millennial Glory. Expect an eternity of bliss with Him as He has promised, and rest assured that none of these expectations shall be disappointed! I fear that there are some here who have no right to cherish any of these expectations. You have probably had disappointments about many things. I cannot pity you very much concerning the trivial disappointments of this life--but if you do not seek the Savior where He is found, there is a disappointment in store for you that might well fill all Christian hearts with tender pity and compassion. There is a man who has lived a life of selfish pleasure. He has been clothed in scarlet and fine linen and has fared sumptuously every day. But all of a sudden the voice of God declares that he must die. What will be his horror when he sees all his treasures melting away and himself doomed to depart out of this world as naked as when he entered it? Imagine the case of the man who has been what he calls religious, who has attended to all the ceremonies of his church, or who has been orthodox after the fashion of the sect to which he belongs--but who has had no new birth and, consequently, none of the life of God in his soul--no indwelling Spirit, no vital connection with the Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior! Yet he has expected to be ferried across the bridgeless river by one called Vain-Hope--and when the hour of death has come, God has opened his eyes to let him see his real position and the dread future that is awaiting him! Oh, the terror of that man when his vain and unfounded hopes are disappointed! We have read of some who have offered a great portion of their wealth if they might only be allowed to live another hour, but it was all in vain, for die they must! God save all of you, my dear Hearers, from such a doom as that! In order that it may be so, put not your trust in things below--be not like the inhabitants of Maroth who looked to the Philistines and the Egyptians to help them--and so waited in vain for the good that never came. But turn your eyes unto Him who says, "Look unto Me, and be you saved," and then your expectations shall not be disappointed. So may it be, for Jesus' sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 4. (This Exposition belongs to sermon No. 3182, Volume 56--"Boldness at the Throne," but there was no space available for it there. Verse 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.Not only dread coming short, but dread the very appearanceof it! Oh, that we might now enter into that rest and so clearly enjoy it that there should not even be a seeming to come short of it! 2. For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it [See Sermon #2089, Volume 35--PROFITABLE MIXTURE.] They were not united to it by faith. Consequently, as they did not receive the Word, it was taken away from them. 3. For we who have believed do enter into rest.[See Sermons #866, Volume 15--REST--and #2090, Volume 35--A DELICIOUS EXPERIENCE.] Faith brings us into this rest, even as unbelief shut them out. 3. As He said, As Ihave sworn in My wrath they shall not enter into My rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. That is God's rest, the rest of a finished work--and into that rest many never enter. The work by which they might live forever, the finished work by which they might be saved, they refuse, and so they never enter into God's rest. 4, 5. For He spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, they shall not enter into My rest There are many professing Christians who do not understand what it is to rest because the work of salvation is done. They do not even seem to know that the work is done! They understand not that dying word of the Lord Jesus, "It is finished." They think there is something still to be added to His work to make it effectual. But it is not so. 6-8. Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, again He designates a certain day saying in David, Today after so long a time; as it is said, Today if you will hear the voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. We read of this in the 95th Psalm, where David was urging those to whom he was writing to hear God's voice, and not be like the unbelievers in the wilderness, so that the rest still remained to be entered upon by somebody. Joshua had not given them rest, or else David would not have spoken of entering into rest. 9, 10. There remains, therefore, a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God has from His. He says, "It is finished. I am no longer going to do my own works, I have done with them--I now trust the finished work of Christ--and that gives me rest. But as to all that wearied me, before, and made life a continual task and toil, it is now ended." God is not a cruel taskmaster to His people. He gives rest to those who trust in Him--and some of us have entered into that rest. 11. Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest lest any man fallafter the same example of unbelief. Let us not repeat the story of unbelieving Israel in our own lives. Let us not live and die in the wilderness, but let us go in and take possession of the promised land, the promised rest, in the power of the Holy Spirit! 12. For the Word of God is quick, and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This verse may be interpreted with reference to the Incarnate Word or to the Inspired Word--they are so closely united and related to one another that we need not attempt to separate them, but see Christ in the Word, and the Word in Christ--and learn that both Christ and the Word do for us all that the Apostle here declares! 13. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. However great a revealer the Word of God may be, however clear a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, the God who gave the Word is even more so! 14. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Shall we desert Him, now that He has gone into Heaven to represent us? Now that He has fought the fight and won the victory on our behalf, and gone up to Heaven as our Representative? God forbid! 15. 16. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.] Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need. as we are, yet without sin. [See Sermon #2143, Volume 36--THE TENDERNESS OF JESUS __________________________________________________________________ "A Song of My Beloved" (No. 3185) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." Song of Solomon 2:16,17. [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon parts of the same passage, are #1190, Volume 20--A SONG AMONG THE LILIES; #2442, Volume 41--"MY BELOVED IS MINE" and #2477, Volume 42--DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN.] IT has been well said that if there is a happy verse in the Bible, it is this one--"My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies." So peaceful, so full of assurance, so bursting with happiness and contentment is it, that it might well have been written by the same hand which penned the 23rd Psalm--"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters." The verse savors of Him who, just before He went to Gethsemane, said to His disciples, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you...In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Let us ring the silver bell of this verse again, for its notes are exquisitely sweet! "My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies." Yet there is a shadow in the latter part of the text. The prospect is exceedingly fair and lovely--earth cannot show its superior--but it is not entirely a sunlit landscape! There is a cloud in the sky which casts a shadow over the scene. It does not dim it--everything is clear and stands out sharply and brightly--"My Beloved is mine, and I am His." That is clear enough, yet I say again that it is not altogether sunlight--there are shadows--"Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away." There is also a mention of the "mountains of Bether"--the mountains of division--and to have anything like division is bitterness. I see here a paschal lamb, but I see bitter herbs with it. I see the lily, but I think I see it still among the thorns. I see the fair and lovely landscape of assured confidence, but a shadow, just a slight shadow, takes away some of its glory. And he who sees it has to still look for something yet beyond--"till the day breaks and the shadows flee away." The text seems to me to indicate just this state of mind. Perhaps some of you may at this time exemplify it. You do not doubt your salvation--you know that Christ is yours. You are certain of that, albeit you may not be at present enjoying the light of your Savior's Countenance. You know that He is yours, but you are not feeding upon that precious fact. You realize your vital interest in Christ, so much so that you have no shadow of a doubt that you are His and He is yours--but still, His left hand is not under your head, nor does His right hand embrace you. A shade of sadness is cast over your heart, possibly by affliction, certainly by the temporary absence of your Lord. So even while exclaiming, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His," you are forced to fall on your knees and pray, "Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of division." We may occupy the time profitably if God the Holy Spirit shall enable us in speaking upon these matters. We have here, first, a soul enjoying personal interest in the Lord Jesus Christ or, personal interest assured. We have, next, a soul taking the deepest interest in Christ and longing to know where He isor, the deepest interest evinced. And then we have a soul anxiously desiring present communion with Christ or, visible fellowship, conscious communion sought after. I. We have here, first, PERSONAL INTEREST IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST ASSURED. I do not mean to try to preach tonight. I should like my text to preach. And the way in which I should like it to preach would be to see how far we can get hold of it. How we can take it word by word and drink it in! Come to each word as to a well and sit down on the brink and drink a refreshing draught! Come to each word as to a palm tree and eat of the fruit thereof! The text begins with the words, "my Beloved." Come, Soul, can you venture to call Christ your Beloved? Certainly He should be beloved by you, for what has He not done for you? Favors rich and rare have been the gifts of His hands-- gifts purchased by His own most precious blood! If you do not love Him, my Heart, you are a most ungrateful thing, indeed! You are deceitful, rotten, loathsome above all things and desperately wicked, O my Heart, if Jesus, being your Savior, you do not love Him! He ought to be loved by the most of you here, for you profess to have been redeemed by His blood and adopted into the family of God through Him. You professed, when you were baptized, to be dead with Him-- and when you come to this Communion Table, tonight, you will profess that He is your meat and your drink, your life, your soul's stay and comfort! So, if you do not love Him, what shall I say to you? I will let you say it to yourselves-- "A very wretch, Lord!I should prove, Had I no love for Thee-- Rather than not my Savior love, Oh may I cease to be!" "My Beloved." He ought to be so and He has been so. There was a time when you and I did not love Him, but that time is over. We recollect the happy moment when first, by faith, we saw His face and heard Him say, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." Oh, the happiness of the day of conversion! You have not forgotten it. How alive and zealous some of you were then! In those first months when you were brought into the house of mercy and were washed and clothed, and had all your needs supplied out of the fullness that is treasured up in Christ Jesus, you did, indeed, love Him! You were not hypocrites, were you? And you used to sing with such force of voice as well as of heart-- "Jesus, I love Your charming name, 'Tis music to my ear-- Gladly would I sound it out so loud That earth and Heaven should hear!" Yes, we did love Him, but we cannot stop at that--we do l ove Him! With all our faults, imperfections and frailties, the Lord, who knows all things, knows that we do love Him. Sometimes, Brothers and Sisters, it is not easy to know whether we love Christ, or not. I have heard many remarks about the hymn containing that line-- "Do I love the Lord, or no?" but I believe that every honest Christian sometimes asks that question and I think one good way of getting it answered is to go and hear a faithful minister. Last Sabbath morning, I sat and listened to a very simple-minded preacher in a Wes-leyan Chapel. He was a most unsound Wesleyan, but a thoroughly sound Calvinistic Brother. And when he began to preach about the love of Jesus Christ, the tears streamed down my cheeks. I could not help letting them fall upon the sanded floor as I sat there--and I thought to myself, "Well, now, I do love the Savior." I had thought that perhaps I did not, but when I heard of Him and the preacher began to play upon my heartstrings, the music came! When I did but have Christ set before me, that woke up my soul if, indeed, it had been asleep before. When I heard of Him, though only in broken accents, I could not but feel that I did love Him and love Him better than life itself! I trust that it is true of many here that Christ is our "Beloved." But the text says, not only, "Beloved," but, "my Beloved is mine," as if the spouse took Him all to herself. It is the nature of love, you know, to monopolize. There is a remarkable passage in the third chapter of the prophecy of Hosea, which I need not quote except in outline, where the Prophet is bid to take one who had been unclean and unchaste, and to say to her, "You shall be for me, so will I also be for you." This was meant to be typical of what Christ does unto His Church. Our love goes gadding abroad unto 20 objects until Christ comes! And then He says, "You silly thing, now you shall fly abroad no more. Come, you dove, I will give you a new heart and my wounds shall be your dovecot, and you shall never wander away again. I will be altogether yours and you shall be altogether Mine--there shall be a monopoly between us. I will be married to you and you shall be married to Me. There shall be communion between us. I will be yours, you wandering sinner, as your Husband, and you shall be Mine." Every heart that has been subdued by Sovereign Grace takes Jesus Christ to be the chief Object of its love. We love our children, we love all our dear ones--God forbid that we should ever fail to love them--but, over and above them all, we must love our Lord. There is not one among us, I think, who would make it a matter of question which we would sooner part with--it would be a melancholy experience to have to follow the partner of one's bosom to the grave--but if it were a choice between wife and Savior, we could not deliberate for a moment! And as for the children of our love, whom we hope to see springing up to manhood and womanhood, it would be a sorry blow to us to have them laid low, but it would not take us a second to decide whether we should lose our Isaacs or lose our Jesus! No, we should not feel that they were lost if God took them from us, but we could not afford to think for a single instant of losing Him who is our everlasting All-in-All. The Christian, then, makes Christ his Beloved beyond all besides! Let other people love what they will, but as for him, he loves his Savior! He stands at the foot of the Cross and says, "This once-accursed tree is now the blessed bulwark of my confidence." He looks up to the Savior and He says, "Many see no beauty in Him that they should desire Him, but to me He is the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely." Let the scholar take his classics, let the warrior take his weapons of war, let the lover take his tender words and his amatory lyrics, but as for the Christian, he takes the Savior! He takes the Lord Jesus to be to his Alpha and Omega, the beginning, the end, the midst, the All-in-All--and in Him he finds his soul's solace! Some people have thought that there is a tautology in the text when it says, "My Beloved is mine." Why, of course, if He is my Beloved, He is mine--what need is there to say that? Well, those who are acquainted with the Christian's experience know that all Believers are subject to many doubts and fears, and that they feel that they cannot make their assurance too sure, so they like to double their expressions of assurance when they can, so each of them says, "My Beloved is mine." There is no tautology--the speaker is only giving two strokes of the hammer to drive the nail home! It is put so that there can be no mistake about it, so that the spouse means what she is saying, and intends others to also understand it! "My Beloved is mine." But I think it may mean more than that because we may love a thing, and yet it may not be our own. A man may call money his Beloved, yet he may never get it. He may pursue it, but not be able to reach it. The lover of learning may court the love he covets in all the academies of the world, yet he may not be able to win the attainment of his desires. Men may love, and on their dying beds may have to confess that their Beloved is not theirs--but every Christian has that upon which his heart is set--h! has Christ! He loves Him and possesses Him, too. Besides, dear Friends, you know that there is a time when men are not able to say that their Beloved is theirs. He who has been most wealthy or most wise can take neither his wealth nor his wisdom with him to the tomb. And when the sinner who died and was buried, wakes up in another world, Croesus will be as poor as Lazarus--and the wisest man without Christ will find himself devoid of all wisdom when he wakes up in the day of Resurrection! They may stretch out their hands, but they will only clutch emptiness and have to cry, "Our Beloved is not ours!" But when we shall wake up in the image of Christ and shall see Him--whether we shall fall asleep or whether we shall be changed, in either case we shall be present with Him--then shall each Believer say, "Yes, He is mine, still mine! I have Him, truly have Him! 'My Beloved is mine.'" I am inclined to think that if a man can truly say this, he can say the grandest thing that ever man said, "My Beloved is mine." "Look," says the rich man, "do you see far away beyond those stately oaks, yonder? Do you see as far as that church spire? Well, as far as you can see, that is all mine!" "Ah," says Death, as he lays his bony hand upon the man, "Six feet of earth, that is yours." "Look," says the scholar, as he points to the volumes on his shelves, "I have searched through all these and all the learning that is there is mine." "Ah," says Death, again, as he smites him with his cold hand, "who can tell the difference between the skull of the learned and the skull of the ignorant when the worm has emptied them both?" But the Christian, when he can point upwards and say, "I love my Savior," has a possession which is surely his forever! Death may come, and willcome, even to him, but all that Death can do is open the door to admit the Christian into still fuller enjoyment of that which was already his. "My Beloved is mine." So although I may have but little, I will be satisfied with it! And though I may be so poor that the world will pass me by and never notice me, yet I will live quite content in the most humble possible obscurity because, "my Beloved is mine," and He is more than all the world to me! "Whom have I in Heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside You." Now I want to stop and see whether we have really got as far as this. How many of us have said, "My Beloved is mine"? I am afraid there may be some poor Christian here who says, "Ah, I cannot say that." Now, my dear Hearer, I will ask you a question--Do you cling to Christ? Is He your only hope? If so, then He is yours! When the tide goes down, have you ever seen the limpets clinging to the rocks, or holding fast, perhaps, to the pier? Now, is that what your faith does with Christ? Do you cling to Him? Is He all your trust? Do you rest on Him? Well then, if you do, you do not need any other mark or sign--that one is quite enough--if you are clinging to Christ, then Christ is yours! She who did but touch the hem of His garment received the virtue which came out of Him. If you can cling to Him and, putting away every other confidence and renouncing all other trust, can say, "Yes, if I perish, I will cling to Christ alone," then do not let a single doubt come in to take away the comfort of your soul, for your Beloved is yours! Or perhaps, to put it another way, I may ask you--Do you love Jesus? Does His name wake up the echoes of your heart? See the little child in its mother's arms--you want to take it for a little while, but no, it will not come away from its mother. And if you still want to take it, it puts its little arms around its mother's neck and clings there. You could pull it away, perhaps, but you have not the heart to do so. It clings to its mother and that is the evidence to you that she is its mother. Do you cling to Christ in that way? And though you feel that the devil would pull you away from Christ if he could, do you still cling to Him as best you can? Do you remember what John Bunyan said about the prisoner whom Mr. Greatheart rescued from Giant Slay-Good's clutches? Mr. Feeble-Mind said, "When he had got me into his den, since I went not with him willingly, I believed I would come out alive again." Is that the case with you? Are you willing to have Christ if you can have Him? Are you unwilling to give Him up? Then you shall never give Him up! He is yours! Do not think that Christ needs a high degree of faith to establish a union between Himself and a sinner, for a grain of mustard seed of faith is sufficient for salvation, though certainly not for the highest degree of comfort. If you can but trust Christ and love Christ, then let not Satan stop you from saying, in the words of the text, "My Beloved is mine." Well, we have got so far, but we must remember the next words, "Iam His." Now this is true of every Christian. I am His by Christ having made me His. I am His by choice--He elected me. I am His by His Father's gift--God gave me to Him. I am His by purchase--He bought me with His blood. I am His by power, for His Spirit has won me. I am His by my own dedication, for I have vowed myself unto Him. I am His by profession, for I have joined with His people. I am His now by my own deliberate choice of Him, moved by His Grace to choose Him! Every Christian here knows that this is true--Christ is yours and you are Christ's. You are the sheep of His pasture. You are the partners of His love. You are members of His body. You are branches of His stem. You belong to Him! But there are some persons who get at a more practical meaning of this sentence, "I am His," than others do. You know that in the Church of Rome they have certain orders of men and women who devote themselves to various benevolent, charitable, or superstitious work--and who come to be especially considered the servants of the Lord Jesus. Now, we have never admired this form of brotherhoods and sisterhoods, but the spirit of the thing is just that which ought to enter into the heart of every Christian man and woman. You members of Christian Churches, if you are what you ought to be, are wholly consecrated to the Savior. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father" should be practiced by the whole Church of Christ, not merely by certain "orders" and then to be called "religious"! Every Christian woman is "a sister of mercy." We hear of men who belong to the order of Passionists, but every believing man ought to be of the order of Passionists, moved by the passion of the Savior to consecrate himself to the Savior's work! "I am His." I would like to have you take this for your motto, you professed Christians, if you can honestly do so. When you wake in the morning, breathe a short prayer while you are dressing, and before bowing the knee, feeling, "I am Christ's, and the first thing when I wake must be a word with Him and for Him." When you go abroad into the world, I want you to feel that you cannot trade as other men trade, that you cannot imitate their tricks and sharp practices because something whispers within your heart, "I am His! I am His! I am different from other men! They may do what they will, for their judgment is yet to come, but I am different from them, for I am Christ's." I wish all Christians felt that the life they live is given to them that they may glorify Christ by it. Oh, if the wealth that is in the Christian Church were but devoted to God's cause, there would never be any lack of the means of sustaining missions, or of building Houses of Prayer in the dark localities of London! If some rich men gave to the cause of Christ as some poor men and women that I know of, do, there would never be any lack in the treasury! I have sometimes rejoiced over some of you. I have had to bless God that I have seen in this Church, Apostolic piety. I have known men and women who, out of their little, have given almost all that they had and whose one objective in life has been to spend and be spent for Christ--and I have rejoiced over them. But there are others of you who have not given a tithe, no, not a fiftieth part of what you have, to the cause of Christ. Yet, perhaps, you stand up and sing-- "I love my God with zeal so great That I could give Him all." Stop that! Do not sing lies, for you know very well that you would not give Him all and do not give Him all! And you also know very well that you would think it the most absurd thing in all the world if you were to give Him all, or even to dream of doing so! Oh, for more consecration! We are, most of us, up to our ankles in our religion--very few of us are up to our knees. But oh, for the man that swims in it, who has got off the earth altogether and now swims in consecration, living wholly unto Him who loved him and gave Himself for him! I am afraid I shall have to stop here and ask the question, without getting any answer to it--How far can we get toward this second sentence, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His"? Do you feel as if you could not say that? Do you feel that you cannotsay it? Then let this be your prayer, "Lord, if I have not yet done all that I can do. If there is anything left which I might have done for You, and which I have not done, give me Grace that I may do all I can for You and give all I can to You!" There ought not to be an unconsecrated hair on a Christian's head, nor an unconsecrated drop of blood in his veins. Christ gave Himself wholly for us--He deserves that we should give ourselves wholly to Him! Where reserve begins, there Satan's dominion begins, for what is not Christ's is the property of the flesh, and the property of the flesh is the property of Satan! Oh, may the spiritual consecration be so perfect in each one of us that if we live, we may live unto Christ--or if we die, it may still be unto Him! I hope, though we may have to make many grave confessions, that we can still say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." If He stood here at this moment. If we could just clear a space and all of a sudden He should come and stand in our midst, with His wounds still visible, it would be so sweet to be able to then say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." But I am afraid that in His Presence we would have to say, "Jesus, forgive us. We are Yours, but we have not acted as if we were. We have stolen from You what was Your purchase and what You have the right to keep. From this day may we bear in our body the marks of the Lord Jesus and may we be wholly Yours!" II. I cannot say much upon the second part of the subject, for our time is already nearly gone. THE SOUL, BEING ASSURED OF ITS PERSONAL INTEREST IN CHRIST, LONGS TO KNOW WHERE HE IS. "Where is He?" asks the soul, and the answer comes from the text, "He feeds among the lilies." The worldling cares not where Christ is, but that is the Christian's one subject of thought-- "Where He is gone I gladly would know That I might seek and find Him, too." Jesus is gone, then, among the lilies--among those snow-white saints who bloom in the garden of Heaven--those golden lilies that are round about the Throne of God! He is there in-- "Jerusalem the golden With milk and honey blest"-- and it makes us long to be there that we may feed with Him among the lilies. But, still, there are many of His lilies here below, those virgin souls who-- "Wherever the Lamb does lead, From His footsteps never depart." If we would find Christ, we must get into communion with His people. We must came to the ordinances with His saints, for though He does not feed on the lilies, He feeds among them--and there, perhaps, we may meet with Him. You are here, tonight, dear Friends, many of you members of this Church, and some of you members of other Churches, and you have come to the place where Christ feeds His flock. Now that He feeds among the lilies, look for Him! At the Communion Table, do not merely partake of the elements, but look for Him! Look through the bread and the wine to His flesh and blood of which they are the symbols. Care not for my poor words, but for Him! And as to anything else of which you have been thinking, get beyond that unto Him. "He feeds among the lilies," so look for Him where His saints gather in His name! If you would meet with Him, look, too, in the blessed lily beds of Scripture. Each Book of the Bible seems to be full of lilies, yet you must never be satisfied merely with Scripture, but must get to the Christ of Scripture, the Word of God, the sum and substance of the Revelation of the Most High! "He feeds among the lilies." That is where He is to be found. Lord Jesus come and feed us among the lilies tonight! Come and feed our hungry souls and we will bless Your holy name! III. I must leave that part of the subject unfinished because I want to speak of THE SOUL, ASSURED OF CHRIST'S LOVE, DESIRING HIS CONSCIOUS PRESENCE. "Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." You observe that the soul speaks here of the day breaking. All of us who love the Lord have to look for daybreak, but the sinner has a night to come. Sinner, this is your day! And when you die, that will be your long and awful night-- unbroken by a single star of hope! But Christian, this is your night, the darkest period that you will ever have--but your day will break! Yes, the Lord will come in His Glory, or else you shall sleep in Him and then your day shall break. When the Resurrection trumpet shall sound, the Day of the Lord will be darkness and not light to the sinner, but to you it will be an everlasting daybreak! Perhaps at the present moment your life is wrapped in shadows. You are poor, and poverty casts a shadow. You have a sick one at home, or perhaps you are sickly in body--that is a shadow to you. And the reflection of your sin is another shadow, but when the day breaks the shadows will flee away! No poverty then! No sin then, which is better still! And-- "No groans to mingle with the songs Which warble from immortal tongues." Brothers and Sisters, it is so sweet to know that our best things are ahead. O Sinner, you are leaving your best things behind and you are going to your worst things! But the Christian is going to his best things. His turn is coming. He will have the best of it before long, for the shadows will flee away! No longer shall he be vexed, and grieved, and troubled, but he shall be eternally in the light, for the shadows shallflee away! While the shadows last, you perceive that the soul asks Jesus Christ to turn, as though He had withdrawn His face from her. She says, "Have you turned away from me, my Master? Then turn to me again. Have I grieved and vexed you by growing worldly, carnal, careless, reckless? Then turn to me, my Lord. Have You been angry with me? Oh, love me! Have You not said that Your anger may endure for a moment, but that Your love is everlasting? In a little wrath You have hidden Your face from me, but oh, now turn unto me!" You know that the proper state for a Christian to be in is not a state in which Christ turns away His smiling face, but the state in which Christ's love is beaming full in His face. I know that some of you think it is best for you to be in the shade but, Beloved, do not think so! You need not have shadows forever--you may have the Presence of Christ even now to rejoice in! And I would have you ambitious to get two heavens--a Heaven below and a Heaven above--Christ here and then Christ there! Christ here making you as glad as your heart can be and the Christ forever filling you with all the fullness of God. May we seek after that double blessing and may we get it! Then the soul says, "Turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." Dr. Thomson, who wrote The Land and the Book, tells us that he thinks he knows the mountains of Bether. It matters little whether he does or does not, but he has seen the roes and the harts skipping over the precipices. Certainly those wild creatures that are accustomed to craggy rocks will go where human footsteps would not dare to follow. And such is the love of Jesus Christ! Our love is easily turned aside. If we are badly treated, we soon forget those who seemed to be so fond of us. But Christ is like a roe or a young hart and He skips over the mountains of our sins and all the dividing mountains of our unbelief and ingratitude which might keep Him away. Like a young hart, He skips over them as though they were nothing at all, and so hastens to have communion with us. There is the idea of fleetness here--the roe goes swiftly, almost like the lightning's flash, and so does the Savior come to the soul in need! He can lift you up from the lowest state of spiritual sorrow to the highest position of spiritual joy--may He do so! Oh, cry to Him! Cry to Him! There is nothing that means so much to a mother than the voice of her child, and there is nothing that means so much to Christ than the voice of His dear people, so come to Him! Say, "Savior, show Your love to me. Dear Savior, do not hide Yourself from Your own flesh. I love you. I cannot live without You. I am grieved to think that I should have driven You away. Come to me! Come to me! Return to me and make me glad in Your Presence." Cry thus to Him and He will come to you! And you, poor Sinner, who have never comfortably seen His face--remember that there is life for a look at Him! God give you Grace, now, to trust Him--and may you see His face, here, so that you may see Him hereafter with everlasting joy! EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 THESSALONIANS1. [This exposition belongs to Sermon #3179, Volume 56--A COMPREHENSIVE BENEDICTION--but there was not sufficient space available for its insertion there.] Verse 1. Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians. Paul loved to associate his fellow workers with himself when writing to his Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Although he had a superior experience to theirs, he put Silvanus, and Timothy, his own son in the faith, with him as his fellow Evangelists in writing to "the church of the Thessalonians." 1. In God our Father. What a wonderful expression! The Church is in God as God is in the Church! What a blessed dwelling place for the people of God in all generations. "In God our Father." I, 2. And the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Apostle's usual salutation when he is writing to a Christian Church. When he is writing to a minister, it is, "Grace, mercy, and peace," for God's most prominent servants especially need great mercy on account of their heavy responsibilities and many shortcomings. But to the Church, Paul's greeting is, "Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." 3. We are bound to thank Godalways foryou, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith [See Sermons #205, Volume 4--A LECTURE FOR LITTLE-FAITH; #1856, Volume 31--THE HISTORY OF LITTLE-FAITH and #1857, Volume 31--THE NECESSITY OF GROWING FAITH] grows exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other abounds. What a kind of sacred network Christian love makes, intertwisting every believer in Christ with every other Believer! "The love of every one of you all toward each other abounds." Oh, that this might really be the case in all the Churches of our Lord Jesus Christ! 4, 5. So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. One of the clearest proofs of the judgment to come is to be found in the present sufferings of the saints through persecutions and tribulations, for if they, for the very reason that they love God, have to suffer here, there must be a future state and time for rectifying all this that is now so wrong! 5-7. That you may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which you suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us. For us who believe in Jesus there is a long Sabbath yet to come, to be spent with the Apostles and the other holy ones around the Throne of God and of the Lamb, even as Paul wrote to the Hebrews, "There remains, therefore, a rest to the people of God." 7-11. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the Presence of the Lord, and from the Glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. Therefore we also pray always for you. The very people in whom Paul gloried, and over whom he rejoiced, were those for whom he continued to pray! And he did well, for the highest state of Grace needs preserving--and there is a possibility of going beyond the utmost height to which any have yet attained. Hence Paul says, "Therefore we also pray always for you"-- II, 12. That our God would countyou worthy ofthis calling, and fulfill all the goodpleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power: that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the Grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. __________________________________________________________________ Peter's Shortest Prayer (No. 3186) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 2, 1873. "Lord, save me." Matthew 14:30. I am going to talk about the characteristics of this prayer in the hope that there may be many who have never yet prayed aright, who may make this their own prayer, tonight, so that from many a person here present this cry may silently go up, "Lord, save me." Where did Peter pray this prayer? It was not in a place set apart for public worship, or in his usual place for private prayer. He prayed this prayer just as he was sinking in the water! He was in great peril, so he cried out, "Lord, save me." It is well to assemble with God's people for prayer if you can, but if you cannot go up to His house, it matters little, for prayer can ascend to Him from anywhere in the world! It is well to have a special spot where you pray at home-- probably most of us have a certain chair by which we kneel to pray and we feel that we can talk to God most freely there. At the same time, we must never allow ourselves to become the slaves even of such a good habit as that--we must always remember that if we really want to find the Lord by prayer-- "Wherever we seek Him, He is found, And everyplace is hallowed ground." We may pray to God when engaged in any occupation if it is a lawful one. And if it is not, we have no business to be in it! If there is anything we do over which we cannot pray, we ought never dare to do it again. And if there is any occupation concerning which we have to say, "We could not pray while engaged in it," it is clear that the occupation is a wrong one. The habit of daily prayer must be maintained. It is well to have regular hours of devotion and to resort to the same place for prayer, as far as possible. Still, the spiritof prayer is better than the habitof prayer. It is better to be able to pray at all times than to make it a rule to pray at certain times and seasons. A Christian is more fully grown in Divine Grace when he prays about everything than he would be if he only prayed under certain conditions and circumstances. I always feel that there is something wrong if I go without prayer for even half an hour in the day. I cannot understand how a Christian can go from morning to evening without prayer. I cannot comprehend how he lives and how he fights the battle of life without asking the guardian care of God while the arrows of temptation are flying so thickly around him! I cannot imagine how he can decide what to do in times of perplexity, how he can see his own imperfections or the faults of others without feeling constrained to say, all day long, "O Lord, guide me, O Lord, forgive me! O Lord, bless my friend!" I cannot think how he can be continually receiving mercies from the Lord without saying, "God be thanked for this new token of His Grace! Blessed be the name of the Lord for what He is doing for me in His abounding mercy! O Lord, still remember me with the favor that You show unto Your people!" Do not be content, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, unless you can pray everywhere and at all times--and so obey the Apostolic injunction, "Pray without ceasing." I have already reminded you, dear Friends, that Peter prayed his prayer when he was in circumstances of imminent danger. Beginning to sink, he cried, saying, "Lord, save me!" "But," asks someone, "ought he not to have prayed before?" Of course he ought--but if he had not done so, it was not too late! Do not say concerning any trouble, "Now I am so deeply in it, I cannot go to God about it." Why not? "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" It would have been well if the disciples had prayed before the first rough breath of the tempest began to toss their little boat, yet it was not too late to pray when the vessel seemed as if it must go down. As long as you have a heart to pray, God has an ear to hear. Look at Peter--he is "beginning to sink." The water is up to his knees, it is up to his waist, it is up to his neck, but it is not yet too late for him to cry, "Lord, save me!" And he has no sooner said it, than the hand of Jesus is stretched out to catch him and to guide him to the boat. So, Christian, cry to God though the devil tells you it is no use to cry! Cry to God even if you are beneath the tempter's foot! Say to Satan, "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy--when I fall, I shall arise." But do not forget to cry to the Lord! Cry to God for your children even when they are most ungodly, when their ungodliness almost breaks your heart. Cry to God on behalf of those whom you are teaching in the Sunday school, even when you seem to think that their characters are developing in the worst possible form, still pray for them! Never mind though the thing you ask for them should appear to be an impossibility, for God "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." I would also say to any unconverted person who is here, under conviction of sin--Dear Friend, if you are beginning to sink, yet still pray. If your sins stare you in the face and threaten to drive you to despair, yet still draw near to God in prayer. Though it seems as if Hell had opened its mouth to swallow you up, yet still cry unto God. "While there's life, there is hope."-- "While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return"-- and the vilest sinner who returns shall find that God is both able and willing to save him! Never believe that lie of Satan that prayer will not prevail with God. Only go as the publican did, beating upon your breast and crying, "God be merciful to me a sinner," and rest assured that God is waiting to be gracious to you. I cannot help feeling that Peter's short, simple prayer was uttered in a most natural tone of voice--"Lord, save me." Let us always pray in just such a way as the Spirit of God dictates to us and as the deep sorrow and humiliation of our heart naturally suggest to us. Many men who pray in public get into the habit of using certain tones in prayer that are anything but natural. And I am afraid that some even in private fail to pray naturally. Any language that is not natural is bad--the best tone is that which a man uses when he is speaking earnestly, and means what he says--that is the right way to pray. Speak as if you meant it--do not whine it, or cant it, or intone it--but pour it out of your soul in the most simple, natural fashion that you can. Peter was in too great peril to put any fine language into his prayer! He was too conscious of his danger to consider how he might put his words together--he just expressed the strong desire of his soul in the simplest manner possible--"Lord, save me!" And that prayer was heard! And Peter was saved from drowning, just as a sinner will be saved from Hell if he can pray after the same fashion. I. Now, coming to Peter's prayer, itself, and suggesting that it is a suitable prayer for all who are able to pray at all, my first observation upon it is that IT WAS A VERY BRIEF PRAYER. There were only three words in it. "Lord, save me." I believe that the excellence of prayer often consists in its brevity. You must have noticed the extreme brevity of most of the prayers that are preserved in Scripture. One of the longest is the prayer of our Savior recorded by John which would, I suppose, have occupied about five minutes. And there is the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple which may have taken six minutes. Almost all the other prayers in the Bible are very short ones and, probably, in our public services, we pray far longer than all of them put together! This may, perhaps, be excused when there are many petitions to be presented by one person on behalf of a large congregation. But at our Prayer Meetings, where there are many to speak, I am certain that the longer the prayer is, the worse it is. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. The Spirit of God sometimes inspires a man in such a way that if he would keep on praying all night, we would be glad to join with him in that holy exercise! But, as a general rule, the Spirit of God does no such thing. There are some who pray longest when they have the least to say, and only go on repeating certain pious phrases which become almost meaningless by monotonous reiteration. Remember, dear Friends, when you are praying, whether in public or in private, that you have not to teach the Lord a system of theology--He knows far more about that than you do! You have no need to explain to the Lord all the experience that a Christian ought to have, for He knows that far better than you do! And there is no necessity for you always to go round all the various agencies and institutions and mission stations. Tell the Lord what is in your heart in as few words as possible--and so leave time and opportunity for others to do the same. I wonder if anyone here ever says, "I have no time for prayer." Dear Friend, dare you leave your house in the morning without bowing the knee before God? Can you venture to close your eyes at night and wear the image of death, with- out first commending yourself to the keeping of God during the hours of unconsciousness in sleep? I do not understand how you can live such a careless life as that! But, surely, you did not really mean that you had no time to offer such a prayer as Peter's, "Lord, save me." How much time does that take? Or this--"God be merciful to me a sinner." If you realized your true condition in God's sight, you would find time for prayer somehow or other, for you would feel that you must pray! It never occurred to Peter, as he was beginning to sink, that he had no time for prayer. He felt that he must pray--his sense of danger forced him to cry to Christ, "Lord, save me." And if you feel as you should feel, your sense of need will drive you to prayer and you will never again say, "I have no time for prayer." It is not a matter of time so much as a matter of heart--if you have the heart to pray, you will find the time. I would urge you to cultivate the habit of praying briefly all day. I have told you before of the Puritan who, in a debate, was observed to be taking notes. But when they were afterwards examined, it was found that there was nothing on the paper except these words, "More light, Lord! More light, Lord! More light, Lord!" He needed light upon the subject under discussion and, therefore, he asked the Lord for it! That is the way to pray. During the day, you can pray, "Give me more Grace, God. Subdue my temper, Lord. Tell me, O my God, what to do in this case! Lord, direct me. Lord, save me." Pray thus and you will be imitating the good example of brevity in prayer which our text sets before you. II. Notice next, that brief as Peter's prayer was, IT WAS WONDERFULLY COMPREHENSIVE AND ADAPTED FOR USE ON MANY DIFFERENT OCCASIONS. "Lord, save me." It covered all the needs of Peter at that time, and he might have continued to use it as long as he lived. When his Master told him that Satan desired to have him that he might sift him as wheat, he might well have prayed, "Lord, save me." When he had denied his Master and had gone out and wept bitterly, it would have been well for him to pray, "Lord, save me." When he was afterwards journeying to and from preaching the Gospel, he could still pray, "Lord, save me." And when, at last, he was led out to be crucified for Christ's sake, he could hardly find a better prayer than this with which to close his life--"Lord, save me." Now, as Peter found this prayer so suitable for him, I commend it to each one of you. Have you been growing rich lately? Then you will be tempted to become proud and worldly. So pray, "Lord, save me from the evils that so often go with riches. You are giving me this wealth, help me to be a good steward of it and not to make an idol of it." Or are you getting poor? Is your business proving a failure? Are your little savings almost gone? Well, there are perils connected with poverty, so pray, "Lord, save me from becoming envious or discontented. Let me be willing to be poor rather than do anything wrong in order to get money." Do you, dear Friend, feel that you are not living as near to God as you once did? Is the chilling influence of the world having its effect on you? Then pray, "Lord, save me." Have you fallen into some sin which you fear may bring disgrace upon your profession? Well then, before that sin grows greater, cry, "Lord, save me." Have you come to a place where your feet have well-near slipped? The precipice is just before you and you feel that if some mightier power than your own does not interpose, you will fall to your serious hurt, if not to your destruction. Then at once breathe the prayer, "Lord, save me." I can commend this prayer to you when you are upon the stormy sea, but it will be equally suitable to you upon the dry land--"Lord, save me!" I can commend it as suitable to you when you are near the gates of death, but it is just as much adapted to you when you are in vigorous health--"Lord, save me!" And if you can add to the prayer, "And, Lord, save my children, and my kinsfolk, and my neighbors," it will be even better! Still, for yourself, personally, it is an admirable prayer to carry about with you wherever you go. "Lord, save me." III. Peter's prayer had a third excellence, IT WAS VERY DIRECT. It would not have done for Peter, just then, to have used the many titles which rightly belong to Christ, or to have been asking for a thousand things. But he went straight to the point of his immediate need and cried, "Lord, save me." When one of our dear friends, who has lately gone to Heaven, was very ill, one of his sons prayed with him. He began in a very proper way, "Almighty Father, Maker of Heaven and earth, our Creator"--but his sick father stopped him and said, "My dear boy, I am a poor sinner and I need God's mercy. Say, 'Lord, save him.'" He wanted his son to get to the point. And I can sympathize with him! Often, when some of our dear Brothers and Sisters have been praying here, and have been beating about the bush, I have wished that they would come to the point and ask for what they really needed. They have kept on walking round the house, instead of knocking at the door and seeking to enter! Peter's prayer shows us how to go directly to the very heart of the matter. "Lord, save me." Many persons fail to receive answers to their prayers because they will not go straight to God and confess the sins that they have committed. There was a member of a Christian Church who had, on one occasion, fallen very shamefully through drink. He was very penitent and he asked his pastor to pray for him--but he would not say what his sin had been. The pastor prayed, and then told the Brother to pray. The poor man said, "Lord, you know that I have erred, and done wrong," and so on, making a sort of general confession, but that brought him no peace of mind. He felt that he could not go away like that, so he knelt down again, and said, "Lord, you know that I was drunk. It was a shameful sin that I committed, but I am truly grieved for it. O Lord, forgive me, for Jesus' sake!" And before his prayer was finished, he had found peace because he had plainly confessed his sin to God and had not sought to hide it any longer. You remember that David could get no peace until he came to the point and prayed, "Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, You God of my salvation." Before that, he had tried to smother his great sin--but there was no rest for his conscience until he had made a full confession of his guilt! And after that he could say, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." Let our prayers, whether for ourselves or others, and especially our confessions of sin, go straight to the point--and not go beating about the bush. If any of you have been using forms of prayer which have not obtained for you any answers to your supplications, put them all aside, and just go and tell the Lord plainly what you need. Your prayer will then probably be something like this, "O God, I am a lost sinner! I have been careless about Divine things. I have listened to the Gospel, but I have not obeyed it. Lord, forgive me, save me, make me Your child and let me and my household, too, be Yours forever." That is the way to pray so that God will hear and answer you. IV. Another characteristic of Peter's prayer was that IT WAS A VERY SOUND DOCTRINAL PRAYER. "Lord, save, me." Peter does not appear to have had any idea of saving himself from drowning. He does not seem to have thought that there was sufficient natural buoyancy about him to keep him afloat or that he could swim to the ship. But, "beginning to sink, he cried, 'Lord, save me.'" One of the hardest tasks in the world is to get a man to give up all confidence in himself and from his heart, pray, "Lord, save me." Instead of doing that, he says, "O Lord, I do not feel as I ought. I need to feel my need more, I need to feel more joy, I need to feel more holiness." You see, he is putting feelings in place of faith! He is, as it were, laying down a track along which he wants God to walk instead of walking in the way which God has marked out for all who desire to be saved! Another man is seeking to reform himself and so to make himself fit for Heaven. And he prays in harmony with that idea and, of course, gets no answer. I like to hear such a prayer as this, "O Lord, I cannot save myself and I do not ask You to save me in any way that I prescribe. Lord, save me anyway, only do save me! I am satisfied to be saved by the precious blood of Jesus. I am satisfied to be saved by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. I know I must be born-again if I am ever to enter Heaven--quicken me, O you ever-blessed Spirit! I know I must give up my sins. Lord, I do not want to keep them--save me from them by Your Grace, I humbly entreat You. I know that only You can do this work. I cannot lift even a finger to help You in it, so save me, Lord, for Your great mercy's sake!" This is sound doctrinal Truth of God--salvation all of Grace, not of man, nor by men--"not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." This is salvation according to the eternal purpose of God, by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit, through the substitutionary Sacrifice of Jesus Christ! When a sinner its willing to accept salvation on God's terms, then the prayer shall ascend acceptably to the Most High! "Lord, save me." V. Notice, also, that PETER'S PRAYER WAS A VERY PERSONAL ONE. "Lord, save me." Peter did not think of anybody else just then--when a soul is under concern about its eternal interests, it had better at first confine its thoughts to itself and pray, "Lord, save me." Yes, and in the Christian's life, there will come times when he had better, for a while, forget all others and simply pray, "Lord, save me." Here we are, a great congregation gathered together from very various motives and, perhaps, some here who are not yet personally interested in Christ-- yet we are vaguely hoping that God will bless somebody in this assembly. But if the Holy Spirit shall begin to work upon some individual heart and conscience, the convicted one will begin to pray, "Lord, save me. I hear of many others being brought to Jesus but, Lord, save me. My dear sister has been converted and has made a profession of her faith but, Lord, save me. I had a godly mother, who has gone Home to Glory--and my dear father is walking in Your fear--let not their son be a castaway. Lord, save me!" I entreat everyone here to pray this personal prayer, and I beg you who do love the Lord to join me in pleading with Him that it may be so. I see some little girls over there. Will not each one of you, my dear children, pray this prayer? I pray the Holy Spirit to move you to cry, "Lord, save little Annie" or, "Lord, save little Mary." And may you boys be equally moved to pray, "Lord, save Tom" or, "Lord, save Harry." Pray for yourself in just that simple way and who knows what blessing may come to you? Then you mothers will surely not let your children pray for themselves while you remain prayerless--will not each one of you pray, "Lord, save me"? And you working men, whom I am so glad to see at a week-night service, do not go away without presenting your own personal petitions! The Apostle Peter had to pray for himself. The most eminent servants of God had to pray for themselves and you must pray for yourselves. If all the saints of God were to pray for you with one united voice as long as you live--you would not be saved unless you, also, cried to God for yourself! Religion is a personal matter. There is no such thing as religion by proxy! You must repent for yourselves and pray for yourselves--and believe for yourselves if you would be saved! May God grant that you may do so! VI. I want you to notice, next, that PETER'S PRAYER WAS A VERY URGENT ONE. "Lord, save me." He did not say, "Lord, save me tomorrow." Or, "Lord, save me in an hour's time." He was "beginning to sink." The hungry waves had opened their mouths to swallow him and he would soon be gone! He had only time to cry, "Lord, save me," but he no doubt meant, "Lord, save me now, for I am in danger of being drowned. Lord, save me now, for if You should delay, I shall sink to the bottom of the sea." "And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him," and so saved him. There are many people who would like Jesus to save them, but when? Ah, that is the point which they have not settled yet. A young man says, "I should like Christ to save me when I grow older, when I have seen a little more of life." You mean when you have seen a great deal more of death, for that is all you will see in the world--there is no real life except that which is in Christ Jesus! Many a man in middle life has said, "I mean to be a Christian before I die, but not just yet." He has been too busy to seek the Lord, but death has come to him without any warning and, busy or not, he has had to die quite unprepared. There is hope for a sinner when he prays, "Lord, my case is urgent, save me now! Sin, like a viper, has fastened itself upon me, Lord, save me now from its deadly venom! I am guilty and already condemned because I have not believed in Jesus. Lord, save me now, save me from condemnation, save me from the damning sin of unbelief! Lord, I know I am now upon the brink of death and I am in danger of Hell as well as of death as long as I am unforgiven. Therefore, be pleased to let the wheels of Your chariot of Mercy hurry and save me even now O Lord!" I have known some who have been so deeply under the influence of the Holy Spirit, that they have knelt down by their bedsides and said, "We will never give sleep to our eyes, or slumber to our eyelids, till we have found the Savior." And before long they have found Him. They have said, "We will wrestle in prayer until our burden of sin is gone." And when they have reached that determination, it has not been long before they have obtained the blessing they desire. When nothing else succeeds, importunity will surely prevail! When you will not take a denial from God, He will not give you a denial! But as long as you are content to be unsaved, you will be unsaved. When you cry with all the urgency of which you are capable, "I must have Jesus or die! I am hungering, thirsting, pining, panting after Him as the hart pants after the water-brooks," it shall not be long before you clasp that priceless treasure to your heart and say, "Jesus is my Savior! I have believed in Him." VII. Now, lastly, I must remind you that PETER'S PRAYER WAS AN EFFECTUAL ONE. "Lord, save me," and Jesus did save him. There may be comfort to some here present in the thought that although this was the prayer of a man in trouble, and a man in whom there was a mixture of unbelief and faith, yet it succeeded. Imperfections and infirmities shall not prevent prayer from speeding if it is but sincere and earnest. Jesus said to Peter, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Which shows that he doubted although there was some faith in him, for he believed that Christ could save him from a watery grave. Many of us, also, are strange mixtures, even as Peter was. Repentance and hardness of heart can each occupy a part of our being--and faith may be in our heart, together with a measure of unbelief--even as it was with the man who said to Jesus, "Lord, I believe--help You my unbelief." Do any of you feel that you need to pray, and yet cannot pray? You would believe in Jesus, but there is another law in your members which keeps you back. You would pray an effectual prayer, like that of Elijah, never staggering at the promise through unbelief but, somehow or other--you cannot tell why--you cannot attain to that prayer. Yet you will not give up praying. You feel that you cannot do that. You still linger at the Mercy Seat even when you cannot prevail with God in prayer. Ah, dear Soul, it is a mercy that God does not judge your prayer by what it is in itself--He judges it from another point of view altogether! Jesus takes it, mends it, adds to it the merit of His own precious blood and then, when He presents it to His Father, it is so changed that you would scarcely recognize it as your petition! You would say, "I can hardly believe that is my prayer, Christ has so greatly altered and improved it." It has happened to you as it sometimes happens to poor people who are in trouble--as it didhappen to one whom I knew some time ago. A good woman wanted me to send in a petition to a certain government office concerning her husband, who was dead, and for whose sake she wanted to get some help. She drew up the petition and brought it to me. About one word in ten was spelt correctly and the whole composition was unfit to send. She wanted me to add my name to it and post it for her. I did so, but I first re-wrote the whole petition, keeping the subject matter as she put it, but altering the form and wording of it. That is what our good Lord and Master does for us--only in an infinitely higher sense--He re-writes our petition, sets His own signature to it--and when His Father sees that, He grants the request at once! One drop of Christ's blood upon a prayer must make it prosper! Go home, therefore, you who are troubled with doubts and fears, you who are vexed by Satan, you who are saddened by the recollection of your own past sins--notwithstanding all this--go to God, and say, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before You," and ask for His forgiveness, and His forgiveness you shall receive! Keep on praying in such a fashion as this, "Lord, save me for Jesus' sake! Jesus, You are the Savior of sinners. Save me, I beseech You. You are mighty to save. Lord, save me! You are in Heaven pleading for transgressors. Lord, plead for me!" Do not wait till you get home, but pray just where you are sitting, "Lord save me." May God give Grace to everyone here to pray that prayer from the heart, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 6:5-34. Verse 5. And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. We ought to pray in the synagogue and we may pray at the corners of the streets--but it is wrong to do it to "be seen of men," that is, to be looking for some present reward in the praises that fall from human lips. 5-7. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. They seem to attribute a sort of power to a certain form of words, as if it were a charm--and they repeat it over and over again. Not only do the poor Muslims and heathens "use vain repetitions," but the members of the Roman Catholic and other churches that I might name do the same thing--words to which they attach but very slight meaning, and into which they put little or no heart--are repeated by them again and again, as if there could be some virtue in the words themselves! Let it not be so with you, Beloved. Pray as long as you like in secret, but do not pray long with the idea that God will hear you simply because you are a long while at your devotions. 8. Be not you, therefore, like them: for your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him. He does not need to be informed, nor even to be persuaded! Mere words are of no value in His ears. If you must use many words, ask men to lend you their ears, for they may have little else to do with them. God cares not for words only, it is the thought, the desire of the heartto which He always has regard. 9. After this manner therefore pray you. Here is a model prayer for you to copy as far as it is suited to your case-- 9-13. Our Father in Heaven, [See Sermon #312, Volume 4--THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD.] Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven. [See Sermon #1778, Volume 30--A HEAVENLY PATTERN FOR OUR EARTHLY LIFE.] Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, [See Sermon #1402, Volume 24--"LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION".] but deliver us from evil: for Yours is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever Amen. And then, as if there was one part of the prayer that would be sure to arrest the attention of His hearers, namely, that concerning forgiving our debtors, the Savior makes the following remarks-- 14, 15. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Therefore, in order to succeed in prayer, we must have a heart purged from a spirit of revenge and from all unkindness! We must, ourselves, be loving and forgiving, or we cannot expect that God will hear our supplications when we come to crave His forgiveness. 16. Moreover when you fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast.They seemed to say to everyone who looked at them, "We have been so engrossed with our devotions that we have not found time even to wash our faces." But the Savior says to His followers, "Do not imitate those hypocrites! Do not make public your private religious exercises--perform them unto God--not unto men. As for those hypocrites"-- 16. Verily I say unto you, They have theirreward. And a poor reward it is. 17, 18. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face; that you appear not unto men to fast, but unto your Father, which is in secret: and your Father, which sees in secret, shall reward you openly. May God give us that modest, unselfish spirit which lives unto Him and does not want to walk in the sham light of men's esteem! What matters it, after all, what men think of us? The hypocrite proudly boasts if he wins a little praise from his fellows--but what is it except so much wind? If all men should speak well of us, all that we would gain would be this, "Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets." 19, 20. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.Christ here first teaches us how to pray, and then teaches us how to really live. He turns our thoughts from the objective in life which allures and injures so many, but which is, after all, an objective unworthy of our search. And He bids us seek something higher and better--"Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven." 21. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.It is sure to be so--your heart will follow your treasure. Send it away, therefore, up to the everlasting hills! Lay up treasure in that blessed land before you go there yourself! 22, 23. The lamp of the body is the eye: if, therefore, your eye is good, your whole body shall be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! [See Sermon #335, Volume 6--A SINGLE EYE AND SIMPLE FAITH.] If your eye is brooked up with gold dust, or if you are living for self and this world, your whole life will be a dark life--and the whole of your being will dwell in darkness. "But," says someone, "may I not live for this world and the next, too?" Listen-- 24. No man can serve two masters.He may serve two individuals, who have conflicting interests but they cannot both be his masters. 24. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.Either the one or the other will be master! They are so opposed to each other, they will never agree to a divided service. "You cannot serve God and mammon." It is the Lord Jesus Christ who says this, so do not attempt to do what He declares is impossible! 25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life It should be, "Take no distracting thought for your life"-- 25. What you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment?You are obliged to leave your life with God. Why not leave with Him all care about your food and your raiment? 26. Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?Do you believe that after all your earnest labor and your industry, God will permit you to starve, when these creatures, that labor not, are fed? 27-29. Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? And why do you worry about your raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was never arrayed like one of these. Christ asks them whether, by worrying, they can add a single cubit to their lives, for I take his question to mean, whether they could, by any means, make the standard of existence any longer than it was. They could not do so--they could shorten it, and very often worrying has brought men to their graves. Then Christ bade them note how the lilies grow, so that even Solomon could not excel them for beauty! 30-33. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, worry not, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, How shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for our heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek you first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. __________________________________________________________________ The Great Pot and the Twenty Loaves (No. 3187) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Set on the great pot." 2 Kings 4:38. "Then bring meal." 2 Kings 4:41. "Give unto the people that they may eat." 2 Kings 4:42. WE scarcely need go over the story. There was a shortage of food in the land. Elisha came to the college of the Prophets, which consisted of about a hundred Brothers and found that they were in need as the result of the famine. While he was teaching the young men, he observed that they looked as if they needed food and he found that there was none in the house. Elisha, therefore, ordered his servant to take the great pot, which generally stood upon long legs over the fire, and make a nourishing soup in it. True, there was nothing to put in this pot, but he believed that God would provide. It was for him to set the pot over the fire, and it was for the Lord to fill it! Some of the young men were not so sure as Elisha was that God could fill it without their help--and one, with great eagerness, went out to gather something from the fields. His help turned out to be of small service, for he brought home poisonous cucumbers, cut them up and threw them into the broth. And, lo, when they began to pour it out, it was acrid to the taste, gave them a terrible colic, and made them cry out, "There is death in the pot!" Then the Prophet said, "Bring meal." This was put into the steaming caldron, the poison was neutralized, the food was made wholesome and the students were satisfied. This miracle was in due time followed up by another. A day or two afterwards, the young Prophets were still needing food and the larder was again empty. Just at that time, a devout man comes from a little distance, bringing a present for the Prophet which consisted of a score of loaves similar to our penny rolls. The Prophet bids his servitor set this slender quantity before the college. He is astonished at the command to feed a hundred hungry men with so little, but he is obedient to it. And while he is obeying, the little food is multiplied so that the hundred men eat and are perfectly satisfied--and there is some left! I believe there are lessons to be learned from these two miracles and I shall try to bring out these lessons in three forms. First, as they shall relate to the present condition of religion in our land. Secondly, as they may be made to relate to the condition of backsliders. And thirdly, as they may afford comfortable direction to seeking sinners. I. First, then, our text, as in a parable, sets forth in a figure our course of action in connection with RELIGION IN THIS LAND. And first, there is a great need of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have not a hundred men famishing nowadays, but hundreds of thousands--and even hundreds of millions in this great world who are perishing for lack of heavenly food! The Church must feed the people. It is not for us to say, "We hope they will be saved," and leave it there. Or set it down as a work that cannot be done till the millennium and, therefore, we have nothing to do with it. Our business is in the strength of God to grapple with the present condition of things! Here are the millions famishing--shall we let them famish? I remember seeing similar sentences under the likeness of the late Richard Knill--"The heathen are perishing! Shall we let them perish?" "But," says one, "how can we possibly supply them with food?" Look what Elisha did--the people were hungry and there was no food in hand, except a little meal, yet he said, "Set on the great pot." Faith always does as much as she can--if she cannot fill the pot, she can, at any rate, put it on the fire. If she cannot find meat for the pottage, she pours in the water, lights the fire--and prays and waits. Some have not this faith, nowadays, and until we have it, we cannot expect the blessing! Thus says the Lord, "Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitation." Why? Because, "you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left." Few will regard such a summons as this. The feeble faith of our time finds it difficult to enlarge the tent even after the increase has come and the people are there to fill it! Great faith would enlarge the tent and expect the Lord to keep His promise and multiply us with men as with a flock! The Church of God greatly needs not foolish confidence in herself, which would lead her to be Quixotic, but simple confidence in God which would enable her to be Apostolic, for she would go forth believing that God would be with her and great things would be accomplished by her! She would open her mouth wide, expecting that God would fill it, and fill it He would! Faith does what she can, and waits for her Lord to do what He can. Brother, Sister, what is your faith doing? Are you putting a great pot on the fire in expectation of a blessing? "Set on the great pot," said the Prophet, "and boil the pottage." He was not in jest. He meant what he said. Often, when we get as far as setting on the pot, it is not for boiling pottage! We feel the desire to carry out spiritual work, but we do not come to practical action as those who work for immediate results. Oh, for practical common sense in connection with Christianity! Oh, for reality in connection with the idea of faith! When a man goes to his business to make money, he goes there with all his wits about him--but frequently when men come to prayer and Christian service--they leave their minds behind and do not act as if they were transacting real business with God. Elisha, when he said, "Set on the great pot," expected God to fill it! He was sure it would be so and he waited in all patience till dinner was ready. O Church of God, set on the pot, and the great pot, too! Say, "The Lord will bless us." Get your granary cleaned out, that the Lord may fill it with His good corn! Put the grist into the hopper and look for the wind to turn the sails of the mill. O you doubters, throw up the windows that the fresh breeze of the Divine Spirit may blow in on your sickly faces! Expect that God is about to send the manna and have your omers ready! We shall see greater things than these if we awake to our duty and our privilege! It is the Church's business to feed the world with spiritual bread--she can only do so by faith-- and she ought to act in faith in reference to it! The faith of Elisha was not shared by all the Brothers. There were some who must go and fill the pot, as we have said, but they gathered the gourds of the colocynth vine and poisoned the whole mess! And it became necessary to find an antidote for the poison. We here see our second duty--the Church must provide an antidote for the heresies and poisonous doctrines of the time. There has entered into the public ministry of this country a deadly poison. We may say of the Church in general, "O you man of God, there is death in the pot!" Zealous persons, whose zeal for God is not according to knowledge, have gone about and gathered the gourds of the wild vine. I think I could tell you what kind of gourds they are--some of them are very pretty to look at, and they grow best on the seven hills of Rome, they are called "Ritualistic performances." These they shred into the pot. There are gourds of another kind, very delicate and dainty in appearance, which are known as "liberal views" or, "modern thought." As a philosopher once talked of extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, so the wild gourds are said to consist of "sweetness and light," but the light is darkness and the sweetness is deadly! They have shred these into the pot and nobody can taste the doctrinal mixture which is served out from some pulpits without serious risk of soul-poisoning for, "there is death in the pot." What Scriptural doctrine is there which men do not deny and yet call themselves Christians? What Truth of God is there which our fathers held which is endorsed by those who think themselves the leaders of advanced thought? Have they not polluted the entire sanctuary of truth and lifted up their axes against all the carved work of the Temple? On the other hand, have we not, almost everywhere, put aside Christ for the crucifix? And the blessed Spirit thrust into a corner by the so-called "sacraments"? Is not the outward made to drown the inward, and is not the precious Truth of the Gospel overlaid by the lies of Rome? There is death in the pot! How is the Church to meet it? I believe it is to imitate Elisha. We need not attempt to get the wild gourds out of the pot--they are cut too small and are too cunningly mixed up. They have entered too closely into the whole mass of teaching to be removed. Who shall extract the leaven from the leavened loaf? What then? We must look to God for help and use the means indicated here. "Bring meal" Good wholesome food was cast into the poisonous stuff and, by God's gracious working, it killed the poison. And the Church must cast the blessed Gospel of the Grace of God into the poisoned pottage--and then false doctrine will not be able to destroy men's souls as it now does. We shall not do much good by disputing, denouncing and refusing to associate with people. I call such things barking, but preaching the Gospel is biting. The surest remedy for false doctrine is preaching the Truth of God. Christianity is the cure for Popery! Preach up Christ and down go the priests! Preach Grace and there is an end of "masses." I am more and more persuaded that the good old Calvinistic truths which are now kept in the background, are the great Krupp guns with which we shall blow to pieces the heresies of the day if once more they are plainly and persistently preached in harmony with the rest of revealed Truths of God! Is the remedy too simple? Do not, therefore, despise it! God be thanked that it issimple, for then we shall not be tempted to give the glory to man's wit and wisdom when the good result is achieved. In this work you can all help, for if only meal is needed, a child may bring his little handful. One man may contribute more than another, but the humblest may put in his pinch of meal, and even the most common servitor in the house may assist in this work. Spread the Gospel! Spread the Gospel! Spread the Gospel! A Society for Prosecuting Puseyites, will that do the work? Appeals to Parliament, will they be effectual? Let those who choose to do so cry to lawyers and Parliaments, but as for us, we will preach the Gospel! If I could speak with a voice of thunder, I would say to those friends who are for adopting other means to stop the spread of error, "You waste your time and strength! Give all your efforts to the preaching of the Gospel. Lift up Christ and lay the sinner low! Proclaim justification by faith, the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and the grand old doctrines of the Reformation and your work will be done--but by no other means." "Bring meal," said the Prophet, and our word at this time is, "Preach the Truth of God as it is in Jesus." Some of the grossest errors of our own day may yet be overruled by God for the promotion of His Truth. There are men who believe in Sacramentarianism who love the Lord Jesus very ardently. When I read some of the poetry of this school, I cannot but rejoice to see that the writers love my Lord and Master--and it strikes me that if the whole Gospel could be put before them, we might expect to see some of them become noble preachers of the Truth of God and, perhaps, save the orthodox from dead dry doctrinalism by reviving a more direct devotion to the Savior. Perhaps they will not, with us, talk often of justification by faith, but if they extol the merit of the precious blood and wounds of Jesus, it will come to much the same thing. For my part, I care little for the phraseology, if essential Truths of God are really taught and the Lord Jesus is exalted! Some of the doubters, too--"thinkers"--as they prefer to be called, if our Lord renewed them by His Spirit, might bring out the old Truths with greater freshness than our more conservative minds are able to do. I love to hear those who have known the vanity of error speak out the Truth! They are more sympathetic towards the tempted and are generally more conversant with the grounds of our faith. Who knows? Who knows? I have a hope which may not prove a dream. I hope that thousands are feeling their way into the Light of God and will come forth soon. Let us not despair, but keep to our work which is Gospel preaching, telling about Jesus and His dear love, the power of His blood, the prevalence of His plea and the Glory of His Throne and who knows but that a multitude of the priests may believe, and the philosophers, also, may become babes in Christ's school? "Bring meal," and thus meet the poison with the antidote! Another lesson comes from the second miracle. Let us look at it. The loaves brought to Elisha were not quartern loaves like ours, but either mere wafers of meal which had been laid flat on a hot stone and so baked, or else small rolls of bread. That store was but little, yet Elisha said, "Feed the people," and they were fed. That is the third lesson, the Church is to use all she has and trust in God to multiply her strength. Nowadays, individuals are apt to think they may leave matters to Societies, but this is highly injurious. We should, everyone, go forth to work for God and use our own talents, be they few or many. Societies are not meant to enable us to shirk our personal duty under the idea that our strength is small. Little Churches are apt to think that they cannot do much and, therefore, they do not expect a great blessing. What can these few cakes do towards feeding a hundred men? They forget that God can multiply them! Do you limit the Holy One of Israel? Do you think He needs our numbers? Do you think He is dependent upon human strength? I tell you, our weakness is a better weapon for God than our strength! The Church in the Apostolic times was poor and mostly made up of unlearned and ignorant men--but she was filled with power. What name that would have been famous in ordinary history do you find among her first members? Yet that humble Church of fishermen and common people shook the world! The Church nowadays is, for the most part, too strong, too wise, too self-dependent to do much. Oh, that she were more God-reliant! Even those whom you call great preachers will be great evils if you trust to them! This I know--we ought never to complain of weakness, or poverty, or lack of prestige--but should consecrate to God what we have. "Oh, but I can scarcely read a chapter!" Well, read that chapter to God's Glory! You who cannot say more than half-a-dozen words to others? Say that little in the power of the Spirit! If you cannot do more than write a letter to a friend about his soul, or give away a tract to a stranger in the streets, do it in God's name! Brother, Sister, do what you can and in doing this, God will strangely multiply your power to do good and cause great results to flow from small beginnings. Active faith is needed--and if this is richly present, the Lord in whom we trust will do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask, or even think! II. And now, briefly, but very earnestly, I desire to speak TO BACKSLIDERS. In all our Churches there are members who are no better than they should be. It is very questionable whether they ought to be allowed to be members at all--they have gone very far back from what they used to be, or ought to be. They scarcely ever join the people of God in public prayer, though they once professed to be very devout. Private prayer is neglected and family prayer given up. Is it not so with some to whom I address myself? Have you not lost the Light of God's Countenance and gone far away from happy communion with Christ? It is not for me to charge you--let your own consciences speak! I hope that you are now beginning to feel an inward hunger and to perceive that your backslidings have brought famine to you. What shall I bid you do? Go and attempt your own restoration by the works of the Law? By no means--I bid you bring your emptiness to Christ and look for His fullness. Yours is a great empty pot--set it on the fire and cry to God to fill it! Jesus says to lukewarm Laodicea, "If any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him." "Alas," says the Laodicean, "I have nothing in the house!" Your confession is true, but when our Lord comes to sup, He brings His supper with Him! He stands at the door of every backslider and knocks. Will you let Him in? "Oh," you say, "I wish He would enter." Dear Brothers and Sisters, open your heart, now, just as you did at the first when, as a poor sinner you went to Him. Say to him, "Blessed Lord, there is nothing in me but emptiness, but here is the guest chamber. Come in all Your love and sup with me, and let me sup with You. I am nothing, come and be my All-in-All." "But," says the backslider "may I really come to Jesus, just as I did at the first?" Listen! "Return, you backsliding children, for I am married unto you, says the Lord." He is married to you! And though you have behaved badly, the marriage bond is not broken. Where is the bill of divorcement which He has sued you? Is it not written ,"He hates putting away"? Come just as you are and begin anew--for He will accept you again. "But," you say, "alas for me, I have been gathering wild gourds!" What have you been doing, professor? You have left undone what you ought to have done and you have done many things you ought not to have done and, therefore, there is no health in you. You have been trying to find pleasure in the world and you have found wild vines. You have been tempted by love of music, love of mirth, love of show--and you have gathered wild gourds, a lap full, almost a heart full! You have been shredding death into the pot and now you cannot feel as you used to feel--the poison is stupefying your soul. While we were singing, just now, you said, "I want to sing as saints do, but there is no praise in me." When you meet with a man who is mighty in prayer, you say, "Alas, I used to pray like that, but my power is gone." The poison is paralyzing you! If you are a worldling, and not God's child, you can live on that which would poison a Christian, but if you are a child of God, you will cry out, "O you man of God, there is death in the pot!" Some of you have become rich and have fallen into worldly fashionable habits--these are the colocynth cucumbers. Others of you are poor and necessarily work with ungodly men and, perhaps, their example has lowered the tone of your spirit and led you into their ways. If you love this condition, I grieve for you--but if you loathe it, I trust you are a child of God, notwithstanding your state. What are you to do who have in any way fallen? Why, receive afresh the soul-saving Gospel! "Bring meal"--simple, nourishing, Gospel Truth--and cast it into the poisoned pottage! Begin anew with Jesus Christ, as you did at first! Say to Him, "God be merciful to me a sinner." "Repent and do your first works." Do you not recollect the period when first your eyes lighted on His Cross and you stood there burdened and heavy-laden, fearing that you would sink to Hell until you read in His dear wounds that your sins were put away? There you found peace as you saw your transgressions laid on Jesus and removed from you. Oh, how you loved Him! Come, Brother, come, Sister, let us go tonight again to the Cross and begin to love Him again. That will cure you of the world's personal influences and bring back the old feelings, the old joys, the old loves--and take the death out of the pot! Backslider, you see now exactly what you needed at first, namely, faith in Jesus. Come repenting, come believing in the Savior and He will remove the ills which the gourds of earth's wild vines have brought upon you! "Ah," say some of you, "we can understand how the Lord Jesus can fill our emptiness and heal our soul's sicknesses, but how shall we continue in the right way? Our past experience has taught us our weakness--we are afraid that even the great pot will only last us for a little while and then our souls will famish." Then remember the other part of our text, in which we read that when the few loaves, and the ears of corn in the husks, were brought to Elisha, the Lord multiplied them. Though you may have very little Grace, that Grace shall be increased. "He gives more Grace." We receive Grace for Grace, daily Grace for daily need! Between this and Heaven you will need a Heaven full of Grace and you will have it! No one knows what drafts you will make upon the sacred bank of the King of kings, but His treasury will not be exhausted! "Trust in the Lord and do good--so shall you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed." III. Our third and last word is TO THE SEEKING SINNER. Many of you, I trust, desire salvation. The subject before us has much comfort in it for you. You are hungering and thirsting after Christ, but have not yet found peace in Him. You lament your own emptiness of all that is good. Then, poor Soul, do just what the Prophet bade his servant do, "set on the great pot," that is, confess your emptiness unto the Lord! Tell the Lord what a sinner you are. I know not whether the story is true of Mr. Rowland Hill's leading the landlord of an inn to pray. Mr. Hill would have family prayer wherever he stayed--and if this was refused, he would order out his horses and go on. On one occasion, he is reported to have asked the landlord to act as priest in his own house, but the man replied, "I can't pray, I never prayed in my life." However, after a while, Mr. Hill had him on his knees and when the man said, "I cannot pray," Mr. Hill cried out, "Tell the Lord so and ask Him to help you." The man exclaimed, "O God, I can't pray, teach me!" "That will do," said Mr. Hill, "you have begun." Whatever your state is, tonight, if you desire salvation, go and tell the Lord your condition! Say, "Lord, I have a hard heart--soften it." If you cannot feel, tell Him so and ask Him to make you feel. Begin at the root of the matter--set on the great pot, empty as it is. Be honest with the Most High. Reveal to Him what He knows so well, but what you know so little--the evil of your heart and your great necessity. If you cannot come with a broken heart, come for a broken heart! If you cannot come with anything good, the mercy is that nothing good is needed as a preparation for coming to Christ. Come just as you are! Do not wait to fill the pot, but set it on to be filled. Do I hear you reply, "Ah, you don't know who I am. I have lived many years in sin"? Yes, I know you. You are the young man that found the wild vine and went and gathered of its gourds a lapful--a horrible lapful. Some of you rebellious sinners have ruined yourselves, body and soul, and perhaps in estate as well, by your sins. We hear of people sowing their wild oats--that is a bad business. They had better never do it, for the reaping of those wild oats is terrible work! You have poisoned your life, man, with those wild gourds. Can the pottage of your life be made wholesome again? Yes! You cannot do it with your own efforts, but, "bring meal," and it will be done. If you believe on the Lord Jesus, He will be the antidote to deadly habits of sin! If you will simply trust in Him who bled for you, the tendency of your soul to sin shall be overcome, the poison which now boils in your veins shall be expelled, and your soul shall escape as a bird out of the snare of the fowler! Your flesh upon you, in a spiritual sense, shall become fresher than a little child's. Though you are full of the poison till every vein is ready to burst with it, the Great Physician will give you an antidote which shall at once and forever meet your case! Will you not try it? Incline your ear and come unto Him--hear, and your soul shall live! May God put the meal of the Gospel into the pot tonight! "Ah," you say, "but if I were now pardoned, how should I hold on? I have made a hundred promises and always broken them. I have resolved scores of times, but my resolutions have never come to anything." Ah, poor Heart, that is when you have the saving of yourself, but when God has the saving of you, it will be another matter! When we begin to save ourselves, we very soon come to a disastrous shipwreck! But when God, the eternal Lover of the souls of men, puts His hand to salvation-work and Jesus puts forth the hand once fastened to the Cross, there are no failures! I have tried to preach a very simple sermon and to say some earnest things. But it is likely that I may have missed the mark with some and, therefore, I will again draw the Gospel bow in the name of the Lord Jesus. O Lord, direct the arrow! If God will bring souls to Jesus, I will bless His name throughout eternity! Poor lost Souls, do you know the way of salvation, do you know how simple it is? Do you know the love of God to such poor souls as you are and yet do you refuse to attend to it? Do you know that He does not exact any hard conditions of you, but He points to His Son on the Cross and says, "Look"? Can it be that you will not look? Does Jesus die to save, and do you think it is not worth your while to think about salvation? What is the matter with you? Surely you must be mad! When I look back on my own neglect of Christ till I was 15 years old, it seems like a delirious dream! And when I think of some of you who are 30 or 40 and yet have never thought about your souls, what can be invented to excuse you? I see some of you with bald heads, or with the snow of wintry age lying upon them and you have not yet considered the world to come. I would say to you, "Men, are you mad?" Why, you are worse than mad, for if you were insane, you could be excused! Alas, the madness of sin has responsibility connected with it and, therefore, it is the worst of all insanities! I pray you, by the living God, you unsaved ones, turn unto the Savior tonight! Whether you are saved or lost cannot so much matter to me as it will to you. If I faithfully beseech you to look to Jesus, I shall be clear, even if you reject the warning. But for your own sakes, I beseech you to turn to Jesus! By death, which may be so near to you. By judgment, which is certain to you all. By the terrors of Hell, by the thunderbolts of execution, by eternity and, better still, by the sweets of Jesus' love, by the charms of His matchless beauty, by the Grace which He is prepared to give, by the Heaven whose gates of pearl are glistening before the eyes of faith, by the sea of glass unruffled by a single wave of trouble--where you shall stand forever blest if you believe in Jesus--by the Lord Himself, I entreat you, seek Him at once, while He may be found! May His Holy Spirit lead you to do so! Amen and Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 KINGS4:1-37. Verse 1. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the Prophets unto Elisha, saying, Your servant, my husband, is dead; and you know that your servant did fear the LORD. And the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. According to the very cruel custom of those times, if a man were in debt and had no means of payment, his children were sold for slaves. Here was a poor widow whose husband had been one of the sons of the Prophets, but he had died in debt. He was evidently one who was known to Elisha as a faithful, God-fearing man and, perhaps that partly accounted for his poverty. The false priests were fed at Jezebel's table, but because this man worshipped Jehovah, the one living and true God, he had probably been persecuted and hunted down until he had lost what little he formerly had and, therefore, when he died, he could leave his wife no other legacy than that of debt. And in consequence, the creditor came to seize her two sons to be bondmen. 2. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what have you in the house? And she said, Your handmaid has not anything in the house, save a pot of oil They used oil extensively in the preparation of their food as well as for lighting their dwellings. This woman was so poor that she had no meal in the house, but she had a little oil. When our Lord was about to feed the five thousand, He asked His disciples, "How many loaves have you?" So here the Prophet asked the poor woman, "What have you in the house?" and she told him she had only "a pot of oil." 3. Then he said, Go, borrow the vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. [See Sermon #2063, Volume 35--THE FILLING OF EMPTY VESSELS.] Evidently the poor woman's credit was good, though her debts were heavy. Her neighbors knew she would have paid her creditor if she could, so they were willing to grant her request though they probably wondered why she wanted so many empty vessels. 4-7. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons, and shall pour out into all those vessels, and you shall set aside that which is full. So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out And it came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. Andhe said unto her, There is not a vesselmore. And the oil ceased Then she came and told the man of God. As it was through obeying his directions she had miraculously obtained this large supply of oil, she would not make use of it without further counsel from the man of God who had already given her such good advice. 7. Andhe said, Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt "That is your first duty--'pay your debt'"-- 7, 8. Andlive, you andyour children, on the rest. Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.The Prophet had helped a poor woman. Now a rich woman helps him. God sometimes pays His servants in kind very speedily for anything they have done for those who belong to Him. At other times, He puts it to the credit of their account. 9-13. And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy Man of God, which passes by continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray you, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it will be that whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there. And it happened one day that he came there andhe said to Gehazi, his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. Andhe said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, You have been careful for us with all this care. What can I do for you?Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the captain of the army?God's servants must not be ungrateful for any kindness that is shown to them. If they receive hospitality, they must be ready to give a return of such things as they have. Elisha was willing to do anything in his power for this hospitable Shunammite, so he said to her, "Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the king, or to the captain of the army?" 13. And she answered, I dwell among my own people. She had no desire for earthly greatness and she was very wise, for, usually, happiness is to be found in that middle state which Agur desired when he said, "Give me neither poverty nor riches." This Shunammite had no wish to be moved to the trying and perilous atmosphere of the court or the army--so she answered, "I dwell among my own people." 14-19. Andhe said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she has no child and her husband is old. And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, you shall embrace a son. And she said, No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your handmaiden. And the woman conceived, and bore a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her according to the time of life. And the childgrew, and one day he went out to his father to the reapers. Andhe said unto his father, My head, myhead/The sun had been too hot for the child. Sunstroke had seized him. 19, 20. Andhe said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and then died.How transient are all our earthly treasures! The child was well, and ill and dead in the course of a few hours! Hold with a loose hand all things earthly! Make not your gourds into gods, for they will soon wither and die. Very often we destroy our own comforts by thinking too much of them. As soon as we make anything that we have into an idol, it will be broken in pieces, or taken from us, or in some way turned into a curse to us! See how this good woman acted when she had suffered this great sorrow. 21, 22. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the Man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray you, one of the young men, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the Man of God, and come again. She did not tell him her errand. She wished to keep the trouble to herself for a while. 23. Andhe said, Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon, nor Sabbath. "It is not the ordinary time for going to the Prophet." 23. And she said, (Salem, that is, Peace, as we read it), It shall be well She must have been a woman of great faith. She checked her natural emotions and believed in God that all would be for the best. "It shall be well." 24-26. Then she saddled a donkey and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not your riding for me, except I bid you. So she went and came unto the Man of God at mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi, his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite: run now, I pray you, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with you, is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. It is heroic faith when we can feel that if the child shall die, it is well. If this husband shall die, it is well. And if we ourselves shall die, all is well, for He who has the arranging of all that concerns us cannot arrange otherwise than well! Alas, that often our rebellious spirit says, with poor old Jacob, "All these things are against me," but true faith sits humbly down at the feet of the great Disposer of all events and says, "He has done all things well." 27. And when she came to the Man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet. As if she feared lest he should go away before she had poured into his ears the story of her grief. 27. But Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within her: and the LORD has hid it from me, and has not told me. Those ancient Prophets of God had only limited knowledge. The Spirit of God taught them some things, but not all things, so Elisha was made to feel that he was but man, even though the Spirit of God often spoke through him. 28. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?Then he learned what her trouble was, and understood that the child was dead. Before she had said as much as that, he read the news in the tones of her voice. 29, 30. Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go your way; if you meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute you, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. She did not believe in Gehazi, nor yet in the staff, and herein she was a wise woman. God would not bless the Prophet's staff to the child's restoration, lest relic worship should spring up among the Israelites, or lest they should begin to attach some value to outward signs! 30-34. And he arose, and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked. And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in, therefore, and shut the door upon them and prayed unto the LORD. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. See the power of prayer? The very gates of death are made to open when Elisha, a man of like passions with ourselves, bows before the Lord in prayer! Learn a lesson also from Elisha's attitude toward the dead child, for often God is pleased to give spiritual life through the power of human sympathy. When we put ourselves into the condition of the sinner--hope for him, pray for him, agonize for him in broken-hearted sympathy on his account, putting ourselves as far as we can into his place--God often makes us the instruments by which His Spirit quickens the dead in sin! 30-37. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up your son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out Her heart was too full for speech just then, so she took up her son and went out. __________________________________________________________________ Discipline in Christ's Army (No. 3188) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY 13, 1879. "Pass through the host, and command the people." Joshua 1:11. [When the "Army Discipline and Regulation Bill" was before the House of Commons, Mr. Spurgeon delivered this discourse upon it. Shortly afterwards, he published a summary of the sermon in The Sword and the Trowel, with a prefatory note in which he said, "We hope to print the whole discourse for the use of soldiers." With this view, he had commenced to revise it, but had not completed it, and it is now published for the first time. Workers among soldiers will find the sermon specially suitable for them.] BELIEVERS are called to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. As many of us as believe in Him and have obtained eternal life through Him, are now enlisted beneath His banner to fight the battles of holiness against sin and of truth against error. We war not, however, with flesh and blood, but with spiritual enemies. We slay lust and lying, drunkenness and blasphemy--and we wage a never-ending warfare against everything which is dishonest, unkind, selfish, or ungodly. He who died upon the Cross out of love to the undeserving has taught us how to endure hardness for His sake as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Our ambition is to fight a good fight and keep the faith. And by the power of the Holy Spirit we hope to do so and to receive from our Great Commander's mouth the blessed commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Being soldiers, we come under discipline, and it is well for all who are about to enlist to know what the discipline is, for our glorious Captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, says to all who wish to join this army, "Count the cost." We, too, would say to all who propose to be soldiers of the Cross and followers of the Lamb--"Count the cost." Do not join the ranks blindly and then change your mind and desert. Enlist with your eyes open and stay in the service till you are veterans. There's nothing like knowing what you are doing--and choosing Christ's service deliberately. It is to that end that I shall speak upon the discipline of Christ's army, for perhaps some who are in the army of Christ in name, but not in truth, may find out their mistake and endeavor, by sincere repentance, to make sure work of the matter so that they may not be deceived. It will be an awful thing to be found out to be a hypocrite and to be drummed out of the Lord's army at the last. I have here a copy of the "Army Discipline and Regulation Bill" sent to me by a member of the House of Commons, with this written in the corner of it, "May not the Christian soldier derive some profit from this?" I feel sure he may. May the Holy Spirit enable us to do so! This Bill contains a list of offenses for which a soldier on active service is liable to death--and those offenses are excellent figures of certain spiritual offenses which must not be committed by the soldiers of Christ! If they fall into them, and continue in them, it will prove that they are already under sentence of death and are not Christ's servants at all. If any complain that the discipline of our Lord Jesus is strict, it will be of benefit to them to see how severe is the discipline of every army. Nothing can make Christ's service sweet except love to Him--His service appears hardest to those who have hard hearts--and just as men grow right and true, they find the Lord's yoke to be easy and His burden light. Judging Christianity from the outside, it will always seem to unregenerate men a very strict Puritanical system. But judging it from the inside, when the heart is renewed and the soul is charmed with the blessed Person of their Divine Redeemer, we love our Lord's service and find intense delight in it. We consent to His Law, that it is good, and we long with all our hearts to keep His statutes even to the end. We are glad to know what offenses are, that we may pray to be kept from them for we would not willingly offend so good a Lord. In this Bill, we read that "A Person subject to Military Law, when on Active Service, is punishable with Death, if he commits any of the following offences"-- (1) . "Shamefully abandons or delivers up any garrison, place, post, or guard, or uses any means to compel or induce any governor, commanding officer, or other person, to shamefully abandon or deliver up any garrison, place, post, or guard, which was the duty of such governor, officer, or person to defend." This is a grievous offense in the Church of God and I am sorry to say that it has often been committed. We are put in trust with the Gospel of Jesus Christ--that is the citadel which we are to defend at all hazards--so what a sad thing it is when professed Christ's ministers give up Truth of God after Truth in order to please the public! "Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon," that professed servants of Christ have betrayed the Gospel itself to the enemy! O you who follow the banner of Jesus, never do this! Defend it with your lives! Die in the defense of it, as the martyrs did, and never be ashamed of it in any company. You may not be an officer and, therefore, you cannot give up a garrison or castle to the enemy--but you have your own post to guard--take care that you guard it! Never give up the Bible--no, not a leaf of it! Never give up prayer--stand sentry there and let no man laugh you out of it! Whatever post the Lord Jesus commits to you, take care that you hold it till He comes, or till you, yourself, are called Home to the heavenly headquarters. Hold fast, as with a grip of steel, every Doctrine which the Lord has taught you whether others approve of it or not! Hold fast, also, and endeavor, by the aid of God's Spirit, to put into practice every precept of the Lord. Value the practical part of Christianity as well as the doctrinal--and prize them both beyond gold. Be not of the mind of those who say of Christ's rules, "These are of little consequence." No! Your Master's command cannot be a trifle! And the spirit which thinks little of anything which Jesus commands is an evil spirit! We must pray against it and strive against it. Make it a matter of conscience to follow Jesus at all hazards wherever He goes. Stand up for the Scriptures and the true Gospel--and "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." Do not give up a hair of the head of the Truth of God, nor let her enemies take away so much as a lace of her shoes. I believe in the invincibility of truth. Only give truth time and God, being with her, she must prevail. I believe also in the invincibility of the Church which is built upon the Rock, Christ Jesus, and against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail. I am quite willing to be in a minority upon a great many questions. I would not believe any more than I do even if everybody else believed it--and I would not be any the less confident of its truthfulness if it was accepted by only a hundredth or a thousandth part of those who now believe it! Get hold of a Truth of God, my dear Brother or Sister, and you have laid hold of that in which God dwells! Know your Bible thoroughly and believe what the Bible reveals. And then, if there are arrayed against Biblical Truth--all the powers of Christendom, all the kings and princes and prelates and priests joined together--you may rest assured that they will only be as so much chaff driven before the wind! If they believe error, and advocate error, all their pomp and power will be but as the wind, the earthquake and the fire in which God was not! But in your calm, quiet adherence to the Truth of God--with a tenacity that would brave even martyrdom rather than renounce what God has revealed to you in His Word and by his Spirit, there is a power that must win in the long run--so hold to it and be not afraid! (2) . "Shamefully casts away his arms, ammunition, or tools in the presence of the enemy." This is a terrible crime, indeed, in a Christian soldier. "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense of reward." Never let go your shield of faith! Under ridicule and persecution, buckle it to your arm. Grip firmly that blessed sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God! Let no man take from you a single text of it! Speak up for the blessed Truth of God and stand to your gun--this will gall the enemy and protect yourself. Rally to the colors and wrap them around your heart when they seem to be in peril--I mean, the blood-red colors of the Cross of Christ! Dear young Brothers and Sisters who love the Lord, I know you have a hard fight of it when you get among your friends who are so mean as to ridicule you. But never say, "Die"--never give up your faith, never yield to their sins, nor give them countenance by so much as joining in their laughter! Do not be misled by false teachers, but obey the Word of God and follow that alone. Read it for yourselves and what you see there lay hold upon, and let it be your religion. I have often said to myself-- "Shouldall the forms that men devise Assault my faith with treacherous art, I'd call them vanity and lies, And bind the Gospel to my heart." Let us, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, still hold without wavering to our confidence in the Gospel as God's great battle-axe and weapon of war! Let us be fully persuaded that this is the chosen instrument by which the Lord will glorify Himself and subdue the nations of the earth. We may take it for granted that God's Providential dispensations will always tend in that direction and that the ponderous wheels full of eyes are always revolving in such a way as to work out the eternal purposes of Grace in the salvation of those whom Christ has redeemed. But, for all that, thepower which God mostly blesses is the energy of the Holy Spirit exerted through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ--not by kings and princes, or learned doctors or eloquent men--but through the Gospel as preached by humble and earnest Believers, illustrated by gracious and holy lives, and supported by fervent and unceasing prayers! So, Beloved, have faith in the Gospel! Do not put your confidence in anything that is not authorized by the New Testament. Do not be so foolish as to use any means which are not in accordance with God's Word. And do not enter into any alliance with the world under the delusion that you will, by so doing, help the Gospel! Be satisfied that God is in the still small voice and, as He is there, give good heed to the message that He utters--and gad not about to seek any other ground of confidence, but be content with, "Thus says the Lord." (3) . "Treacherously holds correspondence with or gives intelligence to the enemy, or treacherously or through cowardice sends a flag of truce to the enemy." This is another thing that Christian soldiers must never do. Their orders are clear--"Come out from among them and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing." This battle of ours against sin admits of no truce whatever--no terms of compromise--no going a certain way with sinners in the hope of inducing them to come a little way with us! No, there must be nothing of the kind. Let the word, "compromise," with regard to evil never even cross your thoughts! Our Lord and Master made no compromises. He told us that it would be better to pluck out our right eye and cut off our right hand rather than that they should cause us to offend. Give your heart so fully up to Jesus, my Beloved Brothers and Sisters, that you are altogether separated from this world! Let the world know whereyou are, what you are and take care that youknow where it is and what it is! Be not, I pray you, conformed to this world! And, on the other hand, never hide your religion. Do not ask for a truce with the enemy, for that would be treachery to your Lord. Remember that solemn warning, "Whoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." That is no saying of mine--it is one of the faithful and true declarations of this Inspired Book! I must not stay to say more about this matter, though it is a most suggestive point. (4) . "Assists the enemy with arms, ammunition, or supplies, or knowingly harbors or protects an enemy not being a prisoner " Now, every professor who leads an inconsistent life furnishes Christ's enemies with "arms, ammunition, or supplies," for they say, "Ah, that is one of your Christians!" They fire that as a most deadly shot against us. They point to the ways of inconsistent professors and they turn to us and say, "That is what you Christians are!" If they take one bad sovereign, they never think of saying that all the sovereigns in circulation are counterfeit--yet they might as well say that as declare that because here and there a professor is a hypocrite or inconsistent, therefore, we are all so! That is not true, yet it gives the enemy encouragement and supplies him with ammunition when any of you who profess to be Christ's, walk as you ought not to walk! And then, dear Friends, if we conceal any sin within our bosoms, this is knowingly harboring an enemy. If you who are supposed to be Christian people drink too much in secret--and there are some, not only men, but women, who make a profession of Christianity, who sin in this way. And we must speak very plainly when this evil becomes as common as it is--you are knowingly harboring an enemy! If, in your trade, you follow unrighteous customs--and there are plenty of tradesmen who do that--and if you adopt their schemes though you profess to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are knowingly harboring His enemy--and you are not worthy to be called a good soldier of Jesus Christ! The enemy will get in if he can, but we must do all we can and also cry to God to keep him out. You know that on a cold winter's day, a man shuts the door, lights a fire, draws the curtains and insulates the door, yet even then the cold gets in. So is it with sin--you may watch and guard against it as much as you like but, still, the cold will get in--but it is a very different kind of cold from that which would come in if you were to open the windows and doors and let it in. That is what some do concerning sin. They keep no watch, no guard against it. They tempt the devil to tempt them--and those who do this and thus knowingly harbor the enemy are no true soldiers of Jesus Christ. (5) . "Having been made aprisoner ofwar, voluntarily serves with or voluntarily aids the enemy. " Now young men, especially--you who are members of this Church or some other Church--there are times when you get into a great fix. There are all round you persons who are opposed to true religion--and they begin by inviting you to do this, and that, and the other, and then they try to compel you to do as they wish. They make you, as it were, a prisoner of war, and they say, "You shall do such-and-such and such-and-such or we will make you do it." Or possibly they suppose that if they use enough ridicule, or enough taunts and jeers, they will get the mastery over you. Now is your time to play the man! You are taken, as it were, a prisoner of war, but do not forfeit your honor by voluntarily serving with or aiding the enemy! They want a song from you, do they? Well then, sing them one of the songs about Jesus and they will soon want you to stop! But do not yield to their desire by singing the song of the worldling, even if you know one. If you are Christ's true soldier, you will be most faithful in the hour of the greatest trial. But you will need to cry to the Strong for strength and ask God to give you sufficient Grace for every time of need. Christian tradesmen are sometimes taken prisoners of war in this sense. They get into financial difficulties and then it is suggested to them by Satan, "You must do such-and-such--you cannot help doing it. Of course you would rather not do it, but, under the circumstances, you cannot help yourself!" Do not do wrong, my Brother, whatever the circumstances may be! Become a bankrupt, lose all that you have and go to the workhouse rather than do the least wrong! It would be better to die in a ditch than to live and be rich with a guilty conscience! As you love your Lord, I beseech you, by that precious blood of His that has redeemed you from all iniquity, do not "crucify the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame," but stand fast! And having done all, still stand. God help any of you who are thus taken prisoners of war to avoid doing anything willingly against your Prince and thus aiding His enemy! (6) . "Knowingly does, when on active service, any act calculated to imperil the success of Her Majesty's forces or any part thereof." That is rather a strong clause because it takes a very wide sweep. But, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we must not knowingly do anything calculated to imperil the success of our Master's cause. Will you try to think what a comprehensive clause this is? It may be that what you do will not actually imperil the success of Christ's cause. You may be too insignificant for your act to have any very great result, but still, if it is even calculated to have that effect, it is forbidden by the articles of war of Prince Emmanuel! I will tell you of some things that I think are calculated to imperil the success of our Master's cause. There are some of you who have never been baptized and who are not members of any Christian Church. "Well," someone says, "I believe that I am a Christian and that I can go to Heaven without being baptized, or joining a Church, or even going to the Communion Table." Yes, I know that is what you think, but that course of conduct of yours is, in my opinion, calculated to imperil the success of Christ's cause! If it is right for you to act thus, then every other Christian has as much right to act thus as you have--and suppose that everybody were to do as you are doing--that would be an end to the visible Church of Christ and to the maintenance of the visible ordinances of Christ--and this would be most perilous to the success of Christ's cause! Just think of that, I pray you, and if you are leaving undone that which you ought to do, or are doing anything which has a tendency to imperil the success of Christ's cause, repent of it and forsake it, lest it should turn out that, after all, you are not a loyal subject and soldier in the army of King Jesus!-- "Put on the Gospel armor, And watching unto prayer, Where duty calls, or danger, Be never wanting there." (7) . "Misbehaves or induces others to misbehave before the enemy." I do not quite know what "misbehavior" of a soldier may mean, but I know that a Christian should never misbehave, because he is always in the presence of the enemy. You must never say, "Oh, now, you know, I may do what I like for there is nobody looking." Is there not? Your great Captain is certainly looking--and it is frequently when men think they are least seen that they are the most observed! The world has an eagle's eye for a Christian's faults! It tries to see faults where there are none--and where there are small faults, it is sure to magnify them! For my part, I am very glad it is so, and I say, let the world watch us--it will help us to be the more exact in our conduct! If we are ashamed to be seen anywhere, it must be because we have good reason to be ashamed! Let us endeavor to live so that we need not be ashamed-- "Lord I desire to live as one Who bears a blood-bought name. As one who fears but grieving You And knows no other shame. As one by whom Your walk below Should never be forgot-- As one who gladly would keep apart From all You love not." When I was pastor at Waterbeach there was a young man who joined the Church and who seemed to run well for a time. But the village feast came round and there was a good deal of drunkenness and all sorts of low merriment. The young man went into the dancehall, but he had not been there many minutes before someone came to him and said, "Don't you belong to Spurgeon?" He tried to deny it, but there were many others who knew it was true and, before long he was thrown out of a window. The world pitched him out as a hypocrite! And shortly afterwards, the Church also turned him out as a hypocrite, so that he was disowned by both the Church and the world. And I think that by the Grace of God, this led him to a hearty and true repentance. I was thankful that the worldlings kept such a watch over the members of my Church that they would not see them acting wrongly without making them suffer for it! And I hope they will serve you in the same way if any of you try to act as that young man did. You must be one thing or the other--either wholly for Christ or wholly for His enemies! If you are not prepared to be out-and-out for Jesus Christ, do not pretend to enlist in His army. If you want to "hold with the hare, and run with the hounds," we shall certainly not ask you to join our ranks. There must be nothing of this kind of spirit among good soldiers of Jesus Christ. May God keep us free from it! (8). "Leaves his commanding officer to go in search of plunder " Oh, dear! Have I not known some who professed to be soldiers in Christ's army who have done this? They thought there was something to be gained elsewhere, so they left Christ in "search of plunder." There was one who did this in Paul's day, of whom the Apostle wrote, "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world." "Oh, but," says one, "would you not have me marry when there was money to be had, even though it was to a worldly man?" Or, "an ungodly woman?" You can do so if you want to leave Christ "to go in search of plunder." "Would you not have me take a job where I could get several hundreds of pounds a year even though I had to mix with ungodly men, and to do unrighteous things?" O you mean-spirited wretch, how little are you worthy to be numbered among those who are descended from the martyrs for the Truth of God! How little are you worthy to be among those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes! The Lord teaches those who are really His people that "godliness with contentment is great gain" and, therefore, for Christ's sake, they can afford to despise and lose all other so-called "gain"! "But," says one, "I don't know where we should be if we were so scrupulous and exact as that." I can tell you where you would be--you would be walking in the light as God is in the light, and you would have fellowship with Him--and you would be no loser by acting thus, but you would be a gainer all round, for Christ has assured you that no one shall leave houses, or lands, or husband, or wife, or children for the Kingdom's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and, in the world to come, life everlasting! If you cannot lose for Christ, you have already lost Christ, for He said, "Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple." He who loves the world better than Christ loves not Christ at all! God save us from being of that character! Time would fail me if I mentioned all the offenses specified in this list, so I will pass on to number 15 in the Act-- (15). "By discharging firearms, drawing swords, beating drums, making signals, using words, or by any means whatever intentionally occasions false alarms in action, on the march, in the field, or elsewhere." It is a very great sin on the part of Christian soldiers to make false alarms to discourage and dispirit their fellow soldiers. There are some professors who seem to delight to tell us of a new discovery in science which is supposed to destroy our faith. Science makes a wonderful discovery and straightaway we are expected to doubt what is plainly revealed in the Word of God! Considering that the so-called "science" is continually changing and that it seems to be the rule for scientific men to contradict all who have gone before them--and that if you take up a book upon almost any science, you will find that it largely consists of repudiations of all former theories--I think we can afford to wait until the scientific men have made up their minds as to what science really is! In any event, we have no cause to be distressed concerning science, so let no Christian's heart fail him--and let him not raise any alarm in the camp of Christ! Some raise these alarms by slandering their fellow Christians. I will say very few words about this matter, but they must be very strong ones. That man is grossly guilty who makes up a lie or who reports a lie against one who is his Brother or Sister in Christ. We are all faulty enough, but let us go with the mantle of charity and cover up the faults of others and never expose them. Those who raise false alarms of this sort deserve to be tried by court martial and to receive some very exemplary punishment for such a grave offense! (16). "Treacherously makes known the password to any person not entitled to receive it; or, without good and sufficient cause, gives apassword different from what he received." It is a great crime to give the wrong password to Christ's army. Our password is, "blood." It is an offensive word to many people, but we know that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. I pray God that every stone of this Tabernacle may tumble to its ruin and every timber be splintered to atoms before there should stand on this platform a man to preach who denies the substitutionary Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, or who even keeps it in the background, for this is our password! You shall know us among all professors by the emphasis which we lay upon Atonement by the blood of Jesus Christ! Of the redeemed in Glory we read, "These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." And the saints on earth join in John's Doxology, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." "The precious blood of Jesus" is our password in life, and the password with which we hope to enter through the gates of death into eternal Glory and blessedness-- "Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed Church of God Is saved to sin no more." Further on in this list, I notice another suggestive crime-- (18). "Being a sentinel, commits any of the following offenses; that is to say, sleeps or is drunk on his post; or leaves his post before he is regularly relieved." Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, "Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." And this is one of the duties of every Christian, for all Christ's soldiers are sentinels, watchmen on the walls of Zion! Then again, it is our duty not to leave our post till we are regularly relieved. Do you not think that some teachers leave the Sunday school before they are regularly relieved? I think they do. There are some who get tired of the work and leave it. I do not think you can truthfully say that you are regularly relieved of any work until you find a suitable successor--and I hope that some of us will never be regularly relieved until we close our eyes in death. Our prayer is that we may die in harness-- "Our body with our charge lay down, And cease at once to work and live." Who wishes to be regularly relieved from Christ's service except it is by receiving his crown and entering into his rest?-- "The land of triumph lies on high, There are no fields of battle there! Lord, I would conquer till I die And finish all the glorious war. Let every flying hour confess I gain Your Gospel fresh renown! And when my life and labors cease, May I possess the promised crown!" Still further on, I notice that this is put down-- (23). "Disobeys any lawful command given by his superior officer in the execution of his office. " I know of only one superior Officer in Christ's army, and that is our blessed Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the Captain of our salvation! He said to His disciples, "One is your Master; even Christ, and all you are brethren." And He also said to them, "A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another." Mind that you do not disobey that command of your superior Officer--"Love one another." Be true brethren to one another. You know that when Jesus had washed His disciples' feet, He said to them, "If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you, also, ought to wash one another's feet." Imitate this action of your Captain by rendering any service that you can to those who are your Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Seek their good for edification and be not easily provoked, but abound in that charity which "thinks no evil; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Keep every command of your Master. I put the question to the conscience of everyone of you who profess to be Christ's soldiers. Is there any one of His commands that you know of that you have not kept? I will not mention one even if I could do so, but I ask you whether there is one command of Christ which you know is His command, which you have not kept? You may think that the command is only a little one, but the spirit which thinks it is little is not a little evil, but a great evil! If you get a small stone in your boot, you know how it affects you in walking--and a little thing on the conscience, no matter how little it is, causes great trouble in a Christian's life. Blisters, very painful ones, will be upon the spiritual foot if there is either an omission or a commission that is knowingly indulged in contrary to the command of Christ. We are not saved by our works, but when we are saved, we are saved from sin, saved from disobedience, saved from unholiness, saved from selfishness-- saved in order that we may live no longer unto ourselves but unto Him that loved us and gave Himself for us. (25 & 26). The last two articles in the list are these-- "Deserts or attempts to desert from Her Majesty's Service; persuades, endeavors to persuade, procures, or attempts to procure anyperson subject to military law to desert from Her Majesty's Service.'" Brothers and Sisters, you and I, when we enlisted in Christ's army, entered it for life, did we not? I never believed in any system of salvation which comes to an end. There are some who believe that you may be saved today and lost tomorrow. Well, if they like that sort of salvation, they are welcome to it! I do not want it, nor would I have it as a gift. But the salvation that I received when I believed in Jesus Christ was everlasting salvation--that salvation of which the Apostle writes to the Hebrews, "that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." Many of us, like Paul, bear in our body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Does anyone ask, "Where are those marks?" Well, some of us have the watermark which has been buried with Christ by Baptism into death. That is the outside mark. And then in our hearts we have another mark which the Spirit put upon us in that day when we passed from death unto life by His regenerating power. If these marks are really on us and in us, we shall never desert from our Lord's service, but shall be faithful even unto death! Possibly there is someone here who has turned back in the day of battle and become a deserter. Where are you, my Friend? I am glad to see you once more, for it is a long while since you were last here. You used to be a member of the Church and you made a great profession, but you know where you have been lately--you have been serving Satan. May God help you to desert from the devil's service and may you never go back to it again! If you ever were the servant of God, return, O Backslider, and return at once!-- "Return, O wanderer, to your home, Your Father calls for thee! No longer now an exile roam In guilt and misery-- Return, return!" He that has been a mere professor and has turned back, must be branded, "Deserter." No, not on his flesh, but on his conscience, seared as with a hot iron! Some desert because they have grown rich and can no longer associate with poor Christian people. Some desert because they have become poor and they say they have no clothes fit to come in, as if any sort of clothes were needed beyond such as might cover a man decently! Any clothes, if they are paid for, are fit to wear to this place of worship! But let those who say they are too poor to come, remember that it is in poverty and in sickness that a man most needs the Gospel and, therefore, the lower he gets in the world, the more closely he ought to cling to Christ! Yet, alas, there are some who desert because of poverty, and some because of wealth. O you deserters, may the Lord have mercy upon you and grant that you may not be real deserters, but may come back to the colors! Our Great Captain is ready to receive you and to forgive you, for He says, "Him that come to Me I will in no wise cast out." Yes, even though 8 Discipline in Christ's Army Sermon #3188 you are a deserter, if you do but come to Christ, He will receive you graciously, love you freely and His anger shall be turned away from you. God bless you, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ The Tenderness of God's Comfort (No. 3189) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem." Isaiah 66:13. WE do not intend entering into a discussion of the context and its relationship literally to the Jewish people. We have never hesitated to assert our conviction that there are great blessings in store for God's ancient Israel and that the day shall come when her comfort shall abound, when the glory of the Gentiles shall flow to her like a flowing stream and she shall be comforted by her God as one whom his mother comforts. But we believe that these passages are applicable to all the servants of God, that the comfortable passages of Scriptures are theirs, that whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free, barbarian or Greek, we are all one in Christ Jesus--and all the promises are ours in Him--for in Him all the promises are, "yes," and, "amen." I believe, then, that this passage belongs to every child of God. It is well that there is such a promise as this on record, for Believers need comfort. They need comfort because they are men and, "man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward." There has been a great necessity for consolation ever since the time when man was expelled from Eden. Men need comfort because they are but men. Although favored by God, elected by His Sovereignty and called by His Divine Grace into a peculiar state of acceptance, they are still in the body and they are made to feel it--being tempted in all points as other men are and in some points peculiarly tried. They are men and but men at the best! They need comfort, too, because they are Christians, for if others escape the rod, Christians must not, yes, shall not The Lord may be pleased to give to the sinner a long prosperity that he may be fattened as a bullock for the slaughter, but His promise to His people whom He calls by His Grace is, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." "Whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives." We must, therefore, have special consolation, since as men, as only men, and as Christians, we shall have constant occasions for comfort. When I take a text like this, I know there are very many in the congregation who cannot enter into it. But, my dear Friends, if you are Christians, it will not be long before you will! You may have to look back, perhaps, upon the words which I quote in your hearing, and say of them, "God sent them to me as a preparation before the trial came. He gave me food as He did Elijah under the juniper tree, because He determined that I should go 40 days in the strength of that meat." Despise not the consolations of the Lord because you need them not just now. You will require them. The calm will not last forever--a storm is brewing. Say not, "My mountain stands firm, I shall never be moved." He has but to hide His face and you will be troubled--and then you will prize that which now you do lightly esteem--you will long to be comforted "as one whom his mother comforts." But coming at once to the text, I think we may very well talk of it under three points. First, who comforts? Secondly, how He comforts. And thirdly, where He comforts. I. With regard to the first point, WHO COMFORTS? "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." The work of comforting His saints is not too low for God to be engaged in. It is true that He sometimes uses instruments, but all real comfort to a broken heart must come directly from God, Himself. He does not say, "I will send an angel to comfort you," but, "I will comfort you." Nor in the text is it said that the Christian minister shall comfort you. Alas, dear Brothers and Sisters, often what are we who preach the Word but broken cisterns that hold no water? But God says, "I will comfort you." And when He undertakes the work, then we become as conduit pipes that are full, even to bursting, with the drink that you require! Your soul shall be satisfied even out of poor earthen vessels. But it must be God's work. He must do it, for when a soul is truly humbled, heavily laden and broken in pieces by God's hand, there is only one hand--the pierced hand--that can heal the wound! When we read, in this passage, that God will comfort the soul, we are to understand, I think, that God does so in the Trinity of His Person. He is called "the God of Consolation." The Father comforts us. The very use of that term, "Father," seems to bring good cheer to our spirits. As long as I can call God, my Father, I shall not be without a star in my sky. "My Father"--that sweetens all the sorrow that can come to me! It is a sword, but my Father, it is in Your hand. It is a bitter cup, but, my Father, You have given it to me, so shall I not drink it? That word, "my Father," shall make my heart leap for joy in the midst of my deepest distress! As a Father, God does actively come to the comfort of His children--and when a filial spirit is shed abroad in us, our souls, leaning on all-sufficient Grace, rejoice even in the midst of deep distress! God the Son also comforts us, for is not His name, "the Consolation of Israel"? When you stand at the foot of the Cross, you find comfort, there, for all the ills that wring your heart. Sin loses its weight. Death, itself, is dead. All griefs expire--slain by the griefs of the Man of Sorrows. Only enter into the Savior's passion and your own passion is over. Get to understand His sorrows and your sorrows find at least a pause, if not an end. And as for the blessed Spirit, He was given for this very purpose, to be our Comforter. He dwells in all the saints to bring to their remembrance the things which Jesus spoke and to lead them into all the Truth of God that their joy in Christ may be full! It is something very delightful to consider that Father, Son and Spirit all cooperate to give us comfort. I can understand their cooperating to make the world. I can understand their cooperation in the salvation of a soul. But I am astonished at this same united action in so comparatively small a matter as the comfort of Believers! Yet the Holy Three seem to think it a great matter that Believers should be happy, or they would not work together to cheer disconsolate spirits. We must understand, when God says, "I will comfort you," that He intends that there are many ways by which He does it. Sometimes He comforts us in the course of Providence. We may be the lowest spoke of the wheel, now, but by the revolution of time we may be the uppermost before long. We may suffer very acute pains, tonight, but by the morning the Master may have relieved all our pain. The pause between sickness and health may not be very long. If the Good Physician shall put His healing hands upon us, we shall soon be restored. How often, when you thought you were coming to your worst, has there been a sudden brightening of the sky! It is a long lane that has no turning and it is a long trouble that never comes to an end. It is when the sea ebbs as far as it can go that the tide begins to flow--and they say the darkest part of the night is that which is just before the daybreak. When the winter grows very cold and keen, we begin to hope that spring will soon come--and our desperate sorrows, when they reach their worst--are coming to their close. So let us be of good cheer! There will not be always such a rough sea, poor troubled Saint. You shall be out of the Atlantic into the Pacific before long--and you shall be out of the sea, altogether, and away on the terra firma of eternal joy before many years have rolled over your head! However, when the Lord is not pleased thus to comfort us in the way of Providence, He has a means of doing it by His Omnipotent secret working on the human heart. Not to speak doctrinally, but rather to give a particular instance, have you not found that sometimes, when you were much burdened with trouble, a very peculiar calm came over your spirit? You had been vexed, almost distracted. But when you woke one morning, you felt calm and peaceful--you had given up rebellion, left off murmuring, and you could say to your God-- "'Tis sweet to lie passive in Your hands And know no will but Yours." And have you not even been conscious, in times of the very severest trouble, of an unusual joy? You did not sing with your voice, but there was something that sang with you softly, silently, but still sweetly. You sometimes look back upon that sick chamber, (I know I do), and almost wish that you were there now. The trial was sharp, indeed, for-- "Sharp are the pangs that nature gives"-- but, oh, the joy that came with them! It was so surpassing that, in the retrospect, you forget the pain and only remember the sweetness! How was this? Was it the pain that did it? Nothing of the kind! God is like a watchmaker who knows, because he made the watch, how to touch the wheels and regulate them. He made us and, therefore, He knows how to deal with us so that everything shall go right where before everything went amiss. He can open the floodgates of joy and inundate our souls with bliss even in our darkest days of trouble! "Only hope you in Me, My child," He says, "for you shall praise Me, who is the help of your countenance and your God." Though the fig trees do not blossom and God does not take away the plague from the cattle. Though your substance shall be diminished and fire shall devour your household goods, yet your God can make up for all this and cause your days of leanness to be fat days--and your days of hunger to be days of feasting--and your days of thirst to be days when you shall drink the wine on the lees well-refined! It would not be well to close this point without remarking that God has been pleased to make a previous provision for the comfort of all His saints. When He comforts, He has not to invent a novelty to do it--He has only to bring to us stores which have been laid up, fruits new and old which have been ready for His beloved. It trouble comes, God has provided a strength by which you shall meet it, and provided a way through by which you shall escape from it. There are promises in God's Word suitable to every conceivable condition of the saints. Out of millions of God's people living in different countries, under different forms of government and in different ages--all of them of different temperaments and constitutions--their trials must take all kinds of shapes. As in the kaleidoscope, there must be a vast variety in the tribulations of the Lord's people and yet there never has arisen a single case in which there has not been a promise which, word for word, and letter for letter, met the case in hand! In the great bunch of keys in that good old Book, there is a key for every lock! And if it were not so, there are one or two promises like master keys which will fit all. Such a promise is the one in Isaiah 41:10, "Fear you not, for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your God." It will suit the youth and the gray-head. It will be satisfactory to you if you have to overcome difficulties or if you have to endure sufferings. In the calm or in the storm, lying in the trench or climbing the scaling ladder, that text will still be precious--"Fear you not, for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your God." We will fall back, then, upon the consolatory Truth that with God are the consolations of His children, that He is Himself responsible for their comfort, having engaged to be their Father! And so we may suck marrow out of our text, "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." II. But now the second head is to be HOW GOD COMFORTS. "As one whom his mother comforts." This is a peculiarly delightful metaphor. A father can comfort, but I think he is not much at home in the work. When God speaks about His pity, He compares Himself to the father. "Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him." But when He speaks about comfort, He selects the mother. When I have seen the little ones sick, I have felt all the pity in the world for them, but I did not know how to set to work to comfort them--but a mother knows by instinct how to do it! There is placed in the mother's tender heart a power of sympathy and very soon she finds the word or gives the touch that will meet her darling's case and cheer its troubled soul. The father is awkward at it--our rougher, sterner nature hardly shines in the matter of consolation. But the mother can do it to perfection. How, then, does the mother comfort her child? We answer, first, she does it very fondly. There is a way of administering comfort in which you stand apart from the patient and you tell him, "There is the cup of cordial if you'd like to drink it." But the mother's way of doing it is to sip the cup and then to put it to the child's lips, yes, and to do more than that--to take the child right into her bosom while she gives it. She does not talk to him at arm's length, but she talks with him at her heart all the while! And that is probably the secret of her power. And so, when God comforts any poor heavy-laden sinner or troubled saint, He does not talk to Him at a distance, but He runs and falls on his neck and kisses him. The Infinite, Almighty God falls upon the neck of a repentant sinner and gives him the kiss of His love! And He does just the same to a poor, troubled and afflicted saint. He comforts fondly. May one venture to apply such a word as that to the great God? May we say that He has a fondness for His children? Well, at any rate, we know that if there is a word more sweet, more dear, indicating a closer affinity and a deeper and purer love than another, we may use that word concerning our God. He loves us with a love that has no bottom, no summit and no shore. Even as He loves His own dear Son, so He loves us! We are in His heart! We are engraved on the palms of His hands and, therefore, when He comforts, it is in so fond a manner that we cannot but be cheered! With all the tenderness a mother feels, God feels for us--and so He comforts us as a mother comforts her child. But there is more than fondness here. A mother comforts her child with much sympathy. She always seems to feel the pain the child is feeling. To soothe that headache, she lays her cool hand upon the hot, throbbing little brow, and is herself pained as she thinks of the pain that must be there. Or she looks at the hand that was made to bleed by a fall, and her eyes seem as if they would bleed for the little one. She feels it all and, therefore, she is sure to comfort well. And this is how Jesus comforts. We have heard of a little child who said to her mother, "Mother, Mrs. So-and-So, the widow, says she likes me to go in to see her, for I comfort her so. When she sits and cries, I put my head in her lap and I cry, too, and she says that comforts her." Ah, yes, child, there is true philosophy in that! This is just the sort of comfort we need and this is just what God does. Our Lord in human flesh still sorrows with His people--hungers in their hunger--thirsts in their thirsting--and melts in their mourning. Though He reigns on high, He is not so high that He has no "respect unto the lowly." A mother also comforts her child very diligently. She is not satisfied with saying half a dozen words and putting her child down. She takes it up and if it won't be dandled on one knee, she tries the other, and if that form of comfort will not do, she will try another. We have heard of a good mother who wanted to teach her child something but when someone complained that she had to repeat the same thing 20 times, she answered, "Yes, I did that because 19 times would not do." So God perseveres. Sometimes a mother may have to comfort her child when it is very sick and very fretful, and its poor little head and heart are out of order. She has to comfort it again, and again, and again, and again. Soft words are always on her lips. She can do nothing else but console the little one and she does not tire of it. Oh, those mothers of ours! They never grow tired when we are sick and ill! They seem to be up all night and all day long. And if a nurse comes in for a few hours, they are up, then, too, looking after the nurse, so that I do not know that much ease comes with the helper. Our mothers are so untiringly kind! Well, I say to you--to "you who unto Jesus for refuge have fled"--that our God is kinder than any mother! His Book is full of attempts to comfort His children and those attempts--blessed be God--are not without success! Again, a mother comforts her child seasonably. A true mother is not always comforting her child. If she is a silly mother, she brings up her child so delicately that it turns out to be a viper in her bosom. But if she is a wise mother, she saves her comforts till they are needed. When it is sick, then she gives the cordials. Well, God does not always comfort His saints, but when they are in affliction, then they shall have consolation. As our tribulations abound, so our consolations abound by Jesus Christ. There is a balance kept up. If there is an ounce of trouble, there will be an ounce of comfort. If there is a ton of trouble, there will be a ton of consolation. When the child has been doing wrong and the parent has chastised it, if the little lip curls, if the proud foot is stamped, if there is a frown on the brow--the wise mother does not comfort it. But when the child comes and prays to be forgiven, the mother's heart is ready for it directly. "Sin no more," she says, "and the past shall be forgotten and forgiven." Well, this is how God comforts us. While we are proud and stand out against Him, we shall feel His hand. But when we confess our faults and come humbly to Him for pardon, we shall have seasonable comfort, "as one whom his mother comforts." Again, a mother's comfort has this point about it--she usually comforts in a most efficient manner--and the child goes away smiling, though it seemed to say before, "I shall never be happy again." Five minutes of a mother's wise talk and sweet comfort, and the child is as happy as before! "Ah," you say, "that will do for children, but it won't do for men." But God keeps His saints as children before Him. May God grant us Grace to be as little children, or we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven! Then, when our God comes to comfort us, I am quite sure He will do it more effectually than the most tender mother can. But, once more, a mother comforts all her life. "A mother is a mother all her life," says an old proverb. There is no change there. "Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?" It seems impossible, but the Lord says, "Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget you." A mother casts not away her child. Fathers sometimes have done such a thing, but mothers, I should hope, never! But even if they have-- "Yet," says the Lord, "should Nature change, And mothers monsters prove, Sion still dwells upon the heart Of everlasting love." God will not cease to comfort His people! Perhaps there is a Brother who is passing through a very severe trial and he thinks he shall never be comforted again. Well, but your mother will not forsake you--and do you think God will? "But," says one, "you do not know my difficulty. It is a crushing one." My dear Friend, I know I do not know it, but your heavenly Father knows it. And do you suppose if an earthly mother sticks fast by her child, that He will leave you? Go to Him! His heart is as near to you, now, as when you were on the mountain rejoicing in the full sunshine of His love. The very shadow of a change is unknown to Him. Go to Him with confidence and humble faith and you shall find the text, true, "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." III. Now I have just a little to say upon the third point, that is, WHERE GOD COMFORTS His people. The text says, "in Jerusalem." Why, for His ancient people, that was where they had their troubles. The city had been under siege. O daughter of Salem, how were you made to weep! What sorrow rolled over your head--to see the city dismantled and her palaces become ruins--wild fowls and bitterns inhabiting the place where once the assembled tribes were glad! O Jerusalem, what grief is in your name to your inhabitants as they remember these, your glory, all departed, and your sorrow lasting still! Yes, but God will comfort His people in the very place of their trouble! This will be fulfilled on a large scale in the Millennial Glory when our world, which has been the scene of the saints' sorrow, will also be the scene of their triumphant reign with Christ Jesus! Meanwhile, you, His servants, must not suppose that because you have trials, you are in the wrong place. The vine is not in the wrong place because the vinedresser often uses the knife! It may be the best place for that vine where it gets most of the vinedresser's pruning. Beware, especially young friends, beware of self-will in seeking to change your troubles! Some of you think when you are single you have peculiar troubles--do not be in at hurry to incur the troubles of married life! And you who are servants who think you are very harshly done by, do not be so wondrously fast to wish to be masters! I sometimes find my cross not just what I like it to be, but I should be very much afraid to attempt to alter it. "It were better in all wisdom to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of." That man whom you envy, you would probably pity if you knew more about him! Be content to stay in Jerusalem. Remember, the comfort which God gives will be a comfort to suit your present place and position. "In Jerusalem," where you have seen the furnace of God placed, for His fire is in Zion and His furnace in Jerusalem," even there shall you have your comfort! It is a joy to think of Daniel in the lions' den. I believe that Daniel never had a sweeter night's rest than he had when he had some old lion for his pillow, and the younger lions to be his guardians. And in the case of Sha-drach, Meshach and Abednego, the Master did not break down the furnace walls and take them out at once, but He was with them in the fire and cheered them in the midst of the flames! So shall the comfort of God come to you in your time of need. Take another view of this matter. God will comfort you who are here below. "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!" says one. Now what would you do if you had them? They would be a very awkward equipment for a man! But suppose you hadthe wings of a dove, what would you do? Would you fly away? Well, you would hardly dare to do that, for to fly to God without a permit would be taking the matter into your own hands. Why cannot God comfort you where you are? "Ah," says one, "I expect to have my happiness in another world." So do I, but I hope to have some, here, too. "One Heaven will be enough for me," says one. But why not have Heaven here and Heaven hereafter, too?-- "The men of Grace have found Glory begun below. Celestial fruits on earthly ground From faith and hope may grow. The hill of Zion yields A thousand sacred sweets Before we reach the heavenly fields, Or walk the golden streets. Then let our songs abound, And every tear be dry-- We're marching through Immanuel's ground To fairer worlds on high!" It is true that the fairer worlds are on high, but it is equally true that we are on Immanuel's ground even now! "In Jerusalem--the place of your trials--will I comfort you," says the Lord. And now, to come to another meaning of the passage, "in Jerusalem," that is, in the Church of God. The richest comforts are reserved for those who, fearing the Lord, often speak, one to another, and are not ashamed to acknowledge His name. And I think, dear Friends, the place of comfort is the assembly of God's people. Therefore live, "not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is." There are people in the world who never go out to a weeknight service in the evening, and never think of doing such a thing! They get by the fireside after that day's business and there they sit, and say, "We are full of doubts and fears. We cannot rejoice as we used to do-- "What peaceful hours we once enjoyed! How sweet their memory still!'" And so on. Now, those people expect God to go to their house and comfort them. By what reason should they expect any such thing when they refuse to go to God's House for the comfort? Our Lord will sometimes withhold a sense of His Presence from us in order to make us feel our wrong-doing in staying away from the use of the means which He has appointed for our comfort and consolation. I would that all congregations come out as well as you usually do. I must not say anything to you about not coming out on a weeknight, for you do come--and anything I might say about people not coming would be like Dean Swift's sermon about those who go to sleep in church. When he finished it, he thought he had done no good, "for," he said, "only you who were awake have heard it." I would rather propose to you that whenever you meet a friend who is greatly in lack of comfort and is complaining that he has not got it, you would give as judicious a hint as you can that it may be that they miss the comfort who miss the means of Grace! He who will not go to the shop and buy, cannot wonder if he has not any oil for his lamp. He who will not take the trouble to go to the stream must not marvel if he has to suffer thirst. O let us, dear Friends, as often as we can, gather together with the Lord's people for praise and prayer! No doubt, "in Jerusalem" we shall find our comfort! There are those among you to whom it does one good to listen when you speak of your enjoyments in this house. Of course there are some who are not edified by the ministry here, but if that is the case, why do they not go somewhere else? Their seats could be filled by others who would be edified. But there are some who say, "Master, it does us good to come here, and we can bless the Lord that He here makes the place of His feet glorious. We long for Sunday to come round again, for we feel the place to be like an Elim." In your case, God always makes His House to be a fountain of Living Waters to your souls and streams from Lebanon. To that end, I pray the Master to help all His servants. Pray for your ministers, but remember that the comfort cannot come from them. It may come through them, but it must come from the Master, Himself. With that exhortation, we will come back to the words of the text, and the gracious promise, "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. " May God add His blessing and bring troubled sinners to look to Christ, and Christ shall have the glory! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: COLOSSIANS2. Verse 1. For I would that you knew what great conflict Ihave for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. Paul had not met these Colossian Christians, but he had heard of their faith, hope, and love--and he so desired their good that he had a continual care for them in his heart. He carried that care to God in prayer, yet he still bore them in loving remembrance. They were always on his heart as a sick child is always on the heart of its mother. 2, 3. That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He wanted them to know God and to rest comforted and happy in what He revealed. He saw in them a tendency to look abroad for something more than that--a desire to tack something else to the Gospel, a wish to try and find some fresh light outside the Word--and over this he greatly grieved. He himself was more than satisfied with the Gospel and he wanted them to be, in that respect, as he was. 4. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. They did not openly contradict the Gospel. They pretended to have a great affection for it and then they tried to tear the very heart out of it with their enticing words of man's wisdom! 5. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ He never forgot them and it was his joy, when he found them standing fast in Christ--but his sorrow and his horror when they went away after anyone else. 6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him. "Do not turn away from Him, do not dream of going beyond Him. You received Him very simply at first--you trusted in Him entirely--so go on doing so. You were satisfied with Christ when you first came to Him, so be satisfied with Him, still, for you do not need anything more than Christ--and there is nothing more than Christ!" 7. Rooted and built up in Him. "Take a living hold of Christ as a tree does of the soil. Also be built up in Him--as a building settles down upon the foundation--so do you settle down upon Christ." 7. And established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. When a man is established in the Truth of God that he knows, and rejoices in what he has already received, he will not go away from it. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you, (it might be rendered, "plunder you"), through philosophy and vein deceit "Beware of those who pretend that they are going to enrich you, but whose real objective is to plunder you. They say that they will give you advanced thought, deeper ideas, a system more congruous with the age. But it is-- 8. After the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ "What do you want with their traditions? Christ has revealed His Truth to you. What do you want with the world's rudiments? You have gone beyond such elementary, useless knowledge as that, for you have got the Truth of God itself!" 9. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Christ we enter into the fullness and completeness of life both materially and spiritually! 10. 11. Who is the Head of all principality andpower: in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ "The Jew boasts that he is a circumcised man, but you have spiritually all that circumcision meant literally! Even though you have not the wound in your flesh, you have more than that, for you have the death of the flesh and your very flesh has been buried with Christ. All that circumcision can possibly mean you have in Christ." 12. Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the working of God, who has raised Him from the dead. "You have death, burial and resurrection, all in Christ. And you received the outward sign and token of this when you were baptized, so believe firmly that it is so and do not look anywhere else for it. You are neither dead nor buried apart from Christ, nor are you driven apart from Him--all you have is in Him." 13. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has He quickened together with Him, having forgiven all your trespasses. "You do not need to go to a 'priest' for pardon, for Christ has forgiven you all your trespasses. [See Sermons #2101, Volume 35--LIFE AND PARDON and #2605, Volume 45--DEATH AND ITS SENTENCE ABOLISHED.] You are so complete in Christ that confession to man and priestly absolution from man would be of no use to you." 14. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross. "All the Mosaic ceremonies from which you were shut out as Gentiles, are abolished! Christ has driven a nail through them and fastened them up to His Cross." As sometimes a banker stamps a check when it is paid, so has Christ cut through the very heart of all Jewish ordinances by what He has done for His people. 15. And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it [See Sermon #273, Volume 5--CHRIST TRIUMPHANT.] Exhibiting them as His prisoners in a triumphal procession, as the victorious Roman generals did when they returned from war! 16. Let no one, therefore, judge you in food, or in drink, or regarding a festival, or ofthe newmoon, or ofthe Sabbath. "Do not put yourselves under rules and regulations which God has not ordained. If you think it is right for you to abstain from certain drinks, do so, but do not act thus simply because others do so. If you abstain from certain foods because they have been offered to idols, and the consciences of others might be offended if you partook of them, do not act thus as though it would save you. Do not make yourself subject to the judgment of other men, for Christ is your Lawgiver and Lord." 17. Which are a shadow of things to come; but the substance is of Christ "You can do without the shadow, now that you have the substance, so keep to that." Some men multiply church ordinances--they have this form and that form. Well, let them have them if they find them of service, but do not bring yourself under subjection to anything of the kind! Follow the New Testament and above all things keep close to Christ, for He is everything to you. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in false humility We know those who say, "We do not know anything, we are only seekers, trying to find out the truth." They talk very humbly considering how desperately proud they really are, but that humility which makes men doubt is mock humility and is not of God! "Let no man beguile you of your reward." When you have learned the Truth of God from the Scriptures, be dogmatic about it! Do not be afraid of the presumption of which some will accuse you, or the bigotry which they will impute to you. 18. And worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Agnostics by their name confess that they do not know, but do not let them take away from you what you knowand set you to investigate matters which are beyond you with a judgment which they would lead you to think is well-near infallible, whereas your judgment is very fallible, indeed. Be not puffed up by your fleshly mind! 19. And not holding the Head. That is the point--these people get away from the Deity of Christ! They get away from the atoning blood. They get away from glorifying Him who alone is the Truth! 19. From which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increased with the increase of God. Take away the Head and there is death--everything is out of order then. If the Head is denied--if any Doctrine is taught which is contrary to the Glory of Christ, you have killed the body however much you may pretend to be increasing and feeding it! 20-22. Therefore if you are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances? (Touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using), after the commandments and doctrines of men? You may and you should feel that there are some things which you will not touch, or taste, or handle. You had better leave poisonous drugs alone, but at the same time, if any man seeks to impose upon you any regulation concerning them as a part of the faith, you may resist it and repudiate it--and plead your freedom in Christ. 23. Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in wiil-worship. There were some of the Jews who would not eat certain kinds of meat, and others who would fast for long periods. Some thought it was very wicked to eat meat on a certain day--and there were many such notions--and similar superstitions still survive among us, such as not eating meat on Fridays, being afraid of 13 people sitting at table and so on! But you have nothing to do with all that kind of rubbish, so get away from it! If you are a Believer in Christ, tread all such nonsense under your feet. "Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship."-- 23. And humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honor. There is no honor about such things, they are con-temptible--"not in any honor"-- 23. To the satisfying of the flesh. That is all such things would do--make you seem better than other people--so do not be led into these ways, but stand fast in the liberty in which Christ has made His people free! __________________________________________________________________ Christ in Gethsemane (No. 3190) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 1, 1879. "And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane." Mark 14:32. [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon "Christ in Gethsemane," are #493, Volume 9--GETHSEMANE; #693, Volume 12--THE GARDEN OF THE SOUL; #1199, Volume 20--THE AGONY IN GETHSEMANE and #494, Volume 9--THE BETRAYAL.] OUR Lord had been sitting at the table of happy fellowship with His disciples, talking to them in a very solemn and impressive manner. He then delivered those choice discourses which are recorded by John and offered that wonderful prayer which deserves to always be called, "The Lord's Prayer." Knowing all that was to befall Him, He and His disciples left the upper room and started to go to His usual place of quiet retreat, "a place which was named Gethsemane." You can easily picture their descent into the street. The moon was at the full on the Paschal night and it was very cold, for we read that the high priest's servants had kindled a fire and warmed themselves, because it was cold. As Jesus walked along the narrow streets of Jerusalem, He doubtless still spoke to His disciples in calm and helpful tones. And before long they came to the Brook Kidron over which David passed when Absalom stole away the hearts of the people from his father. So now, "great David's greater Son" must go the same way to the olive garden where He had often been before with His disciples. It was called Gethsemane, "the olive press." As we think of Christ in Gethsemane, I want you who love Him not only to adore Him, but to learn to imitate Him, so that when you are called to "drink of His cup," and to be baptized with the baptism wherewith He was baptized, you may behave as His true followers should and come forth from your conflict victorious as He came forth from His! At the very outset, there is one fact that I wish you to observe very particularly. Sudden changes from joy to grief have produced extraordinary results in those who have been affected by them. We have often read or heard of persons whose hair has turned white in a single night--such an extreme convulsion of mind has happened to them that they have seemed to be hurried forward into premature old age--at least in appearance, if not in fact. Many have died through unusual excitements of spirit. Some have dropped down dead through a sudden excess of joy and others have been killed by a sudden excess of grief. Our blessed Master must have experienced a very sudden change of feeling on that memorable night. In that great intercessory prayer of His, there is nothing like distress or tumult of spirit. It is as calm--as a lake unruffled by the zephyr's breath. Yet He is no sooner in Gethsemane than He says to the three especially favored disciples, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death: tarry you here and watch with Me." I do not think that this great conflict arose through our dear Master's fear of death, nor through His fear of the physical pain and all the ignominy and shame that He was so soon to endure. But, surely, the agony in Gethsemane was part of the great burden that was already resting upon Him as His people's Substitute--it was this that pressed His spirit down even into the dust of death. He was to bear the full weight of it upon the Cross, but I am persuaded that the passion beganin Gethsemane. You know that Peter writes, "Who His own Self bore our sins in His own body on the tree." But we are not to gather from that passage that His substitutionary sufferings were limited to the tree, for the original might bear this rendering--that He bore our sins in His own body up to thetree--that He came up to the tree bearing that awful load and still continued to bear it on the tree! You remember that Peter also writes, in the same verse, "by whose stripes you were healed." These stripes did not fall upon Jesus when He was upon the Cross--it was in Pilate's Judgment Hall that He was so cruelly scourged! I believe that He was bearing our sins all His life, but that the terrible weight of them began to crush Him with sevenfold force when He came to the olive press, and that the entire mass rested upon Him with infinite intensity when He was nailed to the Cross--and so forced from Him the agonizing cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" In meditating upon this commencement of our Savior's unknown agonies, let us think first of THE CHOICE OF THE SPOT where those agonies were to be endured. Let us try to find out why He went to that particular garden on that dread night of His betrayal. First, the choice of Gethsemane showed His serenity of mind and His courage. He knew that He was to be betrayed, to be dragged before Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod--to be insulted, scourged and, at last to be led away to be crucified--but (mark the words), "He came out, and went, as He was known to do, to the Mount of Olives." It was His usual custom to go there to pray, so He would not make any change in His habits although He was approaching the supreme crisis of His earthly life. Let this courageous conduct of our Lord teach a lesson to all who profess to be His disciples. Whenever some trouble is about to come upon you, especially if it is a trouble that comes upon you because you are a Christian, do not be perturbed in spirit. Neglect no duty, but do as you have been known to do. The best way of preparing for whatever may be coming is to go on with the next thing in the order of Providence. If any child of God knew that he had to die tonight, I would recommend him to do just what he would do on any other Sabbath night, only to do it more earnestly and more devoutly than ever he had done it before! Blessed is that servant who, when his Master comes, shall be found discharging his duty as a servant--waiting upon his Master's household with all due orderliness and care. To go and stand outside the front door and stare up into the sky to see if the Master is coming, as some I know seem to do, is not at all as your Lord would have you act! You know how the angels rebuked the disciples for doing this--"You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into Heaven?" Go and preach the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and then, whether Christ comes sooner or later, you will be in the right posture to welcome Him! And He will commend you for carrying out, as far as you can, His last great commission to His disciples! Christ's courage is also evident from the fact that "Judas, also, who betrayed Him, knew the place, for Jesus often resorted there with His disciples." Nothing would have been easier than for our blessed Lord to have escaped from Judas if He had desired to do so, but He had no desire to escape, so He went boldly and deliberately to the place with which "the son of perdition" was well acquainted--the very place, indeed, to which the traitor at once conducted the officers who had been ordered to arrest the Master! May the Lord give to us similar courage whenever we are placed in a position in any respect like His was then! There are certain trials which, as a Christian, you cannot escape, and which you should not wish to escape. You do not like to think of them, but I would urge you to do so, not with fear and terror, but with the calm confidence of one who says, "I have a baptism to be baptized with and I am straitened until it is accomplished. I have a cup of which I must drink, I am eager to drink it. I do not court suffering, but if it is for Christ's sake, for the glory of God and the good of His Church, I do not wish to escape from it, but I will go to it calmly and deliberately, even as my Lord went to Gethsemane, though Judas knew the place where Jesus often resorted with His disciples." But, next, in the choice of this spot, our Lord also manifested His wisdom. For, first, it was to Him a place of holy memories. Under those old olive trees, so gnarled and twisted, He had spent many a night in prayer. And the silver moonbeams, glancing between the somber foliage had often illumined His blessed Person as He knelt there and wrestled and had communion with His Father. He knew how His soul had been refreshed while He had spoken there, face to face with the Eternal--how His face had been made to shine--and He had returned to the battle in Jerusalem's streets strengthened by His contact with the Almighty. So He went to the old trysting place, the familiar spot where holy memories clustered thick as bees about a hive, each one laden with honey. He went there because those holy memories aided His faith. And, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, when your time of trial comes, you will do well to go to the spot where the Lord has helped you in the past--and where you have enjoyed much hallowed fellowship with Him. There are rooms where if the walls could tell all that has happened within them, a heavenly brightness might be seen because God has so graciously revealed Himself to us there in times of sickness and sorrow! One who had long lain in prison for Christ's sake, used to say, sometimes, after he had been released, "Oh, take me back to my dungeon, for I never had such blessed seasons of communion with my Lord as I had within that cold stone cell!" Well, if you have such a place, dear to you by many hallowed memories, go to it as your Master went to His sacred oratory in the Garden of Gethsemane, for there you will be likely to be helped even by the associations of the place. Our Lord's wisdom, in choosing that spot is also evident from the fact that it was a place of deep solitude and, therefore, most suitable for His prayers and cries on that doleful night. The place which is now called the Garden of Gethse-mane does not, according to some of the best judges, deserve that name. It is in far too exposed a position. But one always thinks of Gethsemane as a very quiet, lonely spot. And let me say that in my judgment, there is no place so suitable for solitude as an olive garden--especially if it is in terrace above terrace as in the South of France. I have frequently been sitting in an olive garden, and friends whom I would have been glad to see, have been within a few yards of me, yet I have not known that they were there! One beautiful afternoon, as two or three of us sat and read, we could see, a long way down, a black hat moving to and fro, but we could not see the wearer of it. We afterwards discovered that he was a brother minister whom we were glad to invite to join our little company. If you want to be alone, you can be so at any time you like in an olive garden--even if it is near town. What with the breaking up of the ground into terraces, the great abundance of foliage and the strange twisted trunks of the old trees, I know no place in which I would feel so sure of being quite alone as in an olive garden! And I think our Master went to Gethsemane for a similar reason. And burdened as He was, He needed to be in a solitary place. The clamorous crowd in Jerusalem would have been no fit companions for Him when His soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. It seems to me, also, that there is about an olive garden, either by day or by night, something congruous with sorrow. There are some trees that seem conducive to mirth--the very twinkling of their leaves would make one's heart dance with delight! But about the olive there is always something, not suggestive, perhaps, of absolute melancholy, but a matter-of-fact soberness as if in extracting oil out of the flinty rock, it had endured so much suffering that it had no inclination to smile, but stood there as the picture of everything that is somber and solemn. Our dear Master knew that there was something congenial to His exceeding sorrow in the gloom of the olive garden and, therefore, He went there on the night of His betrayal. Act with similar wisdom, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, when your hour of trial is approaching! I have known some people rush into gay society to try to forget their grief, but that was folly. I have known others, in seasons of sorrow, seem to surround themselves with everything that is sad--that was also folly. Some, who have been in great trouble, have tried to hide it in frivolity, but that was still greater folly. It is a good thing, in times of grief, not to let your surroundings be either too somber or too bright, but to seek, in your measure, to be as wise as your Master was in His choice of Gethsemane as the scene of His solitary supplication and subsequent betrayal. II. Now, secondly, let us consider THE EXERCISE OF THE SAVIOR UPON THAT SPOT. Every item is worthy of attention and imitation. First, He took all the precautions for others. He left 8 of His disciples at the entrance to the Garden, saying to them, "Pray that you enter not into temptation." Then He took Peter, James and John a little further into the Garden, saying to them, "Tarry you here, and watch with Me." There ought, thus, to have been two watching and praying bands. If they had all been on the watch, they might have heard the footfalls of the approaching band and they would have seen in the distance the lights of the lanterns and torches of these who were coming to arrest their Lord. Probably our Master took these precautions more for the sake of His disciples than for His own sake. He bade them pray as well as watch, that they might not be taken unawares, nor be overcome with fear when they saw their Master captured and led away as a prisoner. From this action of our Lord, we may learn that we, also, in our own extremity, should not forget to care for others and shield them from harm as much as we can. Next, our Savior solicited the sympathy of friends. As a Man, He desired the prayers and sympathies of those who had been most closely associated with Him. Oh, what a Prayer Meeting they might have held--watching for the coming of the enemy and praying for their dear Lord and Master! They had a noble opportunity of showing their devotion to Him, but they missed it. They could not have kept Judas and the men who came with him away from their Lord, but they might have let their Master know when Judas was coming. It was almost the last service that any of them could have rendered to Him before He died for them--yet they failed to render it and left Him, in that dread hour of darkness-- without even the slight consolation that human sympathy might have afforded Him. In our times of trial, we shall not do wrong if we imitate our Lord in this action of His--yet we need not be surprised if, like He, we find all human aid fail us in our hour of greatest need. Then, leaving all His disciples, and going away alone, Jesus prayed and wrestled with Godand, in our time of trouble, our resort must be to prayer. Restrain not prayer at any time, even when the sun shines brightly upon you, but be sure that you pray when the midnight darkness surrounds your spirit. Prayer is most needed in such an hour as that, so be not slack in it, but pour out your whole soul in earnest supplication to your God and say to yourself, "Now above all other times I must pray with the utmost intensity." For consider how Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. He adopted the lowliest posture and manner. He fell on His face and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me." What an extraordinary sight! The eternal Son of God had taken upon Himself our nature and there He lay as low as the very dust out of which our nature was originally formed! There He lay as low as the most unrighteous sinner or the most humble beggar can lie before God. Then He began to cry to His Father in plain and simple language, but oh, what force He put into the words He used! Thrice He pleaded with His Father, repeating the same petition--and Luke tells us that, "being in an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground." He was not only in an agony of suffering, but in an agony of prayer at the same time! But while our Lord's prayer in Gethsemane was thus earnest, intense and repeated, it was, at the same time, balanced with a ready acquiescence in His Father's will! "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." So, suffering one, you whose spirit has sunk within you. You who are depressed and well-near distracted with grief, may the Holy Spirit help you to do what Jesus did--to pray, to pray alone, to pray with intensity, to pray with importunity, to pray even unto an agony--for this is the way in which you will prevail with God and be brought through your hour of darkness and grief. Believe not the devil when he tells you that your prayer is in vain! Let not your unbelief say, "The Lord has closed His ears against you." "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ears heavy, that they cannot hear." Yet mind that you also imitate your Lord's submission and resignation, for that is not acceptable prayer in which a man seeks to make his own will prevail over the will of God! That is presumption and rebellion--not the cry of a true child of God. You may beseech Him to grant your request, "if it is possible," but you may not go beyond that! You must still cry, with your Lord, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as You will." I have already reminded you that our Lord sought human sympathy while in Gethsemane, but I want again to refer to that fact so that we may learn the lessons it is intended to teach us. In our little griefs we often go to our fellow creatures, but not to God--that habit is apt to breed dependence upon man. But in our greatest griefs, we frequently go to God and feel as if we could not go to man! Now, although that may look like honoring God, there is a good deal of pride mixed with it. Our Lord Jesus Christ neither depended upon men nor yet renounced the sympathy of men. There were three of His disciples within call and eight more a little further away, but probably still within call. He prayed to His Father, yet He asked of His disciples such sympathy as they might have shown to Him. Still, He did not depend upon their sympathy for, when He did not get it, He went back to His praying to His Father! There are some who say that they will trust in God and use no means--others say that they will use the means, but they fall short in the matter of trusting God. I have read that one of Mahommed's followers came to him and said, "O prophet of God, I shall turn my camel loose, tonight, and trust it to providence." But Mahommed very wisely answered, "Tie your camel up as securely as you can--and then trust it to providence." There was sound common sense in that remark--and the principle underlying it can be applied to far weightier matters. I believe that I am following the example of my Lord when I say, "I trust in God so fully that if no man will sympathize with me, He, alone, will enable me to drink all that is in this cup that He has placed in my hand. Yet I love my fellow creatures so much that I desire to have their sympathy with me in my sorrow, although if they withhold it, I shall still place my sole dependence upon my God." When our Lord came to His disciples and found them sleeping instead of watching, you know how prompt He was to find an excuse for them--"The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." His rebuke of Peter was very gentle-- "'Simon, do you sleep? Could you not watch one hour?' Are you sleeping, you who so recently boasted that you would go with Me to prison and to death and that though all others should deny Me, you would not? Ah, Simon, you had better watch and pray, for you know not how soon temptation may assail you and cause you to fall most grievously." Yet Peter was included with the rest of the disciples in the excuse which their Lord made for the willing but weak sleepers who ought to have been watchers. What a lesson this is to us! We do not make half the excuses for one another that Jesus makes for us! Generally, we are so busy making excuses for ourselvesthat we quite forget to make excuses for others. It was not so with our Lord. Even in His own overwhelming trouble, no sharp or unkind word escaped from His lips! When we are very ill, you know how apt we are to be irritable to those about us. And if others do not sympathize with us as we think they should, we wonder what they can be made of to see us in such sorrow and not to express more grief on our ac- count! Yet there was our Master, all stained with His own blood, for His heart's floods had burst their banks and run all over Him in a gory torrent! But when He came to His disciples, they gave Him no kind word, no help, no sympathy, for they were all asleep. He knew that they were sleeping for sorrow, so their sleep was not caused by indifference to His grief, but by their sorrow at His sorrow. Their Master knew this, so He made such excuse for them as He could. And, Beloved, when we are suffering our much smaller sorrows, let us be ready to make excuses for others as our Lord did in His great ocean of suffering! III. Now, thirdly, let us consider THE TRIUMPH UPON THAT SPOT. It was a terrible battle that was waged in Gethsemane--we shall never be able to pronounce that word without thinking of our Lord's grief and agony--but it was a battle that He won, a conflict that ended in complete victory for Him! The victory consisted, first, in His perfect resignation. There was no rebellion in His heart against the will of the Father to whom He had so completely subjected Himself. But unreservedly He cried, "Not as I will, but as You will." No clarion blast, nor firing of cannons, nor waving of flags, nor acclamation of the multitudes ever announced such a victory as our Lord achieved in Gethsemane! He there won the victory over all the griefs that were upon Him and all the griefs that were soon to roll over Him like huge Atlantic billows! He there won the victory over death and even over the wrath of God which He was about to endure to the utmost for His people's sake! There is true courage, there is the highest heroism, there is the declaration of the Invincible Conqueror in that cry, "Not as I will, but as You will." With Christ's perfect resignation, there was also His strong resolve. He had undertaken the work of His people's redemption and He would go through with it until He could triumphantly say from the Cross, "It is finished!" A man can sometimes dash forward and do a deed of extraordinary daring, but it is the long-sustained agony that is the real test of courageous endurance. Christ's agony in Gethsemane was broken up into three periods of most intense wrestling in prayer--with brief intervals which could have given Him no relief as He turned in vain to the sleeping disciples for the sympathy that His true Human Nature needed in that hour of dreadful darkness! But, as He had before steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem though He well knew all that awaited Him there, He still kept His face set like a flint toward the great purpose for which He had come from Heaven to earth. It is the wear and tear of long-continued grief that has proved too much for many a truly heroic spirit, yet our Lord endured it to the end! And so He left us an example that we shall do well to follow. A part of our Savior's victory was that He obtained angelic help. Those prayers of His prevailed with His Father, "and there appeared an angel unto Him from Heaven, strengthening Him." I know not how he did it, but in some mysterious way the angel brought Him succor from on high. We do not know that angel's name and we do not need to know it--but somewhere among the bright spirits before the Throne of God there is the angel who strengthened Christ in Gethsemane. What a high honor for him! The disciples missed the opportunity that Christ put within their reach, but the angel gladly availed himself of the opportunity as soon as it was presented to him. Last of all, the victory of Christ was manifest in His majestic bearing towards His enemies. Calmly He rose and faced the hostile band. And when the traitor gave the appointed signal by which Jesus was to be recognized, He simply asked the searching personal question, "Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" How that enquiry must have cut the betrayer to the heart! When Jesus turned to those who had been sent to arrest Him and said to them, "Whom do you seek," He did not speak like a man whose soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. And when they answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth," He said, "I Am," and at the very sound of that great Jehovah's name, "I Am," "they went backward and fell to the ground." There was a majestic flash of His Deity even in the hour of the abasement of His Humanity--and they fell prostrate before the God who had thus confessed that the name of Jehovah rightly belonged to Him! Then He went with them quietly and without the slightest resistance after He had shown His care for His disciples by saying--"If, therefore, you seek Me, let these go their way"--and after He had healed the ear of Malchus, which Peter had so rashly cut off! Then, all the while that Christ was before Annas and Caiaphas, and before Pilate and Herod, and right on to the last dread scene of all upon the Cross, He was calm and collected--and never again endured such tossing to and fro as He had passed through in Gethsemane! Well now, Beloved, if the Lord shall bring us into deep waters and cause us to pass through fiery trials--if His Spirit shall enable us to pray as Jesus did, we shall see something like the same result in our own experience! We shall rise up from our knees strengthened for all that lies before us and fitted to bear the Cross that our Lord may have ordained for us. In any case, our cup can never be as deep or as bitter as His was--there were in His cup some ingredients that never will be found in ours. The bitterness of sin was there, but He has taken that away for all who believe in Him. His Father's wrath was there, but He drank that all up and left not a single drop for any of His people. One of the martyrs, as he was on his way to the stake, was so supremely happy that a friend said to him, "Your Savior was full of sorrow when He agonized for you in Gethsemane." "Yes," replied the martyr, "and for that very reason I am so happy, for He bore all the sorrow for me." You need not fear to die, if you are a Christian, since Jesus died to put away your sin--and death is but the opening of your cage to let you fly, to build your happy nest on high! Therefore, fear not even the last enemy, which is Death. Besides, Christ could not have a Savior with Him to help Him in His agony, but you have His assurance that He will be with you! You shall not have merely an angel to strengthen you, but you shall have that great Angel of the Covenant to save and bless you even to the end! The most of this sermon does not belong to some of you, for you do not belong to Christ. O dear Friends, do not give sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids till you belong to Him! As surely as you live, you will have sorrows at some time or other, you will have a bitter cup of which you must drink--and then what will you do if you have no Divine consolation in the trying hour? What will you do when you come to die if you have no Christ to make your pillow soft for you, no Savior to go with you through that dark valley? Oh, seek Him and He will be found of you, even now! The Lord help you to do so, for Christ's sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN10.1-30. Verse 1. Verily, verity, I say unto you, he that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber The positiveness of our Lord's teaching is noteworthy. Whatever may be said about dogmatically teaching, now, it is certain that His teaching is of that character! He does not raise questions, but He solves them. He does not suggest probabilities, but He declares certainties. This might be taken as the key-word to all the Savior's teaching, "Verily, verily." He makes a strong statement. He speaks as one having authority, not as the scribes who only claimed to have authority, but as the Sent One of the Father who really has it! "Verily, verily, I say unto you." Whatever comes to us with the imprimatur of the, "Verily, verily," of the Son of God is not to be questioned or doubted by us for a single moment! "He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." Christ Himself entered by the door. He came according to the ancient types, symbols and prophecies. He came as God said that He would come. He entered by the door. There is no irregularity about Christ's office as the Shepherd of His sheep. It is confirmed to Him by the sanction of the Holy Spirit. The witness of the Father is borne to Him--"This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: hear you Him." We rejoice to think that Jesus our Savior is also Christ the Anointed. He is Jesus to us, but He is the Anointed of the Father. He comes by right as the appointed Shepherd of the sheep entering in by the door! 2, 3. But he who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter opens. To Him John the Baptist, as the porter, opened the door. He pointed to Him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." And every God-sent minister is a porter to Christ, opening the door to Him! That is our office--to stand and open the door that Christ may come forth among you--and that you may come in to Him and find the spiritual pasture on which your souls can feed. "To him the porter opens"-- 3. And the sheep hear his voice. Those who are really chosen of God hear and heed the voice of Christ but those who are not Christ's chosen ones will not heed His discourse, but will listen to the many voices which attract the ears and the hearts of sinful men. The elect of God are known by this mark--that they hear the voice of Christ! Just as you can find out in a heap of ashes, whether there are any pieces of steel there by simply thrusting in a magnet, so can you find out God's chosen people by the mighty magnet of Christ's voice! 3. And he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. [See Sermon #2359, Volume 40--personal and effectual calling.] Sometimes He leads them out from the midst of the world's flocks. And sometimes He calls them by name when they are in His fold and leads them out to even higher and better pastures, calls them and leads them out to higher Truths of God than they have before received. 4. And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them. Christ never drives His sheep, He leads them. As the Eastern shepherd always goes before his sheep, so does the Savior go before His flock. "He goes before them"-- 4. And the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. Christ's sheep are marked in various ways. They are marked on the foot--"the sheep follow Him." And they are marked in the ear, "for they know His voice." They follow the track of their Shepherd and they give heed to the voice of their Shepherd--and by these tokens they are known to be His sheep. 5. And a stranger they will not follow. There are strangers constantly coming into our different churches. We know they are strangers, for they preach strange doctrines and do not keep to the old paths. Those that are notChrist's sheep follow them directly. "Here is a very clever man," they say, and off they go after him! But of God's elect it is written, "A stranger they will not follow"-- 5. But will flee from him. They are frightened at the very sight of him! They cannot tell what deadly pasture he is preparing for them, so they "flee from him"-- 5. For they know not the voice of strangers. They know the voice of their Shepherd, but they know not the voice of strangers, so they flee from them. 6. This parable spoke Jesus unto them but they did not understand the things He spoke unto them. They thus proved that they were not His sheep, for they did not understand His words! 7. 8. Then Jesus said unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. And all who came before Me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. There were many false christs that rose up before Jesus Christ appeared--and there were many persons who followed those false christs. "But the sheep did not hear them." They still waited with holy Anna, with patient Simeon and the rest of the faithful who waited for the appearing of the true Shepherd, and were not misled by the pretenders who were only "thieves and robbers." 9. Iam the Door. If anyone enters by Me, he shall be saved, and' shall go in and out, and find pasture."^ Sermon #2752, Volume 47--THE DOOR.] Christ is the Door just as truly as He is the Shepherd and as He is everything that is necessary and good for His people! If I come to Christ, I must come to Him by Christ. Any of us who will but enter in by Christ, who is the Door of His Church, shall find salvation and more than that--we shall find liberty--for we "shall go in and out." Our daily pathway shall be a safe one and we shall have abundant supplies for all our daily needs. We "shall go in and out and find pasture." 10. The thiefcomes not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: Iam come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. [See Sermon #1150, Volume 20--LIFE MORE ABUNDANT.] I trust that the first purpose of Christ's coming has been fulfilled to many of us, for we "have life" through Him--but ought we not to be encouraged to hope that we may reach a higher standard of that life--and so have it more abundantly? We do not want to have just enough life to enable us to breathe, but we want life enough for usefulness, for joy, for triumph, for likeness to Christ, for communion with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ! 11-13. Iam the Good Shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep. The hireling flees, because he is an hireling, and cares not for the sheep. Christ is the Good Shepherd and, therefore, He never fled as the hireling flees. He cared for the sheep, for they were His own. The wolf might come, but the Good Shepherd was ready to meet him. He would not have His sheep scattered, but He would gather them in the cloudy and dark day, and in every time of danger He would be the center around which they might rally. 14, 15. I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep. [See Sermon #1877, Volume 32--OUR OWN DEAR SHEPHERD.] Our translators have ruined this passage by putting a full stop where there should not be one, and by breaking it into two verses. It should run thus--"I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine as the Father knows Me and I know the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep." Christ here sets forth the intimate knowledge that there is between Himself and all His people--as much as there is between the Father and the Son! It is wonderful teaching, full of depth and spiritual power. As the Father knows the Son, and the Son knows the Father, so certainly does Christ know His Church--and His Church knows Him--or shall do so in the future. 16. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. [See Sermon #1713, Volume 29--OTHER SHEEP AND ONE FLOCK.] They are of this flock, but they are not of this fold. The flock is divided, and lies down in different fields for the present--"Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold"-- 16-18. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd. Therefore does My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man takes it from Me, but I lay it down ofMyself 'Christ's death was to be the act of His own free will, as well as of the violence of wicked men. 18-21. Ihavepower to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have Ireceived ofMy Father. There was a division, therefore, again among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them said, He has a devil, and is mad, why listen to Him? Others said, These are not the words of one that has a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?'Christ's sayings always cause a division between those who hear them. There must always be two opinions, just as there are some who are His sheep and some who are not. When you go and try to speak for Christ, do not be at all astonished if people ridicule you. What did they say of the Master, Himself? "He has a devil, and is mad." They will not say anything worse than that of you. And when they have said it, what does it matter? Hard words break no bones. So have courage enough to bear opposition and you may, like your Master, yet find some who will defend you--for there may be those who will say--"These are not the words of one that has a devil." 22-26. And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of Dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus talked in the Temple in Solo-mon'sporch. Then came the Jews roundabout Him and said to Him, How long do You make us to doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you didn't believe Me: the works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you believe not because you are not ofMy sheep, as I said unto you. "You are not My chosen people--there has been no work of Divine Grace in your hearts and, therefore, you do not believe." What a brave way that was of putting the Truth of God! Some would have said, "Because you do not believe, you are not my sheep;" but Jesus puts it the other way, "Because you are not My sheep, therefore you do not believe." 27-30. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out ofMy hand. My Father, who gave them to Me, is greater than all; andno man is able to pluck them out ofMy Father's hand. IandMy Father are One. [See Sermon #2120, Volume 35--the security OF BELIEVERS--OR, SHEEP WHO WILL NEVER PERISH.] This great Truth of God angered the Jews so much that they "took up stones again to stone Him." They proved, by thus treating the Good Shepherd, that they were not His sheep! __________________________________________________________________ The True Aim of Preaching (No. 3191) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Be it known unto you, therefore, brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." Acts 13:38. PAUL'S mode of preaching, as illustrated by this chapter, was first of all to appeal to the understanding with a clear exposition of doctrinal Truths of God and then to impress those Truths upon the emotions of his hearers with earnest and forcible exhortations. This is an excellent model for revivalists. They must not give exhortation without Doctrine, for if so, they will be like men who are content with burning powder in their guns, but have omitted the shot! It is the Doctrine we preach, the Truth we deliver which God will make a power to bless men. However earnest and zealous we may be in speaking, if we have not something weighty and solid to say, we shall appear to be earnest about nothing and shall not be at all likely to create a lasting impression. Paul, if you notice through this chapter, first of all gives the history of Redemption, tells the story of the Cross, insists upon the Resurrection of the Savior and then he comes to close and personal dealings with the souls of men and bids them not neglect this great salvation! At the same time, it was not all Doctrine and no exhortation but, whenever Paul wound up his discourse and left the synagogue, he made a strenuous, pointed, personal appeal to those who had listened to him! Let such of our brethren as are passionately fond of mere Doctrine--but having little of the marrow of Divine Mercy or the milk of human kindness in their souls, do not care to have the Word pressed upon the consciences of men--let them stand rebuked by the example of the Apostle Paul! He knew well that even the Truth of God, itself, would be powerless unless it is applied. Like the wheat in the basket, it can produce no harvest till it is sown broadcast in the furrows. We cannot expect that men will come and make an application of the Truth of God to themselves. We must, having our heart glowing and our souls on fire with love to them, seek to bring the Truth to bear upon them, to impress it upon their hearts and consciences as in the sight of God and in the place of Christ. The subject to which Paul drew attention--the target at which he was shooting all his arrows--was forgiveness of sins through the Man, Christ Jesus. That is my subject tonight. And when I have spoken upon it briefly, I shall then have a few words to say about his audience and what became of them. I. PAUL'S SUBJECT was superlative--the Subject of subjects--the great master Doctrine of the Christian ministry--"Be itknown unto you, therefore, brethren, that through this Man ispreached unto you the forgiveness ofsins." "The forgiveness of sins" is a topic which will be more or less interesting to every hearer here in proportion as he feels that he has committed sins, the guilt of which appalls his conscience. To those good people among you who fold your arms and say, "We have done no wrong either to God or man," I have nothing to say. You need no physician, for you are not sick. You, evidently, would not be thankful for the heavenly eye-salve, for you are not blind. The wealth that Christ can bring you will not induce you to bow the knee to Him, for already you think yourselves to be rich and increased in goods. But I shall be quite sure of the ears of the man whose sins have been a burden to him. If there is one here who needs to be reconciled to God, who says with the prodigal, "I will arise and go to my Father," I shall not need to study how to fit my words--let them come out as they may, the theme, itself, will be sure to enlist the attention of such an one who says-- "How can I get my sins forgiven? How can I find my way to Heaven?" While we attempt to tell him that, we shall ensure his attention. This is our aim--and this we will do if God permits. The Christian minister tells men the ground of pardon, the exclusive method, (for there is a monopoly in this matter)--the exclusive method by which God will pardon sin. "Through this Man," says the text. That is to say, God will pardon, but He will only pardon in one way--through His Son Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus has a monopoly on mercy! If you will depend upon the uncovenanted mercy of God--the mercy of God apart from Christ--you shall find that you have depended upon a reed and built your house upon sand! Into the one silver pipe of the atoning Sacrifice, God has made to flow the full current of pardoning Grace. If you will not go to that--you may be tempted by the mirage, you may think that you can drink there to the fullest, but you shall die disappointed. You must die unless you come for salvation to Christ! What does He say, Himself? "I am the Door: by Me if any man enters in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." He that believes on the Son of God is not condemned! But he that believes not--may he go right, too? No, he is already condemned because he believes not! "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." These are Christ's own words, not mine! He that believes shall be saved, "but he that believes not shall be"--what? Pardoned for his unbelief? No, he--"shall be damned!"There is no other alternative. The expression might seem harsh if I were the inventor of it, but as it came from the lips of Christ who was the gentlest, meekest and most tender of men, God forbid that I should make up a charity of which the Lord, Himself, made no profession! "He that believes not shall be damned." God presents mercy to the sons of men, but He has chosen to present it in only one channel--through that Man who died for sinners, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring them to God! Why is it that forgiveness comes to us only through Jesus Christ? The whole economy of Redemption supplies us with an answer. The Man Christ Jesus is a Divine Person. He is the Son of God. You will never doubt that reconciliation is an effect of Infinite Wisdom if you once clearly understand the condition that made it requisite. Though His people were objects of God's everlasting love, their sins had kindled His fierce anger as if it were an unquenchable fire. Inasmuch as God is just, He must from the necessity of His Nature, punish sin! Yet He willed to have mercy upon the fallen sons of men. Therefore it was that Christ came into this world. Being God, He was made Man for our sakes. He suffered from the wrath of God that which we, the offending sinners, ought to have suffered. God exacted from the Man, Christ Jesus, that which He would otherwise have exacted from us! Upon Christ's dear devoted head was laid the curse. Upon His bare back fell the scourge that would have tortured our souls throughout eternity! Those hands of His, when nailed to the tree, smarted with our smart. That heart bled with our bleeding. "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed; surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." Substitution, then, is the cause of it all! God will forgive sin because the sin which He forgives has been already atoned for by the sufferings of His dear Son! You know, many of you, the story, in old Roman history, of the young man who had violated discipline and was condemned to die. But his elder brother, a grand old soldier who had often been to the front in the battles of his country, came and exposed his chest, showed his many scars and exhibited his body covered with the orders, insignias and honors of his victories. And then he said, "I cannot ask life for my brother on account of anything that he has ever done for his country. He deserves to die, I know, but I set my scars and my wounds before you as the price for his life. And I ask you whether you will not spare him for his brother's sake." And with acclamation, it was carried that for his brother's sake he should live. Sinner, this is what Christ does for you! He points to His scars. He pleads before the Throne of God, "I have suffered the vengeance due to sin. I have honored Your righteous Law--for My sake have mercy upon that unworthy brother of Mine!" In this way, and in no other way, is forgiveness of sins preached to you through this Man, Christ Jesus! It is our business to also preach to you the instrument through which you may obtain this pardon. We read the question in your anxious eyes, "I can understand that Christ, having stood as a Substitute, has received from God power to pardon human souls, but how can I obtain the benefit, how can I draw near to Him?" Did you ever read that Moses described the righteousness of faith--and Paul endorsed his description? "Say not in your heart, who shall ascend into Heaven, or who shall descend into the deep?" You have no reason to climb so high or dive so low. "The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart; that is, the Word of faith which we preach." You have no need to go home to get at Christ! You have no need to even come here to find Him! He is accessible at all hours and in all places--the ever-present Son of God." But how shall I come to Him?" asks one. Oh, you need not torture your body! You need not afflict your soul! You need not bring your gold and silver--you need not even bring your tears! All that you have to do is to come to Him as you are and trust in Him! Oh, if you will believe that He is the Son of God and is able to save to the ut- termost--and if you will cast yourself upon Him with your whole weight--falling upon Him, leaning upon Him, resting upon Him with that whole trust which needs and lacks no other support, you shall be saved! Now cling to the Cross, you shipwrecked Sinner, and you shall never go down while clinging to that! If you are enabled by the Holy Spirit to put your sole and simple reliance upon Christ, earth's pillars may totter and the lamps of Heaven be extinguished, but you shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you out of Christ's hands! Trust Jesus--that is the way of salvation! "What?" asks one, "If I trust Christ tonight, shall I have my sins forgiven?" Yes, forgiven tonight! "What? If I just rest in Christ and look to Him?" Even so! "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."-- "There is life for a look at the Crucified One, There is life at this moment for thee! Then look, Sinner, look unto Him and be saved-- Unto Him who was nailed to the tree!" You will be saved, not by repenting and tears! Not by wailing and works! Not by doing and praying, but coming, believing, simply depending upon what Jesus Christ has done! When your soul says by faith what Christ said in fact, "It is finished," you are saved and you may go your way rejoicing! We have thus preached God's way of pardon and man's way of getting at God's pardon. But we are also enjoined to preach about the character of this forgiveness of sin. Never had messengers such happy tidings to deliver! When God pardons a man's sins, He pardons all of them--He makes a clean sweep of the whole! God never pardons half a man's sins and leaves the rest in His Book of Remembrance. He has pardon for all sins at once! I believe that, virtually, before God, all the sins of the Believer were so laid to the account of Christ that no sins ever can be laid to the Believer's door. The Apostle does not say, "Who does lay anything to the charge of God's elects," but, "Who shall?" as though nobody ever could! I am inclined to think that Kent's words are literally true-- "Here'spardon for transgressions past-- It matters not how black their cast! And oh, my Soul, with wonder view, For sins to come, here's pardon too!" It is a full pardon. God takes His pen and writes a receipt. Though the debt may be a hundred talents, He can write it off! Or be it ten thousand, the same hand can receipt it! Luther tells us of the devil appearing to him in a dream and bringing before him the long rolls of his sins. And when he brought them, Luther said, "Now write at the bottom, 'the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin!'" Oh, that blessed word, "all"--"from all sin!" Great sins and little sins! Sins of our youth and sins of our gray hairs! Sins by night and sins by day! Sins of action and sins of thought-- they are ALL gone! Blessed Savior! Precious blood! Omnipotent Redeemer! Mighty Red Sea, that thus drowns every Egyptian! It is a full pardon and it is, likewise, a free pardon. God never pardons any sinner from any other motive than His own pure Grace. It is all gratis! It cost the Savior much, but it costs us nothing! It is a pardon freely given by a God of Grace because He delights in mercy. There is, too, this further blessing about it, that while it is full and free, it is also irresistible Whom God pardons, He never condemns. Let Him once say, "Absolvo te," "I absolve you," and none can lay anything to our charge! We have heard of men who have been pardoned for one offense, but who have committed another--and have, therefore, had to die. But when the Lord pardons us, He prevents our going away to our old corruption. He puts His Spirit in us and makes new men of us so that we find we cannot do what we used to do! That mighty Grace of God is without repentance! God never repents of having bestowed His Grace. Do not believe those who tell you that He loves you, today, and hates you tomorrow! O Beloved--once in Christ the devil cannot get you out of Him! Get into the sacred clefts, Sinner, of that Rock of Ages which was cleft for you, and out of it the fiends of Hell can never drag you! You are safe when once you get into that harbor. Get Christ and you have Heaven! All things are yours when Christ is yours--full pardon, free pardon and everlasting pardon! And let me also tell you, present pardon. It is a notion still current that you cannot know you are forgiven till you come to die. O Beloved, when people talk thus, it shows what they know, or rather, what they do notknow about it. There are some here who can bear witness--no, there are millions of God's people who, if they could speak from Heaven, would tell you that they knew their pardon long years before they entered into rest. If you had ever been shut up in prison, as some of us were, and had been set at liberty, you would know what present pardon is. Five long years it was with me a bitter agony of soul when nothing but Hell stared me in the face--when neither night nor day had I peace, and oh, what joy it was when I heard that precious Truth of God, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth." I felt the pardon really fall on me! I was as conscious of pardon as this hand is conscious of being clean after I have washed it--and as conscious of being accepted in Christ, at that moment, as I am now sure that I am able to stand here and say as much with my mouth! A man may have this Infallible Witness of the Holy Spirit! I know that to some stubborn minds, it will always seem as fanaticism, but what do I care whether it seems as fanaticism to them or not, as long as it is real to my heart? We count ourselves as honest as others and have as much right to be believed--whether they credit our sanity and our sincerity or not does not affect us a straw, as long as we know that we have received the Grace! If you reckoned a clear profit of ten thousand pounds upon some speculation and somebody said to you, "It is all foolery"--the proof would be unanswerable if you had received the amount and had the bank notes in your house. Then you would say, "Ah, you may think as you like about it, but I have got the cash." So Christians can say, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God...and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the Atonement." When someone tells a Christian that he is not forgiven, he says, "Oh, you may say what you like about it, but I have the witness within that I am born of God. I am not what I used to be--if I were to meet myself in the street, I would hardly know myself, I mean my spiritualself--my inner self--for I am so changed, so renewed, so turned upside down that I am not what I was! I am a new man in Christ Jesus." The man who can say this can bear to be laughed at. He knows what he is doing and at the coolest and most sober moment of his life, even when lying on his bed sick and ready to die, he can look right into eternity, soberly judge of Christ, and find Him to be worthy of his confidence and, thinking of the blood-washing, find it to be a real fact! There are a thousand things in this world that look well enough till you come to look upon them in the prospect of the grave--but this is a thing that looks better, the nearer we get to eternity and the more solemnly and deliberately we take our account of it in the sight of God! Oh, yes, there is a present pardon! But what I want to say most emphatically is that there is a present pardon for you. "Who is that?" you ask. Oh, I am not going to pick and choose from the midst of you. Whoever among you will come and trust Christ, there is present pardon for you! What? That gray-headed man there, 70 years old in sin? Yes, blessed be the name of the Lord, if he this night should rest in Christ, there is instantaneous pardon for him! Is there a harlot here? Is there a drunk here? Is there one here who has cursed God? Is there one here who has been dishonest? Is there one here over whom all these sins have rolled? Why, if you believe, your sins, which are many, are all forgiven you! And though there should be brought before us one so guilty that we might well stay away from him, yet if he can but trust Christ, Christ will not stay away from him, but will receive him! Oh, was not that a wonderful moment when the Savior wrote on the ground as the woman taken in adultery stood before Him--when all her accusers, being convicted by their own consciences, went out, leaving the sinner and the Savior alone together--and when Jesus Christ, who hated all kinds of sin, but who loved all kinds of sinners, lifted Himself up and said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more"? Ah, poor Sinner, Jesus Christ does not condemn you! If you condemn yourselves, He will never condemn you. He will only condemn your sin, for that is what He hates, but He does not hate you. If you and your sins part, Christ and you shall never part! If you will but trust Him right now, you shall find Him able to save you even to the very uttermost from all these sins of yours which have become your plague and your burden! God help you, then, to trust Him at once and to find this present pardon--this pardon which will last you forever--and which you may have right now! Now, as I said before, all this will be good news only to those who want pardon, but not to those who do not require it. I have nothing to say to those who do not want it. Why should I? They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick." God will have something to say to you one of these days. I recollect and I hope you have not forgotten the story of the rich man. It is more than allegory, it is fact. You know that while he was in this world, he had fared sumptuously every day. He was clothed in purple and fine linen and as for God's child Lazarus, he thought he was a poor miserable beggar, only fit to be with the dogs--and he despised him. He looked at him and said, "Oh, I am a gentleman. I am dressed in purple and fine linen. I am none of your beggarly saints lying on the dunghill, though they call themselves saints, and all that. I am rich." Now it so happened that he did not see himself--he had scales over his eyes. But he found out the Truth of God one day. You remember Christ's words, "In Hell, he lifted up his eyes!" Ah, and he saw, then, what he had never seen before! All that he had ever seen before had been a glamour over his eyes--he had been dazed and benighted. Hehad been the beggar, all the while, if he had but known it! While Lazarus, who had won the beggars garb, was waited on like a prince and carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. So, the poor beggar, covered with wounds and sores, who thinks he is only fit for the dunghill--he is the man Christ will save! He is the man Christ will take up to Heaven at last! As for your self-righteous men who think themselves so good and excellent, they will be like the tinsel and the gilt--and will all be burned up in the fire--the varnish and paint will all come off! God will knock the masks off their faces and let the leprosy that was on their brow be seen by all men. But, Sinner, you who are such, and who know it--unto you is preached this night forgiveness of sins through the Man, Christ Jesus! II. We shall now proceed to remind you of THE CONGREGATION TO WHICH PAUL ADDRESSED HIMSELF, AND WHAT BECAME OF THEM. The text says, "Unto you is preached forgiveness of sins." Never mind the Jews and Gentiles Paul preached to--the verse is quite as applicable here as it was there. " Unto you is preached the forgiveness of sins." My dear Friend, it is no small privilege to be where the message of the forgiveness of sins can yet be heard. Unto you i s preached the forgiveness of sins, but not to the tens of thousands and millions who have gone the way of all flesh, unpardoned and unsaved! How is it that you are spared? Your brother is dead. Your children have, some of them, died--but you are spared. You have been at sea. You have been in peril. You have had the fever. You have been near death and yet here you are, kept alive, with death so near! Is not this a privilege that unto you is preached the forgiveness of sins? What would they give to hear it once more? What would they give to have another opportunity? But it has been said of them-- "Too late, too late! You cannot enter now." "Unto you is preached the forgiveness of sins." I said that this was a privilege, but it is a privilege which some of you have despised. Those who heard Paul had never heard the Gospel before--many of you have heard it from your youth up. Alas, I cannot help saying of some of you that I already to despair of your conversion! You do not improve. All the exhortations in the world are to you as if they were spoken to an iron column or to a brazen wall! Why will you die? What shall be done to you? What shall be said to you? Unto you is preached the forgiveness of sins. When you die, careless, Christless, unsaved--when we throw that handful of dirt upon your coffin, we shall have to think, "Ah, that man is lost, and yet unto him was preached the forgiveness of sins!" Well, but it is still preached to you! Notwithstanding that you have neglected the privilege, the Gospel is still preached to you! Gladly would I point my finger at some of you and say, "Well, now, I really do mean you, personally. You people under the gallery whom I cannot see and you upstairs, here, everyone of you--unto you is preached the forgiveness of sins! God has not sent us, tonight, to preach to your neighbors, but to you--you Mary, Thomas, George, John, Sarah--you, you personally--unto you is preached the forgiveness of sins and it is with you, now, tonight, to consider what reception shall be given to the message of mercy! Shall a hard heart be the only answer? Oh, may the Spirit of God come upon you and give instead thereof a quickened conscience and a tender heart that you may be led to say, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" Do you ask, " What became of those to whom the Word was preached with such thriiling earnestness?" Some of them raved at a very great rate. If you read through the Chapter, you will find that the Jews were filled with envy and they spoke against those things that were declared to them by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming, and so on, until Paul shook the dust off his feet against them and went his way. But there was another class. The 48th verse says, "When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the Word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.''" Ah, that is the comfort! There are some, whenever the Gospel is preached, who do not like it. A person was once very angry with me because in preaching on the natural depravity of man, I had charged man with being depraved and I had said that man was proud. The man would not confess it and there he was--proving the truth of the assertion regarding himself that he was proud, because he could not bear to hear the truth told him about it! If he had said he was proud, I would have thought I had made a mistake, but when he bridled up and got into an angry temper, I knew that God had sent me to tell him His Truth. Outspoken Truths of God makes half the world angry! The Light of God blinds their eyes! When the Jews kicked against Paul's preaching, did Paul feel disappointed? Oh no, or if he did feel depressed for a moment, there was a strong cordial at hand--that very cordial by reason of which Jesus rejoiced in spirit as He saw the goodwill of the Father in revealing unto babes those things that are hidden from the wise and prudent! Here was Paul's comfort--there were some upon whom there had been a blessed work! There were some whose names were written in the Book of Life! Some concerning whom there had been Covenant transactions! Some whom God had chosen from before the foundation of the world! Some whom Christ had bought with His blood and whom the Spirit, therefore, came to claim as God's own property because Christ had bought them upon the bloody tree--and those "some" believed! Naturally they were like others, but Grace made the distinction and faith was the sign and evidence of that distinction! Now, you need not ask tonight whether you are God's elect. I ask another question--Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? If you do, you are His elect--if you do not, the question is not to be decided by us yet. If you are God's chosen ones, you will know it by your trusting in Jesus. Simple as that trust is, it is the Infallible proof of Election! God never sets the brand of faith upon a soul whom Christ has not bought with His blood. And if you believe, all eternity is yours! Your name is in God's Book, you are a favored one of Heaven, the Divine decrees all point to you--go your way and rejoice! But if you believe not, you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity. May eternal mercy bring you out of that state, yes, bring you out of it tonight! Oh, that I had the time and power to plead with some here who know that Christ died, who know that He can save, who know the Gospel--but who still do not trust in that Gospel for their salvation! Oh, may you be led to do it and to do it now, before this day is over! We want and pray for the conversion of many more beside you. If we had these souls given to us, what a token for good would it be, and what a comfort! May the Lord bring you in, and bring you in tonight! Oh, trust Him, Soul, trust Him! May God help you to trust Him, and His shall be the praise, world without end! EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE24. Verses 1-11. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher And they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: and as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, theysaid to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead?He is not here, but is risen. [See Sermon #1106, Volume 19-- "THE LORD IS RISEN, INDEED."] Remember how He spoke to you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered His words, and returned to the sepulcher, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the Apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not What an emptying power unbelief has! No news could ever be more full of solace than the news of a risen Savior! But to the ears of unbelief, this news, which made all Heaven glad, seemed to the Apostles but as idle tales! Unbelief tied the hands of Jesus once when he was at Nazareth for, "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." And unbelief seems often to tie our heart-strings, too, so that they can give forth no sweet music! O Lord, help us to overcome our unbelief and enable us to always confidently believe the Truth that comes to us supported by such testimony as these good women gave to the Apostles! 12-14. Then arose Peter, and ran to the sepulcher; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened.As was most proper, they that feared the Lord spoke often, one to another. Just as Elijah and Elisha talked with each other as they went towards the Jordan where Elijah was to be translated, so these two disciples were talking together of the great events that had recently happened--and especially talking of the death and the reported Resurrection of Christ. This was most natural, for what is uppermost in the heart will soon be uppermost upon the tongue. They had had their minds greatly exercised concerning the departure of their Lord and it was only natural that they should speak of it. If we never talk of Christ, we have great reason to suspect whether He is really in our hearts at all. Christ's declaration to His disciples, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them," was literally fulfilled in the case of these two disciples going to Emmaus! 15. And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus, Himself drew near and went with the . And, Beloved, if you would have communion with Christ, have communion with one another! If my Lord will not reveal Himself to me, perhaps He will reveal Himself to others--therefore let me get into the company of His chosen and then, surely, when He appears in the midst of their assembly, I shall have a share of the fellowship that they will enjoy! 16-19. But their eyes were restrained that they should not know Him. [See Sermon #1180, Volume 20--jesus near but unrecognized.] And He said to them, What kind of conversation is this that you are having with one another as you walk and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said to Him, Are You a stranger in Jerusalem and have not known the things which are come to pass in these days? And He said to them, What things? And they said to Him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. What little advance these disciples had made in the knowledge of Christ! He had been their Teacher. They had seen His miracles and yet, though they had been constantly under His superintendence, they had not learned enough to know that He was Divine! The Holy Spirit had not yet been given and, without the Holy Spirit's Divine instruction, these disciples could only say that Christ "was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people." 20-25. And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him. But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: and besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yes, and certain woman of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher; and when they found not His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that He was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher, and found it even so as the women had said: but they didnot see Him. Then He said to them, O fools, andslow ofheart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken. [See Sermon #1980, Volume 33--FOLLY OF UNBELIEF.] Supposing Him to be a stranger in Jerusalem, yet one who was well acquainted with Jewish prophecy, they had told Him exactly what the prophecies had foretold concerning the Messiah! If they had meant to refer to the various prophecies concerning Christ, they could not have detailed facts which would have more accurately fulfilled them and, therefore, Christ said to them "O fools, how slow of heart you are to believe all that the Prophets have spoken!" 26. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things."Are not those just the very things which the Prophets said that the Christ, the Anointed, must suffer? 'Ought not Christ to have suffered these things'"-- 26-28. And to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the thing concerning Himself And they drew near unto the village, where they went: and He made as though He would have gone further For Christ never forces His company upon anyone. And if we are willing to let Him go, He will go--nor will He return until we are heartily sick of having treated Him coldly. When we can no longer bear the absence of Christ, then He will speedily return to us. There is an instance of this in the life of Christmas Evans which impressed me very much when I read it. Sandemanianism had spread very much through Wales and he had been very busy attacking it. But it seemed as if, in doing so, his sermons had lost all their former power and unction--and his own soul also grew very dry and barren--he had little or no fellowship with Christ. He said that, at last, his soul grew utterly weary of being absent from his Lord and he could not endure it any longer, but felt that he must once again enjoy communion with his Lord and experience the power of the Holy Spirit in his preaching. So he stopped at the foot of Cader Idris and spent some three hours in an intense agony of prayer. And the result was that when he next preached, he did so with all the unction and power which had formerly rested upon him. He had grown weary of the absence of Christ and therefore Christ returned to him! O brethren, if Christ makes as though He would go further, do not let Him go, but hold Him fast! 29-33. But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent And He went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight. [See Volume 56 www.spurgeongems.org 7 Sermon #681, Volume 12--EYES OPENED.] Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem. This shows their zeal and also their courage! This news was too good to be kept to themselves and although it was nearly night, and they had a good distance to go, in a country that was far from safe for travelers, they "returned to Jerusalem"-- 33-36. And found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how He was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they spoke, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, Peace be unto you [See Sermon #1958, Volume 33--THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE RISEN LORD TO THE ELEVEN.] No more appropriate greeting could have been given to the troubled disciples! 37-53. But they were terrified and frightened, andsupposed that they hadseen a spirit. AndHe said to them, why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I, Myself: handle Me and see: for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see I have. And when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, He said unto them, Have you here any food? And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And He took it, and did eat before them. And He said to them, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that theymight understand the Scriptures. AndHe said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry you in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. And He led them out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the Temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. --Adapted from The C. H. Spurgeon Collection, Ages Software, 1.800.297.4307 PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST. __________________________________________________________________ The Soul's Food and Drink (No. 3192) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, OCTOBER 5, 1873. "For My flesh is food, indeed, and My blood is drink, indeed." John 6:55. IT was our Lord Jesus Christ who uttered these words and some of those who heard Him misunderstood His meaning, for they asked, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" This is not altogether surprising, for there are still millions of persons upon the earth who will persist in understanding literally what our Lord intended to be understood spiritually. To us who know the meaning of Christ's words, it seems monstrous that anyone could have supposed that Jesus meant men to eat His real, literal flesh and to drink His actual blood! I must confess that, to me, it seems an instance both of the utter depravity of human nature and of the absolute insanity to which sin has driven mankind--that there are still so many persons existing in what we call this enlightened age who actually believe that we can eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood! This is a cannibal notion which only needs to be mentioned to be denounced. Instead of having anything sacred about it, such teaching is utterly detestable--it is inconceivably idiotic and blasphemous! Idiocy and blasphemy seem to be blended together in it in about equal proportions. It is strange that such blessed words from such blessed lips should have been so shamefully misunderstood and misrepresented. Beloved Friends, as many of you as have been taught of God, know the spiritual meaning of these words. You know that the Doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ is food to your soul and you know that the great Truth of the substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ which is expressed by His blood, is the most nourishing cordial to your heart. You know that, in this sense, Christ's words are full of deep spiritual teaching--"My flesh is food, indeed, and My blood is drink, indeed." That word, "indeed," seems to contrast this spiritual nourishment with all ordinary food and drink. The best of literal food only feeds the body for a time, for that body ultimately decays. It is not in the power of food to repair the waste that is continually going on, that the physical system shall forever abide firm and strong. This food is food, but it is not "food, indeed." There are also various kinds of drink that refresh and invigorate the body--and by means of these we are enabled to continue from day to day--but where is the water, where is the crystal fountain that can give immortality? Where is the juice expressed from any fruit that grows beneath the sky that can rid the body of all disease and pain and cause it to live on without end You all know, then, among all the many kinds of literal food and drink, there is not any food that is worthy to be called food, indeed, nor any drink that is worthy to be called drink, indeed. That word, "indeed," also implies the contrast between this spiritual nourishment and all mere mental food and drink. Our soul needs food--and the proper food for it is truth, wisdom, knowledge. Solomon said, "That the soul is without knowledge, it is not good." No disciple of Christ who has the spirit of his Master, is opposed to the spread of wisdom. The "children of light" wish to have every kind of light disseminated as widely as possible. "Everyone that does evil hates the light," but he that does good loves the light and says, "The more light there is, the better." But there is no mental food save that of which I am about to speak which is food, indeed, and drink, indeed! Paul truly says, "Knowledge puffs up," and so it does if it is not kept under proper control. When a man has fed on the most profound knowledge, the spirit produced by such food has often been a proud and arrogant one which has led him to rebel against the Infinite Wisdom of God, and set up his own opinion in opposition to the Truths of God revealed in the Scriptures. What earthly knowledge is there that can afford suitable food to our entire manhood? Suppose I could compass the whole range of science--if I could thread the spheres as on a string, if I could bore the rocks and read the whole of their ancient history, if there were no secret of science left unrevealed to me--yet, if I had an aching heart, all my knowledge would not satisfy my soul or give me rest. In fact, the very acquisition of knowledge has often led to an increase of care. Solomon said, "Much study is a weariness of the flesh," and many have found it to be so. It certainly is not food, indeed, or drink, indeed. Poets have drunk at the Castilian Fountain and their verses have astonished whole nations, yet they have gone to their graves unsatisfied and despairing. Mathematicians, with wondrous minds, have mapped out the heavens, studied the stars, laid down the laws that govern the planets and traced the pathways of comets for thousands of years, yet their verdict has been the same as Solomon's, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity." But I have to speak to you concerning knowledge which is satisfying, concerning truth which does content the spirit and, in doing so, I must draw a clear, hard and fast line. No one knows the flavor or effect of food and drink who has not tasted them. It is no use for me to speak to anyone about food which he has never seen, or handled, or tasted. If he is to appreciate my testimony concerning it, he must have partaken of it. Or if my testimony is concerning a certain drink, he must at least have sipped of it. Otherwise, let me speak as earnestly as I may, he will be unable to comprehend what I am saying. Now, my Lord Jesus is food, indeed, but the soulmust feed upon Him if it is to know how He nourishes it! He is drink, indeed, but unless this drink enters into the soul, it will be a stranger to the spiritual power which Jesus always imparts when He is received into the heart by faith! If you have really received Christ Jesus the Lord. If He is "in you the hope of glory," then He is the food of your soul and you can, from your own experience, confirm His declaration, "My flesh is food, indeed, and my blood is drink, indeed." I. While I am speaking, let us, each one, try to feed spiritually upon the two great Doctrines to which the words, "flesh," and "blood," may be taken to refer, namely, the Incarnation of the Son of God and His death as His people's Substitute. And first, let me say that THESE DOCTRINES ARE MOST COMFORTING FOOD TO THE SOUL. Where will you find any other Doctrines so comforting as these? I, a sinner, have broken God's righteous Law and so offended Him that I am driven from His Presence and am shut off from all true joy and peace. But, in order to redeem man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Himself, became Man. "The Word was made flesh." Why it makes the joy-bells ring in my heart as I tell you again the old familiar story! The angels, when they were sent to tell men that unto them was born a Savior, proclaimed with joyous sounds the glad message that God had come down to earth. What joyful news it is for you, O men and women, that God has taken humanity into union with the Deity, that the Infinite became an Infant, that He who made the heavens and the earth was wrapped in swaddling clothes just as you and your own babes have been! Surely, now that God has thus become one with us, there must be peace on earth and good will toward men! He cannot be unwilling to bless those who have that human nature which He has, Himself, assumed! Even as I talk of this great Truth of God, I feel in my heart a joy that comforts me--and so Christ's flesh is food, indeed, to my soul! And when I think that, in that flesh, Jesus lived here on earth for over 30 years and knew all the weakness, temptation and suffering to which that flesh is liable--when I think how He proved Himself to be bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh--then I understand how He sympathizes with the weak, tempted and suffering sons of men! And this makes the sad heart glad and so, again, Christ's flesh is food, indeed! Then, Beloved, when you think that He at whose belt hang the keys of Hell and of Death, once toiled and suffered and, at last died, just as you have to toil and suffer and die--and when you remember that from the heights of Glory, Jesus looks down both as the Son of God and the Son of Mary, does not this feed you with true soul-comforting food? Remember, also, that whatever Jesus did as Man, He did as the great Representative Man, who has all the while been acting on behalf of His people. Adam was a representative man, but I get no food for my soul from him. He took my bread away, he took my life away, for "in Adam all died." But when Christ came here as the Representative of His people, what did He do? He kept the Law of God perfectly and His obedience was reckoned as the obedience of all who were in Him! As Adam's sin was imputed to all who were in him as their federal head, so Christ's obedience was imputed to all who were in Him as their federal Head. The condemnation of our Surety and Substitute was our condemnation, too. And when He was taken away and put to death, we were crucified in Him. And when He was laid in the grave, we were buried with Him and, blessed be God, when He rose from the dead, we rose with Him and we were justified by His Resurrection! He could never have come out of the prison of the grave if He had not paid all His people's debts. And when He was set free, they were set free! His Resurrection was the guarantee of their resurrection. Is there not most comforting food for your soul in this great Truth? Is not Christ's flesh food, indeed, when you look at it as the representative body of your Substitute and Surety? Best of all, Christ, has gone back to Glory as the Representative of His people. He did not take His soul, alone, when He ascended to His Father, leaving His body in the tomb, but that very flesh which was pierced by the nails, that very flesh through which the soldier's spear went to His heart, He carried right up to the Throne of God and, in so doing, He carried us who are in Him up there and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Him! What joy it gives us to remember that-- "There sits in our flesh, Upon a Throne of light One of a human mother born In perfect Godhead bright!" II. Changing the direction of our thought, yet still keeping to the same main track, let us turn to the second clause of the text. "My blood is drink, indeed." That is to say, CHRIST'S REDEEMING SACRIFICE IS MOST SOUL- SATISFYING. It is not merely soul-comforting, but soul-satisfying! We have stated the case hundreds of times in this place, but must state it yet again. Man had sinned and God was willing to forgive. But the inflexible law of the universe is that sin must entail punishment--and it is so good and righteous a law that to alter it would be ruinous! Therefore punishment for sin there must be--but Jesus endured the punishment due to all His people! In order that He might be able to do so, He took upon Him our flesh, and that flesh was made to bleed even unto death in the accomplishment of that purpose. We believe in the real, literal substitution of Christ in the place of all whom He had covenanted to save, and as many as believe in Him may know assuredly that their sins were transferred from them and laid upon Him! Then, when their sins were laid upon Christ-- "Jehovah bade His sword awake"-- against the Sin-Bearer and He smote Christ instead of His people--and His flowing blood brings peace and pardon to them as He dies, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring them to God! I cannot help saying that this Doctrine fills my soul with an indescribable contentment! I am satisfied to the fullest when this Truth enters my heart and so, Christ's blood is drink, indeed, to me! For see, Beloved, God's justice is satisfied. How could it be otherwise when God, Himself, makes the Atonement? When Jesus Christ, the Son of God, made Himself liable for His people's guilt, what a complete vindication of the justice of God was there! More than that, the great Covenant of Grace was ratified by the blood of Christ's atoning Sacrifice. No testament is valid as long as the testator lives, but Jesus has died and, therefore, every legacy of His love is made sure to all those to whom He has willed it. The Covenant made with Adam fell through because Adam could not keep it. But the Covenant made with the Second Adam, the Lord from Heaven, stands fast as the everlasting hills, for Christ has kept it in every particular, offering to God complete obedience, both active and passive, in His life of holiness and in His death of agony! O then, my Soul, God is satisfied, your sin is pardoned, Covenant blessings are secured to you--so is not Christ's blood drink, indeed, to you? As we think that the Son of God became the Son of Mary in order that He might die for us, that He might take our place, and die in our place, what can we need more to chase away our fears, to fulfill our hopes and to confirm our faith? If any of you need more than that, it is not possible for us to present it to you, or even to imagine it! What the Son of God said was finished has been finished and, therein our souls may rest, and rest forever! III. But, beloved Friends, we not only need spiritual food to comfort and to satisfy our souls, we also need SPIRITUAL FOOD TO STRENGTHEN OUR SOULS. And here, again, Christ's flesh is food, indeed, and His blood is drink, indeed! How strong are they who live upon the Truth of an Incarnate God, and of that Incarnate God dying in the place of His people! What strength it gives to faith! I have seen weak faith and I have seen strong faith, but I have generally found weak faith associated with dependence upon feelings, but I have never known strong faith existing anywhere except in connection with Emmanuel, God With Us, living and dying in our place! I have seen poor humble men and women who knew little more than that they were lost through sin and that Christ had come to save them, yet they have lived and died strong in faith, giving glory to God--for their faith had been nourished upon this food, indeed, and drink, indeed, of the Incarnation and substitutionary Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Mary! And fervent love is produced by the same spiritual food and drink. If Christ is to you merely some historic person who once appeared upon the earth and is now gone forever, your love for Him will be very faint if it exists at all! But if He is your own personal Savior, your ever-present Friend, your living Brother, bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh, your Surety and Substitute who bore your sins in His own body on the tree, then your love goes out to Him in a vehement flame! I do not wander that Mary Magdalene was among the holy women who were last at the Cross and first at the tomb, for Christ had done so much for her that she loved Him much. And in proportion as yourealize what His Incarnation and His death have done for you, your love will feed upon that food, indeed, and drink, indeed, until it shall become stronger even than death itself! This spiritual food and drink will also make us strong for service. There was a man--you will all recognize his portrait by the bare outline--who was at first a great enemy of Christ, but who, after his conversion, lived upon the food of which I have been speaking. And you know what an untiring servant of Christ he became. He went from city to city preaching the Word. He was stoned and left for dead, but he rose to his feet and went on preaching! His very dreams were full of service for his Master, for in a night vision, there stood by him a man of Macedonia who said to him, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." And immediately he obeyed the Spirit's call. The Lord blessed the Word, but His servant was arrested, beaten and thrust into prison--yet he and his companion made the prison cell ring with their joyful songs of praise unto their God! This man preached the Word throughout a great part of the then known world. We read of him at Damascus, Jerusalem, Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, Rome and it is probable that he even came as far as these islands of the West. And wherever he went, he preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified--and all the while he was sustained by the food, indeed, and drink, indeed, of the Incarnation and the atoning Sacrifice of the Son of God! If I had the time, I might tell you of other great workers for the Lord Jesus Christ whose lives were crowded with holy service--all of whom derived their strength from this same food, indeed, and drink, indeed, of which I have been speaking. But, Beloved, if you need further proof that the flesh of Christ is food, indeed, and His blood is drink, indeed, let me remind you of the many who have been made strong for suffering through this spiritual nourishment. You are all more or less familiar with the amazing story of the persecution of the early Christians and of their heroic endurance even unto death. What was it that sustained them but this food, indeed, and drink, indeed? Then, all along the ages, and in almost all lands, there have been brave men and women, and even boys and girls, who counted not their lives dear unto them, but gladly gave them up rather than deny their Lord and Savior. Foxe's Book of Martyrs has preserved the record of many notable instances that I need not now repeat, but you will do well to keep the stories in mind, and to teach them to your children, that they, also, may learn what suffering can be endured by those who have had such food for their souls as our text describes! No doubt there were many brave utterances like that historic saying of Latimer, "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man! We shall this day light such a candle, by God's Grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." Surely these men had food to eat of which the poor puny professors of these days seem not to have tasted! They were made strong for suffering through partaking of this food, indeed, and drink, indeed, whereof if a man eats and drinks abundantly, he shall be fitted to perform such exploits as were worked by the heroes of faith of whom Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Hebrews. O Sirs, if you want to be strong to live, or work, or suffer for Jesus, you must feed upon Jesus! It is only in the strength of this food and this drink that one can, in these days, live an honest and upright life. It is only in the force derived from this food and this drink that anyone can bear a bold and faithful testimony for Jesus. And, mark you, it is only by feeding upon such food and such drink as this that one will be able to face death with a brave countenance and look forward to the unseen world with eyes undimmed! Yes, I have seen weak women with the hectic flush of consumption on their cheeks, and with the unnatural brightness which that disease imparts to the eyes--and I have heard them talk of dying as calmly as if they were speaking of going out for a day's excursion! I have even heard them singing as though their death day had been their wedding day, so glad were they at the prospect of soon being where the day breaks and the shadows flee away forever! Joan of Arc was never such a heroine as these women have been, for they have vanquished even death, itself, and waved the banner of the Cross all through the Valley of Death-Shade. It was this food, indeed, and this drink, indeed, that helped them thus to die--no, that prevented them from dying--for to them death was but a translation from a world of mortals to a world of immortal spirits around the Throne of God on high! IV. I want now to say something that cannot often be said in a great promiscuous congregation, lest it should be misunderstood. But it is a fact that certain kinds of food and drink produce EXHILARATION in those who partake of them, so that men become joyous and excited after they have been sitting long at a festival. There is often much evil in the excitement which results from these earthly feasts, but there is one kind of food and drink which gives an exhilaration which is not only harmless, but is truly blessed! And that is the food, indeed, and drink, indeed, of which I have been speaking to you. Have you experienced that exhilaration, my Brother? Do you know what this holy excitement is, my Sister? Have you, beloved Friends, ever thought of Christ dying on the Cross for you until you felt that you must sing for very joy of heart? Have you ever realized that your sins were washed right away in the Red Sea of your Savior's blood and that there was not even one of them left to oppress you? Then you must have felt that Dr. Watt was not in the least exaggerating when he wrote those lines that we have often sung-- "Yes, we will praise You, dearest Lord, Our souls are all on flame! Hosanna round the spacious earth, To Your adored name. Angels, assist our mighty joys, Strike all your harps of gold! But when you raise your highest notes, His love can ne'er be told." Yes, I am quite sure that you have felt so glad that you have wanted all the angels to assist your mighty joys! When you have realized all that Christ's Incarnation and death have meant for you. When you have in a measure comprehended the transcendent Grace that made Him stoop so low as to become near of kin to you, your heart must surely have danced at the sound of His name! I feel persuaded that there must have been times in this Tabernacle when you were so joyful that you could hardly remain in your seats. When you have almost wished that, like David, you might see the Ark of the Lord come along and that you might dance before the Lord even as David did! You know that there is no other joy that is even for a moment worthy to be compared with the joy which comes to us through Jesus Christ! And the man who has once had a sip from that well wants to lie down beside it and drink it dry! He knows he can never do that, but he wishes that his soul could be so enlarged that he could take in all the love of his Incarnate God--the wondrous heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths of that love which must forever surpass our knowledge! O you who want to find the highest joy that can be found on earth, here it is! Jesus' wounds are the Fountains where heavenly bliss is distilled! In Emmanuel, God With Us, born at Bethlehem and dying on Calvary--in His Incarnation and His atoning Sacrifice--you will find that food, indeed, and drink, indeed, which shall give the loftiest spiritual exhilaration to all who feed upon them! V. Now I close my discourse by reminding you that WHOEVER EATS THIS SPIRITUAL FOOD SHALL LIVE FOREVER. Just before our Lord uttered the words of our text, He had said to the Jews, "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from Heaven: if any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh which I will give for the life of the world." If you had lived with the children of Israel in the wilderness--and you had eaten manna as they did--you would have died as they did. If you come to the Communion Table, and merely eat bread, "not discerning the Lord's body," you will die. Or if you go to a so-called "priest" and he gives you a "consecrated" wafer, and you eat it, you will die. But whoever spiritually feeds upon Jesus--whoever feeds his soul upon the great central Truth that God in human flesh was made the Substitute for all who believe in Him--he shall never die! His body may pass through the change that we call, death, but his spirit shall live forever and, in due time, his body and soul shall be reunited and his complete manhood shall be "forever with the Lord." O Sinners, unless you feed upon Christ, there is nothing but eternal death before you! But if you receive Him into your soul even as you receive food into your body, you shall never die and the bliss of Heaven shall be your everlasting portion! I have preached to you in very simple language, but there is in my theme a mystery that excels all the wisdom of the sages. Let me try to put it before you once more before I close. It is a fact that the Word, who was God, and who made Heaven and earth, and without whom was not anything made that was made--it is a fact that this Word was made flesh and dwelt among men! In other words, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did come into this world, was here born of a virgin, here lived and labored as a Man, and here died for those who believe in Him, "for God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life...he that believes on Him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." After Jesus had died in the place of all who believe in Him, and after He had risen from the grave as the sure sign that His redeeming work had been accomplished, and that His people were forever free, He returned to His Father's right hand in Glory. And there He sits as the Representative of all His chosen until the appointed time for Him to come again to this earth, "to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." "Be it known unto you, therefore, brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses." There is the Gospel as Paul preached it! May the Spirit of God enable you to receive it by faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Son of Mary--and so you will find that His flesh will become to you food, indeed, and His blood drink, indeed. God grant it, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN6:22-59. Verses 22-24. The day following, when the people who stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus went not with His disciples into the boat, but that the disciples were gone away alone--however other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks--when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither the disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. [See Sermon #947, Volume 16--SEEKING FOR JESUS.] Everything looked very favorable, did it not? These people put themselves to considerable trouble in order to get where the Savior was--they were not satisfied to be away from Him--they were "seeking for Jesus." 25, 26. And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him, Rabbi, when did You come here? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, You seek Me not because you saw the miracles but because you ate of the loaves, and were fille . He did not gratify their curiosity by telling them how or when He came there, for that was no concern of theirs. Neither is it the business of Christ's preachers to spin ingenious theories about the Gospel, or to tell pretty tales to amuse their hearers. Their business is to deal faithfully with men's hearts and consciences as their Master did when He said to these people "You seek Me not because you saw the miracles." They said that at first, no doubt. Christ's miracles dazzled them so they sought Him in order to see more miracles worked by Him. This was not the highest motive for seeking the Savior, but they had found a still lower one--they were now following Him because they "ate of the loaves and were filled." Yet the Master did not repel them and thus He teaches us that it is better to follow Him from the lowest motive than not to follow Him at all. Perhaps some of us have been too severe upon certain people. We have said that they come to our place of worship out of mere curiosity. What if they do? It is well that they come at all, so let us not cut even the spider's web that links a man in any sense with Christ--that web may grow into a thread, that thread into a cord, that cord into a cable and there may yet be an unbreakable union between that man and Christ! That which begins in an inferior way may lead to something higher and better. Still, it is wise to let people know that they are not deceiving Christ, even though they deceive themselves as to their motive in seeking Him. So He said to them-- 27. Labor not for the food which perishes, but for that food which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you: for Him has God the Father sealed. They labored hard in order to get the bread that perishes, so Christ bade them devote their energies to a better objective. This is a very extraordinary verse if we regard the letter of it and not the spirit. Christ told these people not to labor for that which they could only get by labor--"Labor not for the food which perishes." Yet few men get their daily bread or meat without laboring for it. And then Christ told them to labor for that which nobody ever does get by laboring--"Labor for that food which endures unto everlasting life." This is an instance of how the mere letter of the Word kills. We must take the spirit of it--and then we understand that what the Savior meant was this--"Do not be spending all your energies to get that which will melt away when you get it, but spend your time and strength in seeking after that which will last through all time and be yours to all eternity." 28. Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?They wanted to do the greatest of all works for, by, "the works of God," they evidently meant the most important, the most sublime, the greatest of all works. "What shall we do in order to work such works as these?" 29. Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent This is an amazing statement which is just as true, now, as when Christ uttered it in Capernaum! The greatest and best work that any of you can do is to believe on Jesus Christ! Though, in another sense, this is not a workat all--but ceasing from your own works and resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. But if any man would do that which is most acceptable to the thrice-holy God, let him believe on Jesus Christ whom God has sent! 30. They said therefore unto Him, what sign will You show us, then, that we may see and believe You? What work will You do?This was a shameful question to put to Christ when they had so recently been miraculously fed by Him and so had received the best sign of His Divine Power in the multiplication of the loaves and fishes! 31-34. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, he gave them bread from Heaven to eat Then Jesus said to them, Verily, verity, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from Heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven and gives life unto the world. Then they said unto Him, Lord, give us this bread always. This would have been a good prayer if they had understood the meaning of the Savior's words but, as it was, it was a blind prayer. They did not know what Jesus meant when He spoke of the bread of God which come down from Heaven. They were thinking about the bread that perishes--the bread for the body--so they prayed blindly when they said, "Lord, give us this bread always." Do you not think that many a prayer which children are taught in their childhood--and which men and women continue to pray for years--may be as blind a prayer as this one was? They know not what they ask and so the question very naturally arises as to whether it is a prayer at all? 35. And Jesus said to them, I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger and he who believes on Me shall never thirst" [See Sermon #1112, Volume 19--SOUL-SATISFYING BREAD.] 'I will take away his need by removing his hunger. I will take away his pain by removing his thirst." 36. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. See, then, how little there was of advantage in the mere sight of Christ. Many seem to think that it must have been much easier for people to believe in Christ if they had actually seen Him, but it was not so. There were multitudes that saw Him and saw His miracles--and even ate the bread which came from His wonder-working hands--yet they believed not. Faith does not come in that way, for it does not come by sight, but sight comes by faith! Seeing is not believing, but believing is often seeing--it opens the eyes so that they are able to see what before was hidden from them. 37. All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me. God's own elect shall surely come to Christ. They shall all believe in Him and be saved by Him. 37. And him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out [See Sermons #1762, Volume 30--HIGH DOCTRINE AND BROAD DOCTRINE; #2349, Volume 40--ALL COMERS TO CHRIST WELCOMED; #2954, Volume 51--THE BIG GATES WIDE OPEN and #3000, Volume 52--NO. 3000--OR, COME AND WELCOME.] "Whoever he is that comes, I will never reject him. Whoever he may be that accepts Me and believes in Me, he is Mine and I will never cast him away from Me." 38-44. For I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father's will which has sent Me, that of all who He has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will ofHim that sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews then murmured at Him, because He said, I am the bread which came down from Heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it, then, that He says, I came down from Heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said to them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draws him. [See Sermons #182, Volume 4--human inability; #2386, Volume 40--THE DRAWINGS OF DIVINE LOVE.] "I did not expect that you would receive Me. I did not imagine that you would believe Me. You have not yet been drawn to Me by the Father, so I knew that you would not come to Me." But he who is drawn by the Father will come to Christ. And Christ tells us what will be his future lot-- 44-46. And I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes unto Me. Not that any man has seen the Father, except He who is from God, He has seen the Father. He corrects the notion into which they might have fallen that they could ever see the Father as He had seen Him. Into that vision none of us can ever enter, for there is a peculiar Divine relationship between Jesus and the Father which we cannot know. 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you--Jesus uttered this great Truth of God with very special emphasis. "Verily, verily, I say unto you"-- 47. He that believes on Me has everlasting life. [See Sermons #1642, Volume 28--"VERILY, VERILY" and #2706, Volume 46--FEEDING ON THE BREAD OF LIFE.] That text is worthy to be printed in letters of gold, but even then the letters would be far inferior to the message itself! If it is written on all your hearts by the Holy Spirit, you will not need any other sermon than this Divine text--"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on Me has everlasting life." 48-51. I am the Bread of Life. Your Fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which came down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from Heaven: if any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Here we have the Doctrine of the great atoning Sacrifice by which sin is put away, and that is not merely Christ Incarnate, but Christ yielding up His life, dying in the place of guilty sinners. That is the food, whereof, if any man eats he shall live forever. 52. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?These Jews were still stumbling at the letter of Christ's words--still in their blind carnality misunderstanding Christ. 53-56. Then Jesus said to them, verily, verily, Isay unto you, Exceptyou eat the flesh ofthe Son ofMan, and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food, indeed, and My blood is drink, indeed. He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood dwells in Me, and I in him. [See Sermon #1288, Volume 12--TRULY EATING THE FLESH OF JESUS.] Do not any of you interpret this teaching of Christ as the Jews did, after a carnal fashion, and fancy that we literally eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ when we come to the Communion Table. The Lord's Supper was not instituted at the time that our Savior spoke these words and He was speaking of quite another matter--the spiritual reception of Christ--the real and true feeding by faith with our spirit upon the Lord Jesus Christ. 57-59. As the living Father has sent Me, andIlive by the Father: so he that eats Me, even he shalllive byMe. This is that bread which came down from Heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eats of this bread shalllive forever. These things said He in the synagogue, as He taught it in Capernaum. __________________________________________________________________ The Man Whose Hand Stuck to His Sword (No. 3193) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away: he arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand stuck unto his sword: and the LORD worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil." 2 Samuel 23:9,10. IN David's muster-roll we find the names of many mighties and they are honored by being found there. These men came to David when his fortunes were at the lowest ebb and he, himself, was regarded as a rebel and an outlaw. And they remained faithful to him throughout their lives. Happy are they who can follow a good cause in its worst estate, for theirs is true glory. Weary of the evil government of Saul, they struck out a path for themselves in which they could best serve their country and their God. And though this entailed great risks, they were amply rewarded by the honors which in due time they shared with their leader. When David came to the throne, how glad their hearts must have been! And when he went on conquering and to conquer, how they must have rejoiced, each one of them remembering with intense delight the privations which they had shared with their captain. Brothers, we do not ourselves aspire to be numbered with the warlike. The roll of battle does not contain our names and we do not wish that it should. But there is a roll which is now being made up--a roll of heroes who do and dare for Christ, who go outside the camp and take up His reproach and, with confidence in God, earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints and venture all for Jesus Christ! And there will come a day when it will be infinitely more honorable to find one's name in the lowest place in this list of Christ's faithful disciples than to be numbered with princes and kings! Blessed is he who can this day cast in his lot with the Son of David and share His reproach, for the day shall come when the Master's Glory shall be reflected upon all His followers! I. We will now turn our attention to one particular hero, Eleazar, the son of Dodo, and see what he did for his king and country. Our text records one of his feats. It is very instructive and the first lesson I gather from it is THE POWER OF INDIVIDUAL ENERGY. The Philistines had set the battle in array. The men of Israel came out to fight them but, for some reason or other, "being armed and carrying bows, they turned back in the day of battle." Ignominious is the record, "the men of Israel were gone away." This man, Eleazar, however, made up for the failures of his countrymen, for "he arose, and smote the Philistines." He was a man of marked individuality of character, a man who knew himself and knew his God, and did not care to be lost in the common mass, so as to run away merely because they ran. He thought for himself and acted for himself--he did not make the conduct of others the measure of his service, but while Israel fled--"he arose, and smote the Philistines." The personal obligation of each individual before God is a lesson which all should learn. It is taught us in our Baptism, for there each Believer makes his own confession of faith and, by his own act and deed, avows himself to be dead with Christ. Pure Christianity knows nothing of proxies, or sureties in Baptism! After our profession of faith is made, the Believer is responsible for his own religious acts and cannot employ priests or ministers to perform his religion for him. He must himself, pray, search the Scriptures, commune with God and obey the Lord Jesus. True religion is a personal thing. Each man, with one talent or with ten, will, on the Great Day of Judgment, be called to account for his own responsibilities, and not for those of others. And, therefore, he should live as before God, feeling that he is a separate personality and must, in his own individuality, consecrate himself--spirit, soul and body--entirely to the Lord. Eleazar, the Son of Dodo, felt that he must play the man, whatever others might do, and, therefore, he bravely drew his sword against the un- circumcised Philistines! I do not find that he wasted time in upbraiding the others for running away, nor in shouting to them to return--he just turned his own face to the enemy and hewed and hacked away with all his might! His brave example was sufficient rebuke and would be far more effectual than ten thousand sarcastic orations! Never let it be forgotten that our responsibility, in a certain sense, begins and ends with ourselves. Suppose you entertain the opinion that the Church of God is in a very sad state? You are only responsible for that as far as you, yourself, helped to create that condition. Do you regret that many persons with much wealth do not consecrate their substance? I do not wonder that you feel thus, but, after all, the most practical thing is to use your own substance in your Master's cause! It is very easy to pick holes in other people's work, but it is far more profitable to do better work yourself. Is there a fool in all the world that cannot criticize? Those who can, themselves, do good service are but as one in a thousand compared with those who can see faults in the labors of others. Therefore, if you are wise, my Brothers and Sisters, do not quibble as others, but arise and smite the Philistines! Our responsibility is not diminished by the evil conduct of other men but, on the contrary, it is increased thereby. You say, "How so?" I answer--If every man fights his best, then Eleazar may be well content to fight as well as the rest. But if other men are running away, Eleazar is called upon, by that unhappy circumstance, to rise above himself and retrieve the fortunes of the day. It will never do to allow the enemy to triumph and, therefore, if we have fought well, before, we must now gird up our loins for extraordinary battle. Dear Christian Brother, if you are solemnly impressed that the condition of the Churches is not what it should be, you must leave no stone unturned to set it right! Are your fellow Christians worldly? You should become more spiritual and heavenly-minded! Are they sleepy? Be you the more awake! Are they lax? Be you the more strict! Are they unkind? Be you the more full of love! Set your watch all the more strictly because you see that others are overcome. And be you doubly diligent where you perceive that others are negligent. Dare, like Eleazar, to stand alone and, from the shortcomings of others, gather motives for a nobler life! Perhaps Eleazar on that occasion was the better off for not having that cowardly rout at his heels. When we have good work to do for our Lord, we are glad of the company of kindred spirits determined to make the good work succeed. But if we have no such comrades, we must go alone. There is no absolute necessity for numbers. Who knows? The friends we invite might be more hindrance than assistance. When Luther went to a holy man and told him what he had discovered in the Scriptures, the prudent old gentleman replied, "My Brother, go back to your cell, keep your thoughts to yourself, serve God and make no disturbance." Dear old soul, he little dreamed what disturbance that Luther was going to make in the camp! I daresay Luther would not have been able to work such a reformation if he had been surrounded by a host of kind, prudent friends! But when, like the hero of our text, he was clear of all the excellent incapables, he made splendid havoc of the Philistines of Rome! When dear, good, motherly Christian men are forever saying, "Do not be too venturesome, be careful never to offend, do not over-exert yourself," and all that kind of talk, a man is better without them than with them! A Christian should seek the help of his Brothers and Sisters, but, at the same time, if he is called to a service for his Lord and they will not aid him, let him not be alarmed, but let him consider that if he has God with him he has all the allies he needs! The mighty God of Jacob is better than all the armies of the saints! And if He shall put out His hand and say, "Go in this, your might," a man may be content to step forth alone--the solitary champion of Jesus and His Gospel! Solitary prowess is expected of Believers. I hope we may breed in this place a race of men and women who know the Truth of God and also know what the Lord claims at their hands--and are resolved, by the help of the Holy Spirit--to war a good warfare for their Lord whether others will stand at their side or not! II. Secondly, we have, next, in the text, A LESSON OF PERSONAL WEAKNESS. This brave man, though he arose and smote the Philistines, was only a man, and so he fought on "until his hand was weary," and he could do no more. He reached the limit of his strength and was obliged to pass. This may somewhat console those noble men who have become brain-weary in the service of God. Perhaps they chide themselves, but indeed there is no reason for so doing, for of them it may be said as of Eleazar, that they are not weary offighting, though they are weary infighting. If you can draw that distinction in your case, it will be well. We wish we could serve our Lord day and night, but the flesh is weak and there is no more strength left in us. This is no strange thing and there is no sin in it. Elea-zar's weariness was that of bone, muscle, sinew--the weariness of his arm--but sometimes God's people grow weary in the brain, and this is quite as painful and quite as little to be wondered at. The mind cannot always think with equal clearness, or feel with equal emotion, or find utterance with equal clearness--and the child of God must not blame him- self for this. To blame himself in such a case would be to blame his Master. If your servant has been in the harvest field from daybreak till the moon has looked down upon him as he binds his sheaves, and if, as he wipes the sweat from his brow, he says, "Master, I am sorely wearied, I must have a few hours' sleep," who but a tyrant would blame him and refuse him the rest? Those areto be blamed who never weary themselves, but those who wear themselves out are to be commended, not censured. Perhaps Eleazar became weary because of the enormous number of his enemies. He cut dozens of them down with his death-bearing sword, but on they came, and still on! It seemed like a repetition of the day when Samson slew heaps upon heaps, and smote Philistia hip and thigh with great slaughter. Christian Friend, you have been the means of bringing some few to Christ, but the appalling number of the unconverted oppresses you till your mind is weary. You have opened a little room and a few poor people attend, but you say to yourself, "What are these among so many?" When we begin in the Master's service, we think we shall turn the world upside down in six weeks--but we do not do it and when we find that we must plod on and not despise the day of small things--we are apt to become weary. Lifelong service under great discouragement is not as easy as mere dreamers think. Perhaps Eleazar grew tired because nobody was helping him. It is a great assistance to receive a word of good cheer from a comrade and to feel that, after all, you are not alone, for other true hearts are engaged in the same battle, zealous for the same Lord! But as Eleazar looked around, he saw only the backs of the retreating swords who ought to have been fighting by his side, and he had to mow down the Philistines with his lone sword. Who marvels that at length he grew weary? The mercy of it all is this--that he only became weary when he could afford to be so--that is to say, the Lord did not allow his weariness to overcome him till he had beaten the Philistines and the people had rushed upon the spoil. We are such very feeble creatures that faintness must come over us at times, but what a mercy it is that the Lord makes our strength equal to our day! And only when the day is over does He let us sink into ourselves. Jacob wrestled with the Angel and he did not feel the shrinking sinew till he had won the blessing. It was good for him to go limping on his thigh after his victory--to make him know that it was not by his own strength that he had prevailed with God. And so it was a good thing for Eleazar to feel weary, for he would now understand where the strength came from with which he smote the Philistines. Eleazar only failed when there was spoil to be divided--and if you and I only shrink back when there is praise to be awarded, we need not be troubled, for there are plenty who have never done anything else who will be quite ready to claim the credit of all that is achieved! Let us ask ourselves whether, weak as we are, we have given up ourselves to the Lord. If so, all is well, He will use our weakness and glorify Himself by it. He will not let our weakness show itself when it could endanger the victory. He gives us strength up to the point where strength is absolutely essential--and if He lets us collapse, as Elijah did after his great conflict was over--we must not be surprised. What a difference there is between Elijah on Carmel triumphant over the priests of Baal, and the same man on the morrow fleeing from Jezebel and crying, "Let me die, for I am no better than my fathers." Of course that was the natural result of the strong excitement through which he had passed, just as the weariness of his hands was the natural result of the mighty battle which Eleazar had fought. And when you become downcast, as I often am after having obtained a great blessing, do not be so very terribly alarmed about it. What does it matter? The work is over! You can afford to be laid low before God. It will be well for you to know how empty and how weak you are, that you may ascribe all Glory to the Lord alone. He is almighty, however weak you may be! III. There is a third lesson in the text, and that concerns THE INTENSITY OF THE HERO'S ZEAL. A singular circumstance is here recorded--his hand stuck to his sword. Mr. Bunyan seems to have thought that it was the congealed blood which fastened the hand and the sword together, for he represents Mr. Valiant-for-Truth as being wounded till the blood ran forth and his hand was glued to his sword. But perhaps the better interpretation refers to the fact which has occasionally been observed in battles. I remember reading of a sailor who fought desperately in repelling a boarding attack from an enemy's ship. And when the battle was over, it was found that he could not open his hand to drop his cutlass. He had grasped it with such force that until a surgical operation had been performed, it was quite impossible to separate his hand from his sword! This was the case with Eleazar--this sticking of his hand to the sword proves the energy with which he gripped his weapon. At the first, he laid hold upon it in the right way, so that he could hold it firmly. I wish that some of our converts would get hold of the Gospel in a better manner. A missionary said to me, the other day, "There are numbers of revival converts who will never be worth anything till they are converted again." I am afraid it is so. The work is not deep, their understanding of the Gospel is not clear and their hold of it is not fast. They have got something which is of great good to them, I hope, but they hardly know what it is! They have need to come again to Him who has abundance of Grace and Truth to bestow, or they will never be worth much. Many young people do not study the Word--they pick up texts here and there as pigeons pick up peas, but they do not see the analogy of faith. But he is the man to fight for God who lays hold of the Truth of God by the handle and grips it as though he knew what he had--and knew that he had got it. He who intelligently and intensely knows the Word is likely to hold it fast! Eleazar, having grasped his sword well, retained his hold. Whatever happened to him in battle, he never let go of his weapon for an instant. If he had once opened his hand, there would have been no sticking, but he all the way through kept his hand on his weapon! According to some modern teachers, you are wise if you change your doctrines every week, because some fresh light may be expected to break in upon you. The advice is dangerous! O young man, I trust you will get hold of the grand old Gospel and always hold it and never relax your grip! And then what will happen to you? Why this--that at last you will not be able to relax your grip! I have frequently been delighted to observe the perseverance of earnest workers who have loved their work for Christ so heartily that they could not cease from it. They have served the Lord year after year in a particular work, either at the Sunday school or in some other useful labor. And when they have been ill and could no longer be in their places, their hearts and their thoughts have still been there! We have known them when ill with high fever, talking continually about the schools and the children. In their very dreams their good work has been on their minds--their hand has been stuck to the sword! I delight to hear the old man talk about the work of the Lord even when he can no longer join in it. And the dying man with "the ruling passion strong in death," enquiring about the Church and the services--his sword still sticking to his hand. Christmas Evans was known to drive his old pony from town to town in his journeys to preach the Gospel. And when he was about to die, he thought he was still riding in the old pony-chaise--and his last words were, "Drive on." Napoleon with his dying breath exclaimed, "Head of the army," and so do Christ's soldiers think to the last of the grand army of the saints and of Christ their Head. When a certain good man lay dying, he had forgotten his wife and his children. But, yes, when the name of Jesus was whispered in his ear, he said, "Oh, I know Him! He has been all my joy these fifty years!" See how the sword sticks to the hand! Years ago, we who have believed grasped the sword of the Lord with such a grip of cheerful earnestness that now there is established an almost involuntary connection between the two which cannot be severed. Every now and then some wise men think to convert us to skepticism, or what is very like it--modern thought--and they approach us with full assurance that we must give up our old-fashioned faith. They are fools for their pains, for we are at this time hardly voluntary agents in the matter--the Gospel has such hold upon us that we cannot let it go! We now believe because we must. I could sooner die a thousand deaths than renounce the Gospel I preach! The sophisticated arguments I have met with in skeptical books are not half as strong as the arguments with which the devil has assailed me! And yet, by His Grace, I have beaten him. Having run with them, the footmen cannot make us afraid. How can we give up the Gospel? It is our life, our soul, our all! Our daily experience, our communion with God, our sitting with Christ in heavenly places have made us invincible against all temptations to give up our hope! We hold our sword, it is true, but our sword also sticks to our hand. It is not possible that the most clever lies should deliver the elect, for the Lord has created such communion between the renewed soul and the Truth of God, that the Truth must hold us, and we must hold the Truth till we die. God grant it may be so with all of you! IV. I must pass on to notice the fourth lesson. That concerns THE DIVINE GLORY. Does the text say that his hand stuck unto the sword and that he worked a great victory that day? Look at your Bibles and you will see that I have been misquoting! It does not ascribe the victory to Eleazar, but it is written, "and the Lord worked a great victory that day." The victory was not won without Eleazar and yet it was not won byEleazar, but by the Lord! Had Eleazar belonged to a certain class of professors, he would have said, "We can do nothing, the Lord will fulfill His own eternal purposes," and then he would not only have done nothing, but he would have found fault with others if they had been forward in the fight! If he had belonged to another class of professors, he would have said, "I do not believe in the one-man ministry. I will not go alone, but wait till I have gathered a few Brothers who can all take a turn at it." Instead of either of these theories, Eleazar went straight to his work and the Lord gave him the necks of his enemies! And then he ascribed the victory, not to himself, but to the Lord! The right thing to do is to work as if all depended upon us and yet look to the Lord, alone, knowing that all depends upon Him. We must have all the humility and all the activity of men who feel that they cannot do anything by themselves, but that God works in them to will and to do according to His own good pleasure. You must be humbly God-reliant and personally resolute. Trust in God and keep your powder dry! Have you won a soul to Christ? Then the Lord has won the victory! Have you upheld the Truth of God against an antagonist? The Lord must have the glory of your triumph! Have you trampled down sin? Can you cry with the heroine of old, "O my Soul, you have trodden down strength"? Then, lay your trophies at the foot of the Throne of God! I am glad that my text runs as it does, or else some captious critic would have said that I was exalting man and honoring flesh and blood. No, no! The Lord has worked all our works in us! Not unto us, but unto His name give all the praise! V. The last lesson is one of ENCOURAGEMENT. It is said in the text that "the people returned after him only to spoil." Dear Brothers and Sisters, does it grieve you to think that many professed Christians seem more like unbelievers than Believers? Do you feel sad to see them all run away in the day of battle? Be comforted, then, for they can be brought back! And your personal prowess for God may be the means of making them return. The feeble folk, if the Lord makes you strong, will gather courage from your bravery. They may not have been able to look a live Philistine in the face, but they knew how to strip a dead one! You will get them back, by-and-by, when the spoil is to be divided. It is not a small thing, after all, to encourage the Lord's downcast people. Eleazar was pleased to see them in the field again. I daresay he did not say one rebuking word to them, but perhaps remarked, "Well, you have come back, have you? Share the plunder among yourselves!. I might claim it all myself, but I will not--you are welcome to it." It has sometimes happened that one man, speaking in God's name, has turned a community in the right way. One Christian woman, too, has saved thousands. There are points in the history of England where certain individuals have been the hinge upon which our nation's destiny has turned. If you seek of God to be faithful, and if His Grace is in you, then be firm in the day of battle and you will confirm other wavering souls. My young Sister, you will yet turn your family around--one by one they will come to seek our Savior! Young Brother, you are entering into that large house of business. It is very perilous to yourself, but if the Lord enables you to be strong in the power of His might, you may transform that whole house into a Church of God! You may hardly believe it, but you will yet have Prayer Meetings in that large room! Remember Mr. Sankey's hymn-- "Dare to be a Daniel! Dare to stand alone! Dare to have a purpose firm! Dare to make it known!" Dare to be an Eleazar and go forth and smite the Philistines alone! You will soon find that there are others in the house who have concealed their sentiments--but when they see you coming forward--they will be openly on the Lord's side. Many cowards are skulking about--try to shame them. Many are undecided--let them see a brave man and he will be the standard-bearer around whom they will rally! Thus have I thought to say a few practical words which I hope the Lord will bless. I have finished when I have made one observation to a different class of people. It is clear that when a man gets hold of a sword, grips it fast, and holds it for a while, such a thing may happen that he cannot drop it. Has it ever occurred to you--to you especially who have never given your hearts to Christ--that the eager way in which you hold your sin--and the long time that you have held it--may produce a similar result upon you? One of these days you may be unable to get rid of those habits which you are now forming! At first, the net of habit is made of cobwebs. You can soon break through it. By-and-by it is made of twine. Soon it will be made of rope and, last of all, it will be strong as steel--and then you will be fatally ensnared! Beware in time! Young man, you are hardly yet aware how strong a hold your habits have already taken upon you. I mean your habits of prayerlessness, your practice of secret sin and your intemperance. No, I will not mention all your follies--they are best known to yourself. They are fastening upon you like huge serpents, coil upon coil. You have always intended to go so far and no further, but if you could see a picture of what you will become, you would be horrified! Did we not read in the papers, a few months ago, the story of a man who was respectable in many ways, and gifted above the average of men, who nevertheless descended by degrees, till he perpetrated a horrible crime which made the world stand aghast? Little did he dream, at one time, that he would have plunged into such wickedness! But the path to Hell is downhill and if you descend one step, at first, you take two steps at once next time, and then you take four, and so by great leaps descend to Hell. O Man, cast away the weapon of iniquity before it glues itself to your hand! Cast it away at once and forever! The only way of breaking with sin is to unite with Christ. No man does in heart part with sin till he is one with his Savior--and that comes by trusting Him, simply trusting Him. When you trust Him, He delivers you from sinful habits and no longer allows you to be the slave of evil. "If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, you shall be free, indeed." Seek that freedom! May He bestow it upon everyone of us and then may we become heroes for Christ--and He shall have the glory, forever and ever! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM106. In this Psalm we have the story of God's ancient Covenant people. And as we read it, we may read our own history in it if we also are His people. It is a mirror in which the beholder may see himself. Verse 1. Praise you the LOR . The Psalm begins with Hallelujah. The story of the Church is a succession of Hallelujahs--and the story of every Christian's life concerning the wonderful forbearance of God to him is a series of Hallelujahs. 1. Ogive thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endures forever That is the text and this Psalm is the sermon upon it--an exhibition of the goodness and ever-enduring mercy of God! 2, 3. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? Who can show forth all His praise? Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that does righteousness at all times. These are the really blessed people! And we shall see in this Psalm how God's ancient people so often missed that blessing by their sin, as I doubt not that we, also, miss much of the sacred, sweet blessedness which would be ours if we walked more closely with God and were more obedient to Him. 4, 5. Remember me, O LORD, with the favor that You bear unto Your people: O visit me with Your salvation; that I may see the good of Your chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your inheritance. This is a suitable prayer for each one of us to pray before we go any further. May God hear the cries of His people as we each one seek the fivefold blessing! 6. We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. God has dealt kindly and graciously with us, yet here is an all too true description of what we have done! "We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly." 7. Our fathers understood not Your wonders in Egypt [See Sermon #2204, Volume 37--sin--its springhead, stream and sea. Yet they were very plain, easy to understand, for they were the wonders of power that were worked by God on behalf of His people! But they understood them not. 7. They remembered not the multitude of Your mercies. They had bad memories as well as bad understandings. And it is so often with us--we remember not the multitude of God's mercies to us. 7. But provoked You at the sea, even at the Red Sea.That was a bad beginning. They were only just out of Egypt and they had not yet crossed the Red Sea, but they provoked the Lord even there. Oh, how soon after our first joy does our evil nature betray itself! 8. Nevertheless He saved them for His name's sake, that He might make His mightypower to be known. [See Sermon #115, Volume 3--WHY ARE MEN SAVED?.] He saved them, not for their own sakes, but for His name's sake, for the manifestation of His own power and glory. This is how God still deals with His children--not on the ground of their merits, but for the manifestation of His own mercy and Grace toward them! 9-12. He rebuked the Red Sea, also, and it was dried up: so He led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. [See Sermon #72, Volume 2--ISRAEL AT THE RED SEA.] And He saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left. Then believed they His words; they sang His praise. I would think they believed God's words when they could see His wonderful works, but it is a poor faith that needs miracles to be worked each hour or else it fails. No wonder they sang God's praise at the Red Sea, but, exultant as the songs of Moses and Miriam were, even better is that praise which rises from a broken and contrite heart which the Lord has delivered out of its trouble! 13-15. They soon forgot His works; they waited not for His counsel: but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul So it always is with us when we begin to let our desires outrun the will of God. He will sometimes let us discover our own folly by granting us our desires. The answer to some prayers would be a dire calamity! Some pray for riches, and they get it--but they also get leanness in their soul. Some ask for earthly honors and success, and get them, but with them they also get leanness in their soul. And if a man is lean in his soul, it is not much good being fat anywhere else. 16. They also envied Moses in the camp. Envy is a gaunt, lean, spectral thing--and when a soul is lean, it soon gets to be envious of others who are better than itself. 16-20. And Aaron the saint of the LORD. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked. They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their Glory into the similitude of an ox that eats grass.What a descent it was to come down from worshipping the spiritual God who had worked such wonders for them, to the adoration of "an ox that eats grass." When we put our trust in men, instead of in God, we might have the same sort of ironical description applied to us, "They trusted in a man that must die, and in the son of man that is but dust." Whenever we forsake the Lord and put our confidence in anyone else, we are fools, indeed! 21-23. They forgot God their savior, who had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses, His chosen, stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy them.You remember the intercession of Moses with the Lord, how he cried "If You will, forgive their sin--and if not, blot me, I pray You, out of Your book which You have written." And, beloved Friends, what would you and I have done if it had not been for the Mediator, far greater than Moses, who has stood in the breach every time when we have provoked the Lord--and who has so stood in the breach that He has borne the wrath of God which otherwise would have destroyed us? 24. Yes, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not His word.They said that the land that flowed with milk and honey was a land that ate up the inhabitants thereof, and that was full of giants--and they could not drive them out. 25. But murmured in their hearts, and listened not unto the voice of the LORD.Do we ever fall into this sin of murmuring in the family, murmuring in the counting-house, murmuring against men and murmuring against God, as they murmured in their tents? 26-28. Therefore He lifted up His handagainst them, to overthrow them in the wilderness: to overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands. They joined themselves also unto Baal-Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. They turned aside from the pure worship of the living God to hold communion with departed spirits! They fell into all the horrible abominations of the heathen among whom they dwelt. 29, 30. Thus they provoked Him to anger with their inventions: and the plague broke out upon them. Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment and so the plague was stopped.God always has somebody to stand up for Him--it is Moses one day, and Phinehas another. He will not permit His people to utterly quit their faith and be destroyed! 31-33. And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations forevermore. They angeredHim also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sake: because they provoked his spirit, so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. It is not surprising that Moses should have spoken as he did to people who so worried and wearied him with their rebellions and murmurings! Yet you see that God dealt sternly with His servant because of his sin and He will do the same with those of us who bear the vessels of the Lord. The higher our office, the greater our responsibility. One slip of temper in the meek Moses shuts him out of the Promised Land! So see what sin will do and see how one who sins in a smaller degree than others may be made a scapegoat for them. 34-36. They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them: but were mingled among the heathen and learned their work And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. God warned them that it would be so! He told them that they must drive out those Canaanites and not make a league with them, or else they would be sure to be led astray by them. 37, 38. They even sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Yet these were God's people whom He brought out of Egypt--whom He tutored in the wilderness, whom He fed with manna, and to whom He gave miraculous streams from the Rock--these were the only people in the world whom God had chosen as His own! The rest were sitting in darkness, yet see at what degradation they had fallen! 39. Thus were they defiled with their own words, and played the harlot by their own inventions. They were not true to God--they plunged into every kind of uncleanness. 40, 41. Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against His people, insomuch that He abhorred His own inheritance. And He gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them. Read the history of God's ancient people and you will see how often this occurred. 42-44. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand. Many times did He deliver them; but they provoked Him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless--[See Sermon #1886, Volume 32--GOD'S REMEMBRANCE OF HIS COVENANT.] Oh, that wonderful, "nevertheless"-- 44-48. He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry: and for their sake He remembered His Covenant, and repented according to the multitude of His mercies. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto Your holy name, and to triumph in Your praise. Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting; and let all the people say, Amen. Praise the LORD. And well we may! __________________________________________________________________ A Look and Its Lessons (No. 3194) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, OCTOBER 12, 1873. "Hearken to Me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the LORD: look unto the rock where you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit where you were dug." Isaiah 51:1. [Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text, is #1050, Volume 18--A BRIGHT LIGHT IN DEEP SHADES.] THESE words were addressed to those who were already the people of God. No others could be thus exhorted to look unto the rock where they were hewn, since they have never been hewn from it. Nor to the hole of the pit where they were dug, for they still are in the hole of the pit. They are lost and ruined and they still remain in that condition. But the people of God have been broken off that rock by a blow from the Divine hammer. They have been brought up from the horrible pit by the might of the Divine arm and their feet are now firmly fixed upon the Rock of Ages! The people of God are here described as those "that follow after righteousness." That is the direction in which their life generally flows. They are not perfect, but they want to be. They do not love that which is unrighteous, but they desire to be right in all things both before God and before men. They are also said to be those "that seek the Lord," that is to say, they are those who could not live without seeking the Lord in prayer, or in public or private worship. Their great objective in life is to glorify God, to make Him famous among the sons of men--and they desire to devote all their time, talents and powers of every kind to His service and honor! It is to such privileged people as these that the message of our text is addressed! And surely they will give good heed to it. Yet the form in which the message is put implies that there is need for a special call to attention. Lest those who are addressed should fail to attend as earnestly as they ought, the command, "Hearken to me," puts the message before them in urgent and impressive tones. Come then, Beloved, and listen to it and let your inmost souls hear what the text has to say to you--"Look unto the rock where you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit where you were dug." So, first, let us look where we are told to look. And secondly, let us learn the lessons which that look is intended to teach us. I. First, then, LET US LOOK WHERE WE ARE TOLD TO LOOK--"unto the rock where you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit where you were dug." Look back then, first of all, to your nature's origin in the Garden of Eden. Look at that man and woman perfect in beauty, without blemish from head to foot, and altogether spotless in mind and heart as they came fresh from their Creator's hands! They are placed in a garden which is as perfect as they are. All that is fragrant to the smell, gratifying to the taste and lovely to the eyes, they have in the greatest profusion. The man's easy task was to dress and keep the garden which would have spontaneously yielded all that he and his required. And the tenure upon which he might have held that fair estate for himself and his heirs forever was very simple and clear--"Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die." To eat of that tree would show that man had revolted from his allegiance to his Sovereign, that he had ceased to depend upon the God who had created him and set up on his own account. And it would be, in fact, a declaration of war by finite man against the Infinite Jehovah! Alas for us that our first parents were not immune from temptation! Mother Eve, deceived by the serpent, took of the forbidden fruit and ate of it and gave some to her husband, and he also ate of it--and then their eyes were opened and they perceived that they were naked to their shame before God--and they hid themselves when they heard His voice in the garden in the cool of the day. Poor Adam, he was our Covenant head and there could not have been a Covenant that would have been more easy to keep--only leave the fruit of that one tree alone--and you and all your descendants shall enjoy perpetual happiness! Only be obedient to the God who made you, and you shall bring upon yourself and all your posterity continual holiness and joy! It is foolish for anyone to complain because Adam was made our representative, for had we all been present to chose the man who would stand as our federal head, we would certainly have selected Adam, for there has never been another man so well qualified as he was for such a responsible position. Yet, perfect man as he was, he fell--and terrible was the result of that fall both for himself and for all his posterity! Out of the garden he must go for he was no longer fit to remain in such a paradise as Eden was--and he must go where he would learn, by painful experience, the effects of his sin--where the earth would bring forth thorns and thistles and its scanty harvests (compared with the abundance of Eden) would only be gained by long and toilsome labor. This was a necessary discipline of love which was enforced by the very mercy of God, since Adam's nature was no longer what it had been before. He began by doubting the truth of God's word and then he went further and imagined that he might do as he pleased, and be his own god--that he might disobey God and yet be a gainer, for he believed the lie of the serpent--"You shall not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Our earthly father had set himself up as a rival to our Father in Heaven! And because he was our representative, we were all doomed to be born into this world rebellious in our very nature, prone to evil even from our birth. You, child of God, stand tonight at the foot of the Cross, "accepted in the Beloved," but look back to the place where you once stood in the person of your representative, the first Adam. You then stood outside the Garden of Eden, and sorrowfully gazed upon the "flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life." You do not fear that sword, now, for it has been sheathed in your Savior's heart, and its flames have been quenched in His blood. And therefore you can now stand at the foot of the Cross and, by-and-by, you shall stand at the gates of pearl--no, more--you shall pass through that gate and stand before the Throne of the Eternal, a soul reclaimed, restored, perfected and made meet to dwell forever with the thrice-holy One! But while you think of your present privileges and of the bliss that is in store for you, do not forget to look back "unto the rock where you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit where you were dug." Let us now look back and see our original in another light. Let us look at human nature as it is nowand see how it became tainted by our first parents. But when I say, "Let us look at human nature as it is now," I remember that this is a sight which I am unable to reveal to you in all its horrors, for man, by nature, is exceedingly sinful and "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually." Our heart, by nature, is a very forge of the devil--and when man speaks blasphemy, it is but the sparks flying out of the forge! And when he works iniquities, these are but the glowing coals which Satan has fanned into a flame. "The prince of the power of the air...now works in the children of disobedience, among whom we, also, all had our conversation in times past," whatever change Divine Grace may have worked in us. Remember, Believer in Jesus, that your heart was, by nature, as black as the heart of Judas! Whatever sin there may have been in any other man, the germ of that sin was in your nature--there was no superiority about you, by nature, to any other member of the human race. However excellent your parents may have been--and God forbid that I should disparage them--it is still true, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." It must be so. From defilement--and that is in the parents--there can only come defilement. There cannot be a crystal stream from an impure fountain! Your nature, then, whatever God may have made it now, was that of a fallen being, a revolted being, one who had gone astray from God. The heart is, naturally, a cage of unclean birds, a den of evil beasts. And he who has been taught to see all its abominations is the most horrified at them! We read of the fountains of the great deep that were broken up in the days of Noah, but there are deeps of iniquity and transgression in every human heart, which, if they were not restrained by education, by the laws of the land and by the voice of conscience, would pour forth in a terrible flood that would ruin the sinner and ruin society at the same time! "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" We never do know it until the Spirit of God convinces us of sin, of righteousness and ofjudgment-- and it is well for Christians, who have been thus taught of the Spirit, oftentimes to look back to the rock where they were hewn, and to the hole of the pit where they were dug. Now let us look back upon human nature as it has been seen in the history ofmankind. What a strange creature man is! How near akin to Deity when Divine Grace changes his whole nature--how near akin to devilry when he is left to himself! What crimes are there that men have not committed? The true story of the human race is a disgrace to us all. You cannot read the history of mankind without discovering the fact that for cruelty to men, no beast has ever equaled man and that for perfidy, treachery, and deceit, no serpent with its cunning, its fascination and its deadly venom can be compared with man! What fierce lion, ranging across the plains of Africa, has ever been equal in destructive force to a conqueror at the head of a victorious army? And what cobra, lurking by the wayside, ready to slay its victim, has ever been so full of venom as certain men have shown in the pursuit of their ambitions, utterly careless of the lives and happiness of their fellow men? There have been men who have let loose the cruel dogs of war and waded through rivers of human blood that they might sit upon a throne! The great ones of the earth have perpetrated horrible infamies and the lowest of the low have not been a whit better when the power has been in their hands. Sin has reigned equally among princes and peasants and every man, unless renewed by Grace, is capable of committing any crime that other men have committed! Some of you doubt that assertion and feel inclined to say what Hazael said to Elisha when the Prophet foretold what he would do when he had the power, "What? Is your servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?" He did not believe that it was possible that he should do such deeds, yet he did them when he had the opportunity--and none of us know what we might have done if we had been placed in the positions that others have occupied and had been exposed to the temptations that assailed them. If the Grace of God has saved us, let us be the last people in the world to begin boasting! But, looking back upon the crimes of which others have been guilty, let us contemplate what we might have done if we had not been Divinely restrained--and so let us again look back unto the rock where we were hewn, and unto the hole of the pit where we were dug. I must come still more closely home as I earnestly invite all here who love the Lord to look back upon what we were and what we did in our unregenerate condition. Some of us may well hide our faces and hold our tongues as we think of what we did before we were converted, "whereof we are now ashamed." Some here can remember the time when "the seat of the scornful" was loved by them and they had not learned to love the place they now occupy in God's House and among His people. Lips that are now consecrated to the praise of God were then defiled with oaths and blasphemies. Blessed be God for saving the gross open offenders, "and such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." As you look back to that horrible pit, bless the name of the Lord that He brought you up out of it! Others of us who were graciously restrained by God from falling into the grosser vices, can never look back without tears to our unregenerate days. We did evil as far as we could and if we did not go further into it, it was because there were blessed checks that held us in and even those bonds and restraints we hated and would have broken them had we dared to do so! How grieved we are now that we should ever have resisted as we did the appeals of Divine Mercy, the strivings of the Spirit, the admonitions of our godly parents and the warnings of Christian friends! However painful the process may be, I ask every Brother and Sister here to look back unto the rock where they were hewn, and to the hole of the pit where they were dug. It is very easy for you to get conceited and proud, but it would help to preserve you from such folly and sin if you would only remember what you used to be before the Grace of God made such a change in you. Then you would not want to sing to your own praise and glory, but you would walk humbly before the Lord and give all the honor to Him for what Divine has worked in you. This will make it a most profitable exercise for us to look back to see what we were before our conversion. There is only one more look that I ask you to give, and that is the saddest and most terrible of all--look, as far as you can, at the state of the lost. There is a land of darkness and of the shadow of death where the very light is as darkness, and where despair reigns supreme. There are no sights to be seen in that land but such as cause the eyes to weep. And no sounds to be heard but such as grate upon the ears, for He who knows all about it has told us that there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in that dead world of the lost! Stand at a distance from that place where the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever--and if you can bear it, try to think what must be the condition of spirits that are at this moment, while you are sitting here, banished from the Presence of God and condemned to reap the results of the deeds done in the body! Think, also, that but for Divine Grace, we would have been there too. There are some here, who but for a special interposition of Providence might have been there now! Had that fever proved fatal, you would have been there, my Friend! Had that vessel veered just a little from her course in that dense fog, you, being unregenerate, would have been there to weep and wail forever! There is one who, before his conversation, was at death's door and at Hell's gate scores of times. I want you, my Brother, to think of that, and then you will say, "Had it not been for Divine Grace, I would have been this night among those lost spirits instead of being here among my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, rejoicing in what the Lord has done for me and praising and magnifying His holy name!" Great as is the distance between the heights of Heaven and the depths of Hell, as great is the Lord's mercy toward you whom He has redeemed. So, looking away even to the abode of the lost, and trying to realize from how terrible a doom the Lord has delivered you, remember the rock where you have been hewn and the hole of the pit where you have been dug. II. Now, in the second place, LET US LEARN THE LESSONS WHICH THIS LOOK IS INTENDED TO TEACH US. I have already hinted at one result of looking back in the way I have described, but may again remind you that it ought to humble us. How apt we are to be proud! If there is one man here who says, "I am not proud, I am very humble," I say to him, "My dear Brother, you must excuse me, but I would not be surprised if you are the proudest man here, for he who imagines he is humble proves by that every fact how very proud he is." We are all proud. Pride can hide under a beggar's rags as well as under an alderman's robes. Pride is a weed that will grow on a dunghill as well as in a palace garden, but it ought never to be allowed to grow in the heart of a Christian! Yet I think--yes, I knowthat I have seen it in some who profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ! Some professors are proud because they have got on in the world, and have raked together a big heap of money. But, of all kinds of pride, that is one of the most contemptible, for a man is no more of a man because there is more gold and silver in his house than in other people's. The man must be judged apart from his money. There is many a millionaire who is miserably poor, and many a truly rich man who scarcely ever has a shilling to spare. It is paltry pride that is proud of riches and, on the other hand, I have known others who had no money to make them proud, who were not a whit more humble than the purse-proud people, for pride can come in at the back door as easily as at the front! It is a sad thing when a Christian gets proud of his graces and says, "I am a very different man from what I used to be, and very different, also, from most other Christians. I live nearer to God. I pray more, I think I walk more circumspectly than others do." Perhaps he adds, "I glorify God for this." Mind that you do, my dear Brother, for it is very easy to descend from glorifying God to glorifying yourself! You may even be bowing down before the detestable idol of self-righteousness at the very time that you imagine you are glorifying God. The great cure for this evil is to pray to God to keep you humble and it will tend toward that end if you often look unto the rock where you were hewn and to the hole of the pit where you were dug. I have often told you what an old plowman said to me long ago, "Depend upon it, Sir, if you and I get an inch above the ground, we get just that inch too high." And I am persuaded that he was right. Lying in the dust before God is the safest and best posture for us! If we think we have anything of which we have reason to be proud, we are only deceiving ourselves. Yet there are professing Christians who seem to have quite forgotten what they used to be--forgotten that they were purged from their old sins by a miracle of mercy--and that they were made Christians by the almighty Grace of God. If they remembered these things, they would walk humbly before the Lord as they used to do. When they first joined the Church, they loved all their fellow members, and thought that each one of them was better than themselves. But now they are constantly picking holes in this or that Brother's character and finding fault with one Sister or another. When they first made a profession of religion, they were half afraid to unite with God's people lest they should be an injury to the Church and weaken it through their shortcomings--but now they look down with contempt upon those who are far better than they are ever likely to be! Such high looks and such proud spirits will have to be brought down if they are really the children of God! And though the process may be a very painful one, the result of it will be highly beneficial to them. They think themselves wonderfully fine fellows, but they forget that they would have been in Hell if it had not been for the Infinite Mercy and loving kindness of the Lord. It is a good thing when these who have been so proudly crowing over others get their combs cut by being made to feel that, after all, they are sinners just as others are and that if they are saved sinners, their salvation is not to be ascribed to themselves, but to the Grace of God through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior! This backward look to what we used to be will not only help to humble us, it will also tend to encourage us. "To encourage us?" someone asks. Yes, for if when we were dead in trespasses and sins, the Lord quickened us by His Spirit, how is it possible for Him to cast us away, now that we are adopted into His family? If He has reclaimed us from the dominion of sin and Satan, will He not do for us what is, after all, a less work by keeping us from going back to the old state of bondage? Would He have saved us if He had intended us to be lost at the last? Oh, no, He who has brought us up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay, and has set our feet upon a Rock and put a new song in our mouth, even praise unto our God, will never let us go back to that state from which He delivered us! If we wander from Him, as we are so prone to do, He will heal our backslidings and cause us again to rejoice in the God of our salvation! Then, dear Friends, this backward look tends to make us tender towards others and to encourage us to hope for their salvation. True Christians should never feel, "I am too good to associate with such sinful people as I see all around me." If he would look back to the rock where he was hewn, and to the hole of the pit where he was dug, he would never allow such a thought as that to linger in his mind for even a minute! I hear now and then of a minister who is said to have "a very select congregation." It seems to be the rule, whenever there is a very small number of people attending a place of worship, to say that the preacher is of such a high intellectual order that his ministry is not attractive to the masses, but that the few who go to hear him make up in quality what they lack in quantity. Well, I have occasionally had the opportunity of testing that statement, and I have come to the conclusion that such congregations are neither intellectually nor spiritually better than others--nor half as good as some with which I am acquainted. If I were to feel that I was too good to mix with the worst of men in the hope of being of service to them, or that I was too pure to have anything to do with my fellow sinners, I would be imitating the Pharisee who says, "Stand by, for I am holier than you," and I would have forgotten the rock where I was hewn, and the hole of the pit where I was dug. O Beloved, if you recall your own condition as sinners, you will love those who are still "in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity," and your great desire will be to bring them to Jesus even as you, yourself, were brought to Him! Sometimes, when I have been preaching, I have had this thought in my mind, "I will not tell my Hearers that God can save the greatest sinners because He saved John Bunyan and John Newton, but I will tell them that He can save all other sinners because He saved me." When I have had that thought uppermost in my mind, I have found that I could preach with great tenderness to those who were out of the way. It was this feeling that led Charles Wesley to write-- "He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He set the prisoners free! His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me." This ought also to be the thought and feeling of every Christian, "What He has done for me, He can do for others. There is no one living who is too far gone for His Sovereign Mercy. As He was able to save me, I will go to others with the hope and belief that He is able to save them. And I will try to encourage them to see whether there is not salvation for them, even for them." Now, lastly, I think that this backward look will tend to make us faithful to the Savior and fill us with a burning zeal for His Glory. I do not know anything better that I could suggest to you as the subject of your meditations, when you are at home alone and quiet for a little while, than to look back to the days of your impenitency and unbelief. I know that you will not ascribe your salvation to your own merits or your own good works, but that you will ascribe it to the Grace of God from first to last! And then the natural instinct of your renewed nature will make you fall down upon your knees and adore the Infinite Mercy of God in saving you. He might have left you to perish as He has left so many others, but in His Sovereignty, He looked with pity and love upon you and saved you. What did you do to help the Lord to save you? Help Him to save you? Why, you did all you could to hinder Him until, at last, His Omnipotent Love overcame the natural unwillingness of your heart and made you willing in the day of His power! Oh, you ought to praise God! Gratitude and adoration should constantly rise from your heart unto Him who has done such great things for you! I close by reminding every sinner here that God is able to save him, into whatever depths he may have fallen, for God has saved other sinners who were just like him. If you, my Hearer, have been guilty of every crime in the book, you may still be cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus which cleanses from all sin! There is power in His blood to blot out the blackest sin--and that power shall be realized by you if you give heed to this message--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." To believe is to trust, to rely upon, to depend upon. And if you do rely upon Jesus, all your iniquities shall not be reckoned unto you, but they shall be reckoned among those that were put away by Him when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree! Then all His merits shall be reckoned unto you--there shall be a clear exchange made--Christ taking your sin and you taking His righteousness! Oh, that you would believe on Him this very moment! May God give you Grace to do so! Then shall you be able, with us who also have believed in Jesus, to look back to the rock where you were hewn and to the hole of the pit where you were dug--and to adore and magnify the name of the Lord forever and ever! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GALATIANS3. Verse 1. O foolish Galatians, who has bewitchedyou?Paul writes as if they had come under some kind of witchcraft and been deluded by it. This seemed to astonish the Apostle, so he cries out to them "Who has bewitched you?" 1. That you shouldnot obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you?They had heard the plainest possible preaching from Paul and his companions. Jesus Christ had been so clearly set forth before them that they might, as it were, see Him as He hung upon the Cross of Calvary. Yet, under some unhallowed spell, they turned aside from the faith of Christ! 2. This only I want to learn from you: Didyou receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? [See Sermon #1705, Volume 29--THE HEARING OF FAITH.] "You profess to have received the Spirit--did the Spirit come to you by the works of the Law, or through hearing and believing the Gospel?" 3. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now madeperfect by the fesh?"Did you begin right, and are you going to finish in some other way? Is the foundation laid in the Truth of God, and will you build lies upon it? Is the foundation Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, and is the superstructure to be wood, hay and stubble?" 4. Have you suffered so many things in vain--if it is, indeed, in vain. "Have you been made to suffer through conviction of sin? Have you even been persecuted for the Truth's sake? And are you going to give it up after all that? 5. He therefore who ministers to you the Spirit, and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of fait? "Have those miracles been worked in your midst by the power of faith or by the works of the Law?" 6. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. That is the Scriptural Doctrine-- faith is counted or imputed for righteousness. 7. Know you therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Those who are justified by faith in Jesus. Those whose faith is counted for righteousness--they are the children of believing Abraham--not those who are under the Law of Moses. 8. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In you shall all nations be blessed. Just as Abraham was blessed, so are the nations to be blessed, that is, by faith. By faith they become his spiritual seed. By faith they enter into his Covenant. By faith, they receive the blessings of Grace. 9. So then they which are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Just as the believing Abraham was accounted righteous, so believing men who are the spiritual seed of Abraham, are also accounted righteous. 10. For as many as are of the words of the Law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them. Can any man perfectly keep the whole Law of God? Has any man ever continued in all things which are written in the Book of the Law, to do them? No and, therefore, all that the Law does is to bring the curse upon those who are under its dominion--none of them can obtain salvation by the works of the Law! 11. But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident: for the just shall live by faith. [See Sermons #814, Volume 14--LIFE BY FAITH and #2809, Volume 48--FAITH--LIFE.] This passage is again and again repeated in the Scriptures--"The just shall live by faith." There are no other just men living! There cannot be any other just men living, but those that live by faith! 12. And the Law is not of faith: but, the man that does them shall live in them. The law demands doing. The Gospel enjoins believing. The believing man comes in as an heir of the blessing, but the man who trusts to his own doing is an heir of the curse. 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse ofthe Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursedis everyone that hangs on a tree. [See Sermons #873, Volume 15--CHRIST MADE A CURSE FOR US and #2093, Volume 35--THE CURSE AND THE CURSE FOR US.] What a wonderful Doctrine this is! We should have he itated to use such language as this had not the Holy Spirit, Himself, moved Paul to write that Christ was "made a curse for us." He who is most blessed, forever. He who is the fountain of blessing and the channel of blessing to all who ever are blessed was, "made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree"-- 14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise ofthe Spirit through faith. Dear Friends, are you living by faith upon the Son of God? Are you trusting in God? Are you believing His promises? Some think that this is a very little thing, but God does not think so. Faith is a better index of character than anything else. The man who trusts his God and believes His promises is honoring God far more than is the man who supposes that by any of his own doings he can merit Divine approval and favor. 15. Brethren, I speak after the matter of men. Though it is but a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no man disannuls, or adds thereto. If a covenant is once made, signed, sealed and ratified, no honorable man would think of drawing back from it. Whatever happens afterwards, the covenant having been once made, is regarded as an established fact and it must remain. 16. 17. Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He says not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your Seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the Law which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. This is sound reasoning. God made a Covenant with Abraham and said that in him and in his Seed all nations would be blessed. All Believers are in Christ, who is here called Abraham's Seed and, therefore, they must be blessed! Whatever the Law may say or may not say, it was not given until 430 years after the Covenant was made with Abraham and, therefore, cannot affect it in any way. 18. For if the inheritance is ofthe Law, it is no more of promise. God gave it to Abraham by promise. It was a free gift--He did not bestow it upon the condition of merit on Abraham's part. Isaac was born, not according to the power of the flesh, but according to promise--and the whole Covenant is according to free Grace and Divine promise. 18, 19. But Godgave it to Abraham bypromise. Whatpurpose, therefore, does the Lawserve?[See Sermon #128, Volume 3--THE USES OF THE LAW.] What was the use of it? 19. It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made. The law makes us know what transgression is. It reveals its true nature. Under the hand of the Holy Spirit, it makes us see the evil of sin. We might not have perceived sin to be sin if it had not been for the command of God not to commit it--but when the commandment comes, then we recognize sin and the evil of it. 19-21. Andit was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the Law, then, against the promises of God? God forbid! For if there had been a Law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the Law. There could not have been a better Law! Some talk about the Law of God being too severe, too strict, too stringent, but it is not. If the design had been that men should live by the Law, there could not have been a better Law for that purpose and, therefore, it is proved that by the principle of Law nobody ever can be justified, because even with the best of laws, all men are sinful and need that justification which comes only by Grace through faith! 22. But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. [See Sermon #1145, Volume 19--THE GREAT JAIL AND HOW TO GET OUT OF IT.] All of us, by nature, are shut up like criminals in a prison that is so securely bolted and barred that there is no hope of escape for any who are within it. But why are all the doors shut and fastened? Why in order that Christ may come and open the one only eternal door of salvation--"that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." 23. But before faith came, we were kept under the Law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. [See Sermon #2402, Volume 41--UNDER ARREST.] Well do I remember when I was "shut up" in this fashion. I struggled and strove with might and main to get out, but I found no way of escape. I was "shut up" until Faith came and opened the door and brought me out into "the glorious liberty of the children of God." 24. Therefore the Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faih. [See Sermon #1196, Volume 20--THE STERN TEACHER.] The tutor was a slave who led the children to school and sometimes whipped them to school. That is what the Law did with us--it took us under its management, whipped us and drove us to Christ. 25. But after faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor. Now we go to Christ willingly, cheerfully, joyfully, trusting in Him with all our hearts. The tutor's work is done so far as we are concerned. 26. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. We hear a great deal about the universal fatherhood of God, but it is all nonsense! There is no Scripture for it whatever. Those only are the children of God who are "the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. "He is everything to you. He covers you, He surrounds you. You do not stand before God in your own filthy rags, but you have put on Christ." 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. What a mercy it is to be in Christ, so that you are not seen any more, but only Christ, and you accepted in Him! 29. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. "According to the promise"--not according to your works, or your gifts, but "heirs according to the promise." __________________________________________________________________ Christ Loosens From Infirmities (No. 3195) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "And, behold, there was a woman which hada spirit ofinfirmity eighteen years, and was bent over, and could in no wise lift herselfup. And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said unto her, Woman, you are loosened from your infirmity And He laid His hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God." Luke 13:11-13. [See Sermons #1426, Volume 24--THE LIFTING UP OF THE BOWED DOWN and #2891, Volume 50--A SABBATH MIRACLE-- for sermons on the same miracle.] OUR text commences with a "behold"--"behold, there was a woman." And as it was often remarked by the Puritan writers, whenever we see the word, "behold," in Scripture, we are to regard it as a nota bene, as a mark in the margin calling our particular attention to what follows. Where Christ worked wonders, we should have attentive eyes and ears. When Jesus is dispensing blessings, whether to ourselves or to others, we should never be in a state of indifference! I shall use this miracle as a type, as it were, for doubtless the miracles of Christ were so intended. Our Lord was declared to be "a Prophet mighty in deed and word." He was to be a Prophet like unto Moses and He is the only one who was like unto Moses in these two respects. Many Prophets followed Moses who were mighty in "word"--such as Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah, but then they were not "mighty in deed." Many, on the other hand, were "mighty in deed"-- like Elijah and Elisha, but they were not "mighty in word." Our Lord was mighty in both respects and a Prophet in both respects--"a Prophet mighty in deed and word." I take it, therefore, that His miraculous deeds are parts of His prophecies. They are the illustrations of His great life-sermon. The words which fell from His lips are as the text and the letter of the Book, but the miracles are the pictures from which our childlike minds may often learn more than from the words, themselves. We shall so use the picture before us now--may the Holy Spirit give us instruction! I. In the first place, THIS WOMAN, BOWED DOWN WITH A SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY, TYPIFIES TO US THE CASE OF VERY MANY--very many whom we have seen and some of whom are listening to these words. Oh, that the same miracle might be worked in them as in her! She typifies persons who are depressed in spirit, who cannot look up to Heaven and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, persons who have a hope, a good hope, too, but not a strong one--a hope which enables them to hold on as the men did in Paul's shipwreck when, on boards and broken pieces of the ship they came safe to land, but not a hope which gives them an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. They are saved, like this woman, who was a true daughter of Abraham, notwithstanding all her infirmities. She was truly of the promised seed, notwithstanding that she could not lift herself up, so these are genuine Christians, truly saved, and yet constantly subject to infirmity. In some, it takes this shape. They believe in Christ and rest on the precious blood, yet they are sometimes afraid that they have sinned the unpardonable sin. Though their better and more reasonable selves will do battle against the delusion, still they hug it to their hearts. Seeing that the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a sin which is unto death--and that when a man has committed it, his spirit dies--and repentance, the desire to be saved and all good emotions cease to be when that dreadful spiritual death is ours, I say that they can thus reason with themselves in their better moments and see that their fear is a delusion, but they soon fall back again into that dreadful slough. They see no signs of Grace, but they think they see signs of reprobation. Many have I met with--I may say that I meet with such people every week-- who are afraid that they are hypocrites. When I encounter persons troubled with this fear, I cannot help smiling at them, for if they really were hypocrites, they would not be afraid of it and their fear of presumption argues very strongly that they are not living in it! Then this infirmity will take another shape. If you drive them from the other errors, they say they are afraid that they are self-deluded. This is a very proper fear when it leads to self-examination and comes to an end. But it becomes a very improper fear when it perpetually destroys our joy, prevents our saying, "Abba, Father," with an unfaltering tongue and keeps us at a distance from the precious Savior who would have us come very near to Him and be most familiar with His brotherly heart. Supposing this difficulty should be met, still there are tens of thousands who are very much in doubt concerning their election. What if they should not be elect, they say? This, of course results from ignorance, for if they read the Word, they would soon discover that all those who believe in Christ may be certain of their election--faith being the public mark of God's privately chosen people! If you make your calling sure, you have made your election sure! If you know yourself now to be a lover of God, resting upon the great Propitiation which He has set forth for sin, then you may know that this is a work of Grace in your soul! God never worked a work of Grace where He had not make an electionof Grace. That fear, therefore, may be easily driven away and yet thousands are in bondage to it! Others are afflicted with the daily fear that they shall not persevere. They say, "After all our professions and prayers, we fear we shall yet be castaways." The Apostle Paul was not afflicted with this fear. He strove lest this fear should ever come near him. He so lived with holy diligence, that he might always be in a state of blessed assurance, lest, after having preached to others, he, himself, should be a castaway. But he could say, "I know that my Redeemer lives," even as Job could. And he could also say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." Still, tens of thousands are perpetually subject to that form of bondage! They cannot reach, in fact, the full assurance of faith. They have scarcely even the glimmering of Assurance. They trust--they trust as the publican did, "standing afar off," but they have never yet come with John to lean their heads upon the bosom of the Savior! They are His disciples and His servants, but they can scarcely understand how He can call them His friends and permit them to enjoy close communion with Himself. Now, Beloved, this woman thus bowed down was very like these persons for the following reasons-- Her infirmity much marred her beauty The beauty and dignity of the human form is to walk erect, to look the sun in the face and gaze upon the heavens. This woman could do nothing of the kind. She was, no doubt, very conscious of this and shrank from the public gaze. So unbelief, distrust, mistrust, suspicion--these direful infirmities to which some are subject, spoil their spiritual beauty. They have the Divine Grace of humility. In this respect, they very often excel others, but the other graces, the noble graces of faith and holy confidence and courage--these they cannot display. The beauty of their character is marred. Moreover, this woman had her enjoyment spoiled. It must have been a sad thing for her to go about the world bent double. She could not gaze on the beauties of Nature as others could and all her motions must have been, if not painful, yet certainly exceedingly inconvenient. Such is the case with the doubting, distrustful soul under infirmity. He can do but little. Prayer is a painful groaning out of his soul. When he sings, it is usually in a deep bass. His harp hangs upon the willows. He feels that he is in Babylon and cannot sing the songs of Zion. This woman, too, must have been very unfit for active service. Little of household duty could she perform, and that with pain. And as to public acts of mercy, she could take but small part in them, being subject to this constant infirmity. And so is it with you who are "Much-Afraids" or, "Fearings," you who have troubled spirits. You cannot lead the van in the day of battle. You can scarcely tell others of the Savior's preciousness. You cannot expect to be great reapers in the Master's harvest. You have to stay by the stuff while others go forth to fight. There is a special law which David made of old concerning those who tarried there, so you do get a blessing, but you miss the higher blessing of noble activity and Christian service. I might thus enlarge and show the likeness more clearly, but I think you can draw the picture for yourselves. You see the woman come into the synagogue and your pity is at once excited. But if you love the souls of men and God has made you to be tender as a nursing mother to others, you will pity, yet more, many of the true seed of Abraham who are bowed down with infirmity. It appears, from our Savior's words, that this woman's infirmity was coupled with Satanic influence. "Whom Satan has bound," He said, "lo, these eighteen years." We do not know how much Satan has to do with us. I do know that we often lay a great deal on his back which he does not deserve--and that we do a thousand evil things ourselves and then ascribe them to him. Still, there are gracious souls who do walk in the paths of holiness, who do hate sin, who, for all that, sometimes cannot enjoy peace. We cannot blame them. We must believe that the Satanic spirit is at work, marring their joy and spoiling their comfort. Dr. Watts says-- "He worries whom he cannot devour With a malicious joy"-- and doubtless that is true. He knows he cannot destroy you because you are in Christ and, therefore, if the dog cannot bite, he will at least bark. Like Mercy, in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, you will often be alarmed by the evil ones and all the more so because these evil ones know that in a little while you will be out of gunshot of all the powers of Hell, and beyond the hearing of all the bellowing of the fiends of the Pit! Satan had much to do with this poor woman's infirmity. It appears, very clearly, too, from reading the passage, that the woman's weakness was beyond all human art. "She could in no wise lift herself up," which implies, I think, that she had tried all ways within her reach and knowledge. "She could in no wise." Neither by those mechanical operations which have sometimes been found effective in such diseases, nor by those medicines which were much vaunted in that age, could she receive the slightest relief. She had done her best and physicians had done their worst--and yet notwithstanding all, she could by no means lift herself up--and, truly, there are many in this condition spiritually. Have you ever been, as a Christian pastor, utterly baffled in dealing with some cases of spiritual distress? Have you ever been driven to pray, feeling the blessedness of prayer all the more because you have proved the futility of your own efforts to comfort a sin-distressed, Satan-tossed spirit? Often has that been my case. There has been the promise to meet the case, but the poor soul could not lay hold of it! There has been the cheering Word of God which has been efficient enough at other times, but it seemed to be a dead letter to this poor spirit in bondage. There has been the case, in point, and the experience of somebody else just like the case in hand, which we tried to tell with sympathy. We tried to work ourselves, as it were, into the position of the sufferer with whom we were dealing. But still, for all that, we seemed to be speaking to the winds and trying to comfort one who was so conditioned to sorrow that he felt that for him to cast off the somber weeds would be a sin, and to cease to mourn would be presumption. Many a time has such a case come before us and we have thought of this woman--and could only pray that the Master would put His hand upon the person, for our hand and our voice were utterly powerless! Poor soul, she had been a long time in this case! Eighteen years! Eighteen years! Well, that is not very long if you are in health, strength and prosperity. How the years trip along as with wings on their heels! They are scarcely here before they are fled! But 18 years of infirmity, pain and constantly-increasing weakness! Eighteen years she dragged her chain until the iron entered into her soul. Eighteen years! Two long apprenticeships to sorrow till she had become the acquaintance of grief. Yes, and some such persons, though prisoners of hope, are kept in bondage as long as that. Their disease is like an intermittent fever which comes on, sometimes, and then is relieved. They have times when they are at their worst--the ebb tide--and then they have their floods again. Now and then they have a glimpse of summer, but soon the cold chilly winter comes on them again. Sometimes they half think they have escaped and leap like the emancipated slave when his fetters are broken, but they very soon have to go back again to the jails and the manacles, having no permanent relief, still being prisoners year after year. I know I am describing a case which is known to some of you. Perhaps I am photographing you! Yet for all this, this woman was a daughter of Abraham. The Lord Jesus knew her pedigree and assured the ruler of the synagogue of it. She was one of the true seed of Israel notwithstanding all her failings. "Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, to be loosened even on the Sabbath?" demanded the Master. Yes, and you, poor anxious spirit, though your faith is but as a grain of mustard seed, yet, if you have a simple faith in Christ, you are safe! You, troubled and tossed one, though your boat seems ready to be swallowed up by the waves, if you have taken Jesus into the vessel, you shall come safely to the land! Poor Heart, you may be brought very low, but you shall never be brought low enough to perish, for underneath there are the everlasting arms. Like Jonah, you may go to the bottoms of the mountains and think that the earth with her bars is about you forever, but you shall yet be brought up and you shall sing Jonah's song, "Salvation is of the Lord!" God does not cast off His people because of their dark frames and feelings. He does not love them because of their high enjoyments--neither will He reject them because of their deep depressions. Christian is dear. Father Honest is dear. Valiant-for-Truth, too, is dear to the King of the pilgrims! And Ready-to-Halt, upon his crutches, is equally dear, and Mr. Fearing and Miss Much-Afraid, though they may lie in Doubting Castle till they are almost starved, shall surely be brought out, for they are true pilgrims and shall at length safely reach the Celestial City! II. But we must pass on to our second point, namely that THE EXAMPLE OF THIS WOMAN IS INSTRUCTIVE TO ALL IN HER CASE. Observe that she did not tamely yield to her infirmity without effort. The expression, "She could in no wise l ift herself up"--an old Saxon form of saying, "She could in no ways lift herself up"--shows, as I have said before, that she had tried her best. I believe some of you might stand upright if you liked. I am quite certain that in some cases, people get into the way of surrendering to depression until at last they become powerless against it. Some stimulant is given them in the form of a sick husband, or a dying child and they grow quite cheerful. Under some real trouble, they become patient, but when this real trouble is taken away, they begin manufacturing troubles of their own. They are never happy, I might almost say, except when they are miserable--and never cheerful except when they have something to cast them down! If they have a real trouble, they get strength to bear it, but at other times, they are morbidly troubled in spirit. Now, let us imitate this woman and shake off our doubts and our unbelief as much as possible. Let us strike up the hymn-- "Begone, unbelief, my Savor is near! And for my relief will surely appear. By prayer let me wrestle, and He will perform, With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm!" Let us say, with David, "Why are you cast down, O my Soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope you in God, for I shall yet praise Him." Do not so soon yield to the shafts of unbelief. Hold up the shield of faith and say to your soul, "No, as the Lord lives, who is the Rock of my salvation, my castle and my high tower, my weapon of defense and my glory, I will not yield to unbelief. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. And though all things go against me, yet will I stay myself upon the mighty God of Jacob, and I will not fear." The woman, then, had done her best. Note next, that although bent double and, therefore, having an excellent excuse for staying at home, yet she was found at the synagogue. I believe she was always found there from the fact that the length of time during which she had been sick was well known--not merely known to Christ because of His Godhead, but known as a matter of common talk and common knowledge in the synagogue, probably, during the whole of the 18 years she had been an attendant there. "Ah," she thought, "if I miss the blessing of health, yet I will not be absent from the place where God's people meet together for worship. I have had sweet enjoyments in the singing of the Psalms and in listening to the Word--and I will not be away when such Divine Grace is being dispensed." mourners, never let Satan prevail upon you to "forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is." If you cannot get comfort, still go to the sanctuary. It is the most likely place for you to get it. One of the sweet traits of character in mourners is that they love to go to the assemblies of God's people. I knew one aged woman who had year after year been in this mournful state, and after trying long to comfort her, but in vain, I said to her, "Well, what do you go to the House of Prayer for? Why don't you stay at home?" "Why, that is my only comfort!" she said. "I thought you told me you were a hypocrite," I answered, "and that you had no right to the promises or any of the good things?" "Ah, but I could not stay away from the place where my best friends, my kindred, dwell," she replied. "And do you read your Bible?" I asked her. "I suppose you have burned that." "Burned my Bible!" she said in horror. "I'd sooner be burned myself!" "But do you read it? You say there is nothing there for you--if you were to lay hold upon the promises, it would be presumption--you are afraid to grasp any one of the good things of the Covenant!" "Ah, but I could not do without reading my Bible. That is my daily bread. It is my constant food," she responded. "But do you pray?" "Pray! Oh yes, I shall die praying!" "But you told me that you had no faith at all, that you were not one of God's people, that you were a deceiver and I know not what besides!" "Yes, I am afraid, sometimes, that I am. I am afraid now that I am, but as long as I live I'll pray." All the marks of the child of God were in her private character--and could be seen in her walk and conversation--and yet she was always bowed down and could by no means lift herself up! 1 remember a Brother minister who was the means, in God's hands, of comforting a woman when she lay dying in this plight. He said to her, "Well, Sarah, you tell me you do not love Christ at all. Are you sure you do not?" "Yes, Sir. I am sure I do not." He went up to the window and wrote on a piece of paper, "I do not love the Lord Jesus Christ.'" "Now, Sarah," he said "just put your name at the bottom of that." "What is it, Sir? I do not know what it is." When she read it, she said, "No, I'd rather be torn in pieces than I'd put my name to such a thing as that!" "Well," he said, "but if it is true, you may as well write it as say it." And this was the means of convincing and persuading her that there really was love to Christ in her soul, after all! But in many cases you cannot comfort these poor souls at all. They will still say that they are not the Lord's people, yet they cling to the means of Grace and, by-and-by, we trust they will get deliverance. Observe another thing, that though we are not told it in so many words in the narrative, we may be sure it is true, when the Lord Jesus called her, she came at once. She was called and there was no hesitation in her answer. Such speed as she could make in her poor, pitiable plight, she made. She did not say, as another said, "Lord, if You will, you can." She did not doubt His will. Nor did she imitate another and say, "If You can do anything." She doubted not His power. She said nothing, but we know what she felt. There is not a trace of unbelief! There is every sign of obedience. Now, Soul, when Christ does call you, by His Grace, make haste to run to Him! When, under the preaching of the Lord, you feel as though the iceberg is beginning to melt, do not get away from the sunlight and go back to the old winter gloom! "Make hay while the sun shines," says the old proverb--take care that you do the same. When God gives you a little light, prize it. Thank Him for it and ask for more. If you have got starlight, ask for moonlight. When you have got moonlight, do not sit down and weep because it is only moonlight, but ask Him for more, and He will give you sunlight, and when you have got that, be grateful, and He will give you yet more! He will make your day to be as the light of seven days, and the days of your mourning shall be ended. Think much of little mercies since you deserve none. Do not throw away these pearls because they are not the greatest that were ever found, but keep them, thank God for them, and then soon He will send you the best treasures from the treasury of His Grace. As soon as this woman was healed, she was, in another respect, an example to us, namely, that she glorified God. Her face did it. With what luster was it lit up! Her whole gait did it. How erect she stood! And then I am sure her tongue did it. The woman might well be pardoned for speaking this once in the midst of the assembly. Restored as she was, all of a sudden, she could not help telling out the joy she felt within! The bells of her heart were ringing merry peals! She must give glory to God who had worked the cure. Some of you profess to have been cured, but have you given glory to God? Some of you profess to be Christians, and yet you have never come forward to avow it! You have been afraid to unite yourselves with the Christian Church! Your Master bids you confess Him. The mode of confession which He prescribes is that you be baptized in His name--and yet, though He has saved you, you stand back and are disobedient. Take care! "That servant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." I was, this week, by the bedside of a dying man, an heir of Heaven, washed in the precious blood of Jesus, I believe, and rejoicing in that fact, too, but yet he could not help saying, "I ought, years ago, to have taken my stand with God's people. You have often given me many hard blows in the Tabernacle, but never too hard. Tell the people, when you speak to them again, when they know anything is a duty, never to postpone it, for that Word of God is true, 'That servant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.' I am not condemned, I am not cast away, for I am in Christ. I am resting on His precious blood and I am saved. But, though saved, I am being chastened." And he was sorely chastened with many doubts, fears and troubles of soul. If you are God's child, any duty neglected will bring upon your soul some chastisement. If you are not God's child, you may do very much as you like and your punishmentwill, perhaps, not come upon you until the next world. But if you are one of the King's favorites, you must walk very tenderly and very attentively, or else, as surely as you are dear to the heart of God, you shall feel the rod upon you to chasten you and to bring you back into the path of obedience! This woman glorified God. Brothers and Sisters, can we not do something more to glorify God than we have yet done? If we have done that which seemed to be our duty on certain occasions, may there not be yet more for us to do? There is very much land yet to be possessed for King Jesus! This wicked city is given over to sin and we are doing so little! Ah, some of you do what you can, but we who do what we can, might do more if we had more strength with which to do it--and more strength is to be had for the asking! Oh, that we could enlarge our desires for the glory of King Jesus! Oh, to set Him upon a glorious high throne and to crown Him with many crowns, to prostrate ourselves at His feet and to bring others, too, to lie prostrate at His feet, that He might be King in Jeshurun, King of kings and Lord of lords, reigning in our souls forever and ever! Imitate this woman. If you have been bowed down and yet restored to comfort! See that, like she did, you instantly fall to glorifying God. III. And this brings us to the last point--THE WOMAN'S CURE IS EXCEEDINGLY INSTRUCTIVE TO PERSONS IN A LIKE CASE. She went to the synagogue, but she did not get her cure alone by going there. Means and ordinances are nothing in themselves! They are to be used, but they are only dry skin bottles, without water, unless there is something more than these. This woman met with Christ in the synagogue--and then came the healing! May we, too, meet with Jesus! That great encounter is possible here, or anywhere, for-- "Wherever we seek Him, He is found, And everyplace is hallowed ground." The great matter is to meet with Him! And if we meet with Him, we meet with all we need! Now, observe the woman's cure. In the first place, it was a complete cure. No part of the infirmity remained. She was not left a little crooked, but still much restored. No, "she was made straight." When Jesus heals, He heals not by halves. His works of Grace may have it said of each one of them, "It is finished." Salvation is a finished work throughout. In the next place, the woman's cure was a perpetual and permanent one. She did not return, by-and-by, by a terrible relapse, to her former posture. Once made to walk upright, she remained so. When Jesus sheds abroad life, love and joy in the soul, it is ours for a perpetual inheritance and we may hold it till we die, nor lose it even then! Notice, too, that the woman was healed immediately. That is a point which Luke takes care to mention. The cure did not take days, or weeks, or months, or years, as physicians cures do--but she was cured immediately! Here is encouragement for you who have been depressed for years. There is yet a possibility that you may be perfectly and speedily restored. Yet may the dust be taken from your eyes! Yet may your face be anointed with fresh oil! Yet may you glow and glisten in the light of Jesus' Countenance while you reflect the light that shines upon you from Him! It may happen tonight--at this moment! Gates may be taken from off their hinges, for the mighty Samson, whom we serve, can tear up Gaza's gates, posts and bars and all if He wills to set His captives free! If you are bound by all the fetters that self can forge, yet at one emancipating word from Christ, you shall be entirely free! Doubting Castle may be very strong, but He who comes to fight with Giant Despair is stronger, still. He who has kept you beneath his power is mighty, but the All Mighty is He who conquered at Bozrah and who will conquer everywhere else when He comes forth for the deliverance of His people! Take down your harps from the willows! Be encouraged! Jesus Christ loosens the prisoners! He is the Lord, the Liberator. He comes to set the captives free and to glorify Himself in them! I remind you of the thought with which we commenced this third point, namely, that the woman's restoration was effected by Jesus Christ, by His laying His hands upon her. Many of His cures were worked in this way, by bringing His own Personality into contact with human infirmity. "He laid His hands upon her." O Soul, Christ came in human flesh and that contact with humanity is the source of all salvation! If you believe in Christ, He comes a second time into contact with you! Oh, that your soul might get a touch of Him tonight! He is a Man like yourself, though He is also "very God of very God." In order to save us, He suffered unutterable pangs. The whole weight of our sin was laid upon Him, till He was bruised as beneath the wheels of the car of vengeance. Beneath the upper and the nether millstones of Divine Vengeance, the Savior was ground like fine flour! God knows, and God alone knows, what agonies He bore. All this was substitutionary for sinners. Let not your sins, then, depress you. Had you no sin, you would not need a Savior. Come with your sin and trust in Him! Let not your weakness distress you. Had you no weakness, you would not need a mighty Savior. Come and take hold upon His strength, for all His strength is meant for the weak, the hopeless and the helpless. Sitting on the dunghill of your sin, yet trust in Jesus and you shall be lifted up to dwell among the princes of the blood-royal! There must be power to save in God when He becomes Man to bleed and die. Nothing can be impossible to Him who built the world and who bears the pillars thereof upon His shoulders--and yet gives His hands to the nails and His heart to the spear! Nothing can be impossible to Immanuel, God With Us, when He smarts, and groans, and submits to the bloody sweat, and then empties out His heart's blood that He might redeem men from their iniquities-- "O come all you in whom are fixed The deadly stains of sin!" Draw near to the Crucified! Let your souls contemplate Christ. Let your faith look to Him. Let your love embrace Him. Cast away all other confidences as mere vanities that will delude you. Away with them! Trust in nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ--His Person, His work, His life, His death, His Resurrection, His Ascension, His glorious pleading before the Throne of God for sinners such as we are! Ah, when you come to die, you who are strong and you who are depressed, will be very much alike in this matter--that you will have to come back where Wesley was when he said-- "Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to Your bosom flee! Other refuge have I none-- Hangs my helpless soul on Thee." Look to the wounds of Christ, they will heal your wounds! Look to the death of Christ, it will be the death of your doubts! Look to the life of Christ, it shall be the life of your hopes! Look to the glory of Christ, it shall be the glory of your souls here, and the glory of your souls forever and ever! May God add His blessing and bring many of His bondaged ones out of prison! This shall be to His eternal praise! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 13:1-13. Verse 1. There were present at that season some that told Him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. This was a matter of common town talk, so of course they brought the news to Jesus. Notice how wisely He used this shameful incident. You and I too often hear the news of what is happening, but we learn nothing from it--our Savior's gracious mind turned everything to good account--He was like the bee that gathers honey from every flower. 2. And Jesus answering said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?'"Do you imagine that there was some extraordinary guilt which brought this judgment upon them, and that those who were spared may be supposed to have been more innocent than they were?" 3. I tell you, No, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. There would come upon them, also, because of their sin, a sudden and overwhelming calamity. When we read of the most dreadful things happening to men, we may conclude that something similar will happen to us if we are impenitent--if not in this world, yet in that which is to come! 4. 5. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, do you think that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No, but, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish^. [See Sermon #408, Volume 7--ACCIDENTS, NOT PUNISHMENTS.] This was a foreshadowing of the overthrow of Jerusalem and the razing of its walls and towers to the ground which happened not long after. And even that overthrow of Jerusalem was but a rehearsal of the tremendous doom that shall come upon all who remain impenitent. 6. He spoke also this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.He had a right to seek fruit upon the tree, for it was planted where fruit-bearing trees were growing and where it shared in the general culture that was bestowed upon all the trees in the vineyard. 7. Then he said to the dresser of the vineyard, Behold, these three years I have been seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why let it cumber the ground?This was sound reasoning. "It yields nothing, though it draws the goodness out of the ground and so injures those trees that are producing fruit--'cut it down; why let it cumber the ground?'" 8-9. And he answering said unto him, Sir, let it alone this year, also, till I shall dig about it, and fertilize it: and if it bears fruit, well: and ifnot, then after that you shall cut it down. [See Sermons #650, Volume 11--judgment threatening but mercy SPARING and #1451-A, Volume 25--"THIS YEAR ALSO."] He asks for a respite, but only a limited one. "After that, you shall cut it down." If, after the trial of another year, it shall still be fruitless, then even the pleader will not ask for any further respite. 10, 11. And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over, and could in no way straighten herself If she was there when Christ was speaking about the fruitless fig tree, I feel pretty certain that she said "That must mean me. I am the fruitless fig tree." But the Master did not mean her--He had other words and more cheering tidings for her! 12. And when Jesus sawher, He calledher to Him, andsaid unto her, Woman, you are loosened from your infirmity. Oh, what glad news this must have been to her! How it must have thrilled her whole body! As she learned that she was to be restored to an upright position, what delight must have filled her heart! 13. And He laid His hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. What expressions of fervent gratitude! What notes of glad exultation came from that woman's joyful lips! Surely even cherubim and seraphim could not more heartily and earnestly praise God than she did when "she was made straight and glorified God." __________________________________________________________________ Noah's Eminence (No. 3196) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 5, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, OCTOBER 19, 1873. "And the LORRD said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark, for you have I seen righteous before Me in this generation." Genesis 7:1. [Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, upon verses 1 and 7, is #1336 in, Volume 23--A FAMILY SERMON.] GOD keeps His eyes upon the sons of men and He searches among them for certain individuals upon whom He delights to fix His gaze. These are not the kings and princes. These are not the men of talent or of fashion. These are not the men who are regarded by their fellows as famous. When God speaks of having seen Noah, He speaks of having seen one of the kind of men for whom He was looking, namely, a righteous man. There is not a righteous man upon the earth whom God does not see. He may be in a very obscure position, his circumstances may be those of poverty, he may be anything but famous. But as long as he is righteous, God delights to look upon him. He looks upon him so as to take care of him so that if destruction is to come upon the face of the earth, an ark is to be prepared for the preservation of righteous Noah and his family. "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry." Whoever else He does notsee, He is sure to see the righteous! But "the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." Now, what God delights to look upon, we should delight to look upon, so we will fix our mind's eye upon the righteous man mentioned in our text and notice, first, the eminence of Noah's character. Secondly, try to find out wherein that eminence consisted. And, thirdly, consider the gracious reward given to him because of that eminence. I. So, first, we are to notice THE EMINENCE OF NOAH'S CHARACTER. He was a righteous man in the sight of the Lord. The Lord said unto Noah..."you have I seen righteous before Me in this generation." Noah was a gracious man, one to whom the Lord had shown great favor for He had put Divine Grace in his heart and had given him faith, for it was by faith that Noah "prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." The Grace of God was within him and became the source and wellspring from which flowed the righteousness for which he was so remarkable. Divine Grace is the root of every righteous character, so let Grace have the honor and glory of it! In the Chapter preceding our text, we are told that "Noah was a just man." It is especially noticeable that in an age of violence and oppression, Noah was a just man. He was no oppressor. He dealt justly and fairly with his fellow men. Noah was also "perfect in his generations." The marginal reading is that he was "upright." He was not one who leaned this way for advantage, or who leaned that way for gain. He stood upright in conscious integrity before his fellows. Acting in accordance with the Grace of God which was in his heart, he had learned to do that which was just towards others. He was also a devout man, for we read that "Noah walked with God." Like his ancestor, Enoch, he lived in communion with God, in prayerfulness and pious meditation--and his life before his fellow men was in consistency with that walk before God. It is especially mentioned that Noah was righteous in that generation, and this is the more remarkable as that generation was so unrighteous and ungodly! The darker the night, the more brightly shine the stars--and good men are never more precious than in evil times! There are plenty to go the way the stream is running. When godliness is in the ascendant, and the Puritans rule the realm, they are Puritans, too, but when ungodliness comes to the front and the Cavalier holds the scepter, they scoff at everything that is good! Like dead fish, they must go with the stream--they have not the power of the living fish to swim against the current. They go the way their neighbors go. But Noah was a righteous man in an unrighteous generation. It may be that you, dear Friend, are seeking to serve the Lord among most ungodly men. Well, if it is so, be all the firmer for the right because of all the wrong that is around you! Remember how much honor it brings to the Grace of God when it produces a righteous Noah in the midst of an evil generation. You, working man, are the only one on your street who comes to the House of God--well, mind that you come boldly--be not ashamed of being different! And when, in your workshop, you hear the cursing and reviling of the wicked, let them know whose colors you wear and who is your King. But be careful that your life is so consistent that they cannot pick holes in it--and then you need not mind being a speckled bird among them, as Noah was in his generation! What makes the character of Noah all the more remarkable is the fact that he was almost alone as a righteous man. The Lord said to him, "You have I seen righteous before Me in this generation," as though he was the only righteous one in that generation! When the flood came, his ancestors had all passed away and the members of his own family were not all that they ought to have been. He practically had to stand alone and standing alone is not easy work. You know how we are all helped by the company of godly people, how good it is for us to be where the Word is preached with power, or where we can listen to the gracious talk of Christians who are more advanced in Divine things than we are. But to stand quite alone--to be the one white man amid a nation of aborigines, to be the one traveler in a land which all the inhabitants are your foes, to be in a community where there is no one to help you--it is only the Grace of God that can make a man of this sort and enable him to say, "If the world, itself, is to be destroyed, one honest man shall be found upon its surface. The Grace of God has so settled me in the fear of the Most High that whatever others may do, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." But the special point about Noah's character is that we are not only told that he was righteous, but that he was righteous before God. The Lord said to him, "You have I seen righteous before Me in this generation." As I have turned that expression over in my mind, I have thought of the various tribunals before which we all have to stand. And as I try to take you, in imagination, before them, one after another, I wonder how many of you will be able to pass them all and to endure the supreme test so that, like Noah, you may be righteous before God? First of all, there is the common tribunal of ordinary society and public repute. I hope that without any conceit, the most of us can say that we believe we are reckoned as righteous by our fellow men. They trust us in business matters, they do not suspect us of dishonesty. We hope we have not given them occasion to do so. Yet, in so large an assembly as this, there may be some who dare not say that even in the opinion of their fellow men, they are righteous. And if it is so, my dear Hearers--if you are justly condemned by your fellow creatures--how can you expect to stand before the tribunal of God? If you cannot dispute the justice of man's verdict, you may well tremble at the thought of appearing before the bar of God! You are evidently unrighteous but oh, thank God that there is a Savior for the unrighteous, "for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." That last word describes you--you know that you could not stand without a degree of shame before those who are acquainted with your character. Well then, fall down upon your knees before God--tell Him that you are sinners, but also quote Paul's faithful saying that, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Do not be afraid to do so! Christ did not come to save sham sinners, but real sinners such as you are! Go to God in all your sinfulness, without first attempting to make yourselves better, and cast yourselves upon His Infinite Mercy in Christ Jesus! There is another tribunal a little further on. A man may have a pretty good character among his fellow men who do not know him intimately, but how does he stand in the opinion of his more immediate friends? Those who know us well, those with whom we constantly trade, those whom we meet in our daily work--our employers, our servants, our fellow workers--what do they think of us? If any of them think badly of you because you try to do what you believe to be right, you need not mind that, but rather rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake! But, on the other hand, if friends who judge you as favorably as they can are obliged to regard you as far from upright, how will you stand before the all-seeing eyes of God? Let the painful fact that you do not stand well before those who know you drive you to humble yourself before the Lord and to seek pardon and peace through Jesus Christ, the sinner's Savior! Suppose we have been able to pass these two barriers of public repute and our more immediate acquaintance? How do we stand in the inner circle at home? Occasionally, when I have spoken well of some young man or woman, I have been grieved to hear the parent stay, "I wish, Sir, your judgment had been correct. My son (or daughter) may behave very well before strangers, but it is very different at home." Sometimes I have thought a good deal of certain men whom I have met here but I have afterwards discovered that they had broken-hearted wives whom they had not treated with the love and kindness they ought to have shown towards them. And I have also known professing Christian women who have not studied the comfort of their husbands and have not made their home the little paradise it ought to be. If we have a good cha- racter in the Church, and a reputation for sanctity there, what is the verdict of those who know more about our private life? What is the verdict of the servant concerning his master? What is the judgment of the wife concerning her husband? What does the parent or the brother or sister say? I solemnly fear that there are many professors of religion who cannot pass this test--and I am deeply sorry when this is the case--for if there is any place where Christianity should be best seen, it is in the home circle! Rowland Hill used to say that he would not give a penny for the religion of the man whose cat and dog were not the better for it. And there is much good sense in that homely remark. I do not know anyone here whom this cap will fit, but if there is such a person, I hope he will put it on and wear it. This is the sum and substance of the matter--if our character cannot endure the scrutiny of those who are around us in our home, how can we hope to stand at the bar of God when all that we have done shall be published before the assembled universe? Supposing that we can satisfactorily pass that ordeal, how do we stand before our enemies? "Before our enemies?" asks someone. Yes, for you remember what was said by the jealous presidents and princes of Babylon concerning Daniel, "We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God." He was such a godly man that they could not find a flaw in his character however closely they examined him. There he stood fully clad in the armor of righteousness and before they could lay hold of him, they had to get their king to make a new law ordaining that any man who would pray should be cast into the den of lions. Look, too, at our Lord Jesus Christ when He was accused by His enemies--they brought various charges against Him, but they could not substantiate them. And even when they bribed two witnesses to give evidence against Him, even theydid not agree with one another as to what He had said! His life had been so perfect that there was nothing that could be truthfully laid to His charge. "Ah," says one, "that zsa test, to live so that even our enemies cannot truthfully find any fault in us." It is no dishonor to a man to be wrongfully accused--it is rather a mark of honor to have bad men plotting against him--but it is a subject for gratitude to God when one can run the gauntlet of our enemies and remain unabashed before their cruel, wolfish eyes! They are always on the watch for anything wrong or inconsistent with a Christian profession. "Well," says one, "that is a test that I could not pass." If so, dear Friend, remember this--there is no enemy whose eyes are as clear and as keen as those of God! Even the great archenemy could not detect a thousandth part of the imperfections and infirmities that lie open before the Most High! How important it must be, then, to be found righteous before God! Then, further, I wonder whether all of us who profess to be Christians could pass the test of being adjudged righteous before our own conscience. I do not mean that we should be self-righteous--God forbid that we should ever be that! But I mean that we should have so lived that our own conscience would declare that we had not been hypocrites, nor liars, nor deceivers, but that, through the Lord's upholding and restraining Grace, we had been true to our profession and had done that which we sincerely believed to be right. You remember how the Apostle John, taught of the Spirit, writes concerning this matter--"If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God." [See Sermons #1855, Volume 31--what is the verdict? and #3152, Volume 55--THE LOWER COURTS.] Can we, all of us, pass this test? Happy and blessed are we if we can! But even then, we must remind ourselves and one another that there is a still sterner test which Noah was able to pass, for he was righteous before the Lord. II. This brings us to the second part of our subject, in which we are to try to find out WHEREIN THE EMINENCE OF NOAH'S CHARACTER CONSISTED. He was distinguished for his righteousness before God, for the Lord expressly said to him, "You have I seen righteous before Me in this generation." So the eminence of Noah's character consisted in this--his righteousness must have answered to the Divine standard. God would not have called Noah righteous if he had not been righteous--and we cannot suppose that God's standard is anything short of perfection. Then did Noah live a perfect life? No, speaking popularly, and as the Scripture often speaks, we may say that Noah's character was a righteous one. There must have been flaws in it and, certainly, after this time, there was one great sad flaw of which it is not now necessary to speak more particularly--still, God regarded him as righteous--and that must settle the question as far as we are concerned. Noah had the righteousness which is of faith, and that faith of his enabled him to look forward to Christ's Atonement. Do you ask how I know this? Well, when he came out of the ark, he "built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clear fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar." Those sacrifices were acceptable unto the Lord, for He "smelled a sweet savor"--"a savor of rest"--in them, and they were among the many types of the one great Sacrifice that was afterwards to be offered upon Calvary's Cross. It was in this way that Noah's faith enabled him to look forward to Christ as the sin-atoning Lamb of God. And his faith, like that of Abraham, "was counted unto him for righteousness." God looked upon him, in Christ, as a perfectly righteous man--and his righteous life was the experiment and outflow of the inward righteousness which God had imputed to him in answer to his faith. He was righteous before God, and no man was ever that in his own naked character! Job's friend, Bildad, said concerning God, "The stars are not pure in His sight. How much less man, that is a worm? And the son of man, which is a worm?" I have set forth the character of Noah before you and commended it to the utmost. Yet I know that in the sight of God, the Patriarch's character was not, in itself, perfect. There must have been innumerable imperfections, infirmities, and faults which God's Omniscient eyes could see in it. How, then, could he be said to be righteous before God? Why, God looked at him in Christ! He became heir of the righteousness which is by faith, or, as Paul puts it, he was "accepted in the Beloved." Then, in consequence of that acceptance, he was "righteous" in the modified sense in which all the Lord's people are righteous when the Grace of God has taught them to walk uprightly and so made them, at least in a measure, like their righteous Father who is in Heaven! But let me add to this, in order to clear the Gospel of anything like legal defilement, that the eminence of Noah's character appears in the fact that he was righteous before God, that is to say, his righteousness had respect to God. When he dealt with his neighbors, he did not say to himself, "Now I must deal righteously with these men, or I shall lose my reputation as an honest, upright man." Oh, no! He dealt righteously with men because he desired to be righteous before God. He did not ask himself, "What will my neighbors think or say concerning the building of the ark?" His great concern was to be obedient to the commands that the Lord had given him and, therefore, we read again and again, "according to all that God commanded him, so did he." He fashioned his life by the will of God, not by the will of his fellow men, nor by his own will and, Beloved, this is the way for us to be righteous before God, when He brings us, by His Grace, to desire to live according to His will and to His praise and glory! I fear that many professors go blundering on, not stopping to pray, "Lord, show us what You will have us do." Noah did not act thus--he was righteous before God, righteous with respect to God, righteous in God's sight! I would like to have, in this Tabernacle, a band of men and women who will be just and fear not. Who will do the right even though all others are opposed to them, or though no one else shall know anything about it. Are any of you seeking to please men by your religion? If so, such religion is of little or no worth. Be not the servants of men, but the servants of God! Take your orders from Him and from Him alone. Do not shape your course and character according to the fashion of society. If you are truly born of God, you belong to a noble race which should never stoop to such degradation as that, so be righteous before the Lord! You have already had the righteousness of Christ imputed to you, so may the Spirit of God impart that righteousness to you that you may live unto God, and before God, fearless and careless of what men may say against you so long as you are right in the sight of the Most High! May the Lord graciously give us such a righteousness as this! And, Beloved, we must have it, we must have it, for without holiness shall no man see the Lord! Our own righteousness can never save us--we must have the righteousness of Christ! But remember that we must be purified in heart, character and conduct, or else, where God is we cannot go. How searching will be that test which we shall have to endure at the last! When we are judged by our fellow man, they may be deceived--but when we shall be judged by God, He will never be deceived. Men may accept fair words as signs and tokens of Divine Grace, but God will not so much regard our words as read our hearts! If men hear us pray, they say, "What good men they must be." Yet God knows what hypocrisy may be lurking behind those pretty sentences! Men judge us by our actions, but God can read the motives that prompted us to those actions. You know how righteous men have appeared to be in the eyes of their fellow men, yet they have proved to be false after all. God grant that none of us may ever be like that, but may we have a character that will bear holding up to the Light of God, a character concerning which, when the eyes of God examine it, He will say, "Here is truth in the inward parts. My Spirit has worked truth and integrity within this heart and life--this man is weighed in the balances, and is not found wanting." I am speaking these solemn words to myself, to the deacons and elders around me, and to you who have long professed to be Christians--not to you outsiders, but to the very best people here. None of us are any better than we ought to be and I cannot help fearing that some of us are not what we seem to be. Do not let us imagine that what we seem to be in the sight of our fellow creatures will have any weight in the judgment of God! We may be reckoned righteous by our neighbors and friends, but if we are not washed in the precious blood of Jesus, if we are not robed in the righteousness of Christ, if our lives have not within them the evidences of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our friends' favorable judgment will avail us nothing when the all-seeing eyes of God beholds us as we really are! I pray with all my heart that we may, each one of us, be righteous before God even as Noah was in his generation. III. I have no time left for dealing with the third part of my subject which was to have been THE GRACIOUS REWARD GIVEN TO NOAH BECAUSE OF THE EMINENCE OF HIS CHARACTER. You all know that the Lord will bless the righteous forever and ever, but the great question that we all have to answer is, are we righteous Oh, what searching sermons, what tremendous blows hypocrites will endure without showing a sign of feeling anything! I usually notice that if I preach a sermon that is more than ordinarily searching, there are sure to be some tender-hearted souls crying out at the close that they are hypocrites. Dear Creatures, I wish I had no hearers more hypocritical than they are! Those who take such discourses most to heart are often those who have the least reason for doing so, while the real hypocrite is no more moved by it than is the marble in our baptistery! I might almost point him out with my finger, for he would not stir--he would be as bold and brazen as Judas was when he sat with the rest of the Apostles just before going out to betray his Lord. Oh, the dreadful presumption, the terrible hardness of heart to which men may come! Lest this should be the case with any of us, let us, each one, now pray David's prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Let each one also pray, "Lord, let me know the truth about my case! Let me neither be self-deceived nor a deceiver of others! Let me know the worst of my case! Open my eyes even though the sight of my petition before you should be horrible to the last degree! Do not let me go down to Hell dreaming that I am going to Heaven! Let me know what I really am--and if my heart has never been broken, break it now! If I have never been washed in the precious blood of Jesus, wash me in it now! Jesus, the sinner's Savior, I come to You this moment. I cast my arms around Your Cross, O frown me not away! Look in mercy and love upon me and tell me that my sins, which are many, are all forgiven." Let the most trembling soul in this whole congregation cling to the Cross, crying to Him who hung upon it-- "Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to Your Cross I cling. Naked, come to You for dress. Helpless, look to You for Grace. Foul, I to the Fountain fly-- Wash me, Savior, or I die!" If we cannot cling to Christ's Cross as the sailor clings to the mast, let us cling as the limpet clings to the rock--and the more the devil tries to detach us from it, the more closely let us cling to it. Let us come either as saints or sinners, whichever we may be, to the foot of the Cross and look up at that dear head crowned with thorns and those blessed hands and feet and side so rudely pierced and, as by faith, we see the precious sin-atoning blood flowing from the Savior's cruel wounds, let us each one sing as we have often done before-- "There is a Fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains! The dying thief rejoiced to see That Fountain in his day, Oh may I there, though vile as he, Wash all my sins away!" Then, though you have not, up to now, been righteous before God as Noah was, you shall be so for the future! The blood of Christ and the righteousness of Christ shall make you so! And then a new heart and a right spirit shall be given to you--God's own Spirit shall be put within you and God shall be glorified in you even as He was in righteous Noah! May it be so, for His dear Son's sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GENESIS 7. Verse 1. And the LORD said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark Notice that the Lord did not say to Noah, "Go into the ark," but, "Come," plainly implying that God was, Himself, in the ark, waiting to receive Noah and his family into the big ship that was to be their place of refuge while all the other people on the face of the earth were drowned. The distinctive word of the Gospel is a drawing word--"Come." Jesus says, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And He will say to His people at the last, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." "Depart" is the word of justice and judgment, but, "Come," is the word of mercy and Grace! "The Lord said unto Noah, Come you and all your house into the ark"-- 1. For I have seen you are righteous before Me in this generation. Therefore God drew a distinction between him and the unrighteous, for He always has a special regard for godly people. 2, 3. Of every clean beast you shall take to you by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.Of the clean creatures which might be offered in sacrifice to God you see that there was a larger proportion than there was of the unclean, that there might be a sufficient amount for sacrifice without the destruction of any species. The unclean beasts were mostly killers and devourers of others and, therefore, their number was to be less than that of the clean species. Oh, that the day might soon come when there would be more of clean men and women than of unclean, when there would be fewer sinners than godly people in the world, though even then there would be the ungodly "by two" like the unclean beasts. 4. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. It is the prerogative of the king to have the power of life and death, and it is the sole prerogative of the King of kings that-- "He can create and He destroys." But what destructive power is brought into operation because of human sin! Sin must be a very heinous thing, since God, who despises not the work of His own hands, will sooner break up the human race and destroy everything that lives rather than that sin should continue to defile the earth! He has destroyed the earth once by water because of sin and He will the second time destroy it by fire for the same reason. Wherever sin is, God will hunt it. With barbed arrows will He shoot at it. He will cut it in pieces with His sharp two-edged sword, for He cannot endure sin. Oh, how foolish are they who harbor it in their bosoms, for it will bring destruction to them if they keep it there! 5. And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. Here was positive proofof his righteousness, in that he was obedient to the Word of the Lord! A man who does not obey God's commands may talk about righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith, but it is clear that he does not possess it, for faith works by love--and the righteousness which is by faith is proved by obedience to God. "Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him," and so proved that he was righteous before God. 6. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. He was nearly 500 years old when he began to preach about the flood--a good old age to take up such a subject! For a 120 years he pursued his theme--three times as long as most men are ever able to preach! And now, at last, God's time of long-suffering is over and He proves the truthfulness of the testimony of His servant by sending the flood that Noah had foretold. 7. 8. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creeps upon the earth This largest and most complete menagerie that was ever gathered together was not collected by human skill--Divine Power, alone, could have accomplished such a task as that. 9. There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and female, as God had commanded Noah. They "went in." Noah had not to hunt or search for them, but they came according to God's plan and purpose, even as, concerning the salvation which is by Christ Jesus, His people shall be willing to come to Him in the day of His power--with joyfulness shall they come into the ark of their salvation! 10, 11. And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened. Perhaps the world was in its prime, when the trees were in bloom, and the birds were singing in their branches, and the flowers were blooming on the earth, "the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened." 12-13. And the rain was upon the earth forty day and forty nights. In the same day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark These eight persons are very carefully mentioned. "The Lord knows them that are His." "And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up"--or, shut up--"my jewels," as He was about to do in this case. In similar fashion, God makes a very careful enumeration of all those who believe in Him--precious are they in His sight--and they shall be preserved when all others are destroyed! 14. Theey and every beast after his kind, and all thee cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort "Every bird of every sort," that is, every kind of bird! They are all mentioned again. God makes much of salvation, oh, that we also did! We may recount and rehearse the story of our rescue from universal destruction--and we need not be afraid or ashamed of repeating it. As the Holy Spirit repeats the words we have here, you and I may often proclaim the story of our salvation and dwell upon the minute particulars of it, for every item of it is full of instruction! 15, 16. And they went to Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. [See Sermons #3042, Volume 53--THE PARABLE OF THE ARK and #1613, Volume 27--SHUT IN OR SHUT OUT.] Now the jewels are all in and, therefore, the casket is closed! 17. And the flood was forty days upon the earth. Just as it had been foretold, for God's Providence always tallies with His promises or with His threats. "Has He said, and shall He not do it?" 17. And the waters increased, and lifted up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. You can see it begin to move until it is afloat. The same effect is often produced on us--when the flood of affliction is deep, then we begin to rise. Oh, how often have we been lifted up above the earth by the very force that threatened to drench and drown us! David said, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted," and many another saint can say that he never was lifted up until the floods were out, but then he left the worldliness with which he had been satisfied before and he began to rise to a higher level than he had previously attained. 18-19. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the water. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole Heaven, were covered If Moses had meant to describe a partial deluge upon only a small part of the earth, he used very misleading language! But if he meant to teach that the deluge was universal, he used the very words which we might have expected that he would use. I should think that no person, merely by reading this chapter, would arrive at the conclusion that has been reached by some of our very learned men--too learned to hold the simple Truth of God! It looks as if the deluge must have been universal when we read that not only did the waters prevail exceedingly upon the earth, but that "all the high hills that were under the whole Heaven"--that is, all beneath the canopy of the sky, "were covered." What could be more plain and clear than that? 20-23. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. Andall flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the Heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah, only, remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. This is the counterpart of what will follow the preaching of the Gospel--those who are in Christ shall live, shall rise, and reign with Him forever--but none of those who are outside of Christ shall live. "Noah, only, remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." 24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. __________________________________________________________________ The Sweetness of God's Word (No. 3197) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT UPTON CHAPEL, LAMBETH, ON TUESDAY AFTERNOON, MARCH 12, 1867. "How sweet aire Your Words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Psalm 119:103. IT is delightful to find how exactly the experience of David, under the Jewish dispensation, tallies with the experience of the saints of God in these Gospel times. David lived in an age of miracles and many manifestations. He could have recourse to the Urim and the Thummim, and the priesthood. He could go up to Zion and listen to the holy songs of the great assembly. He could converse with the priesthood but still, the food of his soul was supplied to him from the written Word of God, just as it is with us. Now that we have no open visions and the Urim, and the Thummim and the priesthood are altogether departed, we still feed upon the Word! As that is the food of our souls, so it was the food of David's soul. Martin Luther says, "I have covenanted with the Lord that I would neither ask Him for visions, nor for angels, nor for miracles, but I would be satisfied with His own Word, and if I might but lay hold upon Scripture by faith, that shall be enough for me." Now it seems to be so with David here. The honey that gratifies his taste is not found in angels' visits, or miraculous signs, or officiating priesthoods, or special Revelations, but in the words of God's mouth and in the testimonies of Holy Writ. Let us, dear Brothers and Sisters, prize this Book of God! Be not ambitious, as some are, of seeking new Revelations, or enquire for the whispers of disembodied spirits, but be satisfied with this good household bread which God has prepared for His people! And while others may loathe and dislike it, let us be thankful for it and acknowledge with gratitude the bread which came down from Heaven, testifying to us, as it does, of the Lord Jesus, the Word of Life that lives and abides forever! I. Notice, first, THE WORD APPRECIATED. This exclamation of David is a clear proof that he set the highest possible value upon the Word of God. The evidence is more valuable because the Scripture that David had was but a slender book compared with this volume which is now before us. I suppose he had little more than the five Books of Moses, and yet as he opened that Pentateuch, which was to him complete in itself, he said, "How sweet are Your Words to my taste!" If that first morsel so satisfied the Psalmist, surely this fuller and richer feast of heavenly dainties ought to be yet more gratifying to us! If, when God had but given him the first dish of the course, and that by no means the best, his soul was ravished with it--how should you and I rejoice with unspeakable joy, now that the King has brought on royal dainties and given us the Revelation of His dear Son! Think a minute. The Pentateuch is what we would call, nowadays, the historical part of Scripture--and haven't you frequently heard persons say, "Oh, the sermon was historical, and the minister read a passage out of the historical part of the Word"? I have, with great pain, heard persons speak in a very depreciating manner of the histories of Holy Writ. Now, understand this--the part of the Word which David loved so much ismainly historical--and if the mere history of the Word was so sweet, what ought those holy Evangels and sacred Epistles to be which declare the mystery of that narrative--which are the honey whereof the Old Testament is but the comb--which are the treasures of which the Old Testament is but the casket? Surely we are to be condemned, indeed, who do not prize the Word now that we have it all! That Word of God which David so much prized was mainly typical, shadowy, symbolical. I do not know that he understand it all. I do know that he understood some of it, for some of his Psalms are so evangelical that he must have perceived the great Sacrifice of God foreshadowed in the sacrifices described in the books of Numbers and Leviticus, or it would not have been possible that he would, in so marvelous a style, express his faith in the great offering of our Lord Jesus! I put it to some professors here, do you often read the types at all? If, now, your Bible was so circumscribed that all was taken from you but the Pentateuch, would you be able, to say, "Your Word is sweet to my taste?" Are not many of us so little educated in God's Word that if we were confined to the reading of that part of it, we would be obliged to confess it was unprofitable to us? We could not give a good answer to Philip's question, "Do you understand what you are reading?" Oh, shame on us that with so many more Books, and with the Holy Spirit so plenteously given to guide us into all the Truth of God, we should seem to value at least half of the Word of God even less than David did! A great portion of the Pentateuch is taken up with precepts, and I may say of some of them that they are grievous. Those commandments which are binding upon us are not grievous. Some of the commands of Leviticus and Deuteronomy are so complex and so entrenched upon the whole domestic life of a man that they were a yoke of bondage, according to Peter, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. Yet, that wondrous 20th Chapter of Exodus with its Ten Commandments, and all the long list of the precepts of the Ceremonial Law which you may, perhaps, account wearisome to read, David says were sweet to his taste, sweeter than honey to his mouth! What? Did he so love to hear His heavenly Father speak that it did not much matter to him what He said as long as He did but speak, for the music of His voice was gladdening in its every tone to him? Now that you and I know that all the bondage of the Ceremonial Law is gone, that nothing remains of it but blessing to our souls--and now that we are not under the Law, but under Grace--and have become inheritors of rich and precious and unspeakably great promises, how is it that we fall so far short and do not, I fear, love the Word of God to anything like the degree that David loved it? David here speaks of all God's Words, without making any distinction concerning some one of them. So long as it was God's Word, it was sweet to him, whatever form it might take. Alas, this is not true of all professors. With an unwise partiality, they pronounce some of God's Words very sweet, but other portions of God's Truth are rather sour and unsavory to their palates. There are persons of a certain class who delight in the Doctrines of Grace. Therein they are to be commended, for which of us do not delight in them if we know our interest in them? The Covenant and the great Truths of God which grow out of the Covenant--these are unspeakably precious things and are rightly enough the subjects of joy to all Believers who understand them! Yet certain of these persons will be as angry as though you had touched them with a hot iron if you should bring a precept anywhere near them--and if you insist upon anything being the duty of a Believer, the very words seem to sting them like a whip--they cannot endure it! If you speak of the "holiness without which no man shall see the Lord," and speak of it as a holiness which is worked in us by God the Holy Spirit and as a holiness of mind and thought and action--a personal holiness which is to be seen in the daily life--they are offended. They can say, "How sweet are Your doctrinal Words to my taste, but not Your precepts, Lord! Those I do not love. Those I call legal. If your servants minister them, I say they are gendering bondage and I go away from them, and leave them to Arminians, or duty-faith men or something of that kind--for I love half Your Word and only half of it." Alas, there are not a few of that class to be found here and there. And there are some who go on the other side! They love God's Word in the precepts of it, or the promises, but not the Doctrines. If a Doctrine is preached, they say it is dangerous--too high-- it will elevate some of God's servants to presumption! It will tempt them to think lightly of moral distinctions! It will lead them to walk carelessly because they know they are safe in Christ! Thus they, too, only love half of the Truth of God, and not the whole of it. But, my dear Brothers and Sisters, I hope you are of the same mind as David. If God shall give you a promise, you will taste it, like a wafer of honey, and feed on it. And if He shall give you a precept, you will not stop to look at it, and say, "Lord, I don't like this as well as the promise," but you will receive that and feed upon that also! And when the Lord shall be pleased afterwards to give you some revelation with regard to your inward experience, or to your fellowship with His dear Son, you welcome it with joy because you love any Truth and every Truth as long as you know it to be the Truth of God's own Word! It is a blessed sign of Grace in the heart when God's Words are sweet to us as a whole--when we love the Truth of God, not cast into a system or a shape, but as we find it in God's Word. I believe that no man who has yet lived has ever proposed a system of theology which comprises all the Truth of God's Word. If such a system had been possible, the discovery of it would have been made for us by God, Himself--certainly it would if it had been desirable and useful for our profit and holiness. But it has not pleased God to give us a body of divinity--let us receive it as He has given it, each Truth in its own proportion--each Doctrine in harmony with its fellow--each precept carefully carried out into practice and each promise to be believed and, by-and-by, received. Let the Truth of God, and the whole Truth of God, be sweet to our taste! "How sweet are Your words!" There seems to be an emphasis on the pronoun, "How sweet are Your words!" O my God, if the Words are Yours, they are sweet to me! Had they come to me from the Prophet and I had perceived them to be merely the words of man, I might then have estimated them at their own weight, without reference to their authority. But when my Father speaks--when the Spirit lives and breathes in the Truth to which I listen--when Jesus Christ, Himself, draws near to me in the preaching of the Gospel--then it is that the Word becomes sweet to my taste! Beloved, let us not be satisfied with the truth unless we can also feel it to be God's Truth! Let us ask the Lord to enable us, when we open this Book, to feel that we are not reading it as we read a common book--truths put there by some means, unimportant to us how--but let us recollect that we are reading the Truth of God put there by an Inspired pen! That we have there God's Truth such as He would have us receive--such as He thought it worth His while to write and to preserve to all ages for our instruction. The Psalmist is not content to say, "God's Word is sweet, and sweeter than honey," but, "How sweet are Your Words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" After all, the blessedness of the Word is a matter to be ascertained by personal experience. Let others choose this philosophy and that form of thought. Let then gad abroad after the beauties of poetry, or dote upon the charms of oratory--my palate shall be satisfied with Your Word, O God, and my soul shall find an excess of sweetness in the things which come from Your mouth into my mouth! The Word of God, then, while in itself certainly most sweet, and all the sweeter when we recognize it as coming from God, will only be sweet to us in proportion as we are able to receive it and to feed upon it. Every man must in this case feed for himself. There can be no proxy here. I wonder not at those who think lightly of God's Word, notwithstanding the rapturous admiration they have heard expressed by others, for unless they have tasted it, and felt and handled it, they still must be strangers to its unspeakable sweetness! II. Now we shall notice, in the second place, THIS TASTE GRATIFIED. If we can join in the words of David here, how grateful we ought to be, for there was a time when we had no such taste for God's Word! A few years ago, God's Word was so far from being sweet to us that we thought it the driest book that was ever written. It is not so now. We were then dead in trespasses and sins--and what is honey in a dead man's mouth? But we are alive unto God now by Jesus Christ, being quickened by the Spirit. Remember, my Brothers and Sisters, how Divine Grace has made you to differ from the most of men. Many who see the dainties of God's Word pass them by. Like those poor hungry children that we have seen standing outside a shop where the savory meat is just within the window--they can see it and smell it--but they cannot eat it. Many of our hearers have sense enough to perceive that there is something in the Bible that is very satisfying and nourishing. They see it with their eyes, but, like the unbelieving lord in the city of Samaria, they taste not of it themselves. Yes, and there are some who are so far gone--and we were like that once--that they have no wish to taste, for their palate has become so depraved that they feed upon ashes, a deceived heart turning them aside! Like the raven which has no longing for the clean feeding of the dove, they are content with the carrion of the world. Like the swine, they are satisfied with the husks and they pine not to be fed with the children's bread. Such were some of us--utterly disregarding the Word, or seeing it to be a good thing, but not able to gain it, or else accounting it to be a mere deception, turning from it to the joys of earth as if theycould satisfy the soul! Oh, blessed change, Divine renewal, which has passed upon us, that now the Word should be sweet! I remember well the time when I had spiritual life and yet God's Word was not sweet to me. When God first gives us a spiritual taste, He does not make His Word sweet, but rather, if I may so say, salt or bitter. The first taste of the true Word of God I ever got was like Jeremiah's draught of wormwood. It seemed to break my teeth as with gravel stones. It was none other than this, "The soul that sins, it shall die." Did you ever have that in your mouth and have to turn it over and over again as a bitter morsel that you could not swallow? And when at last it did seem to be swallowed, it was like wormwood in your soul and bitterness filled every part and portion of your being, for you felt yourself a sinner, all undone, lost and ruined! Oh, it was a blessed thing when standing at the foot of the Cross, and calling upon the name of the Lord, you could wash your mouth clear of those bitter aloes of repentance and conviction of sin with the cup of consolation--the cup of salvation! After that first bitter draught which purged the mouth so Divinely and made it ready to receive the sweetness of the Word, then it was that on one happy day, looking up and seeing the flowing of the precious blood, you perceived your mouth to be filled with honey, instead of vinegar, for you saw the vinegar transferred to Christ and the gall and the wormwood given to Him, while you drank of the "wines on the lees," yes, "the wines on the lees, well refined." Since that day, our taste has been satisfied more and more, for it has been a growing taste. It has been educated. We can now discern between things that differ. On our conversion, almost everything was sweet. There was a good deal of false doctrine put into the cup, yet we swallowed it all, for to a hungry man, even a bitter thing is sweet! But now our palate has been disciplined to discern between things that differ. But all the education, if it is worth anything, comes to this--that God's Word daily becomes more sweet and man's word daily becomes more bitter to us. Our soul is taught more and more of Divine things and we see more and more of the preciousness of the Truth of God as it is in Jesus. Every Christian who has a spiritual taste will tell you that his taste is gratified with every Word of God because he sees something in the Word which glorifies God. My dear Brothers and Sisters, whenever you hear a sermon in which our God is spoken well of and His Glory is set before you, are you not happy? Do you not go from the place of worship and say, "Thank God I was there! God was in the midst of the temple. The Word of God was preached and my heart is satisfied"? And, on the other hand, whenever you hear a sermon in which man is magnified and the nobility of human nature is held up and God is put anywhere or nowhere, how do you feel about that? I am certain that you say, "That word which only glorifies such a poor fallen creature as man, my soul abhors." God's Word honors His dear Son! I am sure I shall touch one string in your hearts when I say if the preacher shall discourse of Christ--if he shall ring the silver bell of the Savior's precious name and lift up His Cross, and tell you all the power of His blood, the love of His heart, the shame of His death, the glory of His Resurrection, the prevalence of His plea before the Throne and the certainty of His ultimate victory over all His foes--your lips will seem as though you had some dainty on your palate and you will go home, and say-- "The King Himself came near To feast His saints today!" How often, before you have left the place, have you been willing to sing with Watts-- "My willing soul would stay In such a frame as this!" But suppose you listen to a sermon in which Jesus Christ is notglorified--doubts thrown upon His Deity--insinuations made about the power of His blood--the substitutionary Sacrifice twisted into a misty problem--whether an Atonement or not an Atonement, you could not tell--how do you feel then? Why, anything which touches Christ touches the apple of your eye! You say to the preacher, "Your oratory may be ever so fine, but I cannot eat at your table. You may lay silver knives and forks, and spread many a precious thing before me, but your meat is poison! I cannot feed if you do not glorify Christ." O Lord, this is the reason why Your Word is so sweet to the palate of Your children--it glorifies Your dear Son and they delight to see Him honored among the sons of men! God's Word is sweet, too, when it proves the Presence and discovers the influence of the Holy Spirit. If you hear a sermon in which the Spirit is worshipped and glory is given to Him as one Person in the blessed Trinity, the Word is then sweet to your taste! It is a mark of the child of God that he reverences and esteems that Spirit by whom he is sanctified. If the preaching is never about the Spirit of God--if He is systematically ignored till we can almost say, "We knew not even whether there was a Holy Spirit"--I do not wonder that barrenness and leanness should come into the souls of those who frequent such a ministry! The Word of God is communicated by the Holy Spirit and by the same Spirit it must be ministered to us. Even after His Resurrection, it was through the Holy Spirit that Christ gave commandments unto His Apostles. As it was given, so it must be received, not in words, only, but in power and demonstration of the Spirit-- and so shall it be sweet to your taste! Moreover, God's Word is always pure and holy. It is shocking if there is anything in the preaching that tends to make light of sin. Whenever I read a theological treatise, I can tell it is unsound if it trifles with the guilt of sin, the claims ofjustice, or the supremacy of the Divine Law. Under the pretence of magnifying Grace, some will dare to say that such-and-such a sin is not what it is thought to be, or not so heinous in God's people as it would be in others! They speak of sin in God's people as if it were only a spot, instead of a mortal disease. Oh, we have known some use expressions in the pulpit not only flippant and vulgar, but verging on the impure! That is enough to make the child of God feel like a sensitive plant when it is touched--he shrivels up. You never find anything like that in God's Word! There are some things in our common version which do not suit the common ear, and should not be there, because they are not necessary to a faithful rendering of the original--but there is nothing that will ever touch the delicacy of the child of God. The pure in heart can say, "How sweet is Your Word to my taste, because there is nothing there that can shock my sanctified judgment or lead me to find fault with it because of its dealing triflingly with sin." The Word of God will always be sweet to the Christian because it so completely quickens him to every good thing when it comes in contact with him. I am sure, Brothers and Sisters, when you hear the Word of God faithfully preached, or read it with devout appreciation, you rise up like giants refreshed with new wine! What would we do if it were not for the quickening which this book sometimes gives us? I must confess that I sometimes seem to spring up as from a bed of sloth, quickened and filled with more energy than I ever had before when I have been touched with a single promise, or the power of a single precept! I have heard of the dead member of an animal--perhaps the dead foot of a frog--being touched with the galvanic wire of the battery, and as soon as the galvanism flows into it, the limb has been animated by the energy. Now, we do not receive a galvanic energy from the Word of God, but we get real life from it by which we, whose souls seem to be dead, suddenly start up with a Divine Power! To be lethargic in heavenly things must always be unpleasant to the Christian. That which makes a man serve God with the fullest liberty and the greatest excellence is being quickened with the Word of God--therefore the Word of God must be always sweet to his taste! III. And now, thirdly, see here THE SWEETNESS EXTOLLED. David does not tell us how sweet God's Words are. He gives us a note of exclamation, the word, "How!" and there he leaves it, as though he had tried to fathom the depth in vain and could only say, like the Apostle, "O, the depth!" "How sweet are Your Words to my taste!" He tried, however, to give us some gauge when he gave us a comparison--"Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth." And that shall be the keynote which I will try to strike. Why is this Word of God to us sweeter than honey? Honey is reputed to be the sweetest of all earthly things, yet you will discover that the Word of God is sweeter than that. Let me speak experimentally. It is a happy thing to be successful in the work of God and to win souls. I think that is the sweetest of all earthly enjoyments. I have sometimes seen 20 or 30 persons in a day, most of whom have found peace under my own ministry. Well, that is sweet, isn't it? But I am distinctly aware that the Word of God is sweeter, for when I have felt happy over my success, I have felt happier by far over some precious promise or some delightful Doctrine of Inspiration. I have thought I heard the Master say to me, when I had brought souls to Him, what He said to the disciples when they worked miracles, "Rejoice not in this; but rather rejoice because your names are written in Heaven." The thought of my election, or of my redemption, or of the Glory of Christ, or of the faithfulness of God has been distinctly sweeter than the former sweetness which I had. There are things in the world that are very white. Some good housewives have made the linen look so delicately white that they have supposed that nothing could be whiter! And then there has come a fall of snow and, in contrast, the fairest and whitest damask has seemed dark! So, the joy of winning souls, the joy of domestic love, the joy of having served God has been like the damask of the housewife--but get a promise of God's Word, and in comparison that will be like the snow which is whiter still! All the sweetness you can get from earthly joy will be exceeded by the sweetness of an applied promise from the Word of God. It is "sweeter than honey." The Word is sweeter than honey because it will sweeten every kind of bitter, and there are many sorts of bitter which honey will not take out of your mouth. You may feel the honey striving with the bitter, and the effect will be a singular combination of flavor more horrible than the bitter itself. It is never so with God's Word. Let a man have his mouth full of bitter poverty, or the more bitter draught of scandal and contempt--ah, let his mouth be full of the last bitter draught of death--and if he gets the Words of God sent home to his soul, death, itself, shall be swallowed up in victory! In the pleasure he shall lose the smart! In the Divine Words of God to his spirit he shall scarcely know that there is such a thing as pain or grief, or even death, for all these things shall be gain to him when his faith gets full hold upon the oath and Covenant of the ever-living God! It is sweeter than honey, because God's Truth never cloys. You cannot eat much honey. If you want to like it, only eat a little of it, for if you eat much, you will soon come to think, 'What a weariness it is!" It cloys upon the palate. Not so God's Word! You may suck as you will, but you shall never have too much out of the breast of Scriptures. Here you can come and drop your bucket every morning and night, but you shall never draw too much from this well, whose cool depths supply an ever-crystal stream! Oh, come to the banquet, you hungry ones, and never think to rise from that table, but sit there till your souls shall be taken away to a table yet more richly furnished! Feast on with appetites whose edges are always keen. It fell to this lot of one of our missionaries, in translating the Word of God into a very difficult language, to have to read one passage over a hundred times--a very laborious process, if anything would exhaust the sweetness of the Word--but he said that after the hundredth time, he began to understand it. He felt, then, as if he was just beginning to read it! This is a pasture where the grass grows the faster the more the sheep eat of it. This is a mine where the gold increases the deeper your researches become. You may keep on eating of the Word year after year, but still you will never get tired of it! I suppose the most of us would not like to have the same thing for dinner every day. And if we are confined to one form of diet, we get weary of it. There are some of you who knew the Lord when you were 11 or twelve, and some at 15 or twenty, and I perceive that years have passed over your heads till you have got to be 50 or six-ty--but do you want a new Gospel now? Would you like to have another form of Doctrine, another system of theology, another Cross to trust to, or something in lieu of the Atonement by the precious blood? "Oh, no," I think I hear you say, "the longer we live, the more we are fastened to the old faith! The deeper we study, the heavier our trials, the faster we cleave to Christ-- "'Should all the forms that men devise Assault my faith with treacherous art, I'd call them vanity and lies And bind the Gospel to my heart.'" And, verily, the Word of God puts the mouth in taste. Some things are sweet in the mouth if the mouth is sweet, but if the palate is out of taste, you cannot get the flavor of them. But the Word of God cleans the mouth for you and though a man of God may find himself as much out of sorts as he can be, if he needs to get his mouth in proper order for feasting on the Word of God, he need not go anywhere else but to the Word, itself! The idea of preparing ourselves for Christ is not a Gospel idea. The idea of preparing our minds for the Gospel by thinking about something else always seems to me unnatural. If your minds are inactive, go and read a good stirring part of God's Word and that will prepare you for another part--for the Word will act first as a tonic to give an appetite and will afterwards be a food upon which that appetite can be satisfied! Yet honey, with all its sweetness, may be forgotten. But the Word of God, if we once know its sweetness, will abide with us forever. Let your child eat honey to its heart's content, yet the flavor of it will not be in his mouth in a week's time. So, too, have some of us retained the flavor of the honey we got 15 years ago. "Ah," says David, "I will remember You from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar." I do not know how many years that was, but some of us can remember times of communion and refreshing from the Presence of the Lord ten, fifteen, or, perhaps, 40 years ago! When Christ spread His flavor upon your soul, no sweetness was so sweet and you have the sense of it now! You like to talk of those seasons of delight, and you think-- "Did Jesus once upon me shine? Then Jesus is forever mine!" Thus you get back the sweetness of the honey and the recollection of what you once knew of it. I gather, from what I know of God's Word, that all we know of it is very little. When we get to Heaven, I imagine it will be among our surprises to find what fools we are. When young men go to college, they think they know a great deal. And after the first year, they think they don't know as much as they did. I recollect hearing my grandfather say that in the second year he was at college, he thought he was a fool. And in the third year he knew he was, and then the tutor thought he might get out. That is one of the things that we shall find out in Heaven--"Oh, what a fool I was! I thought I knew everything." Those of us who preach to others will be of the same mind as Rutherford, who says that the poorest child who has once passed the veil and come into the immortal state, knows more of heavenly things than the most learned divine who has lived for 60 years to teach others the way of salvation. What we get in the wilderness is only just one bunch from Eshcol--we have not come into the valley where all the clusters grow. They have got us a little balm, and a little oil, and a few almonds from the land, but the land itself flows with milk and honey. "Since we have tasted of the grapes," we sometimes long to go-- "Where our dear Lord, the vineyard keeps, And all the clusters grow." But it is amazing how little we know about it--how little sweetness we ever enjoy! And yet, little as it is, it is so sweet that it makes us hold up our hands and say with amazement, "How sweet are Your Words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Hereby our growth in Grace may be ascertained. Is God's Word very sweet to me this day? Is it like honey to my mouth? Very many of God's children cannot say this. They can say it as a general rule, but not, perhaps, at the very moment of their present experience. It is a pretty sure sign of growth in spiritual life if God's Word is more sweet to us than it used to be. The sweetness of some parts of God's Word we can only know by being placed in circumstances where we shall understand the application of such-and-such a promise to our case. The man who never has any sickness, who has no losses in business--whose course is always one even stream--cannot, I am sure, understand some of the promises that are especially meant for the tried people of God. You cannot see the stars in the daytime, but I am told that if you went down a well, even in the daytime, you could see them from there. God often takes His people down the well of affliction and then they can see the stars of the promises. Some of the promises are written in invisible ink--and if you hold the parchment up to the fire of affliction, they will become visible--but till then, the page will be as if they were never written there at all. Now, take this promise, "When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you." Why, you who never went through fires and flames can never know the meaning of that promise! "I will never leave you, nor forsake you," has often brought comfort to the tried and the persecuted. And the man that has been brought low in pecuniary matters, how often has he fed upon this promise, "Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks." If you were never slandered, you never drank wine out of this bottle, "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn." I am sure, if you feel the sweetness of God's Word, the secret of it is that you have experienced something or other of trial, outside or within, which has distinctly brought to your soul the sweetness which otherwise you could not have known. That experience which does not make you prize God's Word is good for nothing. A great deal of the experience of a Christian is not Christian experience. He experiences it as a sinner and an offender against God. But that which is Christian experience always has this for its result--that it leads to a deeper prizing of the Word of God and a higher estimate of the preciousness of it. If you now have a very keen sense of the sweetness of God's Word, you have grown in confidence. Were anybody to say to me, "Honey is not sweet," I could not be very clear about it. Perhaps I could not argue upon the subject. But supposing there were a dish of honey here, and I just took a spoonful of it, I would say, "You tell me that honey is not sweet? Why, my dear man, I have got some in my mouth." I should scorn to argue upon it because I had the honey still in my mouth as an internal evidence and, therefore, argument would be too poor to be used in the case. I should laugh in his face when I had once got the sweetness of it on my palate. So it is with you. No infidel or skeptical remark can have any power over your mind if you are at the present moment in the conscious enjoyment of the comfort and sweetness of God's Word! If you feel that it cheers you in the dark, what a fool he must be who says that it does not give you light! Why, the man can have no toleration from you if he says it does not strengthen when you feel the strength of it! It is a sign that you have grown in spiritual health when the Word of God is sweet to you. I remember my father saying to us children at home, when we did not like our food, that he had been to the Union House and the boys and girls always liked their breakfast there because they were hungry, and, he said, "If you had to go without, it would do you good." Sometimes, children of God get worldly and then they have no appetite for God's Word. They say, "We do not profit under Mr. So-and-So." The truth is, we do not profit under the Bible, itself, and should not profit under the Apostle Paul or under the Lord Jesus Christ, for we have spoiled our appetites! But when our appetite is healthy, we can come to the Scripture and not care much how it is carved. We would rather the preacher would carve it well, but some people must have it served up always in such dainty style--it must have little bits of poetry, like parsley to garnish the dish, and so on, and if a rough hand should bring them meat, they say, "No, we cannot feed in this style." But if you have been in the field at work for God and have got an appetite, and the blood is circulating in your veins, then you can feast upon it till your soul rises up and says, "I thank You, Lord, for this, my food, and that You have made it sweet to my taste. I will tell my fellow Christians the delights that I have received in searching Your Word, that they may come and feed at the same table where I have been so daintily fed." May God the Holy Spirit make this the experience of every day to each one of us, for Jesus' sake! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ What Christians Were and Are (No. 3198) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 23, 1873. "And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Ephesians 2:3. "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Romans 8:16,17. [See Sermon #339, Volume 6--THE SONS OF GOD.] THESE two texts will furnish me with two familiar but most important themes--what Christians were and what they are. There are great and vital differences between what they once were and what they now are--and these are implied or indicated by the two expressions, "the children of wrath" and, "the children of God." There is so much instruction in each of our texts that we will proceed at once to consider them without any further introduction. I. So, first, let us consider WHAT CHRISTIANS WERE. The Apostle tells us that we "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." "By nature," mark you, not merely by practice, but, "by nature the children of wrath" The expression is a Hebraism. When a person was doomed to die, he would be called by the Jews, "the child of death." One who was very poor would be called by them, "the child of poverty." So because we were, by nature, under the wrath of God, we are called "the children of wrath." When the Apostle says that we "were by nature the children of wrath," he means that we were born so. David expressed what is true of us all when he said, "Behold, I was shapened in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Our first parent, Adam, sinned and fell as the representative of the whole human race. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men." If any object to this principle of representation, that does not affect its truth of it--and I would also remind them that by this very principle of representation, a way was left open for our restoration! The angels did not sin representatively--they sinned personally and individually--and, therefore, there is no hope of their restoration, but they are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." But men sinned representatively, and this is a happy circumstance for us, "for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." As we fell through one representative, it was consistent with the principles upon which God was governing mankind that He should allow us to rise by another Representative! At first, we fell not by our own fault, so now, by Grace, we rise not by our own merit. Death by sin came to us through Adam when we were born, so did life come to us through Christ Jesus. Thus our first text sets before us this terrible fact--as true as it is terrible, and as terrible as it is true--that we were by nature under the wrath of God from the very first. The whole race of mankind was regarded by God as descended from a disgraced traitor! We were all born children of wrath. This expression also implies that there was within us a nature which God could not look upon except with wrath The way in which some cry up the excellence of human nature is all idle talk. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Our Lord Jesus Christ has told us that "out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." Everything that is evil lurks within the heart of everyone that is born of a woman! Education may restrain it, imitation of a good example may have some power in holding the monster down, but the very best of us, apart from the Grace of God, placed under certain circumstances which would cause the evil within us to be developed rather than restrained, would soon prove to a demonstration that our nature was evil, and only evil, and that continually! You may take a bag of gunpowder and play with it if you care to do so, for it is quite harmless as long as you keep the fire from it, but put just one spark of fire to it and then you will discover the force for evil that was latent in that innocent-looking powder! You may tame a tiger if you begin training it early enough. And you may treat it as if it was only a big cat--but let it once learn the taste of blood and you will soon see the true tiger nature flashing from its eyes and seeking to destroy all that come within reach of its cruel claws! In a similar fashion to that, sin was originally latent within everyone of us and whatever better qualities God may, by His Grace, have planted there, it is still true that we were, by nature, "the children of wrath, even as others." I need not say any more about the original sin of Adam, or about the sinfulness of our nature, for those of us who have been saved know that our practice was according to our nature. Who can deny that the fountain was defiled when he is compelled to confess that polluted streams flowed from it? Can you look back with complacency upon the days of your unregeneracy? I feel sure that you cannot think of the sins that you committed, then, without weeping over them, and especially sorrowing over that sin which so many forget--the sin of not believing on the Son of God, the sin of so long rejecting the Savior, the sin of not yielding to the gentle calls of His Grace, the sin of bolting and barring the door of your heart while He stood outside and cried, "Open to Me, My sister, My love, My dove, My undefiled: for My head is filled with dew and My locks with the drops of the night." But we would not rise and let Him in! What a horrible sin it was not to see the loveliness of Christ and not to admire the infinitude of His love! Had we not been sinful by nature and by practice, too, our opposition or our indifference would have been melted concerning the coming of Jesus--and we would have at once opened our hearts to receive Him. Not only were we "children of wrath" by descent, by nature and by practice, but had not God, in His long-suffering patience, spared us until we were converted, we would have had to endure the wrath of God forever in that dark realm where not a single ray of hope or one cooling drop of consolation will mitigate the miseries of any child of wrath who hears the dread sentence, "Depart from Me; I never knew you." We cannot bear even to think of the doom of those who have died impenitent! I confess that my flesh creeps when I read those terrible Words of the Lord Jesus concerning the worm that never dies and the fire that never shall be quenched. And yet, instead of sitting in these seats at this moment, rejoicing in the good hope through Grace, we might have been there! Yes, and without any very great change in the order of God's Providence before our conversion, we might have been there! We were sick with the fever and if only the disease had taken an unfavorable turn, we would have been there! We were shipwrecked--and if only the waves had washed us out to sea instead of washing us up upon a rock--we would have been there! Possibly some of us have been in battle and as, "every bullet has its billet," if one had found its billet in our brain or heart, we would have been there! Some of us have been in many accidents--if one of them had been fatal before we knew the Lord, we would have been there! All of us are in jeopardy every day and every hour--we are constantly being reminded of the frailty of human life, yet God spared us, by His Grace, and did not cut us off, as so many others were, while we were unrepentant and unrege-nerated. Had He done so, we would, indeed, have been "the children of wrath" in the most terrible of all senses, for we would even now have been enduring the wrath of God on account of our sin! Children of God, as you realize the truth of what I have been saying to you, I trust that you will feel intensely grateful to the Lord who has so graciously interposed on your behalf and delivered you from going down into the Pit! Notice also that Paul says that we "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." God's Grace has made a great difference between His children and others, but there was no such difference originally--they were "the children of wrath, even as others," that is, in the same sense as others were children of wrath. I know that God's children have been from eternity the objects of His distinguishing love, for there never was a period when He did not love those whom He had chosen as His own. But regarding us as sinners, unforgiven sinners, dead in trespasses and sins, we, "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." We were also "the children of wrath, even as others" who remain unconverted. You have, perhaps, a daughter for whose conversion you have long prayed. You have brought her to hear the Gospel since she was a child, but up to the present moment, it has not touched her heart. Do not forget that you, also, were a child of wrath, even as she is. You have a friend who ridicules the Gospel, even though he comes with you to listen to it. Yet you were an heir of wrath, even as he is--and if it had not been for the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, you, also, would have been only a hearer and not a doer of the Word. You would have been like so many others in this congregation and you might have said, with Cowper-- "I hear, but seem to hear in vain. Insensible as steel." But you are not "insensible as steel" now! You feel the power of the Word. It makes you tremble, but it also makes you rejoice, for you know that it is the Word of your Father in Heaven who has loved you with an everlasting love and who, therefore, with loving kindness has drawn you to Himself. While you remember all this with devout gratitude to Him who has made you to differ from others and also to differ from what you, yourself, used to be, never forget that you were once a child of wrath, even as others still are! Yes, Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others" who still revel in sin. As you pass along the street you see such sights and hear such language that you are shocked and horrified that men and women can so grievously sin against the God who made them, and who still permits them to live! Yet do not look down upon them with an affectation of superior holiness and say, "What shameful sinners those people are in comparison with us!" But rather say, "We, too, were by nature the children of wrath, even as others still are." Yes, and to emphasize what I have previously said, "we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others" who pass away impenitent and in due time must stand before the Judgment Bar of God! They will stand shivering before that Great White Throne whose spotless luster will reveal to them, as in a wondrous mirror, the blackness of their lives and the guiltiness of their impenitence! And when the King sits down upon His Throne, even though it will be the Lamb, Himself, who died for sinners, who will sit as their Judge--they will cry to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the Great Day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" There is nothing so terrible to look upon as injured love. Fiercer than a lion leaping upon its prey is love when once it is incensed. Oil flows smoothly, but it burns furiously--and when the love of Jesus has been finally rejected--then the sight of Him whose head was once crowned with thorns will be more terrifying than anything else to the eyes of those who have rejected Him. They will wish they had never been born and, indeed, it would have been better for them if they had never had an existence! Had it not been for the Grace of God, their portion would also have been our portion, for by nature we were the children of wrath even as they were--and amidst that shivering, trembling crowd we would have taken our station. But, believing in Jesus, our place shall be at His right hand "when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe." We shall be among those to whom the King will then say, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Yet, by nature, we were "the children of wrath, even as others." II. Now I must turn from that sad, solemn knell--"Children of wrath, even as others," to the joyous peal that rings out from our second text which tells us WHAT CHRISTIANS ARE--what we now are if we have believed in Jesus-- "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." It is such a wonderful thing that those who were the children of wrath should now be the children of God and that there are two witnesses to it. First, our own spirit says that we are the children of God and then the Holy Spirit comes and says, "Yes, and I also bear witness that you are the children of God." Now, Beloved, do you realize that God has worked this great miracle of mercy in you? Does your spirit bear witness that you are now a child of God When you go out of this building and look up at the stars, will you say to yourself, "My Father made them all"? Will you feel that you must talk to your Father? And when you go to your bed tonight, should you lie sleepless, will you begin to think of your heavenly Father as naturally as a little child, when it lies awake in the dark, thinks of its mother and calls to her? If you are a true Believer, this is the case with you. The Spirit of adoption is given to you by which you are enabled to cry, "Abba, Father." Do you not also know what it is, sometimes, when you are sitting down quietly by yourself, to think, "The God who made the heavens and the earth, and who upholds all things by the Word of His Father, is my Father"? Then very likely a flood of tears will come as you stand silently before the Lord just as the lilies do, for at times there is no form of worship that seems possible to our joyous spirit except standing still and letting the love of the heart silently breathe itself out before the Lord like the fragrance of flowers ascending in a gentle breeze. In such a frame of mind as that, your spirit may well bear witness that you are a child of God! Then comes the Holy Spirit, the Infallible Witness, and through the Word and through His own mysterious influence upon our heart, He bears witness that we are the children of God. Two witnesses were required, under the Law of God, to establish a charge that was made against any man. And under the Gospel, we have two witnesses to establish our claim to be the children of God--first, the witness of our own spirit--and then the second and far greater Witness, the Holy Spirit, Himself! And by the mouth of these two witnesses shall our claim be fully established. If our own spirit were our only witness, we might hesitate to receive its testimony, for it is fallible and partial. But when the Infallible and impartial Spirit of God confirms the unfaltering witness of our own heart and conscience, then may we have confidence toward God and believe without hesitation that we are, indeed, the children of the Most High God! One of the points on which the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God is this--"We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren." When we really love those who are God's children, it is strong presumptive evidence that we are, ourselves, members of His family! And when we truly love God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit--when we have a compassionate love to the souls of men and an intense love of holiness and hatred of sin, and desire for God's Glory--all these are the further witness to the Spirit with our spirit that we are the children of God. Then, as there are two witnesses that we are the children of God, so are there two ways in which we become the children of God. First, we are the children of God by adoption. When God asked Himself the question, "How shall I put the children of wrath among My children?" He answered Himself by saying, "I will do it by adopting them into My family." We were far off from God by wicked works, "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Yet, by the Grace of God, we have been adopted into the Divine family! Now you know that a child may be adopted into a nobleman's family, and yet he will not really be one of the nobleman's kindred. So there is a second way in which we become the children of God, that is, by regeneration. We are born into the family of God as well as adopted into it, and thus we become "partakers of the Divine Nature." So Peter writes, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in Heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Adoption gives us the privilegesof the children of God. Regeneration gives us the Nature of the children of God! Adoption admits us into the Divine family. Regeneration makes us akin to the Divine Father--it creates us anew in Christ Jesus and puts into us a spark from the eternal Spirit, Himself, so that we become spiritual beings. Before regeneration, we are only body and soul--but when we are born-again, born from above--we become body, soul and spirit. Being born of the Spirit, we understand spiritual things and have spiritual perceptions which we never possessed before. Becoming the children of God, we are entitled to all the privileges of childhood. It is the privilege of a child to enjoy its father's love, its father's care, its father's teaching, its father's protection, its father's provision and last, but by no means least, its father's chastening. Whatever a child receives as its right from its father, we also receive from our Father who is in Heaven. "If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give to you who are His children every blessing that you can possibly need while you are here on earth, and Heaven itself to crown it all?" Then the Apostle further says, "and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Now, in this country, it is not always true that, if children, then heirs, because we have laws, (of which some may approve, though I fail to see the justice of them), which make one son to be the heir just because he happens to be the first-born. It is not so in God's family! It is, "if children, then heirs," that is to say, all the children in the Divine family are God's heirs! The last one who ever will be born into the family of God will be as much an heir as the first who said, "My Father, who are in Heaven." And the least of the children of God--Little-Faith, Ready-to-Halt and Miss Much-Afraid, are just as much the heirs of God as Faithful, Valiant-for-Truth and Mr. Great-Heart, himself! "If children," that is all, "if children, then heirs." Are they true-born children of God? Have they the faith which is the characteristic mark of all who are in God's family? Are they truly converted? Have they been born-again, born into the family of God? If so, then it follows of neces- sity that, "if children, then heirs." Does not this Truth of God encourage poor Miss Despondency over there, and you, Mr. Fearing, and friend Little-Faith over yonder?" If children, then heirs." Not, "if big children," nor, "if first-born children," nor, "if strong children," but simply, "if children, then heirs"! If you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby you cry, "Abba, Father," you are an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ! There is another remarkable thing in the family of God. If we, who were by nature the children of wrath, become by Grace, the children of God, we thereby become, all of us, the heirs of all that God has! Now, this can never happen in an earthly family. If the father were rich and all his children were his heirs, one son would have one farm and another son would have another farm. And each of the girls would have so many thousands of pounds for her dowry, but each one of them could not have all that there was--it would have to be divided between them--one would have what the others had not, and could not have anything that they had. But, in God's family, all the children are heirs of all that is His. My dear Brother or Sister in Christ, if you have a choice privilege that is yours because you are a Christian, I rejoice that you have it, but I have it, too! And if I have a precious promise that belongs to me because I am one of the Lord's children, you may be thankful for it, for it belongs equally to you! No child of God can keep Christ all to himself, for He is the portion of all His people! Some dear brethren whom I know would like to plant a very prickly hedge around their little gardens, so as to keep all their Christian privileges to themselves--but God's birds of paradise can fly over those hedges and share in all the good things they are intended to enclose! "If children, then heirs, heirs of God." You, my dear Brother or Sister, have Christ, and I have Christ! You have the Spirit, and I have the Spirit. You have the Father, and I have the Father. You have pardon, you have peace, you have the righteousness of Christ, you have union with Christ, you have security in life, you have safety in death, you have the assurance of a blessed resurrection and of eternal glory, but so have all those who have believed in Jesus! There is the same inheritance for all the children of God--not a part for one, and another part for another. The Covenant is not, "Manas-seh shall have this portion of the promised land, and Issachar that portion, and Zebulun that other portion." But to every Believer the Lord says, "Lift up now your eyes to the North, and to the South, to the East, and to the West, for all this goodly heritage have I given to you by a Covenant of salt forever." There is another thing about this inheritance that makes it still more precious to us, and that is that everyone of the heirs shall certainly inherit it--and that is more than you can say about any earthly inheritance. If you know that somebody has made a will in your favor, do not reckon that the estate or money is really yours until you are actually in possession of it, for "there is many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip." The will may be revoked and the new one may leave you out, or there may be a flaw in it so that the estate will get into Chancery, and remain there for the term of your natural life. Even if there is no doubt that you are the heir, there may be many who will dispute your right to the inheritance. But if you are really a child of God, not even the devil, himself, shall be able to rob you of your heavenly inheritance! Satan may deny that you are an heir of God, but your heavenly Father will say, "Yes, he is, indeed, My child, and heir to all I have. I remember his first tear of penitence and I have preserved that in my bottle. I remember his first true prayer, his first look of faith, his first note of praise--they are all registered in My records that none can erase. I have his name here in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and it can never be blotted out! Yes, he is My child and My heir--all that I have belongs to him." There is a day coming when all Christ's sheep shall pass again under the hand of Him that counts them--and in that day, not one of the whole redeemed flock shall be missing! As the long roll of God's ransomed family is called, it shall be asked, "Is Little-Faith here?" And he will answer to his name not at all in the trembling way in which he used to speak when he was upon earth. When it is asked, "Is Miss Much-Afraid here?" she will reply, in jubilant tones, "Glory be to God, I am here!" No matter how weak and feeble you may be, if you are a child of God, you shall certainly be there and the inheritance shall assuredly be yours! I have not yet done with this expression, "heirs of God." Paul does not say that the children of God are heirs of Heaven. Our inheritance is much bigger than that, for Heaven has its bounds, but God has none. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but God never will! We are heirs, therefore, of unending bliss, for we are "heirs of God." There is no one here, there is no one on earth, there is no man or angel in Heaven who can tell the full meaning of this expression, "heirs of God." The words are simple enough for even a child to utter, but only God fully understands what they mean. And we shall go on learning throughout eternity all that is included in those three short words. To have God Himself as our inheritance, to be able to say, "The Lord is my portion," is a thousand heavens in one! And all the children of God are the heirs of God--no one of them will ever have to say, "My portion will have to be stinted because my elder brother has taken such a large share"--but everyone shall have God to enjoy here on earth, and then to enjoy forever in Heaven! Finally the Apostle says, "and joint heirs with Christ." It always adds to our enjoyment of any pleasure if we have someone whom we greatly love to share it with us. Then how much more shall we enjoy our heavenly inheritance because we are to occupy it with Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, to whose Incarnation, life, death, Resurrection and intercession we are indebted for it all! Oh, who would not be a child of God, to have such bliss forever and to enjoy it in such blessed Company? Yet is there anyone here who despises his inheritance? Is there anyone here like Esau, "who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright," and who, "afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears"? Is there someone here who was once a professor of religion, who has gone back to the world in the hope of getting a better living or a little praise among men? Poor Soul, pour Soul, how I pity you! But, O child of God, have you been kept faithful even to this hour? Then let Naboth rather than Esau be your model! Ahab offered Naboth a better vineyard than his own, or the worth of it in money if he would sell it, but he would neither exchange nor sell his inheritance even though his refusal to do so cost him his life-- and it would be better for us to die a thousand deaths than to think of parting with our heavenly inheritance! Happily, if we are really the children of God, He who has, by His Grace, made us His children, will keep us His children! And He will both keep us for the inheritance and keep the inheritance for us! There is, however, such a danger of being only children of God in name, and not in truth, that we shall all do well to give heed to the Apostle's warning, "Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." Having put our hand to the plow, let us not even thinkof looking back, but may we be proved to be the living children of the living God by walking in His ways until we come into His blessed Presence to go no more out forever for His dear Son's sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: EPHESIANS2. Verse 1. And you has He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. [See Sermons #127, Volume 3--spiritual resurrection; #2267, Volume 38--LIFE FROM THE DEAD and #2388, Volume 40--ONCE DEAD, NOW ALIVE.] Then you owe your very life to Him! You were dead, you were like a corrupt carcass, but His life has been breathed into you. "You has He quickened." Then you are no longer dead--you are a living soul before the living God--and as you owe this to Him, praise Him with all the life you have! You "were dead in trespasses and sins." 2, 3. Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: among whom we, also, all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.It does us good to remember what we used to be. There was no reason in us, by nature, why we should be made the children of God. There were in us no distinguishing traits of character by which we were separated from our fellow sinners. We ran in the same course. We were possessed by the same spirit. We worked the same works. We had the same nature. We were under the same condemnation--"children of wrath, even as others." 4, 5. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by Grace you are saved). [See Sermons #2968, Volume 52--"his great love"; #805, Volume 14-- RESURRECTION WITH CHRIST and #2741, Volume 47--SALVATION BY GRACE.] "By Grace you are saved." I know that you feel that it is so. Our quickening out of our death in sin must have been by Grace--and as God has done it--unto Him must be ascribed all the glory of it! There can be no merit in those who are dead in sin that they should be quickened out of their sin! This must be the work of the Lord, alone, and unto Him be all the praise. He "has quickened us together with Christ," so that our life is mystically linked with the life of Christ, as He said to His disciples, "Because I live, you shall also live." Until He can die, those who are one with Him cannot die. 6. And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.It is all in Him and it has a sevenfold sweetness about it because it is in Him. To live unto God is a wondrous mercy, but to live togetherwith Christ is an unspeakable honor! To be raised up into the heavenly places would be a surpassing blessing, but to be raised up there together with Christ, and to be made to sit there with Him, is a gift that is above the superlative! I know not how else to speak of it. 7. 8. That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His Grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by Grace are you saved through faithl. [See Sermons #1064, Volume 18--SALVATION ALL OF GRACE and #1609, Volume 27-- FAITH--WHAT IS IT? HOW CAN IT BE OBTAINED?] It must be all of Grace because of the greatness of the favor bestowed. A man dead in trespasses and sins cannot deserve to be made alive. And when he is made alive, he cannot deserve to be raised up to sit with Christ in the heavenly places! That is too great a gift to come to us by the way of the Law--it must come to us emphatically as the gift of the Grace of God in Christ Jesus! "For by Grace are you saved through faith"-- 8. And that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. "Not of yourselves." What do those people mean who keep on crying up the power of the human will, the wonderful dignity of human nature and all that kind of foolish talk? Salvation is not of ourselves! "It is the gift of God," not a reward which we have earned, but a free gift which God bestows according to the riches of His Grace! 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast.God will not have a boaster in Heaven! He will not have the creature exalting himself in His Presence. The command, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth." is backed up by this reason, "for I am God, and there is none else." Therefore unto God, Himself, must be the praise and glory for all who are saved. 10. For we are His workmanship. [See Sermons #1829, Volume 31--THE SINGULAR ORIGIN OF A CHRISTIAN and #2210, Volume 37--THE AGREEMENT OF SALVATION BY GRACE WITH WALKING IN GOOD WORKS] Salvation cannot be of works, for if we have any good works, it is because we are God's workmanship. 10-12. Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Therefore remember that you being in time past, Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh by hands--that at that time you were without Christ Certainly we were poor sinners of the Gentiles, having no participation whatever in the old Mosaic dispensation. 12. Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel For us there was no paschal lamb, for us there was no high priest at Jerusalem, no altar smoked with a sacrifice for us--we were "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel"-- 12. And strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. That is where the whole Gentile world stood! And this is experimentally where you and I stood till Sovereign Grace interposed for our salvation. What knew we about the Covenants of promise? We knew nothing and we did not care to know anything! What did we know about a hope? We would have died without a hope if God's mercy had not come to us! What knew we, or what cared we about a God in the world? We may have thought that there was a God in Heaven, but as actually operating upon the daily life of man, we knew no such God! We were "without God in the world." 13. But now. Oh, what a blessed, "but"! How much hangs upon it! Think of what God has done for you by His Grace! "But now"-- 13. In Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made near by the blood of Christ. What a power there must be about that blood--that God not only hears it speaking in Heaven, that it makes a way of access for all the saints, that it cleanses from all sin--but that it brings the far-off ones near! We will never cease to speak of the precious blood of Jesus! There are certain people who cannot bear to hear it mentioned, but a bloodless theology is a lifeless theology, and a ministry that can do without mentioning the blood of Christ has no power to bless the sons and daughters of men. 14. For He is our peace. We find in Christ, peace with God, peace with our own conscience, peace with all mankind! 14. Who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us.So making Jews and Gentiles one-- 15. Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the Law of Commandments contained in ordinances; so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, so making peace. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a Jew, yet I venture to say that there was nothing Jewish about Him. He was the model of what man ought to have been and His words and His actions made Him worthy to be called cosmopolitan. He belongs to all mankind. He is the Man in whom all races are summed up! And when we come to Christ, there is a link between us and the ancient people of God. I do not care about Anglo-Israelism, what I care for is Christo-Israelism--to belong to the Israel of God in Christ Jesus! 16-17. And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby; and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were near Christ is the Preacher of peace as well as the Maker of peace--and no man ever knows the peace of God unless Christ preaches it to him. 18, 19. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father Now therefore--Here is another sweet "now." 19, You are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. A part of the family of the great Householder, even God! Citizenship is well enough in its place, but citizens do not always know one another. But we are of the household of God--we are brought into an intimate relationship with one another through our Elder Brother who makes us to be the children of the great Father in Heaven! 20, 21. And are built upon the foundations of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ, Himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto an holy temple in the Lord. We are put so close together, if we are really in Christ, that we are like the stones of the temple--so united as to become one. In Christ Jesus our union is not only that of relationship, but we enter into a perfect unity with one another and with the Lord. 22. In whom you also are being built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. That is the most wonderful Truth of all--that God Himself should come and dwell among His people and in His people, and that, being sanctified by Grace, we become the dwelling place of the Most High! God grant that it may be so! Amen. __________________________________________________________________ How the Lambs Feed (No. 3199) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Then shall the lambs feed in their pasture." Isaiah 5:17. THE sense of this passage may be that Judea would be so desolated that it would become rather a wild wilderness pasture for flocks than an inhabited country. But that is not the meaning which the old readers of the Bible were accustomed to give to it. The Hebrew commentators considered "the lambs" to mean the house of Israel and regarded this as a promise that in all times of distress and affliction, God's flock would still be fed--there would still be a people kept alive and these should still meet with suitable support. Whether that is the correct sense or not, I shall use the words as having some such meaning. Our text deals with the lambs, and to the lambs we intend to speak--may the Good Shepherd speak to them also! Young converts, newborn souls, these words are for you--you shall feed in your pasture. I. Our first observation is that GOD WOULD HAVE ALL HIS CHURCH FED--a simple enough observation, certainly, and clearly to be inferred from the common course of nature, for no sooner is any living thing created than there are appliances for its feeding. No sooner is a seed cast into the ground and vitalized than it gathers to itself the particles upon which it feeds. And no sooner is an animal born than it receives food. Surely the Lord does not create life in the regenerated soul without providing stores upon which it may be nourished! Where He gives life, He gives food. Simple as this statement is, it has often been forgotten by those who should best have borne it in mind. It strikes me that it has been forgotten by some ministers. They have exhorted, threatened and thundered, but they have never fed those to whom they have preached! They have cried, "Believe! Believe!" but seldom explained what was to be believed, or, when they have mentioned the simple elements of the faith, they have gone no further, but have continued to speak the first principles of the Gospel and no more. These Brothers have their proper sphere, but they should not be pastors unless they can feed the flock of God! The wanderers must be gathered first, but afterwards they must be fed. For lack of this, many have remained in weakness and bondage--and have made no advance in the Divine Life. The necessity for spiritual food has been forgotten by some ministers who have continually harped upon the sublime Doctrines of the Gospel, but have not preached the elementary Truths of God. Surely they have not carried out their Lord's command, "Feed My lambs." They have been content to feed the older people, who by reason of use have had their senses exercised, forgetting that the same necessities befall all the flock and that the lambs need to be fed as well as the sheep. If the teachers have forgotten this, the taught have also failed to remember it. I have been very anxious, Beloved, that you should be diligent in the service of God and I have continually stirred you up, not to be sitting listening to sermons when you ought to be doing good--and the consequence has been that some have gone forth to attempt to do good whom I should not have exhorted to do so--for them it would have been better if they had waited a while, till they had learned somewhat more, both of Doctrine and experience. Young Brothers, there is a time for feeding as well as a time for working. There is work for strong men and there is nurture for babes. To little children we do not allot the labors of husbandry--some little service in the house is suitable for them and will do them good--but we do not exact much labor from them, for we know that youth is a time in which they must be learning and growing. Therefore let me say to some of you who know little or nothing of your Bibles, or of your own hearts--Wait a little, and run not before you are sent. Sit, young Brother, a while at Jesus' feet and learn what He has to say to you. Then, when you run as a messenger, you will have a message, whereas, perhaps, you now have more foot than heart, more tongue than brain, and this is dangerous! Let us not forget that our souls need to be fdand this I say to some of you who do but little for the Lord Jesus, and may be said neither to work nor to eat. Look at the mass of our Christian people, what do they do? Monday morning early at business and on till Saturday evening late at business! What is their reading? The daily paper! I condemn it not, but of what use is this to their souls What, then, do they read to nourish the inner life? Ah, what? A magazine with a religious tale in it! A tale which will probably be spun out to two or three volumes! If the religion were taken out of it, it would probably be improved--and if the rest of the book were burned, some light might come of it--but none comes by reading it! I will not judge severely, but what is the reading of many Christians? Is it food for their souls? And beyond reading, what else are they doing that their spirits may be nourished? Our fathers would go into their chamber three times a day and take a quarter of an hour for meditation--how many of us maintain such a habit? Is it done once a day? It was once my privilege to live in a house where, at eight o'clock, every person, from the servant to the master, would have been found for half an hour in prayer and meditation in his or her chamber. As regularly as the time came round, that was done, just as we partook of our meals at appointed hours. If that were done in all households, it would be a grand thing for us! In the old Puritan times, a servant would as often answer, "Sir, my master is at prayers," as he would nowadays answer, my master is engaged." It was still looked upon as a recognized fact that Christians did meditate, did study the Word, and did pray--and society respected the interval. It is said that if in the days of Cromwell, you had walked down Cheapside in the morning, you would have seen the blinds down at every house at a certain hour. Alas, where will you find such streets nowadays? I fear that what was once the rule is now the exception! When will God's people perceive that it is not enough to be born-again, but that the life then received must be nourished daily with the Bread of Heaven? It is not enough to be spiritually alive--our life, to be vigorous--must be familiar with its Source! Every Christian should know that he needs times for supplying his soul with the food which endures unto life eternal. As the body needs its mealtimes, so must you sit down to your heavenly Father's table until He has satisfied your mouth with good things and renewed your strength like the eagle's. The more intensely earnest we are in feeding upon the Word of God, the better! My young Friends, you require to be fed with knowledge and understanding and, therefore, you should search the Scriptures daily to know what are the Doctrines of the Gospel, and what are the glories of Christ. You will do well to read the "Confession of Faith," and study the proof texts, or to learn the "Assembly's Catechism," which is a grand condensation of Holy Scripture. I would say, even to many aged Christians, that they could not spend their time better than in going over the Shorter Catechism again and comparing it with the Book of God from which it is derived. Truly, in these days, when men are so readily decoyed to Popery, we had need know what it is that we believe! Protestantism grew in this land when there was much simple, plain, orthodox teaching of the Doctrines which are assuredly believed among us. Catechism was the very bulwark of Protestantism. But now we have much earnest preaching and yet people do not know what the doctrines of the Gospel are--be you not ignorant, but be you nourished up in the Truth of God! My young Friends, may you obtain a spiritual understanding of God's Word which is more than knowledge! May you discern the inward sense, compare spiritual things with spiritual, and see the relation between this Truth and the other, and the relation of all Truths of God to yourselves and to your standing before God! May the Holy Spirit feed you so! May you also be fed by mingling with the saints of God and learning from their experience! Many a young Christian gathers from advanced saints what he would never discover elsewhere. As they tell of what they have felt, and known, and suffered, and enjoyed, the lambs of the flock are strengthened and consoled. Seek for your companions those who can instruct you! It is a dreary thing for a young man to have association with those only who are below himself in experience and not to know those from whose lips drop pearls because they have been in those deeps where pearls are found. Be much with experienced Christians who have been with Jesus, and you will be fed by them! Young Friend, much feeding will come to you by meditation on the Truth that you hear. As the cattle lie down and chew their cud, so does meditation turn over the Truth of God, and get the very essence and nutriment out of it. To hear, and hear, and hear, and hear, as some do, is utterly useless because when they have heard, it is all over with them--it has gone in one ear and out the other--and has left nothing upon the mind. Press the Truth of God as men tread the grapes in the wine vat, filing the red clusters into the press of memory, and trample on them with the feet of meditation--then shall the rich juice flow forth to cheer your heart and make your spirit strong within you! Meditate, young man and maiden! This is the thing you need if you would be fed. And, higher still, there is a Divine nourishment in Communion when the soul ascends to Jesus Christ and feeds on the Lord, Himself--when the Incarnate God becomes the soul's Bread and the bleeding Savior in His substitutionary Sacrifice, becomes the heart's wine. Feed on Him, O Beloved, you who have lately come to Him! Eat, yes, drink abundantly, O Beloved! May the Lord give you a mighty hunger after His Word, after Himself and then lead you by the still waters, and make you to lie down in green pastures! Thus much on the first simple fact--that God will have all His sheep and His lambs fed. II. Secondly, the text says that the lambs shall feed "in their pasture," and that leads us to observe that YOUNG BELIEVERS HAVE THEIR OWN WAY OF FEEDING. I believe every single Christian has his own idiosyncrasy in that matter. Beloved, there are some of you who could not constantly hear me to profit and yet this is neither my fault nor yours, but a wise arrangement, for you can hear some other Brother and thus there is work for him as well as for me. If all could be fed by me, and by no one else, where would I put my congregation, and where would others get theirs? Certain persons can receive the Truth of God from one man better than they can from another, not because that man is any better, or the other any worse, but because there is a way of putting it, or there is a kind of congruity of nature between the hearer and the preacher. I am glad to think that God has not cast all His people in one mold and made them all desirous to listen to one voice in order to be spiritually fed! It may happen, moreover, that in our Church there are people who cannot be instructed in one of our classes. Well, if it is so, do not quarrel with the Brother who conducts it--go to another teacher and try him! Or perhaps you are not edified by the teaching of some Christian with whom you associate. Well, the world is wide--try another. "Then shall the lambs feed in their pasture." Each Christian has his own way of feeding on the Word. Let him have it in his own way, and do not judge him! There may be something of self in his peculiarity, but perhaps there is also something of God's purpose in it. Do not pass an Act of Uniformity, but rejoice in the diversities of operations--provided you see the same Lord! There are several things certain about the manner of feeding of all lambs. The first is, that if they feed in their pasture, they feed on tender grass. Young Christians love the simple Truths of the Gospel and, therefore, these ought to be often preached. And we ought not to be angry with newborn Believers if they cannot understand the higher Doctrines. I hope we shall never, as a Church, exact from young converts the wisdom of age. I trust we shall never say, "There, you must go back. You won't do for us, you are not up to our mark, for you cannot expound the deep things of God." God forbid! If we shut out the lambs, where shall we get our sheep? If the Lord has received them, let us receive them! No father excludes a child from his table when he is three or four years old because he is not yet able to speak Latin. If the little ones know their A B C, it is a good beginning. We think a great deal of the first little verse our babes repeat--they say it in such a strange way that nobody thinks it is language at all except father and mother, but they are charmed with the simplest form of speech which infant lips can try! So, to see a little spiritual knowledge in new converts should gratify us and cause us to love them. Leave the lambs to feed on tender grass and you older ones may take as much of the tougher herbage as you like. Again, lambs like to feed little and often. They are not able to take in much at a time, but they like to be often at it. I love to see our young people coming to the Prayer Meetings and week-day services so continually. You will grow in Grace if you are often engaged in the means of Grace--but it is possible to make such things a weariness to the flesh if they become protracted. Strong saints can bear whole days of devotion and delight in them. Yes, a whole week spent alone in a sacred retreat might be a glorious holiday--a holy day--rather, an anticipation of Heaven! But for young Believers, let them have here a little and there a little--a text and a text, line upon line, precept upon precept--but let them have it often. "Then shall the lambs feed in their pasture." The lambs, if they feed well, feed quietly in their pasture. If there is a dog in the field, they will not feed. If they are driven about here and there and not allowed to rest, they cannot feed. I pity young Christians who get into churches where there are disturbances and troubles. Oh, may we always be kept at peace! I bless God for the love that has reigned among us. May it continue and may it deepen! Beloved Friends, when we fall out with one another, we shall find that the Spirit of God has fallen out with us! We cannot expect to see young converts among us at all, much less can we hope to see them advance in Divine Grace if we indulge a party spirit, or a controversial spirit within the fold. All Believers should endeavor to maintain a sacred quiet within the Church for the sake of the little ones. Have you never heard of the child who was greatly impressed under a sermon and had resolved to pray on reaching home, but he heard his father and mother on the road home discussing the discourse and finding such fault with it, that the happy season of tenderness passed away from that child and, in later years, he was accustomed to say that his becoming an infidel was due to that conversation? Let the lambs feed in quiet. If a little bit of the sermon suits my boy, though it seems childish to me, let me be glad that there is something for him! If the preacher stated the Truth in a way which I do not like, I daresay the preacher's Master knows how to guide him far better than I do! And perhaps my neighbor who sat next to me has profited by precisely that which I have criticized. Let the lambs feed quietly. I would say to young Christians--Never mix up in the controversies of these days. There are people about who seem to be cut on the cross and the only use they are in this world seems to be to raise irritating questions. They and the mosquitoes were created by Infinite Wisdom, but I have never been able to discover the particular blessing which either of them confer upon us! Those persons who discuss and discuss, and do nothing else, had better be left alone. If there is a way to live peaceably with all men, I should say to the young Christian, "Follow it." The lambs feed best when they are not worried, but dwell in peace with all. Then, next, when lambs feed in their pasture, they feed in pleasure. A very disorderly lot the lambs are! If you look over the gate at them, they are never proper and solemn. An artist could scarcely sketch them in their frisking and frolicking about! Young Christians ought not to be told to cease their holy mirth--they ought not to be expected as yet to groan with those that groan--but let them rejoice with those that rejoice! Their days of sorrow will probably come soon enough, without their being anticipated. Let them rejoice in the Lord, yes, let them rejoice always! I am glad our friends do not universally call out in the Tabernacle, "Hallelujah," and "Hosannah," and the like. But, for my part, when I am preaching in the open air in the country and our Methodist friends do so, it seems to stir my blood and I am glad of it. It is much better than having a sleepy congregation! A little excitement in the Christian Church, especially by young converts, is by no means to be deprecated. I remember hearing dear Doctor Fletcher say, when talking to a number of children, that he once saw a boy standing on his head, dancing on the pavement and displaying all sorts of antics of joy. He stopped near him and said, "Well, my Lad, you seem to be exceedingly merry." "I think I am, and so would you be, Sir, (or Guv'nor, I think he said,) if you had been locked up three months and had just got out." "Well," said the venerable man, "I thought it very reasonable, indeed, and I told him by no means to stop his performances because of me." Now, when a poor man has felt the burden of sin and has been shut up in the prison of the Law of God, and Jesus comes and brings him out--and he begins to rejoice with unspeakable joy, and full of glory--if any man living would stop him, I would not! No, let him rejoice! Let the lambs feed "in their pasture." And if somebody tonight should come to me, and say, "Your young converts have been extravagant in expression and injudicious in zeal," I would reply, "My dear Brother, are you better than these young ones? At any rate, there is one respect in which you are worse, for you show a propensity to find fault with those who are serving God with all their might. Go your way and join them! If you have not a heart to do so, and if they seem to be enthusiastic beyond measure, only thank God that there are yet some few left among us who can appreciate fervor--and wish that there were a little more of it." For my own part, I would like to see a downright fanatic. It is so long since one has set one's eyes upon such a curiosity that I should like to see one--just one! I have seen snow enough, pray let me see a fire-flake! I have seen thousands of wet blankets--oh for the touch of a live coal! Enthusiasm in excess might be a blessing in disguise. Let the lambs feed pleasantly in their own wild, natural way. Once more, when the lambs feed in their pasture, they feed in company. They like to get with others if they can. Sheep thrive best in flocks. I call upon every young Christian here to get into some part of Christ's flock. I invite you into this portion of Christ's Church, but if you find another where, all things considered, you think it would be better for you to be, go there! Mind that you join yourself first to Christ--and after that unite with His people. Do not try to go to Heaven as a solitary individual, that is not the Christian way. Jesus gathers His people into a Church--He does not profess to lead His people one by one, as solitary pilgrims, but they are to go in groups and bands. From company to company they proceed towards the New Jerusalem. May you have much love to the visible Church and believe that, notwithstanding all her faults, there is none like her on the earth! That, notwithstanding all her spots, she is excellent for beauty, and fairest among women! III. I must close with the remark that IN THE WORST OF TIMES, GOD WILL SEE THAT HIS LAMBS AND THE REST OF HIS FLOCK ARE FED. It is said, in the text, "Then shall the lambs feed in their pasture." That is, when the vineyard was destroyed and the hedge broken down. When thorns and briars had come up and the clouds had refused to rain. And God had sent desolation upon Israel and the people were gone into captivity--even then shall the lambs feed in their pasture! This is a blessed Truth of God--come what may, God's people shall be saved and they shall have spiritual food! There may come persecuting times. Never mind! Never did Christ seem so glorious as when He walked with His Church in the dungeon and up to the stake! Never were there sweeter songs than those which rose from the Lollards' tower and Bonner's coal-hole. Never did the Church have such marriage feasts as when her members died at the gallows and the fire! Christ Jesus has made Himself preeminently near and dear to a persecuted Church! Therefore fear not if you should have your little trouble to bear in the family, or rebuke and shame from an evil world--for you shall feed in your pasture. Though your mother should be grieved, though your husband should be angry, though your brother should ridicule, though your employer should scoff--you shall be fed with spiritual food and your soul shall surmount all these evils, triumphant in her God! "But I dread," says one, "that there will come times of sickness to me. I have premonitions of it." Yes, but you shall be fed in your pasture. And I, for one, bear witness that sometimes periods of sickness are times of the greatest spiritual nourishment! The Lord can furnish a table in the wilderness! A very wilderness sickness is of itself, but God can find us daily manna. He can make you strongest in heart when you are weakest in body. Therefore fear not, God will feed you! "I am afraid of poverty," says one. Are you? That has been the lot of many of His people. For many an age has the Lord chosen the poor to be His disciples. You need not fear that. Your Master was poor--you will never be as poor as He was, for He had nowhere to lay His head. Fear not, He will feed you. Can you not trust Him? "Ah, but I fear death," says one. "Then shall the lambs feed in their pasture." Even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death you shall find tender grass! Have you never seen others die? Has it not been a joyous thing to see some saints depart? I recall to your memories, dear Brothers and Sisters, those who have but lately ascended whom we loved. Was there anything terrible about their deaths? Did they not smile upon us in their last hours and make us feel that we would willingly change places with them, and die as they died? Have I not often seen the young girl sickening with consumption and heard from her strange things that made me think her half a Prophetess--a Seer whose eyes had been anointed so that she had looked within the veil and seen the Glory of the Invisible? Oh, how texts of Scripture have been placed in golden settings by dying saints! How sweetly have they set promises to music! Speak of monks and their illuminated missals! Scripture illuminated by dying saints is far more marvelous! What amazing joy they have felt! They told us that joy was killing them--that they did not die of the disease, but of excessive delight! It was as though the great floods of Glory had burst their banks and they were being swept right away by them to eternal bliss! It has visibly been blessed for the saints to die and, therefore, it is foo-lish--perhaps wicked--for any child of God to be afraid to depart. "Then shall the lambs feed in their pasture," feeding near the very scythe of death and cropping choice morsels at the grave's mouth--for the Lamb, Jesus Christ, being with them--no lamb of all the flock shall have cause to fear! We shall now separate and scatter, as congregations have scattered, I might say, these hundreds of times from this House. And scattering and going each, our own way, to his home--shall we ever meet again? Probably by no means shall we, all of us, meet in the body, so that these eyes shall look to other eyes and say, "I saw those eyes before." Well, well, truth be the truth remembered that we are a flock and must gather again in one meeting place before the Judgment Seat, on that day of wrath, that dreadful day! Shall we meet, then, as the sheep of Christ, or, meeting, will it be to be divided, to the right and to the left, as the sheep of the Great King, or the goats condemned to be cast away? We shall certainly meet there, but will it be an eternal meeting of unending joy? God grant it may! Oh, infinite mercy of the blessed God, let us all be united at the Throne of Christ! But I hear you say, O angel, in answer to that prayer--I hear you speak out of the Glory and say, "There can be no union at the Throne of God except there first be union at the Cross." Listen to that warning and come to Jesus! There stands the Cross, which is the center of the Church! Lo, I see upon it the Son of God, His wounds still fountains of cleansing blood! Will you come to the Cross? Will you trust the Redeemer? Will you bow before Him? Will you be washed in His blood? Will you be saved with His salvation? If so, we shall all meet in Heaven to see the face of the Lamb in His Glory. God grant we may, for Jesus sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM23,24. Did you ever notice that the 22nd Psalm exhibits "that Great Shepherd of the sheep" as laying down His life for the sheep? And that the 23rd Psalm exhibits "the Good Shepherd" with all His sheep around Him happy and restful, while the 24th Psalm represents "the Chief Shepherd" who shall appear in due time--and when He does appear, then shall His sheep, also, appear with Him in Glory? Psalm 23:1. The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want. [See Sermon #3006, Volume 52--"the lord is my shepherd."] How can a sheep want, or have needs, when it has a good and wise shepherd able and willing to provide for it? And how can a Believer want when he has God, Himself, the ever-gracious and Omnipotent Lord of All, to provide his needs and to prevent him from ever knowing what want means? David does not say, "I shall have all I wish for because the Lord is my Shepherd," but he does say, "I shall not want. Not only have I no need now, but I never shall need while my Shepherd lives. Though I am only one out of His countless flock, yet He cares for me and, therefore, 'I shall not want.'" Why should a Believer think that he shall ever want? Let him look at his present condition. 2, 3. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul: He leads me in the path of righteousness for His name's sake. Here are four blessed things that the Lord does for the Believer. "He makes me to lie down." He gives me rest, perfect rest and He gives me so much spiritual provision that I am unable to take it all in--so I lie down and rest in it as a sheep does in the deep pastures where it seems lost in the provender! There are such deep Doctrines, such glorious privileges, such wondrous Revelations of the heart of God in this blessed Book, that you and I cannot comprehend it all, but we can lie down in it--"He makes me to lie down in green pastures." Take a good stretch, Brothers and Sisters in Christ! Some are afraid to lie down in the green pastures of the Word of God. I know some of God's saints who seem to be afraid of being too happy--they do not like to be too restful. Let no such fear ever cross your mind. "He makes me"--and He would not make us do what was not good for us--"He makes me to lie down in green pastures." Then come those three sweet words, "He leads me," which in themselves are full of music-- "He leads me. He leads me! By His own hand He leads me!" You know how our song makes these words ring out over and over again and it is truly charming. "He leads me." The Holy Spirit is our Guide and as the softly-flowing river of Grace marks our journey, we sing, "He leads me beside the still waters." You and I sometimes go wandering by the noisy brooks that ripple over the stones and make such a noise because they are so shallow. But when the Spirit guides us, it is beside the deep rivers, the deep still waters that He leads us. "He restores my soul." Is not that a blessed little sentence? When my soul gets empty, He stores it again--re-stores it. When it goes wandering away from Him-- "He brings my wandering spirit back When I forsake His ways." And when I get spiritually sick, He gives me a sweet restorative and renews my health--"He restores my soul." Blessed be the name of the great Restorer! "He leads me"--here comes those sweet words again--"He leads me in the paths of righteousness." They are very pleasant paths, for nothing is more pleasant to a Believer than to be walking in "the paths of righteousness." God has so constituted His people that if they get out of the right way, they get out of the way of peace. He has so re-made us that our peace and our righteousness agree together--and as long as we are led in the paths of righteousness, we are a happy and a restful people! The Lord does all this for us, "for His Name's sake." 4. Yes, though I walk Yes, though I walk, not only though I shall walk, but though I do walk now-- 4. Through the valley of the shadow of death. Though long before I die, I seem to learn what death means in the cold chill that takes hold upon my spirit and freezes all my joy-- 4. I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me. Some seem to think that God's people would have no distress of mind and no trouble if they were trusting in God. But it is not so. Even they "walk through the valley of the shadow of death," but they "fear no evil" even there! When all is dark around you, remember that verse, "Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walks in darkness, and has no light? Let Him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon His God." There would be no room for faith if it were always summertime and always noontide. But Christians are sometimes called to pass through that gloomy experience which Mr. Bunyan has so beautifully pictured under the symbol here used, "the valley of the shadow of death." It is a terrible journey, yet there is no cause for fear to strike the Christian's heart even there for, let the worst come to the worst, he can say to his Lord, with David, "You are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me" Now look back to the 14th and 15th verses of the 22nd Psalm, and you will see how fully Christ can sympathize with His people--because He, also, walked through the valley of the shadow of death even as they have to do! Hear Him crying there, "I am poured out like water and all My bones are out ofjoint: My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of My body. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue sticks to My jaws and You have brought Me"--remember that this is the Savior speaking here--"You have brought Me into the dust of death." Well then, there is great comfort for the sheep in the fact that their Shepherd has been along that gloomy way before them! 5. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. See what cool, calm courage David here displays. Usually, when a warrior is in the presence of his enemies, he just eats a bit of bread, or something that he can swallow while getting ready for the fight that is impending. But David took matters much more quietly than that. Though his enemies were all around him, there was a table prepared for him--that is to say, there was everything ready for a feast just as if it had been a holiday instead of the day of battle! "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." You may grin or howl, you devils! You may do what you like, but the true Believer takes no notice of you! His table is being prepared by his God while you, armed to the teeth, are seeking to slay him! What a contrast there is between the rage of the Believer's enemies and the quiet, calm confidence of the man himself! 5. You anoint my head with oil A sweet savor shall be upon the man who is thus anointed by his God. 5. My cup runs over. [See Sermons #874, Volume 15--THE OVERFLOWING CUP and #1222, Volume 21--THE OVERFLOWING CUP.] "I have more than I expected--more than I ever asked for--more than I desired--more than I am capable of holding!" "My cup runs over." If ever your cup does thus run over, be sure to call your poor neighbors in to catch the overflowing mercy! If ever you have more blessing than you can hold, ask some other Christian to share it with you. Recollect what Peter and his companions did when, at Christ's command, they let down the net and caught more fish than their net could hold without breaking--they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. "What? Come and help them fish?" Oh, no--come and help them share the fish! Many persons say, "You are kindly invited to come to such-and-such a meeting," because they want to get something out of you--but it is a better kind of invitation when you are asked because there is something to be given away--and those who have an overflowing cup want you to share the blessing with them. 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.I shall never be able to outrun the goodness and mercy of my God! I shall always have closely attendant upon me His goodness to supply my needs and His mercy to forgive my sins. 6. And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forevei. Psalm 24:1. The earth is the LORD'S, and the fullness thereof And therefore it is also the Believer's! The real fullness of the earth belongs to the Christian. "The meek shall inherit the earth." 1, 2. The world, and they that dwell therein. For He has foundedit upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. So, child of God, you are in your Father's house even while you are down here on earth! Still, that question in the next verse is very suggestive. Albeit that the earth is the Lord's, yet we do not want to stay in it forever. 3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? [See Sermon #396, Volume 7--CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN.] Or who shall stand in His holy place? This is the portion of the Lord's people--to ascend the hill of the Zion that is above, to enter the New Jerusalem and to stand in the immediate Presence of God. But who shall ever be able to do that? 4, 5. He that has clean hands, andapure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully; he shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. The man who will go to Heaven is the clean man, the man who has been washed from his sins in the blood of the Lamb. And he is clean just where he was most likely to be foul--he has "clean hands." Grace has enabled him to touch the things of the world without receiving a stain from them, and to touch holy things without defiling them. This expression--"clean hands"--refers to his outward life, but he is also clean inside, for he has "a pure heart." If a man were clean as to his actions, but not clean as to his motives, he would not be fit to enter Heaven. But the man described here is a true man. He has not followed after vanity, neither has he uttered a lie, but he has followed the Truth of God and he has spoken the Truth. He is the man whom God will bless, but he has no righteousness of his own, so we read that, "he shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation." So he needs to be saved and he needs a righteousness better than his own, and this God will give him! 6. This is the generation Jacob, of them that seek Him, who seek Your face. Selah. It is a wonderful thing that Jesus Christ should take His people's name but He does. He gives His Church His own name in that remarkable passage in Jeremiah 33:16--"This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness." And now, to make the union complete, He takes her name as His own--Christ is here called "Jacob." 7-10. Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be you lift up, you everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates, even lift them up, you everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of Hosts, He is the King of Glory. Selah. Now, if Christ is our Shepherd in the meadows down here where He makes us to lie down in the green pastures of His Grace, He will also be our Shepherd in the heavenly pastures up there on the hilltops of Glory where the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed us and shall lead us unto living fountains of waters! And we shall delight forever to "follow the Lamb wherever He goes." __________________________________________________________________ Faith Justifying Speech (No. 3200) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 9, 1873. "Ibelieved, therefore have I spoken." Psalm 116:10. SOME translators render this passage, "I believed, though I have spoken as I have done," for the Psalmist had spoken words suggestive of unbelief. But, although he had spoken unwisely and unbelievingly, yet, deep down in his heart, he did still believe in his God. What a mercy it is for us that God does not judge us by our hasty speeches! If He can see only a spark of faith amidst the dense smoke of our unbelief, He accepts it! We will, however, take the text as we find it in our version--"I believed, therefore have I spoken." To speak what we believe to be false is atrocious. God grant that our lips may never be defiled by the utterance of anything that we do not really believe! To speak what we only think to be true is idle and often mischievous. Many have been grieved and hurt by the repetition of slanders which have passed from mouth to mouth without anyone being able to vouch for their accuracy--and those who repeated them have often done serious injury to the characters of those who were far better than themselves. On the other hand, to know the Truth of God, and not to speak it, is cowardly. The Psalmist did not say, "I believed, and yet I was silent," for that silence might have proved that he was of a cowardly spirit and was afraid that some unpleasant consequences might come upon himself if he dared to deliver unpopular truth. Every speaker is glad enough to say that which will please his auditors and bring credit to himself, but a true man declares what he believes, even though his hearers gnash their teeth at him because of his faithful testimony! To speak what you believe is your du-ty--to speak what you believe will be likely to benefit those who hear it and to speak what you believe will bring honor and glory to God who taught you the Truth. Therefore say with the Psalmist , "'I believed, therefore have I spoken.' I spoke out with my tongue what I had verified in my inmost soul." I am going to use the text in three ways. First, as the justification of the Christian minister Secondly, as the argument for Christian profession. And thirdly, as the motive for supplication. I. First, then, let us consider our text as THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER. "I believed, therefore have I spoken." No man ever ought to speak in God's name, as a preacher of the Gospel, unless he can say, "I believed, therefore have I spoken." When Paul quoted this verse, he added, "We also believe, and, therefore, speak." And we who preach the Gospel, if we are really sent of God, believe what we speak in His name. It is a scandal and a shame that there are some ministers who do not believe the doctrines of the church to which they belong, yet they still retain both their position and their pay. I would not consider that I was worthy of the name of an honest man if I took money as the pastor of a Christian Church after I had given up my belief in the Truths I had professed to hold. We hear a great deal, nowadays, about the liberty of ministers to preach what they like, but what about the liberty of the people? Are they not to be considered? Are churches made for ministers, or ministers made for churches? After the people have elected a man to be their pastor, and he changes his views, it is only common honesty that he should say so and no longer pretend to preach what he does not believe, or to belong to a church with which he is not sincerely in sympathy. I cannot imagine a more dreary task than it would be for me to stand here simply to repeat what you wished me to say although my heart did not endorse the words I had to utter! I would never be such a slave as that, but would sooner break stones on the road, or labor at the treadmill in prison! There are some who do not believe the Bible, but we believe it. There are some who question the great Truths of the faith, but we can lay our hand upon our heart and say that we do not question them. There are some who deny the Deity of Christ and the efficacy of His atoning blood but, as for us, we verily believe them and, therefore, we proclaim them to others. We believe what we speak--and we speak because we believe God has called us to speak. If we could be silent, we would, but we feel that we must preach the Gospel! The man who is sent of God cannot do otherwise than deliver the message that has been given to him--he feels that the fire within him would consume him if he did not let flaming words pour forth from his lips! It was because the Lord had made Ezekiel a watchman unto the house of Israel that he proclaimed his Master's message with such power and unction--and it must be in a similar way that a minister must be to his people as the mouth of God! Moreover, we believe that the Truths of God we are bid to preach are so important that we cannot be silent concerning them. We believe that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that God is angry with the wicked every day and that, if men live and die in their sins, they must be cast away from His Presence forever. There may be some of our hearers who will not give heed to our message, but we believe it and, therefore, we speak it. It has become unfashionable to talk of Hell and to mention the wrath to come which is awaiting the ungodly, but fashionable or unfashionable, we cannot keep silent concerning these terrible Truths and we try to use them as Paul did, "Knowing therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." We will not, in unhallowed silence, keep back from sinners a true statement of their present lost condition and of their future awful doom unless they repent of their sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! I have often used as the language of my own heart those solemn lines that John Wesley translated-- "Shall I for fear of feeble man, Your Spirit's course in me restrain? Or undismayed in deed and word, Be a true witness for my Lord? Awed by a mortal's frown, Shall I conceal the Word of God Most High? How then before You shall I dare To stand, or how Your anger bear? Shall I, to soothe the unholy throng, Soften Your Truths and smooth my tongue? To gain earth's gilded toys, or flee The Cross endured, my God, by Thee? The love of Christ does me constrain To seek the wandering souls of men With cries, entreaties, tears, to save, To snatch them from the fiery wave." There, is, however, more than this that we believe and, therefore, speak. We believe that a great Atonement has been offered for sin, that by His death upon Calvary's Cross, Jesus Christ cleared the channel of Divine Mercy so that now, without injury to His Justice, God can forgive human transgression. Most intensely do we believe, "that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation." How can we keep silent when we have such good tidings to tell? Accursed would be our lips if we should retain this heavenly secret! We will not do so. We believe and, therefore, do we proclaim to all that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." We believe that there is a full and free pardon for every sinner who believes in Jesus, that there is acceptance with God through the righteousness of Christ for every sinner who truly repents and believes, that there is regeneration, that there is adoption into the family of God, that there is salvation here, and eternal glory hereafter, for everyone that believes in Jesus! And believing all this, can we remain silent concerning it? Why, sometimes when a man has made a great discovery, he feels as if he must run down the street, as that old mathematician did, crying, "Eureka! Eureka!" when he had solved the problem that had so long puzzled him. We, too, can cry, "Eureka! Eureka!" for we have found what we long sought in vain! We have found a sovereign balm for every wound, a cordial for all care. We have found that which brings even the dead to life and which will bring to Heaven those who have been lying at Hell's dark door! How can we keep to ourselves such wondrous discoveries as these? Can we hide in our own heart all that we have learned concerning our blessed Savior? As for me, I say with Charles Wesley-- "My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim And spread through all the earth abroad, The honors of Your name." Further, we speak the Truth of God that has been revealed to us because we believe the preaching of the Gospel will effect great good. We do not preach the Gospel merely because we believe that it may be useful--we preach it because we believe that it must be useful. It is not with us a question whether God will or will not bless the ministry that He has Himself ordained--we believe that He must bless His own Word, for we have His promise that He will do so. "It shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." There is not a true sermon preached beneath the cope of Heaven, whether in a cathedral, or on a village green, that God will not bless, in some way or other, and make it tend to His own Glory. We do not expect this result because of any merit or fitness in our hearers, for they are spiritually like the dry bones that Ezekiel saw in the valley. Our faith is in the Spirit of God to whom we cry even as the Prophet cried, "Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." And the result in our case is the same as it was in his-- "Dry bones are raised, and clothed afresh, And hearts of stone are turned to flesh." We believe and, therefore, do we speak--and this often accounts for our style of speaking--and sometimes accounts for the faults of it. The man who believes does not always weigh his words, or guard his statements, or speak as coolly and deliberately as others do. They tell us that we sometimes wax too warm. If we do, it is because we believe so fervently the Truths of God that we preach! Some say that, at times, we are harsh and intolerant. But he who believes the Truth cannot be tolerant of the error that would cloud it! Was Elijah too harsh? That is not a question that we need answer-- we know that it was because he believed so fully in Jehovah that he could not have any part or lot with the prophets of Baal or the prophets of the groves. He would not have used the popular language of the present day and boasted of his charity to all men, true or false. He knew that as truth is true, a lie is a lie, and is to be treated as a lie, not as though it ought to be welcomed on equal terms with the truth! He believed, and, therefore, he spoke and acted as he did! And, dear Friends, you must not be surprised if we sometimes speak more severely than you think we ought. Intense conviction often carries a man beyond what his hearers might think to be justifiable. I have seen politicians excited and some of their words have been anything but decorous. I have been in the Paris Bourse and have seen how excited the dealers in stocks and shares have been, and how they raged and raved like Bedlamites as prices rose and fell. May other men be excited about gold or government and may we never be excited about God and His Truth, about Heaven and Hell, about the eternal welfare of our own and our fellow creatures' souls? This is our justification--we believe and, therefore, speak-- we believe so intensely that we are bound to speak with the accent of conviction! Luther used to preach like one who had found the grand secret which he must proclaim to others. Some of the things that he said could not be repeated nowadays--they would not at all suit the modern taste--yet he spoke as the times in which he lived needed that he should speak! It must have been grand to hear him, or that other mighty preacher, John Knox, of whom it was said that he was so feeble and so full of pain that as he went up to the pulpit, one might have feared that he would have died before he finished his discourse, yet, before he had proceeded far, so excited did he grow as the Truth of God burned and blazed up in his soul, that it seemed as if the pulpit, itself, would be smashed to pieces with the intense force that he threw into his preaching! Yes, Luther and Knox believed and, therefore, spoke with an emphasis and a fervor that would be accounted madness in these prim and proper times in which we live! And we would far rather be judged to be as "mad" as they were, than seek to please those to whom truth and lies appear to be of equal value! No, Sirs, you may mark out certain boundaries beyond which you say that we must not go, but we shall leap over them if we can thereby save some! And it is quite possible that our mannerisms and eccentricities, as you call them, will cause a shock to some of your notions of ministerial propriety. If souls are to be saved from going down to the Pit, we must be terribly in earnest even as our Master was. If brands are to be plucked from the burning, we shall not do such work with kid-gloved hands! This generation is so engrossed with its idols and heresies that it will not be called to the living God by gentle whispering or the lisping of a love-sick maid. We must cry aloud and spare not! We must preach earnestly, intensely and, as some will judge, roughly. And even then, nothing will come of our preaching unless the Spirit of God, Himself, shall accompany it with His own effectual working in the hearts of our hearers. God grant that He may do so! I must close this part of the subject by saying that when the Psalmist said, "I believed, therefore have I spoken," he meant, "What I spoke, that I believed. "And we are prepared to adopt his language and to attach the same meaning to it and also to add that what we have spoken in the past, that we still believe. We have not changed our views, our sentiments, or Doctrines. But do we not pay any tribute to the enlightenment of the age? Are we not to keep pace with the growth of the intelligence of this wonderful 19th Century? Brothers and Sisters, we do not believe in doing anything of the kind! What was true 20 years ago is true, now, and what is true now will be just as true 20 years hence. I once talked with a minister who said to me, "You must find it very easy to preach." I asked him why he thought so, and he replied, "Because you believe a certain set of Truths and you have only to preach them." "Yes," I answered, "it is so, but is not that also the case with you?" "Oh, dear no," he said, "I think my creed out every week. It is constantly changing, for I am so receptive." We are also receptive--not receptive of modern novelties and heresies, nor of the mere fantasies of our own brain, but we are receptive of all that we find in this blessed Book! And that never changes. We may receive new light upon what is in the Word, but the new light will not make that false which was true before the new light came! We hope, when the time comes for us to die, that we shall be able to say, "As we commenced our ministry, so we finish it. Our first sermon was on the same lines as our last. Of course there was a growth in our power of receiving and expounding the Truth of God, but it was the same Truth that we received and that we preached at the first and at the last." The end of our conversion, like that of the Apostle Paul and the faithful preachers of his day, has been, is now and, we trust, by God's Grace, still will be, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever." II. Now, secondly, we are to use our text as THE ARGUMENT FOR CHRISTIAN PROFESSION--"I believed, therefore have I spoken." Brothers and Sisters, true faith in the Gospel is not dumb faith. When a man believes it, he is bound to make an open profession of his belief. What is the Gospel? I will give it to you in our Lord's own Words--"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." There is to be the confession of faith made in Baptism as well as the belief of the Gospel with the heart. Paul thus summarizes "the word of faith" which he preached--"If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." You see how closely the confession of faith is connected with the faith, itself. And the promise of salvation is given at least in these two texts, to the faith that is united with the confession of it. It is the bounden duty of everyone who believes in Jesus to confess that he does so believe. You know how Christ Himself put it--"Whoever, therefore, shall confess Me before men, him will I confess, also, before My Father who is in Heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, (and denying is, in that verse, tantamount to not confessing), him will I also deny before My Father who is in Heaven." You have no right to say, "I am a Believer in Christ, but I do not make a profession of my faith." The profession of your faith is, under the Gospel, just as much your duty as the faith, itself, is! Indeed, I venture to say that true faith necessitates a confession of some sort. If a man believes the great Truths of which I have been speaking, he cannot altogether conceal his belief in them--his conviction of their truth is bound to come out sooner or later--and the sooner it comes out, the better. John Bunyan tells us that when he had found the Savior, he wanted to tell the crows on the plowed land all about it--which is to me an indication of the instinct which moves a man, when he has found Christ, to want to proclaim the good news far and wide! Besides, this confession of faith is due to the minister whose message has been blessed to his hearers. Should he not be cheered and comforted by hearing that the Word he has preached has been used of God to the salvation of souls? He has more than enough to depress his spirit--ought he not to have anything that he can to encourage him? And what can bring him greater joy than the knowledge that he has not labored in vain, nor spent his strength for nothing? The confession of faith is also due to the Church with which the convert unites. In the Apostolic days they first gave themselves unto the Lord and then gave themselves unto His people according to the will of God. Why should it not be the same now? How else is the Church to grow? How is it to have new blood put into its veins except concerning the coming forward of the young converts whom the Lord has looked upon in His mercy and saved by His Grace? The confession of faith is especially due to the Lord who has implanted it in the heart. In these evil days when the enemies of the faith seem to be ashamed of nothing, none of those who are His friends ought to be ashamed of Him. The gage of battle has been thrown down. Many are massing around the black standard of the Prince of Darkness, so will not all of you who truly love the Prince Emmanuel, rally around His blood-red banner?-- "You that are men, now serve Him, Against unnumbered foes! Your courage rise with danger, And strength to strength oppose." If, indeed, you have been redeemed by His precious blood. If His Spirit has, indeed, regenerated you. And if His Grace is working in your hearts and lives, surely you cannot be so cowardly as to try to conceal yourselves as secret disciples of Christ! To do battle for Jesus is the most honorable service on earth! And, in the great Day of Account, happy shall he be who has bravely borne his part in the great conflict that is now raging between Christ and His Truth and anti-Christ and his lies! Come to the front, Brothers and Sisters! Come to the front! Press forward to that point where the fight is the fiercest, for he is the happiest Christian who can do, and dare,and sufferthe most for Jesus Christ, his Lord! Do not, for very shame, conceal your faith if you really believe in Jesus! Probably the most of you are placed in positions where you are obliged to speak if you are Believers. In the workshop, how much is there of infidelity! In common business life, how much of indifference! In the gayer circles of society, how much of contempt for true religion! And in the coarser circles, how much of vulgar blasphemy! Shame on the man or woman who can live in the midst of worldlings and never let them know that they belong to Christ! Surely, too, the very fact that you are so often in the company of Christian people ought to make you confess your faith. Even under the old dispensation, "they that feared the Lord spoke often, one to another." And they that truly fear the Lord do the same now. If you are among the God-fearing people of the present day, your speech will betray you. Your Brothers and Sisters in Christ will note your accent, they will perceive that you use their shibboleth, that you have been with Jesus and have learnt of Him. If any of you have received the blessing of salvation through the ministry here, come forward and avow your faith! I do not urge you to do this simply that we may add to our numbers, but as I have already reminded you, this is the reward of our labor which we deserve at your hands. If you have, indeed, passed from death unto life, come out boldly and say so! Though you may be one of the poorer members of the congregation. Though your faith may not be as strong as that of others. Yet if it is genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall rejoice over you and with you with exceeding joy! Whoever you may be, if you are truly trusting in Jesus, "come with us, and we will do you good." When the question rings out in your hearing, "Who is on the Lord's side?" Answer, "I am! I have enlisted among the soldiers of Christ and as I take Him to be my Captain, now, I trust that He will acknowledge me as one of His in the day when the last muster-roll of His troops is called and He gathers them all around Him to share with Him the spoils of His great victory."-- "Stand up! Stand up for Jesus! The strife will not be long. This day the noise of battle, The next the victor's song! To him that overcomes, A crown of life shall be-- He with the King of Glory Shall reign eternally!" III. I can only very briefly refer to the consideration of our text as THE MOTIVE FOR SUPPLICATION. "I believed, therefore have I spoken." First, I believed in prayer, therefore have I spoken unto God. I did not regard it as a religious luxury, a pious but useless exercise and waste of time, as so many nowadays say that prayer to God is. I believe that as truly as you are listening to me, now, so God listens to me and I can speak to Him and receive answers from Him. That is the way to pray, young man--to speak to God because you believe that He is the hearer and answerer of prayer, for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. I also believed that Jesus Christ was pleading for me. By faith I could see the Man, Christ Jesus, standing before His Father's Throne, with His pierced hands uplifted and presenting my poor prayers to His Father and so making them acceptable through His intercession on my behalf. I believed in Him as the Mediator between God and man and, therefore, I dared to speak to God by virtue of His mediation, though I could not have acceptably approached the Majesty on High in any other way. I also believed in the Holy Spirit as working in me and teaching me how to pray. The Holy Spirit gave me right desires and helped my infirmities, for I knew not what to pray for as I ought. But because the mind of the Spirit is also the mind of God, I was able, under His gracious guidance, to approach the Throne of Grace acceptably and, therefore, because I believed in the Spirit, therefore have I spoken unto God in prayer--and I have not spoken in vain! I also believed in God's promise to hear and answer prayer and, therefore, I have spoken unto Him in the full conviction that He would hear and answer me. I believed that every promise that He had given would be kept to the very letter, so I took each promise as I needed it, quoted it when bowing before God in prayer--and then left it with Him, saying, "Lord, do as You have said. Here is Your promise. I believe it, therefore have I spoken it in Your ears. Will You not fulfill this Word unto Your servant, whereon You have caused me to hope?" I believed that God was faithful, so that He would fulfill His promise and that He was willing, so He could fulfill it and grant me all that I needed so long as I could find in His Word a promise adapted to my case. "I believed, therefore have I spoken." This is the way to pray. An unbelieving prayer asks God for a refusal of its requests. Remember what the Apostle James writes--"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." If you believe the Bible, speak of it wherever you can. If you believe in Jesus, preach Him to all who are within sound of your voice. If you believe in the Spirit, walk in His might and tell others of that wondrous power. But if you have never believed, may the Lord grant you Grace to believe in Father, Son and Holy Spirit! May He grant you Grace to believe the Bible, Grace to believe the Gospel and then, when you have believed, may you not keep the blessing to yourself, but first make your own personal confession of faith--and then publish far and wide all that has been revealed to you by the Spirit! So shall you be able to say with the Psalmist, "I believed, therefore have I spoken." God grant it, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM116 We have read this Psalm many times. Let us read it now, regarding it not so much as the language of the Psalmist uttered thousands of years ago, but as our own language at this moment. Verse 1.1 love the LORD. Let us go as far as that if we can. Let us, each one, say, "I love the Lord." 1. Because.There is a reason for this love. People say that love is blind, but love to God uses her eyes and can justify herself! "I love the Lord, because"-- 1. He has heard my voice and my supplications. [See Sermon #240, Volume 5--PRAYER ANSWERED, LOVE NOURISHED.] Can you go as far as that? Do you recollect answers to prayer when you cried to God with your voice, or when your voice failed you, but supplication rose to God from your heart? Surely there is not a man whose prayers have been answered, who does not love God! He must love the Lord when he recollects what poor prayers his were, what great blessings came in answer to them and how speedily and how often God has heard his prayers and granted his requests! 2. Because He has inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. That is a vow which we may well make and hope for Grace to keep it. It means that as we have succeeded so well in begging at God's door, we will keep on begging of Him as long as we live. I suppose the Psalmist meant that because Jehovah had heard him, therefore he would never call upon any false god but, as long as he lived, he would resort to the one living and true God. I hope that you and I can say the same. We have tried the Fountain of Living Waters--why should we go to broken cis- terns that can hold no water? Prayer to God has always succeeded--why should we not continue it? All you who have plied the trade of mendicants at the Mercy Seat must have been so enriched by it in your souls that you are determined to stand there as long as you live. "Because He has inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live." This is sound reasoning, for even the emotions of Believers, when they are most fervent, are based upon solid reasons. We can defend ourselves even when we grow warmest in love to God and most earnest in prayer! Now the Psalmist tells one of his many experiences in prayer-- 3. 4. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of Hell got hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the LORD.Dark days are good days for praying. When your eyes cannot see, you pray all the better! When there is no earthly prop to lean upon, you are all the more ready to lean upon God alone! The Psalmist was like a poor worm in a ring of fire--"the sorrows of death compassed me." The sheriffs officer seemed to hold him in his grip--"the pains of Hell got hold upon me." As for his inner experience, he found nothing there but "trouble and sorrow." When the town of Mansoul was besieged, every way of escape was closed except the way upwards--and it was so with the Psalmist and, therefore, he made use of that way! "Then I called upon the name of the Lord." His prayer was short, earnest and full of meaning-- 4. O LORD. I beseech You, deliver my soul. [See Sermon #1216, Volume 21--TO SOULS IN AGONY.] He did not have to search for a form of prayer--his words were such as came naturally to his mind--and that is the best sort of prayer which arises out of the heart's sincere desire. 5. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yes, our God is merciful The Psalmist was delivered by an act of Grace, yet it was an act of righteousness, for God is not unrighteous to break His own promise, and He has promised to help His people. Grace and righteousness both guarantee answers to believing prayers--and mercy comes in to make assurance doubly sure--"Yes, our God is merciful." 6. The LORD preserves the simple.Straightforward men, those who cannot play a double part, those simpletons whom others take in and laugh at because they are honest, true, genuine--the Lord preserves such people! 6. I was brought low and He helped me. Oh, these blessed personal pronouns! Are you laying hold of them as I read them? Are you speaking them out of your own soul? 7. Return unto your rest, O my soul; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you [See Sermon #2758, Volume 47--"return UNTO YOUR REST."] Come home to Him, for you have no other friend like He in earth or Heaven! Come back to Him, my Soul, and rest where you have often rested before. 8. For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. An eternity of mercies from the Eternal, Himself! 9. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. The best style of living is walking before God, so living in His sight as to be indifferent to the opinions and judgments of our fellow men and only caring to know that God is looking upon us with approval. This is the way to live! And if we have tried it, we have found it to be so pleasant that we are resolved to continue in it! 10. 11. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, All men are liars. They have all failed me. Some of them could but would not help me, so they were as liars to me. Others would but could not, and as I have trusted them, they were as liars to me! But You, my God, are no liar, You are the Truth itself! I ask those of you who have had a very long and varied experience to look back and tell me whether you can recollect even once when your God has broken His promise. You have sometimes been afraid that He would forget it, but has He ever done so? If you speak as you have found Him, you must praise and adore the Faithful, Immutable, All-Sufficient Jehovah who has made your strength to be as your days even to this very hour! 12. What shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits toward me?That question contains the essence of true religion. This should be the one objective of our lives if we have been redeemed by Christ and are His servants. Whatever we have done for God, we should endeavor to do much more--and to do it much better. 13. I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. This is a curious way of rendering anything, yet you know that John Newton's hymn says-- "The best return for one like me So wretched and so poor, Sermon #3200 14-16. I will say my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints. O LORD, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid: You have a great blessing if we are able to say, as David did, that we are born into God's house. Some of us had gracious mothers who brought us to the Lord in earnest prayer long before we knew anything. I can say to the Lord, "I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid"--and I have no greater wish than that all my descendants may be the Lord's. 17-18. I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all His people. Do it, Beloved! Let your hearts pour themselves out in silence, now, and afterwards in grateful song before the Lord. Praise Him, magnify Him, bless His name, "in the presence of all His people." It is inspiriting to be with your Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Perhaps the devotion which burns low when there is only one brand on the hearth will burn all the better and brighter when we add many blazing brands to it! 19. In the courts of the LORD'S house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise you the LORD. __________________________________________________________________ Mercy for the Meanest of the Flock (No. 3201) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "In that day, says the Lord, will I assemble the lame, and I will gather the outcast, and those whom I have afflicted." Micah 4:6. THIS is spoken, I suppose, in the first place, of the Jewish people who have been so afflicted on account of their sin that they almost cease to be a nation. They are driven here and there among the lands and made to suffer greatly. In the last time, when Christ shall appear in His Glory in the days of halcyon peace, then shall Israel partake of the universal joy. Poor, limping, faltering Israel, afflicted with tempest, shall yet be gathered and rejoice in her God! However, I am sure that the text applies to the Church of God and we shall not do amiss if we also find in it promises to individual Christians. We will regard the text in those two lights as spoken to the Church and as spoken to individual souls. I. First, then, AS REFERRING TO THE CHURCH OF GOD. "In that day, says the Lord, will I assemble the lame, and I will gather the outcast, and those whom I have afflicted." The Church of God is not always equally vigorous and prosperous. Sometimes she can run without weariness and walk without fainting, but at other times she begins to limp and is lame. There is a deficiency in her faith, a lukewarm-ness in her love, doctrinal errors spring up and many things that both weaken and trouble her--and then she becomes like a lame person. And, indeed, Beloved, when I compare the Church of God at the present moment with the first Apostolic Church, she may well be called, "the lame." Oh, how she leaped in the first Pentecostal times! What wondrous strength she had throughout all Judea and all the neighboring lands! The voice of the Church in those days was like the voice of a lion--and the nations heard and trembled. The utmost isles of the sea understood the power of the Gospel and before long the Cross of Christ was set up on every shore. Thus was the Church in her early days--the love of her espousals was upon her and her strength was like that of a young unicorn! How the Church now limps! How deficient in vigor, how weak in her actions! If I compare the Church now with the Church in Reformation times, when, in our own land, our fathers went bravely to prison and to the stake to bear witness to the Lord Jesus! When, in Covenanting Scotland and Puritan England, the Truth of God was held with firmness and proclaimed with earnestness and, what is, perhaps, still better, when the Truth of God was lived by those who professed it--then was she mighty, indeed, and not to be compared to "the lame," as I fear she is now in these days of laxity of Doctrine and laxity of life--when error is tolerated in the Church and loose living is tolerated in the world! I might almost use the same simile for the Church, today, as compared with those early days of Methodism when Whitefield was flying like a seraph in the midst of Heaven--preaching in England and America the unsearchable riches of Christ to tens of thousands! When Wesley and others were working with undiminished ardor to reach the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low! Those were good days with all their faults. Life and fire abounded, the God of Israel was glorified, and tens of thousands were converted! The Church seemed as though it had risen from the dead and cast off its grave clothes, and was rejoicing in newness of life! We are not without hopeful signs today. There is not everything to depress, but much to encourage. At the same time, the Church limps--she does not stand firm and run fast. Oh, that God would be pleased to visit her! Moreover, if I look at the text, I perceive that the Church not only is sometimes weak, but, at the same time, or at some other time, the Church is persecuted and made to suffer, for the text speaks of "the outcast." And it has often happened that the Church has been driven right out from among men. It has been said of her, "Away with her from the earth! It is not fit that she should live." But how wondrously God has shown His mercy to His people when they have been driven out! The days of exile have been bright days! The sun never shone more fairly on the Church's brow than when she worshipped God in the catacombs of Rome, or when her disciples "wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented." In our own country, those who met in secret, perpetually pestered by informers who would bring them before the magistrate for joining in prayer and song, often said, when they got their liberty, that they wished they had the days, again, when they were gathered together in the lonely house and scarcely dared to sing loudly! They had brave times in those days, when every man held his soul in his hand. When he worshipped his God not knowing whether the hand of the hangman or the headsman might not soon be upon him. The Lord was pleased to bless His people when the Church was driven out. If the snowy peaks of Piedmont, if the lowlands of Holland, if the prisons of Spain could speak, they would tell of Infinite Mercy experienced by the saints under terrible oppression--of hearts that were leaping to Heaven while the bodies were bruised or burning on earth! God has been gracious to His people when they have been driven out. Sometimes trouble comes to God's people in another way. The Church is afflicted by God Himself It seems as if God had put away His Church for a time and driven her from His Presence. That has happened often in all Churches. Perhaps some of you are members of such Churches now, or have been. Discord has come in and the Spirit of peace has gone. Coldness has come into the pulpit and a chill has come over the pews. The Prayer Meetings are neglected, the seeking of souls is almost given up--the candlestick is there, but the candle seems to be gone, or not to be lighted. The means of Grace have become lifeless. You almost dread the Sabbath which once was your comfort. It is wretched for Christian people when it comes to this! And yet, in scores of villages and towns in England this is the case. The sheep look up and the shepherd looks down but there is no food for the sheep, neither does the shepherd, himself, know where to get the food because he has not been taught of God. It is a melancholy thing, wherever this has been the case, but I would encourage the saints to cry mightily for the return of God's Spirit, for the restoration of unity and peace, earnestness and prayerfulness, that once again the wilderness and the solitary place may be made glad and the desert may rejoice and blossom like the rose! My Brothers and Sisters, may God never treat the Church in England as she deserves to be treated, for when I look around me and see her sins, they seem to rise up to Heaven like a mighty cry! We have been lately told in so many words, by an eminent preacher, that all creeds have something good in them--even the creed of the heathen--and that out of them all the grand creed is to be made, which is yet to be the religion of mankind! God save us from those who talk in this way and yet profess to be sent of God! They who know in their own souls what God's Truth is, will not be led astray by such delusions. But God may visit His Church and chasten her sorely by depriving her of His Spirit for a while. If He has done so, or is about to do so, let us still pray that He may gather the outcast and afflicted. I may not dwell longer upon these points, but hasten to notice the blessing that will come, in answer to prayer, upon Churches that are weak, or sorely persecuted. There are scattering times, no doubt, but we should always pray that we may live in gathering times, that we may be gathered together in unity, in essential oneness around the Cross, in united action for our glorious Master, and that sinners who are far away may be gathered in, too, and backsliders who have wandered may be restored! Pray for gathering times, Brothers and Sisters, and may the day come when the Lord will assemble the lame and will gather the outcast and afflicted. Notice that the text speaks of a "day." So we may expect that God will have His own time of benediction. "In that day, says the Lord, will I assemble the lame." I believe that to be a day in which we enquire after the Lord, a day in which we are prayerful, in which we become anxious, in which an agony lays hold upon the souls of Believers until the Lord shall return unto His people--a day when Christ is revealed in the testimony of the Church and the Gospel is fully preached--in that day will the Lord assemble the lame! May that day speedily come! But if we do not see the blessing tomorrow, let us remember that tomorrow may not be God's day, and let us persevere in prayer till God's day does come. There are better days in store for the Church--and before the page of human history closes, there will be times of triumph for her in which she shall be glorious--and God shall be glorified in her! II. I shall, however, pass from this first point about the Church, because I wish to speak to mourners, to melancholy ones. I trust I have a message of mercy to some that are desponding. We shall look on the text, secondly, AS REFERRING TO INDIVIDUAL SOULS. "In that day, says the Lord, will I assemble the lame." There are three characters described here. Let us look at each of them. First, the soul that limps. Of course by that is intended those Christians who are very weak. Some are "strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." It would be a great mercy if all God's people were so, but there are some Christians who have faith of but a feeble sort. They have love to God, but they sometimes question whether they do love Him at all. They have piety in their hearts, but it is not of that vigorous kind one would desire. It is rather like the spark in the flax, or the music in the bruised reed. They are like Little-Faith and Miss Much-Afraid. They are alive, but only just alive. Sometimes their life seems to tremble in the balance and yet it is hidden with Christ in God and, therefore, it is really beyond the reach of harm! They are the weak ones and God speaks to such weak ones, and says, "I will assemble the lame." It not only means that they are weak, but that they are slow and limping persons. A lame person cannot travel quickly and, oh, how slowly some Christians move! What little advance they make in the Divine Life! They were little children ten years ago and they are little children now. Their own children have grown up to be men, but they themselves do not appear to have made any advance. They are just babes in Grace and still have need of milk. They are not strong enough to feed upon the strong meat of the Kingdom of God. They are slow to believe all that the Prophets and Apostles have spoken, slow to rejoice in God, slow to catch a Truth of God and perceive its bearing, but still slower to get the nutriment out of it and learn its application to themselves. But, slow as they are, I trust we may say of them that they are as sure as they are slow! What steps they do take are well taken. And if they come slowly, like the snail, yet they are like the snail in Noah's days crawling towards the ark--they will eventually get in! With this slowness there is also pain. A lame man walks painfully. Perhaps every time he puts his foot to the ground, a shock of pain goes through his whole system. And some Christians, in their progress in the heavenly life, seem afflicted in like manner. I meet with some Christians who are very sensitive and every time there is anything wrong they are ashamed and grieved. I wish some other Christians had more of that feeling, for it is an awful fact that many professors seem to tamper greatly with sin and think nothing of it at all. Better the sensitive soul that is fearful and timorous, lest it should in any way grieve the Spirit of God--with a watchful eye over itself and a conscience that is quick and tender as the apple of the eye--than such presumption and hardness of heart as others have! But some have this sensitiveness without the other qualities which balance it--and it makes their progress to Heaven a painful one, though a safe one. They do not look enough at the Cross. They do not remember that, "if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." They have not come to see that the Lord Jesus Christ is able to deliver us from all sin, so that indwelling sin shall not have dominion over us, because we are not under the Law, but under Grace. So their progress is painful. But, limping one, this word is for you, "I will assemble the lame, when I call My people together, I will call her; when I send an invitation to a feast, I will direct one specially to her. She is weak, she is slow, she is in pain, but for all that I will assemble her with My people." The allusion, perhaps, is to a sheep that has somehow been lamed. The shepherd has to get all the flock together and, therefore, he must bring the lame ones in, too. And the Good Shepherd of the sheep takes care that the lame sheep shall be gathered. I find that the original word has somewhat of the import of one-sidedness--a lame sheep goes as if it went on one side. It cannot use this foot, and so it has to throw its weight on the other side. How many Christians there are that have a one-sidedness in religion and, unfortunately, that often happens to be the gloomy side! They are very properly suspicious of themselves, but they do not add to that a weight of confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking back upon their past and seeing their own unfaithfulness, they forget God's faithfulness! Looking upon the present, they see their own imperfections and infirmities--and forget that the Spirit helps our infirmities--and that if we had no infirmities, there would be nothing for the Spirit to do to glorify Himself in our weakness! When they look forward to the future, they see the dragons and the dark river of death, but they forget that promise, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you." What a mercy it is that the Lord will not forget these one-sided limpers, but that even they shall be assembled when, with the Shepherd's crook, He gathers His flock and brings them Home! We may add to these, those who have got tired with the trials of the way. It is a weary thing to be lame. It saddens my heart to often see the sheep go through the London streets. They go limping along, poor things, so spent and spiritless. There are many Christians who are like they are--they seem to have been so long in trouble that they do not know how to bear up any longer. What with the loss of the husband and the loss of the child. What with poverty and many struggles and no apparent hope of deliverance. What with one sickness and then another in their own bodies. What with one temptation and then another temptation, and then a third, they feel very wearied by the way. They are like Jacob when he limped on his thigh. The blessing is that the Lord says, "I will assemble the lame." Lay hold on that, you limping ones! I daresay you suppose you are the last one of the flock. You have got so tired and lame that you think that though all the others are close by the Shepherd's hand, you are forgotten. You remember that the Amalekites in the wilderness fell upon the children of Israel and smote some of the hindmost of them and, perhaps, you are afraid that you will get smitten in that way. Let me remind you of a text--"The Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rereward." Those that lead the way can rejoice that God goes before them, but you can rejoice that God is behind you, as we read again, "The glory of the Lord shall be your rereward." He will take care that you shall not be destroyed. But now, secondly, the soul that is exiled--"I will gather the outcast." Perhaps I address someone here who has been driven out from the world. It was not a very great world, that world of yours, but still, it was very dear to you. You loved father, mother, brothers and sisters, but you are a speckled bird among them now. Sovereign Grace and electing love have lighted on you, but not on them. At first they ridiculed you when you went to hear the Gospel--but now that you have received it and they perceive that you are in earnest--they persecute you. You are one by yourself. You almost wish you did not live among them because you are farther off from them than if you were really away from them. Nothing you can do pleases them. There are sure to be a thousand faults and they fling the taunt at you when you fail, and say, "This is your religion!" You cry out, "Woe is me that I dwell in Meshech!" Do you remember what became of the man when the Pharisees cast him out? Why, the Lord met him and graciously took him in! Remember what Jesus said to His disciples, "If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." When I go to a man's house and his dog barks at me, he does it because I am a stranger. And when you go into the world and the world howls at you--it is because you are different from worldlings and they recognize in you the Grace of God--and pay the only homage which evil is ever likely to pay to goodness, namely, persecute it with all their might! Perhaps, however, it is worse than that. "I should not mind being driven out from the world," you say, "I could take that cheerfully, but I seem driven out from the Church of God." There may be two ways in which this may come about. Perhaps you have been zealous for the Lord God of Israel in the midst of a cold church and you have spoken, perhaps not always prudently. The consequence is that you have angered and vexed the brethren, and they have thought that you fancied yourself to be better than they, though such a thought was far from your mind. It is an unfortunate thing for a man to be born before his time, yet he may be a grand man. Some Christians in certain churches seem to live ahead of their brethren. It is a good thing but, as surely as Joseph brought down the enmity of his own brothers upon himself because he walked with God and God revealed Himself to him, so is it likely that you, if you are in advance of your brethren, will draw down opposition upon yourself which will be very bitter. Never mind if the servants repulse you! Go and tell their Master--do not go and grumble at them! Pray their Master to mend their manners. He knows how to do it! But it is just possible that you have been driven out only in your own thoughts. Perhaps the members of the church really love you and esteem you, and think highly of you. But you have become so depressed in spirit that you do not feel that you have any right to be in the church. You have made up your mind that you will not be a hypocrite and, therefore, you have given up all profession. You have a notion that some of your fellow members think evil of you and wonder how ever such an one as you can come to the church. Oh, the many poor little lambs that come bleating around me with their troubles! And when I tell them, "I never heard anything against you in my life! I never heard anybody speak of you but with love and respect. I never observed anything in you but tenderness of conscience and a quiet holy walk with God," they seem quite surprised! Brethren, look after your fellow members--do not let them think you are cold to them. Some of them will think it whatever you may do. Some of you, Brothers and Sisters, are thought to be so proud that you will not look at people! If they did but know the truth, they would see that you are very different. Now, you lambs, do not be grieved about nothing. But you who are stronger than they, mind that you do not give any offense that can be prevented. It is impossible but that offenses will come, but "woe unto him through whom they come." Let us be careful not to break the bruised reed, even by accidentally treading upon it. But, dear Brother or Sister, if that is your condition, let me tell you that you are not driven out--it is quite a mistake. But if you think so--go to your Lord. If you will tell Jesus, He will make up for any apparent change that may come over His people. Ah, but I think I hear one say, "It is not being driven out from the world that hurts me, nor being driven out from the Church. I could bear that--but I am driven out from the Lord, Himself! I seem to have lost His company and losing that I have lost all-- "'What peaceful hours I once enjoyed! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching void The world can never fill. Thank God if you feel like that! If the world could fill your heart, it would prove that you are no child of God! But if the world cannot fill it, then Christ will come and fill it! If you will be satisfied with nothing but Him, He will satisfy you. If you are saying, "I will not be comforted till Jesus comforts me," you shall get the comfort you need. He never left a soul to perish that was looking to Him and longing for Him! Cry to Him, again, and this text shall be true to you, "I will gather the outcast." May that Word come home to some of you! I do not know where you may be, but the Master does-- may He apply the promise to your hearts! One other person is mentioned here--the soul that is troubled--"those whom I have afflicted." Yes, and in all Churches of God there are some dear, good friends that are more afflicted than others. They are often the best people. Are you surprised at that? Which vine does the gardener prune the most? That which bears the most and the sweetest fruit! He uses the knife most upon that because it will pay for pruning. Some of us seem scarcely to pay for pruning--we enjoy good health, but when trial comes, when the Lord prunes us, we may say--"Thank God! He means to do something with me after all!" Perhaps this afflicted one is afflicted in body--scarcely a day without pain, scarcely a day without the prospect of more suffering. Well, if there is any child the mother is sure to remember, it is the sick one! And if there are any Christians to whom God is peculiarly familiar, they are His afflicted ones. "You will make all his bed in his sickness," is said concerning a sick saint. The Lord makes your bed, dear Brothers and Sisters, if you are suffering bodily pain! Some are mentally afflicted. Much of the doubts and fears we hear about comes from some degree of mental aberration. The mental trouble may be very slight, but it is very common. I suppose that there is not a perfectly sane man among us. When that great wind blew, at the time of the Fall, a slate blew off everybody's house--and some are more affected than others so that they take the black view of all things. This mental infirmity, for which they are not to be blamed, will probably be with them till they get to Heaven. Well, God blesses those who are thus troubled! Then some are spiritually afflicted. Satan is permitted to try them very much. There is only one way to Heaven, but I find that there is a bit of the road that is newly stoned, a harder path to travel on, and some persons seem to go to Heaven all over the new stones--their soul is perpetually exercised--while God grants to others to choose the smoother parts of the way and go triumphantly on. Let those I have spoken of hear the Word of promise, "I will gather those whom I have afflicted," for when God, Himself, gives the affliction, He will bring His servant through and glorify Himself thereby. To close, let us regard this promise, "I will gather her," as meaning, "I will gather My tried ones into the fellowship of the Church. I will bring My scattered sheep near to Me." The Lord Jesus will gather His dear people into fellowship with Himself. "I will gather them every day around My Mercy Seat. I will gather them, by-and-by, on the other side of Jordan, on those verdant hilltops where the Lamb shall forever feed His flock and lead them to living fountains of waters." Poor, tried, lame, afflicted, limping soul, the Shepherd has not forgotten you! He will gather all His sheep and they shall pass again under the hands of Him that counts them--there shall not be one missing! I cannot make out how some of my Brothers think that the Lord will lose some of His people--that there are some whom Jesus has bought with His blood who will get lost on the way to Heaven! It is an unhappy shepherd who finds some of his flock devoured by the wolf, but our Shepherd will never be in that strait with His sheep. He says, "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." What do you say to that, you limping ones? What do you say to that, you, the last of all? He has given eternal life to you as much as to the strongest of the flock and you shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you out of His hand! He will gather you with the rest of His sheep. And when will He fulfill that promise, Beloved? He is always fulfilling it and He will completely fulfill it in the day when He is manifested. As this chapter describes Him, when He comes to make peace, and men beat their swords into plowshares, then will He gather you. Even now, when He comes as the great Peace-Giver, He gathers those whom are lame. When the storms of temptation lie still, awhile, and He shows Himself in the heart as the God that walked the sea of Galilee of old, then are His people gathered into peace--they rest in that day. Thank God, the most tried and troubled Believer has some gleams of sunlight. In winter time, sometimes, you know there comes a day which looks like a summer's day when the gnats come out and think it is spring--and the birds begin to sing as if they thought that surely winter was over and past! In the darkest experience there are always some blessed gleams of light--just enough to keep the soul alive. That is in one measure the fulfillment of the promise, "I will assemble the lame...in that day." But the day is coming when you and I who have been limping, feeble and weak, shall be gathered, never to limp, never to doubt and never to sin again! I do not know how long it may be. Some of you are a long way ahead of me, according to your years, but we cannot tell. The youngest of us may go soonest, for there are last that shall be first, and first that shall be last. But there is such a day written in the eternal decrees of God when we shall lay aside every tendency to sin, every tendency to doubt, every capacity for tribulation, every need for chastisement--and then we shall mount and soar away to the bright world of endless day! What a mercy it will be to find ourselves there! Oh, how we shall greet Jesus with joy and gladness and tell of redeeming Grace and dying love that brought Home even the limping ones and the weakest and the feeblest! I think those that are reckoned strong and do the most for God are generally those who think themselves weakest when it comes to the stripping time. I read of a man who had been the means of the conversion of many hundreds of souls by personal private efforts--I refer to Harlan Page. On his dying bed he said, "They talk of me, but I am nothing, nothing, nothing." He mourned over his past life--to him it seemed that he had done nothing for his Master, that his life was a blank. He wept to think he had done so little for Christ while everyone was wondering how he had lived such a blessed and holy life! That man only is rich towards God who begins to know his emptiness and feels that he is less than nothing, and vanity. Beloved, it is because those who serve God best often feel that they are lame, driven away, afflicted, and tossed with doubts and fears--it is because of this that this promise is put to the lowest case and the blessing given to the very meanest capacity! It is so in order that one who is strong may be able to come in, and when in depression of spirit say, "That promise will suit me! I will get a grip of it. I will come to God with it in my hands and at the Mercy Seat get it fulfilled to me, even to me." The Lord grant you, Beloved, to be numbered among His jewels in that day! What shall I say to those who know nothing about the Divine Life at all, who, perhaps, are saying, "Well, we never get to limping or doubting. We have a merry time of it"? Yes and so does the butterfly, while the summer lasts, but the winter kills it. Your summer may last a little while, but the chill of death will soon be on you--and then what is there for you but hopeless misery forever and forever? God give you Grace to fly to Jesus now and be saved with an everlasting salvation, through Jesus Christ, our Savior! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MCAH4. Verse 1. But in the last days it shall come topass that the mountain ofthe house ofthe LORD shall be established in the top ofthe mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow unto it [See Sermon #249, Volume 5--a vision OF THE LATTER DAY GLORIES.] God's cause and Kingdom shall not be hidden away in a corner--"the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains," an Alp upon other Alps, higher than all the other hills! The day is coming when the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be the most conspicuous thing in the whole world, "and people shall flow unto it." The heathen, the people who knew nothing about it, shall flow to it like a great river! 2. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. That is the way the Grace of God works in us--He teaches and then we not only learn--but we obey. 2, 3. For the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word ofthe LORD from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off The Kingdom of Christ, the Son of David, shall attract people and nations that were far off from the holy city where He lived and died. 3. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. They shall give up the study of the art of war. Their spirit shall be softened--in many cases renewed by Grace--and then they shall take to the useful arts. They shall not throw away their swords, but shall beat them into plowshares. They shall not hurl their spears into the earth, but shall bend them into scythes or pruning hooks. Oh, that the day were come when the wealth and ingenuity and power of nations were used in the pursuits of peace instead of in the arts of war! This is the tendency of the Kingdom of Christ, for wherever He comes, He makes peace. Nothing is more opposed to the spirit of Christianity than war--and when men are Christians, not in name only, but in deed and in truth--wars must cease. 4. But they shall sit, every man under his vine and under his fig tree: and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken it The best evidence that this will be the case is that the Lord of Hosts, who has all power at His disposal, has said that it shall be so! 5. For all people will walk, everyone in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name ofthe LORD our God forever and ever.When we learn to know God in truth, we do not give Him up, but we walk in His name forever and ever. God's Covenant with us is an Everlasting Covenant, reaching beyond time and enduring throughout eternity. Some nations have discarded their idol gods, but those who really know and love the Lord will walk in His name forever and ever. 6. In that day, says the LORD will I assemble the lame. God will bring to Himself you that limp, that hesitate, that tremble, that fear--"I will assemble the lame." 6. And I will gather the outcast Hunted by Satan and harassed by care. Frightened by depression of spirit. "I will gather the outcast" 6. And those whom I have afflicted. If God has laid His hand upon one of you so that you have a special affliction from Him you have this gracious promise that He will gather you to Himself! 7. And I will make those who limped a remnant, and those who were cast far off, a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever. Little scattered communities, Churches which have been weak and feeble, shall have the strengthening of God and they shall be, through His Sovereign Grace, a remnant saved by Grace to His praise and Glory! Note how everything here is done by God--you keep on reading, "I will," "I will, "I will." Oh, those blessed, "I wills" of God! Our wills are often defeated and disappointed, but God's, "I wills" stand fast forever! 8. Andyou, O tower ofthe flock, the stronghold ofthe daughter of Zion, unto you shallit come, even the first dominion; the Kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. So it did. "Beginning at Jerusalem," was Christ's order concerning the preaching of the Gospel after His Resurrection. The first servants of Christ were of that ancient people who might be called the "tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion." Oh, that Christ would soon return in mercy to the-- "Chosen seed of Israel's race, A remnant weak and small"-- and gather them to Himself, for that would be the fullness of the Gentiles, also! 9. Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no King in you? Is your Counselor perished? Sometimes our prayers may be the utterance of our fears rather than of our faith--and then the question comes, "Is there no King in you? Is your Counselor perished?" Can we not trust to Him whose name is "Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace"? 10. For pangs have taken you as a woman in travail.They are sharp pangs, but they lead to life and, therefore, they are blessed pangs after all! 10. Be inpain, andlabor to bringforth, O daughter ofZion, like a woman in travail: for now shall you go forth out of the city and you shall dwell in the field, and you shall go even to Babylon: there shall you be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem you from the hand of your enemies. It looks more like a threat than a promise that God would send His people to Babylon, but there they were to be delivered. And it oftentimes happens with us that we must be brought into captivity before we are set free--we must feel the weight of the iron bondage of sin and Satan before we are brought out into the glorious liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free! 11. Now also many nations are gathered against you that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eyes look upon Zion. All the enemies of Israel came together, hoping to destroy her. They saw that God had left her for a while in their hands, so they maliciously sought her destruction. 12. But they know not the thoughts of the LORD. They had their own thoughts and they thought that the Lord meant what they meant--the entire destruction of the chosen race! So the Prophet says, "But they know not the thoughts of the Lord"-- 12. Neither understand they His counsel: for He shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. God let them come together, great hosts of them, like the sheaves of wheat upon the threshing floor. Then see what the Lord says-- 13. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass; and you shall beat in pieces many people. She was to be like the ox that treads out the corn and she was to have horns of iron and hoofs of brass with which to break in pieces those that had oppressed her! 13. And I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. So that, when they expected to destroy her, she destroyed them! And there may come a day when all the great men and the wise men and the proud men of the world will come together to destroy the Church of Christ, but, oh, how mistaken they will be! For when their pride is at its height, then will the poor weak Church of Christ be suddenly strengthened by the Most High and she shall tread them under her feet and they shall be utterly defeated to the praise of the Glory of the God of Zion who lives forever and ever! __________________________________________________________________ "It Pleased God" (No. 3202) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, OCTOBER 19, 1862. "It pleased God." Galatians 1:15. WE will read the whole verse from which our text is taken--"But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His Grace." You will perceive, I think, in these words, that the Divine plan of salvation is very clearly laid down. It begins, you see, in the will and pleasure of God--"when it pleased God." The foundation of salvation is not laid in the will of man. "It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy." It does not begin with man's obedience and then proceed onward to the purpose of God--but here is its commencement, here the fountainhead from which the Living Waters flow--"It pleased God." Next to the Sovereign will and good pleasure of God comes the act of separation, commonly known by the name of election. This act is said, in the text, to take place even in the mother's womb, by which we are taught that it took place before our birth when as yet we could have done nothing whatever to win it or to merit it! God separated us from the earliest part and time of our being! And, indeed, long before that, when as yet the mountains and hills were not piled and the oceans were not formed by His creative power, He had, in His eternal purpose, set us apart for Himself. Then, after this act of separation came the effectual calling--"and called me by His Grace." The calling does not cause the election--the election, springing from the Divine purpose, causes the calling! The calling comes as a consequence of the Divine purpose and the Divine separation, and you will note how the obedience follows the calling. The Apostle does not begin to be a preacher, according to the purpose and will of God, until first of all the Spirit of God has called him out of his state of nature into a state of Grace. So the whole process runs thus--first the sacred, Sovereign purpose of God, then the distinct and definite election or separation, then the effectual and irresistible calling and then afterwards, the obedience unto life, and the sweet fruits of the Spirit which spring from there. They err, not knowing the Scriptures, who put any of these processes before the others, out of the Scriptural order. They who put man's will first, know not what they say, nor whereof they affirm, for it is not of the will of man, says the Apostle in the most peremptory and positive manner--the salvation of any soul is a display of the eternal purpose and Sovereign will of God! And, Beloved, by this test may we know the certainty of our election, if we have obediently yielded to the call of God. If the Divine calling has produced in us the fruit of obedience, then we may assuredly believe that we were separated unto God before time began, and that this separation was according to the eternal purpose and will of God! Like golden links of a chain, any one of these will draw on the others. Am I justified? Then I was called by God's Grace. Am I called? Then I was predestined to be called and, on the other hand, if I was predestined, then I shall be called, being called, I shall be justified, being justified, I shall be glorified! I think I have used this illustration before. On that bank of the great river of time is the massive pillar of Divine Foreknowledge and Predestination, and on the other side of the river is the equally massive pillar of Glorification. How are we to bridge these two? Both of these pillars are in the mists and clouds of eternity, but these stupendous chains stretch right across the intervening chasm--"Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified." If I want to know what my relation is to Predestination way over yonder in the past, I think of my calling, for I have been called, and so I am linked with the past! And if I want to know whether I shall be glorified, I know that, also, by the fact that I am today justified. So, as I stand here, I am linked with both the past and the future-- linked so perfectly that neither time, nor life, nor death, nor Hell shall ever be able to break the bonds that bind me equally to the Predestination in the past and the Glorification in the future! You see then, dear Friends, that from this verse, as a whole, we learn the Divine plan of salvation! And by it we may judge as to our own interest in it. But now, leaving the rest of the verse, let us consider the three words that form our text. "It pleased God." I. First, we have here THE FOUNDATION OF DIVINE GRACE. The reason why Paul was saved was this--"It pleased God." And the only reason why you or I will ever enter Heaven must be this--"It pleased God." You can clearly perceive, in the Apostle's case, that there could be no other reason. It could not be because of any merit of his that he was saved, for what was he? A blasphemer, he says, and a persecutor-- so thirsty for the blood of saints that even in his younger days, he guarded the clothes of the murderers who stoned Stephen. Afterwards, he hated men and women, and committed them to prison, and compelled them to blaspheme, "and being"--to use his own expressive words--"exceedingly mad against them," he "persecuted them even unto strange cities." There could be nothing in that persecuting Jew, whose very breath was full of threats, and whose heart was like a furnace of fury against the saints--there could be nothing in him which could be a reason why God should save him! If saved, it must be because "it pleased God." And, most decidedly, there was no co-action of the Apostle's will tending to his conversion. You remember the scene. I see him there, upon his proud charger, riding onward toward Damascus. He has in his possession letters which he treasures more than gold, for they give him the permission of the high priest to seize the saints at Damascus and carry them bound to Jerusalem. He rides on proudly, yonder is the city glittering in the sun, and he is meditating upon the deeds of blood and fury he will perform there--who can stop that man? But at midday God arrests him! "A light from Heaven, above the brightness of the sun," shines upon him. The men that are with him see the light, but they know not what it is. He falls to the ground and a Voice cries to him from Heaven, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" He enquires, "Who are You, Lord?" The answer comes, "I am Jesus whom you persecute: it is hard for you to kick against the pricks," like an ox kicking against the sharp goad. He rises blind, yet seeing more than he ever saw before! He goes into Damascus, not to hunt Christ's disciples, but to learn from Ananias the Good News that Christ's pardon may be given even to him! In three days' time, he is converted, baptized into the name of Christ, comes forth to tell the little Church at Damascus what God has done for his soul and in the synagogues preaches that Christ is the Son of God! What reason can there be why this persecutor of the saints should have been saved but this--"It pleased God"? Do not imagine that this is an exceptional experience. On the contrary, such cases occur every day! Many come into this place of worship as skeptics and go out sincere Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some have I known who have come here only to laugh and scoff, but they have remained to pray. No thought was further from their mind than that they should ever become the followers of the Lamb--but the Divine power, which was not necessarily connected with the preacher--carried the Word into their hearts, arrested them on the spot, changed their natures, made them new creatures in Christ Jesus and sent them on their way rejoicing in their newly-found Savior! And I am sure that all such persons will bear their willing witness that they can see no reason but for the Grace which was bestowed on them but this -- "It pleased God." There are some whose lives have proved how sinful their nature was, for their sin has taken the form of open and gross vice. They are like that woman in the city who was a sinner. And as they resemble her in their sin, I trust that they will also resemble her in their love and be ready to wash the Savior's feet with their tears, and wipe them with the hairs of their heads! There may be some who are now truly converted, who have sinned as deeply as even Saul of Tarsus did. Then let them acknowledge, as he did, that their conversion was due to the undeserved favor of God! John Bradford's saying has often been quoted, but it will bear repeating again and again. He lived in a house past which people used to be taken on the way to Tyburn to be hanged. And in those cruel times there were many poor wretches thus hurried out of existence--some of them for crimes which are far more leniently punished now. As the honest preacher saw them pass his house, he said, "There goes John Bradford but for the Grace of God." He felt that he was, by nature, capable of doing just what they had done, and that only Divine Grace had made him to differ from them. And when I hear or read of some atrocious sinner, I say to myself, "That man is what I might have been if God had left me to take my own course, for by nature I am no better than he is. I might not have fallen into his special form of sin, for the bent of my constitution may not be in that particular direction, but I might have committed some other sin which would have been quite as bad as his." One vessel may leak at the bow and another may leak at the stern, but it does not much matter where the leak is--in either case the vessel will sink. And those of you who have been converted as the result of a regular attendance at the House of Prayer, when you come to remember how many others who are still unregenerate, who have been sitting side by side with you, you can only say, as you think who caused you to differ from them--"It pleased God." How often one is taken and the other left! Two women come up to worship at the same time and sit under the sound of the same message--one retires impenitent, the other's heart is broken. As we note the contrast between them, we can only stand and, holding up our hands in wonder, say, "What is the reason for this difference, Lord? There can be none except that so it seemed good in Your sight." I know that there are many who the moment they hear this Doctrine proclaimed, begin to quibble at it and quarrel with it. They do not think that God should thus do as He pleases in the work of salvation! But let me tell them that it is because they care not for God that they feel as they do in this matter. Opposition to Divine Sovereignty is essentially atheism. Men have no objection to a god who is really no God! I mean by this, a god who shall be the subject of their fancy, who shall be a lackey to their will, who shall be under their control--they have no objection to such a being as that! But a God who speaks and it is done! Who commands and it stands fast! A God who has no respect for their persons, but does as He wills among the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of this lower world--such a God as this they cannot endure! And yet, is it not essential to the very Being of God that He should be absolute and supreme? Certainly, to the Scriptural conception of God, Sovereignty is an absolute necessity! Let me say, then, to those who quarrel with the Lord for doing as He pleases in the conversion of sinners that first, He has the right to do so through His own inherent Sovereignty. He made men and He has the right to do with them just as He pleases. "Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" If any man says to God, "Why have You made me thus?" The only answer is, "No, but, O man, who are you that replies against God?" Dread, mysterious and profound as the Doctrine of Divine Sovereignty is, yet it certainly must be acknowledged that He who is God has an absolute and inherent right to do as He wills with all those whom He has, Himself, created-- "Mortals, be dumb! What creature dares Dispute His awful will? Ask no account of His affairs, But tremble and be still." But some of your animosity to this Doctrine may perhaps be melted if you recollect that God's Sovereignty is never displayed apart from His righteousness! To entrust a man with absolute power would be most dangerous, for he is fallible. But to entrust absolute Holiness and Righteousness with absolute power is the safest way of governing the whole universe. God cannot do an unrighteous thing, therefore let Him do whatever He wills! Who would wish to limit One whose acts must be from the very Character that is essential to His Being, just and true? No man who is lost will ever be able to blame God's Sovereignty for it. The man that perishes shall justly perish because of his sins. And in Hell, this shall be to him the pang of pangs--that he cannot reproach God, but that his damnation lies at his own door since he incensed the Justice of God, which must punish him for his sin. And in like manner, the saints in Heaven, though saved as the result of Divine Sovereignty, may boast that that Sovereignty never violated Justice, for, before God would bring one of them to Heaven, He gave His Son to bleed and die that the demands of Justice might be fully met before the sinner was saved! I will venture to go even further than this and to say that the Sovereignty of God is never exercised apart from His mercy and His benevolence. We know that "God is Love," and who would limit love? As "God is Love," let Him be absolute, for He will assuredly do that which, on the whole, is the best for all His creatures, as well as most for the Glory of His own perfect Character. Then, as this is the case, how ought we to delight to think that God is free and bound by no law but His own will, which is the fountain of all law, and constrained by no necessity but the carrying out of His own eternal purpose of love and mercy! I feel sure that much of the opposition to the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty springs from a misunderstanding of God. I know that some misrepresent this Truth of God as though God were an almighty tyrant, but Scripture gives no warrant for such a caricature. And I again enter, as I have already often entered, my earnest protest against such an insult to my God! When any man perishes, lay not his blood at God's door. If any man is lost, his ruin is caused by himself and not to be laid to the charge of our ever-gracious God. Yet remember, at the same time, that if any are saved, the glory of their salvation must be ascribed to God! I am often asked, "How do you make those two statements consistent with one another?" But that question does not perplex me, for I do not see how they are inconsistent with each other. Someone says, "But I do not understand this Doctrine." Perhaps not, but remember that while we are bound to tell you the Truths of God, we are not bound to give you the power to understand them. And besides, this is not a subject for understanding--it is a matter for believingbecause it is revealed in the Word of God! It is one of the axioms of theology that if a man is lost, God must not be blamed for it. And it is also an axiom of theology that if a man is saved, God must have all the glory of it. That "salvation is of the Lord" is as plainly revealed in Scripture as anything that we see in nature! And that destruction is of man, is equally plain, both from the nature of things and from the teaching of Scripture! Hold the two Truths of God--do not try to run to the extreme, either of the Hyper-Calvinist or of the ultra-Arminian. There is some truth in Calvinism and some in Arminianism, and he who would hold the whole Truth of God must neither be cramped by the one system nor bound by the other, but take Truth wherever he can find it in the Bible--and leave it to the God of Truth to show him, when he gets into another world, anything that is beyond his comprehension now. At all events, I have laid this down very plainly and I think every converted person must agree with it, that if any of us are saved, the explanation of our conversion is the same as the explanation of Paul's--"It pleased God." II. Now, secondly, I shall use the text in another way. We have, here, GROUNDS FOR HUMILITY. Paul was a preacher, but why was he a preacher? Because "it pleased God." You are a deacon, or you are an elder, or you are a minister--is there any ground for boasting here? Who made you what you are? "It pleased God." That is the only possible explanation! Had God willed it, you might have been sweeping a crossing. You might have been at this moment in some tavern groveling in drunkenness. You might have been a miserable wretch in prison. Any honorable office that you hold in the Church is the result, not of your meriting it, but of God's graciousness towards you in having put you where you are. The angels in Heaven are humble because they remember who made them and kept them angels, for they would have been devils in Hell if God had not preserved them in their first estate. In like manner, office in the Church is a ground for humility, not for boasting! If we are thus favored, it is because "it pleased God." The Apostle was also a great laborer. He could truthfully say, "I labored more abundantly than they all." What then? Was that a reason for boasting? By no means, for he added, "yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me." Are you passionately zealous for the conversion of men? Do you labor both by night and by day to propagate the Truth of God and to bring sinners to the Cross of Christ? Then continue in your noble employment, but do not plume yourself upon this as though you deserved some praise from God for it! Remember that every virtue you possess, everything about you that is pure, and lovely, and of good report, has come to you because "it pleased God." Paul was, moreover, a most successful preacher. Thousands acknowledged him as their spiritual father. Through a great part of Asia, through Greece and Italy, probably onward through Spain and, perhaps, even in Great Britain, there were found traces of the victorious march of this great soldier of the Cross! Wherever he went, he confounded the reason-er, put to silence the boaster, made the heathen feel that one had come among them who would hurl their idols from their pedestals! He came like John the Baptist, casting down the high hills and filling up the valleys to make straight a highway for his God, yet I never find him boasting of all this, but, laying all his honors at Jehovah's feet, he said, "By the Grace of God I am what I am," or, in the words of our text, "It pleased God." There are some people in the world who are constantly warning some of us against pride and we are duly thankful for their warnings--they are, no doubt, greatly needed--and it is very generous on their part to bestow them upon us, especially as some of them sorely need the warnings themselves! I remember some time ago receiving a warning against pride from a Christian woman who told me that she would pray that I might be kept humble. I thanked her and told her that I should do the same for her, whereupon she said that she did not require it, for she had no temptation to be proud, she had nothing to be proud of and, therefore, she was quite sure she would never be proud. Then I told her gently but decidedly, that I thought she was already proud, or else she would not have uttered such a speech as that! I added that God had His own way of keeping humble those whom He calls to stand in conspicuous places--and His usual way was by chastening them in private when their people knew nothing about it. And I also said that it was quite as easy to be proud and to do nothing as to be proud and to do much. Oh, dear, the lay ministers that I have seen who seemed to have had their backs made of cast iron--idle preachers who would scarcely bring one soul to Christ in a century! Yet they were so dignified and maintained "the dignity of their profession" with such vigor that there seemed to be every reason to expect that they would die of dignity one of these days, like the Spanish monarch who perished because his chair was too near the fire! It was not according to court etiquette that he should move it, himself, or that he should ring the bell for anybody else to do it and, therefore, he sat still till he brought on a fever by which he afterwards lost his life. If we have nothing, we should be humble because of our poverty--and if we have much, we ought to be humble because we are so much in debt to God! A man who owes £10,000 has no cause to crow over his fellow debtor who owes far less than he does. He would be foolish if he said, "I have more to be proud of than you have, for I owe £10,000, but you only owe £100." Why, that would be the reason why he should hang his head down still lower! And so should it be with the man whom God greatly honors. This should be the reason for keeping himself very humble because he knows--and God will make him remember it, too--that if there is any difference between him and other men, it is only because "it pleased God." III. Now I am going to use our text in a third way as A REASON FOR COURAGE. I should like to see more of this virtue than we see nowadays. We live in an age which needs to have a large infusion of the heroic martyr spirit which enabled our forefathers to go boldly to the block or to the stake for Christ's sake. We may well blush as we see how many professors are ashamed of the religion which they are supposed to have received. If they are called to do some work for Christ, how often do they stop and parley, and question, and hesitate and, at last, when they have summoned up enough courage to come forward, it is only with an apology upon their lips for daring to do something for Jesus! I heard one say of a certain preacher, "I greatly admired him, for he commenced his sermon by saying, 'Permit a young man to address you.'" I said, "That is not the way God's servants ought to talk. If God has given them anything to say for Him, they have not to ask anybody's permission to say it, nor should they apologize to anybody for saying it as God enables them to say it." Apologies are out of place in the pulpit! The man whom God sends to speak for Him is God's ambassador--he has no right to apologize for delivering his Lord's message! He who professes to be sent of God either is or is not God's ambassador. If he is not, let him at once take himself off the pulpit! If he is his Master's accredited representative, he needs no excuse and should make none. I think it will make us courageous and help us to do exploits for God if we can feel that we do our work because it pleases God. I have never approved of the warfare of the old Commonwealth days. I do not believe that, after all, England gained much by fighting. Under Cromwell, she gained liberty for a time, but it was soon lost again, as liberty always must be if it is only won by the sword. But mark you, I must say this--that which made Cromwell so mighty was the firm conviction that "it pleased God" to make him the leader of the Ironsides! And that which made his soldiers victorious on so many hard-fought fields was that they also felt that "it pleased God." To them it was not a question as to whether it was lawful to fight--they had made up their minds about that matter. Taking out their little soldiers' Bible, they read some fiery Psalm. And having read it, their blood boiled and, as the old Crusaders cried, "Deus vult,"--"God wills it"--they shouted their battle cry, "The Lord of Hosts," and dashed into the fight! And they were victorious because they felt that "it pleased God." And now, today, battling inch by inch, and contending hour by hour against the leaguered hosts of sin, you and I can never be mighty if we only stand in our own strength and question our call to be soldiers of the Cross! But if we felt that each blow that we strike pleases God--and if in every advance we make into the enemy's territory we can say, "It pleases God," and if our war cry as we dash to the conflict is, "It pleases God"--then we shall feel the earth shake again beneath the tramp of the heroes' feet and we shall see the Church of God as she should be--"fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." Why, even the power of the Crusaders arose from the fact that they thought the Crusaders "pleased God." Brothers and Sisters, we must get back this old enthusiasm if ever our land is to be swept clear of Popery! If ever Europe is to become free with God's freedom, if ever Africa is to have the light of the Truth of God driving away her dense darkness, if ever Asia, America and Australia are to be won for the Lord Jesus Christ, they whom God has called to the conflict must fight because it pleases God! Surely none of you who profess to be Christ's will be content unless you do something to help toward this great end because it pleases God! As you come to the Communion Table, realize that God is within you, making your body His Throne and enabling you to carry out your great life purpose of glorifying God in your body and in your spirit which are His. Do all that you do because it pleases God! If His Spirit shall help you to feel and act thus, blessed shall it be both for the Church and for the world! My time has gone, yet I am not nearly done, so I must give you the rest in brief. Here is AN ARGUMENT FOR PATIENCE. "It pleased God." The cup is bitter, the knife is sharp, the bit is hard, the bereavement is sore, but as it pleases God, we kiss the rod and patiently bow to our Father's will. Then, next, we have here A SUGGESTION FOR HOPE. If it pleased God to save Saul of Tarsus--and if the only reason why He should save him was because He pleased to do it--then why cannot He save you? Have you been a drunkard? Have you dived into the foul slough of lust? Have you defiled yourself by dishonesty? Still, if it pleases God, He can save you! Now I know it pleases God to save everyone who trusts in Christ. Then if you trust in Christ, you are saved! Awake, O man! Awake, O woman and let this be your language--"I am the chief of sinners, but it pleased God to save another who called himself the chief of sinners, so-- 'I'll to the gracious King approach, Whose scepterpardon gives. Perhaps He may command my touch, And then the suppliant lives.'" If you will thus cast yourself upon the Sovereign mercy of God in Christ Jesus, it will please God and you shall be saved! And then, last of all, our text is A MOTIVE FOR HOLINESS AND ZEAL. If "it pleased God" and, therefore, He saved me when there was no reason in me why I should be saved. If He loved me when I was filthy--now that I have been washed I would be filthy no more--and in holiness I will seek to show my gratitude to Him! If He loved me when I was dead, now that He has made me alive I will not be lifeless and cold, but full of zeal and fire for Him! I do not know how to press this last point unless I get back to the one I was urging upon you just now. If you feel that God has willed that you should be saved and that God wills that you should be the means of saving others--that God wills that you should become a spiritual father or mother in Israel--then I know that your heart will boil over with holy zeal and that you will go forth as a conqueror who has the certainty of victory already in his heart! God shall be with you and you shall go on conquering and to conquer! The Lord add His blessing for Jesus' sake! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GALATIANS 1:11-24; 2. Galatians 1:11-17. But I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel that was preached by me is not after man. For Ineither received it from man, neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ For you have heard of my conversation in timepast in the Jews 'religion, how that beyond measure Ipersecuted the Church of God, and wasted it: and profited in the Jews 'religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly jealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His Grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them who were Apostles before me; but I went up to Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.Paul was intensely desirous that the Galatian Christians should understand that he was no mere repeater of other men's doctrines, but that what he taught he had received directly from God by supernatural Revelation. They knew that he had been a most determined opposer of the Gospel. Indeed, he was a man of such great determination that whatever he did, he did with all his might! So, no sooner did God reveal Christ to him, so that he knew Jesus to be the Messiah, than he earnestly sought to learn yet more of the Truth of God, not by going up to the Apostles at Jerusalem, to borrow from them, but by getting alone in the waste places of Arabia! There, by thought and meditation upon the Word, and by communion with God, to learn yet more concerning the Divine mysteries. 18-24. Then after three years I went to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But others of the Apostles I saw none, save James, the Lord's brother. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and was unknown by face unto the Churches of Judaea which were in Christ: but they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me. Galatians 2:1, 2. Then fourteen years later, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation he was sent by the Church at Antioch, but the Church there was guided by Revelation, so that Paul is correct in saying, "I went up by revelation"-- 2-4. And communicated unto them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: and that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privately to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. There were always some among the Jewish converts who insisted that the Gentiles should come under the seal of the Old Covenant if they were to be partakers of the blessings of the Gospel. But to this Paul would never consent-- 5. To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you. It is impossible for us to estimate how much we owe to the Apostle Paul! Of all who have ever lived, we who are Gentiles owe more to him than to any other man! See how he fought our battles for us. When our Jewish brethren would have excluded us because we were not of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, how bravely did he contend that if we were partakers of the same faith--Abraham is the father of all the faithful, that he was loved of God and the Covenant was made with him, not in circumcision, but before he was circumcised--then we are partakers of that Covenant! 6-10. But of these who seemed to be something, (whatever they were, it makes no matter to me: God shows personal favoritism to no man) for they who seemed to be something added nothing to me: but on the contrary, when they saw that the Gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the Gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter, (for He worked effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty to me toward the Gentiles), and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the Grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen and they unto the circumcision. Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do. [See Sermon #99, Volume 2--the duty of REMEMBERING THE POOR.] One of the first things he did, when there was a famine in Judaea, was to make a collection for the saints in other places, that he might aid the poor Christians. 11-14. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed. For before certain men came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas, also, was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If you, being a Jew, live after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compel you the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?It must have been very painful to Paul's feelings to come into conflict with Peter, whom he greatly esteemed. But for the Truth's sake, he knew no persons, and he had to withstand even a beloved Brother when he saw that he was likely to pervert the simplicity of the Gospel and rob the Gentiles of their Christian liberty! For this we ought to be very grateful to our gracious God who raised up this brave champion, this beloved Apostle of the Gentiles! 15, 16. We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law: for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified. No mere man can keep the Law of God--no mere man has ever done so. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God! And as an absolutely perfect obedience is demanded by the Law, which knows nothing of mercy, we fly from the Law to obtain salvation by the Grace of God in Christ Jesus! 17. But if, while we seek to bejustified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid That would not be caused by the Gospel, but by our disregard of it. 18, 19. For I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the Law am dead to the Law, that I might live unto God. "Through my sight of the Law, which I have seen to be so stern that all it can do is to condemn me for my shortcomings, I am driven away from it and led to come and live in Christ Jesus under the rule of Grace--not under the law of Moses." 20, 21. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless Ilive; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which Inow live in the flesh Ilive by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if righteousness comes by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain. __________________________________________________________________ Christ Made Sin (No. 3203) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "For He hats made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21. I DARESAY I have preached from this text several times in your hearing. If my life is spared, I hope to preach from it twice as many more! The Doctrine it teaches, like salt upon the table, must never be left out--or, like bread, which is the staff of life--it is proper at every meal. See you here the foundation Truth of Christianity, the Rock on which our hopes are built! It is the only hope of a sinner, and the only true joy of the Christian--the great transaction, the great Substitution, the great lifting of sin from the sinner to the sinner's Surety--the punishment of the Surety instead of the sinner--the pouring out of the vials of wrath which were due to the transgressor, upon the head of his Substitute! It is the most grand transaction which ever took place on earth! It is the most wonderful sight that even Hell ever beheld and the most stupendous marvel that Heaven, itself, ever executed--Jesus Christ, made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him! You scarcely need that I should explain the words when the sense is so plain. A spotless Savior stands in the place of guilty sinners. God lays upon the spotless Savior, the sin of the guilty, so that He becomes, in the expressive language of the text, sin. Then He takes off from the innocent Savior His righteousness and puts that to the account of the once-guilty sinners, so that the sinners become righteousness--righteousness of the highest and most Divine source--the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Of this transaction I would have you think tonight. Think of it adoringly! Think of it lovingly! Think of it joyfully! I. When you look at the great Doctrine of Substitution, you especially who are concerned in it and can see your sins laid upon Christ, I want you to LOOK AT IT WITH DEVOUT ADORATION. Lowly and reverently adore the Justice of God. God set His heart upon saving your souls, but He would not be unjust, even to indulge His favorite attribute of Mercy. He had purposed that you should be His--He had set His love upon you, unworthy as you are, before the foundation of the world! Yet to save you, He would not tarnish His Justice. He had said, "The soul that sins, it shall die," and He would not recall the word because it was not too severe, but simply a just and righteous threat. Sooner than He would tarnish His Justice, He bound His only-begotten Son to the pillar and scourged and bruised Him! Sooner than sin should go unpunished, He put that sin upon Christ and punished Him--oh, how tremendously and with what terrific strokes! Christ can tell you, but probably if He did tell you, you could not understand all that God thinks about sin, for God hates it, loathes it and must and will punish it! And upon His Son He laid a tremendous, incomprehensible weight, till the griefs of the dying Redeemer utterly surpassed all our imagination or comprehension! Adore, then, the Justice of God, and think how you might have had to adore it, not at the foot of the Cross, but in the depths of Hell! O my Soul, if you had had your deserts, you would have been driven from the Presence of God! Instead of looking into those languid eyes which wept for you, you would have had to look into His face whose eyes are as a flame of fire! Instead of hearing Him say, "I have blotted out your sins," you might have heard Him say, "Depart, you cursed one, into everlasting fire." Will you not pay as much reverence to the Justice of God exhibited on the Cross as exhibited in Hell? Let your reverence be deeper! It will not be that of a slave, or even of a servant, but let it be quite as humble. Bow low, bless the Justice of God, marvel at its severity, adore its unlimited holiness, join with seraphs who surely at the foot of the Cross may sing, as well as before the Throne of God, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts." While you admire the Justice, also admire the Wisdom of God. We ought to adore God's Wisdom in everything we see in Creation. The physician with his scalpel should adore the Wisdom of God in the anatomical skill by which the human body is formed and fashioned. The traveler, as he passes through the wonders of Nature, should adore the Wisdom of God in the creation of the world, with its towering mountains and with its unknown depths. Every student of the works of God should account the universe as a temple in which the gorgeous outline does not excel the beauty and the holiness of all its fittings, for in the Temple everything speaks of Jehovah's Glory. But, ah, at the foot of the Cross, Wisdom is concentrated--all its rays are concentrated there as with a magnifying glass. We see God there reconciling contrary attributes as they appear to us. We see God there "glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders," and yet "forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin." He smites as though He were cruel. He forgives as though He were not just. He is as generous in passing by sin as if He were not the Judge of all the earth. He is as severe to punish sin as if He were not the tender Father who can press the prodigal to His bosom. Here you see Love and Justice embrace each other in such a wondrous way that I ask you to imitate the seraphs who now that they see what they once desired to look into, veil their faces with their wings, adoring the only wise God! Further, Beloved, when you have thus thought of His Justice and of His Wisdom, bow your head again in reverence as you contemplate the Grace of God. For what reason did God give His only-begotten Son to bleed instead of us? We were worms of insignificance, we were vipers of iniquity--if He saved us, were we worth the saving? We were such infamous traitors that if He doomed us to the eternal fire, we might have been terrible examples of His Wrath, but Heaven's Darling bleeds that earth's traitors may not bleed! Shout it! Shout it in Heaven and publish it in all the golden streets every hour of every glorious day, that such is the Grace of God, "that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And here, while I ask you to adore, I feel inclined to close the sermon and to bow myself in silence before the Grace of God in Christ Jesus. "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us!" Behold it in the sweat of blood which stained Gethsemane! Behold it in the scourging which has made the name of Gabbatha a terror! Behold it in "the pains, and groans, and dying strife" of Calvary! Bow, did I say? Prostrate your spirits! Lift up your sweetest music, but let your soul feel the deepest abasement as you see this super abounding Grace of God in the Person of the Only-Begotten of the Father, making Him to be sin for us--He who knew no sin! When you have thus thought of His Justice, His wisdom and His Grace, like a silver thread running through the whole, I want you once more to adore His Sovereignty. What Sovereignty is this, that angels who fell should have no Redeemer, but that man, insignificant man, being fallen, should find a Savior in Heaven's Only-Begotten! See this Sovereignty, too, that this precious blood should come to some of us and not to others! Millions in this world have never heard of it. Tens of thousands who have heard of it, have rejected it. Yes, and in this little section of the world's population encompassed now within these walls, how many there are who have had that precious blood preached in their hearing and presented to them with loving invitations, only to reject it and despise it? And if you and I have felt the power of it, and can see the blood cleansing us from sin, shall we not admire that discriminating, distinguishing Grace which has made us to differ? But the part of Sovereignty which astonishes me most is that God should have been pleased to make Him who knew no sin to be sin for us," that God should be pleased to ordain salvation by Christas our Substitute! A great many persons rail at this plan of salvation, but if God has determined it, you and I ought to accept it with delight. "Behold," says God, "I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious." The Sovereignty of God has determined that no man can be saved except by the atoning Sacrifice of Christ. If any man would be clean, Jehovah declares that he must wash in the fountain which Jesus filled from His veins. If God should put away sin and accept the sinner, He declares that it should only be through that sinner putting his trust in the Sacrifice offered once and for all by the Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross. Admire this Sovereignty and adore it by yielding to it! Cavil not at it. Down, rebellious will! Hush, you naughty reason that would ask, "Why?" and, "Why is there no other method?" Yield, my heart! "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little." Oh, magnificent love! A way as splendid as the end! A plan as glorious as its design! The design to save is not more resplendent than the method by which men are saved. Justice is magnified, Wisdom extolled, Grace resplendent, and every attribute of God glorified! Oh, let us, at the very mention of a dying Savior, bow down and adore! II. Not to change the topic, but to vary the line of thought, let us endeavor to LOOK LOVINGLY at Jesus Christ made sin for His people. Every word here may help our love. That word, "Him,"may remind us of His Person--"He has made Him to be sin for us"--Him--the Son of God, coequal and co-eternal with the Father! Him--the son of Mary, born at Bethlehem-- the spotless "Son of Man." "He has made Him to be sin." I am not going to enlarge. I only want to bring His blessed Person clearly before your mind. He who trod the waves. He who healed the sick He who had compassion upon the multitudes and fed them. He who always lives to make intercession for us--"He has made Him to be sin for us." Oh, love Him, Sinner, and let your heart join in the words-- "His Person fixes all my love." I delight to have you get a hold of Him as being verily a Person. Do not think of Him as a fiction--never do so! Do not regard Him as a mere historical person who walked the stage of history and now is gone. He is very near to you right now! He is still living! We often sing-- "Crown Him Lord of all." Well, this is that same Glorious One! "He has made Him to be sin for us." Think of Him and let your love flow out towards Him! Would you further excite your love? Think of His Character. He knew no sin--there was none within Him--for He had none of our sinful desires and evil propensities. "Tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." Think of that, and then read, "He has made Him to be sin for us." Do not fritter that away by putting in the word, "offering," and saying "sin-offering." The word stands in apposition--what if I say opposition?--to the word, "righteousness," in the other part of the text. He made Him to be as much sin as He makes us to be righteousness! That is to say He makes Him to be sin by imputation, as He makes us to be righteousness by imputation! On Him who was never a sinner--who never could be a sinner--our sin was laid! Consider how His holy soul must have shrunk back from being made sin, and yet, I pray you, do not fritter away the words of the Prophet Isaiah, "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." He bore our transgressions and carried our sins in His own body on the Cross. There was before the bar of Justice an absolute transfer made of guilt from His elect to Himself! There He was made sin for us, though He personally knew no sin, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." As you think of His pure, immaculate Nature and perfect life--love Him as you see Him bearing the burden of sins not His own, for which He came to atone! Will not your love be excited when you think of the difficulty of this imputation? "He has made Him to be sin." None but God could have put sin upon Christ. It is well said that there is no lifting of sin from one person to another. There is no such thing, as far as we are concerned, but things which are impossible with man are possible with God. Do you know what it means for Christ to be made sin? You do not, but you can form some guess of what it involves, for when He was made sin, God treated Him as if He had been a sinner--which He never was and never could be. God left Him as He would have left a sinner, till He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" God smote Him as He would have smitten a sinner, till His Soul was "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." That which was due from His people for sin, or an equivalent to that, was literally exacted at the hands of Jesus Christ, the Son of God! He was made a debtor for our debts and He paid them. You may guess what it was to be a debtor for us by the smart which it cost to discharge our liabilities. He that is a surety shall smart for it--and Jesus found that proverb true. When Justice came to smite the sinner, it found Him in the sinner's place and smote Him without relenting, laying to the full the whole weight upon Him which had otherwise crushed all mankind forever into the lowermost Hell! Let us love Jesus as we think that He endured all this. Beloved in the Lord, there is one more string of your harp I would like to touch, and it is the thought of what you now are, which the text speaks of. You are made the righteousness of God in Christ! God sees no sin in you, Believer! He has put your sin, or that which was yours, to the account of Christ--and you are innocent before Him. Moreover, He sees you to be righteous. You are not perfectly righteous--the work of His Spirit in you is incomplete as yet--but He looks upon you, not as you are in yourselves, but as you are in Christ Jesus and you are "accepted in the Beloved." You are, in His sight, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing! What Jesus did is set to your account. He sees His Son in you and then He loves you as He loves His Son. He has put you into union with His Son and you are now hid with Christ in God. I trust you will endeavor to realize this position of yourselves as made the righteousness of God in Christ, and when you do, surely you will love the Savior who has done all this for you--undeserving, helpless, dying, guilty mortals! Oh, that the Lord Jesus would now send fire into all your souls and make you love Him, for surely, if you have but the sense of what He has done and how He did it, and what it cost Him to do it, and who He is that has done it--and who you were for whom He has done it--you will surely say, "Oh, for a thousand hearts that I may love You as I should, and a thousand tongues that I may praise You as I should!" III. And now, let us JOYFULLY VIEW THE GLORIOUS FACT OF SUBSTITUTION. And here I will commence with the observation that till your sin as a Believer is gone, and till, as a Believer, Christ's righteousness is at present your glorious dress, your salvation is in no sense realized by yourselves. It is not dependent upon your frames and feelings. Your sins are not put away through your repentance. That repentance becomes to you the token of the pardon of sin, but the true cleansing is found, not in the eyes of the penitent, but in the wounds of Jesus! Your sins were virtually discharged upon the accursed Cross. You stand this day accepted, not for anything you are, or can be, or shall be, but entirely and wholly through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. We cannot state this Truth of God, it seems to me, too boldly. This is the very Doctrine of the Reformation--Justification by Faith, or rather the basis Doctrine upon which it rests. And I am persuaded the more plainly it is preached, the better, for it is the Gospel of salvation to a lost and ruined world! Beloved, your case is something similar to this. You are in debt and, according to the old laws, you must be cast into prison. You are brought up before the court. You cannot plead that you are not in debt--you are compelled to stand there and say, "Each one of these charges I must admit. These liabilities I have incurred and I have not a single penny with which to meet them." A friend in court, wealthy and generous, pays the debt. Now, the only reason why you go out of court clear, lies in the payment made by your friend. You do not leave the court because you never incurred the debt-- no, you didincur the debt. And you must admit that you did not leave the court because you pleaded not guilty, or because you promised never to get into debt again. Not so--all that would not have answered your purpose. Your creditor would still have cast you into prison. You did not leave the court because your character is excellent, or you hope to make it so. The only ground of your liberation from your liabilities is found in the fact that another person has discharged them for youand that will not be affected by any act you may have committed or shall commit. You may have felt ill today. You might have labored under 20 diseases, but those diseases will not imprison you, neither will they help to set you free. Your freedom hinges upon the fact that the debt was paid for you by another! Now, Christian, your hope and comfort hang here! This is the diamond rivet which rivets your salvation firmly! Jesus died for you--and those for whom Jesus died, in the sense in which we now use the language--are and must be saved! Unless Eternal Justice can punish two persons for one offense. Unless Eternal Justice can demand payment twice for the same debt--first from the bleeding Surety, and then from those for whom the Surety stood--they must be clear for whom Jesus died! This is the Gospel which we preach! Oh, happy they who have received it, for it is their joy to know it, sinners though they have been, guilty and ruined--and sinners though they are still--yet, since they have believed, Christ is theirs! Christ took their sins and paid their debts! And God Himself can bring no charge against the man who is justified by Christ! "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yes, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." Now, Christian, I want you to come, tonight, and enjoy this. Why, Man, it ought to make your soul dance for joy within you to think that sin is pardoned and righteousness is imputed to you/This is an unchanging fact, that Christ has saved you. If it was ever a fact, it is always a fact. If it was ever true, it is always true and always alike true--as true now that you are depressed, as yesterday when you were rejoicing. Jesus' blood does not change like your poor heart. It does not go up and down in value, like the markets, and fluctuate like your faith. If you are saved, you are saved! If you are resting in the blood, you are as safe, today, as you were yesterday--and you are as safe forever! Remember that this is true of all the saints. It is true to great saints, but equally so to little ones. They all stand under this crimson canopy and are alike protected by its blessed shadow from the beams of Divine Justice. It is true to you now. O Beloved, try to live up to it! Say, "Away, my doubts! Away, my fears! I trust a Savior slain and I am saved! Away, my questions! Away, my car- nal reasonings! I hate my sins, but I cannot doubt my Savior! It is true I have not lived as a Christian should live, but I will still cast myself into His arms." It is not faith to trust God as a saint when you feel you are a saint. Faith is to trust Christ as a sinner--while you are conscious that you are a sinner. To come to Jesus and to think yourselves pure, is a sorry coming to Him--but to come with all your impurity--this is true coming! I say to you, Sinner. I say to you, Saint. I say to you all this one thing, and I have done. When your souls are at the blackest, seek for nothing but the blood! When your souls are at the darkest, seek no light anywhere but in the Cross! Do not cling to preparations, to humbling, to repentings. All these things are good in their way, but they cannot be a balsam to a wounded conscience! Christ and Christ Crucified is what you need. Do not look within--look without. I say, when you repent, it is a base repentance that will not let you trust Christ, for while repentance should have one eye on sin, it should have the other upon the Cross. While repentance should make you lie low, yet it is not repentance, but unbelief, that makes you doubt the power of Christ to save you! Christ never came to save the righteous--He came to save sinners. I would have you magnify the Grace of God by believing that when your sin stares you most in the face, when you are most conscious of it and it seems to be worse than ever, Christ is the same to you and for you, your glorious Surety and your blessed satisfaction! Still believe and still trust, and do not let go your confidence that Christ is able to save sinners, even the chief, and will save you without help from your doings or your feelings! His own right arm will get Himself the victory and, having trod the winepress of Divine Wrath alone, He will save you solely by the merit of His life and of His death! Oh, for Grace to rest in the Savior and to know the truth of this text--"He has made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him"! EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 5:1-10; 2 CORINTHIANS 4; 5. Romans 5:1-3. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this Grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. Faith has such wondrous power that it makes us rejoice even in trial! It helps Christians to be glad even in the midst of sorrow. 3. Knowing that tribulation works patience. The more trial you have, the more spiritual education you receive. You cannot learn the virtue of patience without tribulation any more than a man can learn to be a sailor if he stays on shore! "Tribulation works patience." 4. And patience, experience. If you bear the trial patiently, it leaves the mark of its engraving tool upon your spirit, and you thus become fashioned into an experienced Christian. 4. And experience, hope. What God has once done, He may do again. And as He has shown us so much favor, we may reasonably hope that He will show us some more, and that He who has given us Grace, will give us glory. 5. And hope makes us not ashamed. Our hope brings us courage--no longer are we trembling and diffident, but we feel like children do towards a loving father--we are happily, restfully at home with our God. "Hope makes us not ashamed." 5. Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. [See Sermons #829, Volume 14--THE PERFUMING OF THE HEART and #1904, Volume 32--THE PERSONAL PENTECOST AND THE GLORIOUS HOPE.] When Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anointed the feet of Jesus with the very costly ointment of spikenard, "the house was filled with the odor" of it--and in a similar fashion the love of God perfumes every part of our nature. 6. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."'[See Sermons #1191, Volume 20--for WHOM DID CHRIST DIE? and #1345, Volume 23--FOR WHOM IS THE GOSPEL MEANT?.] What a wonderful statement! "Christ died for the ungodly." Yet it was no slip of the pen, for the Apostle takes up his own expression and preaches the following little sermon upon it-- 7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. If a man is known to be sternly just, like Aristides, nobody would care enough for him to die for him. 7. Yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to di. For a benevolent man, a true philanthropist, a lover of his race, there are some who might say that they would die for him. Yet the Apostle only says, "Perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die." It is not very likely, but it is possible. 8. But God commends His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. [See Sermon #104, Volume 2--LOVE'S COMMENDATION.] Certainly we were not "good" men, we were not even "just" men, but we are included in this black description, "sinners." And "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He died for us as sinners--He did not come to save saints, but to save sinners--and it was for sinners that He died. 9. Much more, then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. This is a fine piece of argument and strictly logical. If, when we were sinners, Christ died for us, will He let us be condemned, now that He has washed us in His precious blood? Is it possible that after dying for us, He will let us fall from Grace and perish? That will never be! Notice the same kind of argument again-- 10. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. [See Sermon #2587, Volume 44--"MUCH MORE."] There is a threefold argument here. If Christ died for us when we were His enemies, will He not save us, now that we are His friends? If He died to reconcile us to God, will He not completely save us, now that this great work has been accomplished? And as we were reconciled to God by Christ's death, shall we not much more be saved by His life? There are three arguments and each one is sound and conclusive. The Believer in Jesus must be eternally saved! If Christ died for sinners, what will He not do for Believers, who are no longer enemies, but are reconciled unto God by the death of His Son? 2 Corinthians 4:1. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. Stern was the labor of the Apostles, but they felt that their work was so all-important, so Divine , that they must not grow weary of it, though they were, doubtless, often weary init. 2. But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. It is no part of the business of Christ's ministers to modify the Truth of God which He has entrusted to them, or to put new meanings into it which God never meant, draining away the very life-blood of the Gospel and leaving it dead and useless! But it isboth our duty and our privilege to state it just as we find it and to proclaim it in as plain a language as possible so that everybody may understand what the teaching of God really is. 3. But if our Gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost. [See Sermon #1663, Volume 28--THE true gospel is no hidden gospel.] It was not hidden under fine language and oratorical flourishes on the part of the Apostles--there was a far more terrible barrier in the way of its entrance into the hearts of some who heard it. 4-7. In whom the god of the world has blinded the mind of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus 'sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.There is nothing remarkable in us. We are, in ourselves, poor, frail, fragile creatures, like earthen vessels of no particular value! Yet this we do not regret, for there is a good reason for it-- 7-10. That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life, also, of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. He who wishes for an easy time of it must not become a minister of the Gospel! If he is determined to preach it faithfully, fully, simply, straight from his heart, he will often find himself in such circumstances as the Apostle describes in these verses. 11. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus 'sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal fles. The Apostles were always to the front where the shots were flying the thickest and with the deadliest aim! There they stood, the officers of the army of Christ--and Paul rejoiced that, for one, he was able thus to make himself to be nothingthat Christ might be the great All-in-All! 12. So, then, death works in us, but life in yo . So long as Paul could be the means of the salvation of the souls of men, he did not mind what became of himself. Though it should be death to him, he would count it as nothing so long as it should bring life to them! 13, 14. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and, therefore, have I spoken; we also believe and, therefore, speak; knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us, also, by Jesus, and shall present us with you. Note the assurance of Apostolic preaching and writing. There is no, "if," here, no hesitation, no doubt. The Apostles knew what they believed and knew why they believed it--and they spoke with conviction-- nobody was led into doubt by their hesitancy. 15, 16. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant Grace might through the thanksgiving ofmany redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not.Paul had said before that they did not faint, and now he reiterates it that though his ministry was enough to bear him down, and lay him prostrate in the dust, yet he did not faint. 16, 18. But though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 5:1. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. [See Sermon #1719, Volume 29--the tent dissolved and the mansion ENTERED.] Is not this grand courage on the part of the Apostle? With all the world against him and he "always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake," he looks at the new body, the new house that God is making for him and he reckons that to shuffle off this mortal coil will be no loss to him, since when he loses the tent in which he lives, here, he will go to "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 2-4. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed-- We are not impatient to enter the disembodied state-- 4-6. But clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now He that has worked us for the same thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident.Note the ground of the Apostle's confidence. He is quite sure that, inasmuch as Christ rose from the dead, so all His followers must. And though they die in the Lord's service, yet they shall not be losers thereby, but they shall the more speedily ascend to their reward! "We are always confident"-- 6-9. Knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by faith, not by sight): we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. [See Sermons #413, Volume 7--to die or not to die! and #1303, Volume 22--THE BELIEVER IN THE BODY AND OUT OF THE BODY.] To be well- pleasing to God everywhere, in everything that we do, should be the one aim of a Christian, whether he is in the body or out of the body. 10-13. For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad, knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust, also, are made manifest in your consciences. For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have something to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. For whether we are beside ourselves. And men said that these Apostles had gone out of their minds. Festus said to Paul, "you are beside yourself, much learning does make you mad." So Paul says, "Whether we are beside ourselves"-- 13. It is to God: or whether we are sober, it is for your cause. "In either case, we have but one objective and that is to glorify God through your salvation." 14-15. For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and rose again. The life of the saved man must never be lived for himself! He is false to his profession if it is so. He must henceforth live as earnestly for God as, aforetime in his unregeneracy, he lived for himself, for he now has a new life which is not his own to do with it as he pleases, but it belongs entirely to Him who purchased it with His own most precious blood. 16. Therefore, from now on, we regard no man after the flesh. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. We do not see Christ with our natural eyes. We do not hear His voice with our natural ears. He is now to us a spiritual Person who communicates with our spirit through His own ever-blessed Spirit. 17. Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.There could not be a greater change than that which is worked by regeneration! It is a new creation, the passing away of the old, and the making of all things new. [See Sermons #881, Volume 15--THE BELIEVER A NEW CREATURE and #1328, Volume 22-- CHRIST THE MAKER OF ALL THINGS NEW.] 18-21. And all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the Word of reconciliation. Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead be you reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. __________________________________________________________________ The Saints' Riches (No. 3204) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 2, 1862. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32. MANY of you, dear Friends, are coming to the Lord's Table at the close of this service. Our blessed Redeemer instituted that simple but sublime ordinance so that we might be kept in constant remembrance of Him. The bread is nothing but bread, yet it is the very suggestive emblem of Christ's flesh. And it shall be well with you if, after a spiritual fashion, you shall thus eat the flesh of Christ. The wine is nothing but wine, yet is it the emblem of Christ's blood. And they are thrice blessed who experimentally understand the meaning of Christ's words, "Whoever eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, has eternal life." Christ is yours, Believer! You know that He is more yours than even your own life, for that you may lose. When God gave you your existence, He gave it to you without any covenant as to its prolongation, but He has given Christ to you by an Everlasting Covenant, to be yours forever and ever! Christ is yours, Beloved! Oh, that you knew how to make the best use of this blessed property! Christ is yours to live upon and to spend, yours to have and to hold, to keep and to enjoy, yours not only to look at that you may be saved, and to wear that you may be justified, but yours to eat that you may be refreshed by Him and live upon Him! Christ is yours to the fullest extent possible! There is no reservation--He is your absolute, indefeasible and inalienable property--yours, today, as perfectly as He will be when you are in Heaven! Yours as certainly as you are His. Oh, that you may now, knowing that Christ is thus your property, live upon Him, rejoice in Him and feel that you are, indeed, immeasurably rich! When we come to this Communion Table, to partake of these emblems of Christ's death, it will be a very happy thing for us if we remember that possessing Christ, we have everything. There is no need that you have which will not be supplied if you really know that Christ is yours. There is no necessity, however great, which may press upon you which shall not be instantaneously supplied if Christ is truly yours. You come to Christ's Table to meet with Christ and you know that when you have Him, you have everything, so you do well to sing-- "You, O Christ, are all I need"-- for in Him you have all that you can possibly need. And, moreover, the gift of Christ is God's solemn pledge that He will keep back from you nothing that you really need. "No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." "Whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive." Having given you Christ, He must, He will--with Christ--freely give you all things-- "How vast the treasure we possess! How rich Your bounty, King of Grace! This world is ours and worlds to come-- Earth is our lodge and Heaven our home. All things are ours--the gift of God! The purchase of a Savior's blood While the good Spirit shows us how To use and to improve them, too." I am going to make it my business, in a very simple but earnest manner, to try and exhort the children of God to cast aside all thoughts of their being poor and to rejoice, now, in their boundless riches in Christ Jesus! I. First, let me remind you, Believer, that, whatever you may really require, God will not deny it to you, for He has already given you Christ! THINK WHAT THIS GIFT WAS TO THE FATHER--it was His only-begotten and well- beloved Son! Perhaps you have a willful, wayward boy--one who costs you much, but brings you little comfort--yet, would you like to lose him? If you saw him in his coffin tomorrow, would you not cry over him as David cried over his son, "O my son, Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for you, O Absalom, my son, my son"? Vile he may be, and a disgrace to your name, yet he is still your child and you could not bear to give him up. But what shall I say of the child who, from his youth up, has been obedient to you? Who, having grown up to manhood, has become your friend as well as your offspring? Who has been with you in every holy enterprise and has proved himself to be worthy of his father's love and esteem? Could you give him up? Mother, you know how dear is your first-born son to you. Of all griefs that tear a mother's heart, perhaps the greatest is to lose her first-born. Even if he is only in his infancy, it is a wound from which the mother's tender heart does not soon recover. But to lose that son in manhood. To see the hale strong man suddenly cut down--this is no small sorrow--and many, under such trying circumstances, have found it no easy task to say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." To lose one's child even for some object which is nearest and dearest to our heart, is pain and grief, indeed. Then what must it have cost God to give up His Son to die for His people? What must God's love to His only-begotten Son be? We can only speak of God after the manner of men, for we know not how otherwise to speak of Him and, inasmuch, as God is infinitely greater than we are, His love is infinitely greater than ours! We can only love to the finite degree of which humanity is capable, but God loves beyond all degree. The heart of God is filled with fathomless oceans of eternal affection--and this affection has always been fixed upon His Son! Christ is infinitely more dear to God than your son can ever be to you because of the greatness of the heart of the Father who loves His Son who has always been with Him, and ever His delight, who has never offended Him, who takes His share in all the Father's plans and who said of old, and says it always, "I delight to do Your will, O My God." Besides, Christ is One with His Father in essence. What that mysterious Unity is, we cannot tell. And how Christ is the Son of God, we do not know. We know that His Sonship does not imply any inferiority in the Son, nor that the Father existed before the Son. He was not the Father till the Son was His Son and the names, "Father," and, "Son," are not to be understood as they are used among us, although the marvelous, indescribable relationship which we cannot fully understand cannot be better expressed than by the terms used, "the Father" and, "the Son." Again I ask--what must it have cost such a Father's heart to give up such a Son--a Son so near and so dear to Him? Yet the Father gave up His Son to die for you and for me, Beloved! Theologians lay it down as an axiom that God cannot suffer, but I am not sure that they are right. I cannot understand God's love to me. I cannot rejoice as I should in His goodness to me unless I believe that the gift of His Son cost His heart awful pangs. I know that I am treading upon delicate ground and that I am standing where thick darkness gathers, but I am not certain that what theologians take for granted is necessarily true. That God can do everything, I do believe. And I also believe that if He wills to suffer He can do so. I cannot think of God as an insensible Being when He gave His Son to die for sinners. I cannot imagine Him giving His only-begotten Son and feeling no more than a heathen idol of stone could have done. I think that the Father, in giving up that Son who had always given Him such intense joy, must have suffered in His Son's death. Well then, as God has thus given up His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, how can He deny anything to you who believe in Him? Do you feel anxious about the bread that perishes? Is that worthy to be compared with God's only-begotten Son? Are you concerned about how you are to get food and clothing? How can God deny you such trifles as these when He has given you His Son? Perseverance in Grace--is that what you ask? Even that is but a crumb under the Master's table compared with His Son! You need certain virtues, you need help in trouble, you need sustenance under stern difficulties--I know not what you need, but this I know--all the needs of all of us put together could only make one little drop in comparison with the tremendous ocean of benevolence which flowed out of God's heart when He spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all! As we look at Christ, whom God has given to us, we must believe that, with Him, He will give us whatever we need! II. I shall try to knock a second time at the door of your hearts to comfort you by reminding you how PRECIOUS CHRIST WAS INTRINSICALLY IN HIMSELF. The wonder is not only that God gave His Son, but that His Son was what He was. Paul says He is "over all, God blessed forever." Jesus Himself said, "Before Abraham was, I Am"--claiming the very name of the eternal Jehovah. In due time, Christ became Man and, as Man, He was very dear to His Father. Even His earthly mother could not look upon her Child with half the affection that His Father had for Him. He was a perfect Man and, therefore, lovely in His Father's sight. He was, indeed, Himself God and, therefore, One with the Father even while He was Man. The loftiest angel could not adequately preach to you upon this point--unto what, then, shall I liken the preciousness of this gift? Similes fail me, metaphors I have none, "no mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls, for the price of Jesus is above rubies." He shall not be given for gold, no, not for much fine gold. As for topaz, and onyx, and sapphire, and all other precious stones, these must not be mentioned in comparison with Him. Paul's expression is the only appropriate one, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." Eternity alone can reveal the value of Christ! By the miseries of the Hell from which He saves us, let us measure Him! By the bliss of the Heaven to which He lifts us, let us estimate His worth! By the depths of ignominy and shame into which He dived, let us conceive of Him! By the glories He relinquished and by the agonies He bore, let us attempt to form some faint idea of His value! But this Pearl of Great Price is so precious that I am bold to say that if Heaven, and earth, and all the starry orbs could be sold, their united price could not buy such another pearl as this one which God has given to us in Christ Jesus! So, Beloved, as God has already given you this priceless pearl, will He not also give you all else that you need? If a man gave you ten thousand pounds, would you doubt his willingness to give you a farthing? If he should give you a munificent income to last throughout all your life, would you doubt his willingness to give you a penny if you were ever in need of one? I think I need not attempt to draw the inference--you can draw it for yourselves. See, then, the wondrous treasure you possess if you are a Believer in Jesus--God is yours, the perfect Man is yours, Christ's life, His death, His blood, His righteousness, His intercession, His Incarnation, His Second Advent are all yours--and all else that you need. Do but ask boldly, receive gratefully, wait patiently, hope trustfully and walk rejoicingly, for as God has given you His Son, shall He not, with Him, also freely give you all things? Sing with good old John Ryland-- "He that has made my Heaven secure, Will here all good provide! While Christ is rich, can I be poor? What can I need beside?" III. But now, as a third blow at your unbelief, I want you to remember, Beloved, THE MANNER IN WHICH THIS GIFT WAS GIVEN. The text says, "He that spared not His own Son." A mother may give up her tall strong son to fight in the army of her country and he may perish by an enemy's hand. But I cannot conceive of a mother slaughtering her own son for her country's good! We have wondered as we have read of Brutus, who, when his sons had entered into a conspiracy against the Republic, could say, "Lictors, do your duty." The father saw the corpses of his sons with the pangs of a father, but with the stern serenity of a judge they had offended--so they must die. Strong must be a man's sense of justice to be able to overcome his love so as to give up his own son to die. But our gracious God not only gave up His Son to die for us, but He was Himself, (if I may use such an expression), the executioner of Christ. Isaiah tells us in his wonderful 53rd Chapter, that "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all...It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief...you shall make His soul an offering for sin...We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." This, indeed, was the very sting of Christ's death, for He cried out in His worst agony, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Oh, what love God must have had to you and to me, for it overcame His love to His only-begotten Son! So we read in Zechariah 13:7, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, says the Lord of Hosts: smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." My tongue cannot tell the story of this marvelous Grace of God to you and to me, but I again remind you that although God knew that His plan of salvation involved His smiting His own Son and deserting Him in His hour of deepest need so that you and I should not perish--the Father smites, and wounds, and slays His own Son! And there upon the accursed tree, in intense pangs, unutterable, unknown, the Son of God dies, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." Well, then, Beloved, as God has given you His Son, will He not also give you all else that you need? You are about to ask for fellowship with Christ, but that will not cost the Father the smiting of His Son, again, so He will surely give it to you! You are going to ask God for holiness, but it will give Him pleasure, and nothing but pleasure to make you holy! It will certainly not involve His lifting up His hand against His only-begotten Son anymore, so it shall be God's delight to give you your heart's desire! Having given you His Son, will He not, with Him, give you whatever you believingly ask of Him? He still says, "Open your mouth wide and I will fill it." Tell Him what your present need is and you shall have all that you need. Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you and He will take all your cares away. Shame on you, Christian, if you shall give way to sadness--surely you will not let unbelief vex you, now! You know that God has given Christ for you--then can you fear that He will deny you anything, or leave you, at last, in trouble to sink? That is impossible! God forbid that you should slander Him by thinking that He can so act! What were you saying, poor aged Christian? "I shall want for bread." How can it be? How can it be? The God who out of His amazing love to you has smitten His only-begotten Son will certainly give to you whatever your soul or body may need-- "Seek first His Kingdom's Grace to share. Its righteousness pursue, And all that needs your earthly care Will be bestowed on you! Why then despond in life's dark vale? Why sink to fears a prey? The Almighty Power can never fail, His love can never decay." IV. Now, as a fourth stroke of the axe at the root of unbelief, let me remind you of THE SPIRIT IN WHICH CHRIST WAS GIVEN. The Father gave His Son, but who asked Him to do so? Not you, certainly, for even after the Father had given Christ, you despised the wondrous gift! Who asked Him? No one of the whole human race! The thought never crossed any created mind. Angels did not throw themselves down between justice and the sinner and intercede for him. I have never read of any burning seraph crying to God, "Spare the guilty, Lord, spare the guilty! Give up Your only-begotten Son to die and let the guilty live!" I cannot conceive of anyone proposing to the Most High to make so tremendous a sacrifice. The Father did it according to His own Sovereign Will, unswayed by anything outside Himself. That self-sustained, almighty Being deigned to give this matchless manifestation of His inflexible Justice and His infinite Love to the sons of men--it was His own conception freely welling up from the deeps of His own loving heart! Well, Beloved, if He gave His Son unsolicited, will He not give you all you need, now that you have learned to ask of Him, now that you understand the art of the widow woman who came to the unjust judge and can plead with the Lord in holy importunity? Now that you have been taught to knock and knock again at God's door--as the man knocked at his friend's door until, at last, he arose at midnight to give him the loaves he needed--surely He will not deny you what you ask! As He gave you Christ unasked, unsought--when you were dead in sin, when you were His enemy, when you hated Him--how much more, now that you are His son, adopted into His family and taught by His Spirit to pray and to plead the promises He has given you--how much more will He give you all things that you need! If you have not, surely it must be because you ask not, or because you ask amiss. Ask now! Ask in faith! Ask in the name of Jesus and all your need shall be given to you! V. A fifth time let me try to smite down that old giant, Incredulity, by bidding you remember THE PERSONS TO WHOM THIS GIFT WAS GIVEN--"delivered Him up for us all. Not one child of God is left without that gift. Little Benjamin has as great a share in Christ as Reuben or Judah has. Mr. Ready-to-Halt has as true an interest in the blood of Jesus as Mr. Greatheart, himself, has. The ancient Jews, on the day they were numbered, had to each pay half a shekel as a ransom for their souls. The Lord said to Moses, "The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less." The redemption money was the same for all--and Christ has paid the redemption money equally for all who believe in Him! Not one of those whom He bought with His blood is left out! Not one of His chosen, not one whom He calls, not one whom He justifies--all are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. I know you are apt to say, "No doubt the Lord will give much to So-and-So, for he is an eminent saint, but not to me." Yet, as He gave Christ to you, why should He not give you all else that you need? "Oh, but I am so obscure, no one will take notice of me." Did not the Lord take notice of you when He gave you Christ? Then why should He not, with Him, freely give you all things? "Ah," says another, "but I have been such a backslider. Not only my faith, but all my other graces are so feeble, I do not feel fit to be numbered with the Lord's people." Ah, poor Heart, that may be true, yet as God has given you Christ, why should He deny you anything that you need? I wish I could put this Truth of God in words that would never be forgotten! I would like to help every heir of Heaven to carry this Truth with him even to his tomb! It is certain that as you believe in Christ, He is yours--then it must be equally certain, be you who you may be, that "all things are yours." Go, you lonely ones, up from the hour of your mourning! Take down your harps from the willows and make every string in them praise the name of the Lord! Come, you afflicted ones, wherever you wander! Come, you who think yourselves poverty-stricken, and find yourselves infinitely rich in Christ Jesus! It always delights me to know how many poor people there are, and some very poor ones, too, who say that this House of Prayer is the happiest place to which they ever go. Dearly do they love the Truth of God and the preacher, too, for the Truth's sake. And he often thinks with gratitude, when other things have failed to cheer him, that there are poor and needy ones who will come up to the sanctuary, seeking comfort and finding it, while critics, who come only to judge, will go away thinking there is nothing notable here. And the wise men of the world and the disputers will quibble at this, and carp at that, and get no good out of it at all. But these afflicted and poor people of God know the joyful sound of His Truth and they walk in the Light of His Countenance and find it sweet, indeed, to know that Christ is theirs and that all good is theirs in Christ! VI. Now let us turn to another argument from THE VALUE OF CHRIST TO US. What is the value of Christ to us? Christ is to us--I pause, for what shall I say? I cannot tell all that Christ is to us, for what is He not to us? He is the Sun of our day! He is the Star of our night! He is our Life! He is our life's Life! He is our Heaven on earth and He shall be our Heaven in Heaven! How sweetly does Madame Guyon sing of Christ and of His exceeding preciousness to her soul! I was reading only yesterday, an account that she gives of herself and of the persecutions she endured for Christ's sake. Yet she says that it seemed to her to be just the same whether she was a prisoner in the Bastille or in the gay society of Paris, as long as she was in communion with Christ, for Christ was everything to her! And the Grace-taught Christian will tell you that he has had his happiest times on a bed of sickness, or when losses and crosses have come quickly, one upon another! Fellowship with Christ transforms a desert into a garden, a wilderness into a paradise! It makes the beggar a prince and sets the prince above the angels. Give a man, Christ--and this is no dream I speak of, no vision of a heated imagination, but in sober solemn earnest do I say it--and he has everything that a Believer can desire! Yes, there is more in Christ than a Christian can hold and, like good John Welsh, the old Covenanter, he is ready to cry, at times, when Christ's love is very sweet to him, "Hold, Lord, hold! For I can bear no more! The joy of Your love is too great for me!" Beloved of God--not beloved of kings, though men grow great if they have a king's affection--not beloved of angels, yet it were no trifle to have a seraph's affection, but Beloved of Jesus, the eternal Son of God! To have our names written on His heart and engraved on His hands, oh, how exceedingly precious is Christ to us!-- "Precious in His death victorious, He the host of Hell overthrows! In His Resurrection glorious, Victor crowned over all His foes! Precious, Lord! Beyond expressing, Are Your beauties all Divine! Glory, honor, power and blessing Be henceforth forever Thine." Well then, I hope you never set your food and raiment in comparison with Christ. He who gave you His unspeakable gift will give you such trifles as those! I hope you never put your worldly estate, nor even your spiritual comforts, in comparison with your blessed Lord Jesus, for as God has given you Him, what can He deny you? Pluck up your heart, poor fainting one! Be of good courage and face the foe again! You have no armor for your back, so show your breastplate to your adversary and never even dream of defeat. He who has brought you thus far and enriched you with such a priceless Gift can deny you nothing that you really need! VII. And, lastly, remember THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH GOD GAVE HIS SON, JESUS CHRIST, FOR US. His purpose was our salvation and it is inconsistent with all right ideas of Deity to believe that the purposes of God can be frustrated. We know that our God made the heavens and the earth and that the Word of our God shall stand forever. Our God is not a lackey to the will of men and His purposes are not like footballs to be kicked about as men may please. What God says, is done! What He commands, stands fast forever! And what His heart devises, that His hands do. "God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should change." And if He wills to save, none can damn. He has proved the honesty and sincerity of His purpose to save us by giving us Christ. And if my faith has laid hold of Christ, and Christ is mine, then I know that it is God's purpose to save me! And I also know that all things that are necessary to my being saved must surely be bestowed upon me. I have never yet been able to put my mind into such a condition as to understand that God would give Christ to die with the intention of saving a man--and yet that man would not be saved! I know that you and I, in ordinary business transactions, are accustomed to expect, if we pay the price for anything, that we should have what we buy. I am sure that I could not speculate with another man's blood--and especially I know that I could make no speculation with the blood of my own son! I must know beforehand what so great a sacrifice would effect. In like manner, we believe that God well knew what Christ's blood would buy, and what Christ's death would ef-fect--and we cannot think that Calvary was a venture, that the Cross was a speculation--and that the death of Christ was a lottery. God forbid! Be of good courage, then, you who are redeemed--not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ--all things must be yours! How can He who has already given Christ to be the Way to Heaven, leave you without shoes for your feet, or without armor for the fight, or without anything else that you will need? He who has given the greater must and will give the less! Lay your many needs before Him. Your plea is a plea that must prevail, a knock that shall make Heaven's gates ring till the porter shall open them--and the favor that you need shall be given with open hands! The only question I have to ask before I have done is this--Is Christ yours Is Christ yours, my Hearer? Answer "Yes," or "No," tonight! He is yours, or He is not yours, there is no third answer! Is Christ yours? Do you say "No"? Alas, poor wretch, how miserable is your state now!--"condemned already." How wretched shall your state be hereafter, when, "Depart, you cursed," shall be your sentence! "I know not," says one, "whether Christ is mine or not." Do you trust Him? This is the deciding question. If you fully and implicitly trust yourself with Christ, He is yours! If you rest in any degree upon your own works, feelings, doings, or willings, He is not yours! But if you take Him now to be your All-in-All, trusting Him and Him, alone, He is yours and He shall be yours forever and ever! Let there be no aching heart at this Communion Table tonight! Let everyone of us come to this feast of love with joy and gladness because when we can say that Christ is ours we-- "Can smile at Satan's rage, And face a frowning world." May the Lord give Christ to each one of us and unto Him shall be the glory world without end! Amen. EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS8:26-39. Verse 26. Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities. Oh, how many these are! Lack of memory, lack of faith, lack of earnestness, ignorance, pride, deadness, coldness of heart--these are some of our infirmities. But thank God we have the Omnipotent Spirit of God to help us! 26. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered. These groans are too deep, too full of meaning to be expressed in words. There are some things the Christian needs for which he cannot ask. Perhaps he does not even know what it is that he needs. There is a vacuum in his heart, but he does not know what would fill it. There is a hunger in his spirit, but he knows not what the bread is, nor where the bread is that can satisfy his needs. But the Holy Spirit can articulate these unuttered groans and the deepest needs of our soul can thus be brought before God by His own Spirit. You, then, who find it difficult to pray, do not give up praying! The devil tells you that such poor prayers as yours are can never reach the ear of God. Do not believe him! The Spirit helps your infirmities--and when He helps you, you shall, you mustprevail! 27. And He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. [See Sermon #1532, Volume 26--THE HOLY SPIRIT'S INTERCESSION.] It cannot be supposed that the Father does not know what is the mind of the Spirit, since they are one God, and, moreover, inasmuch as the Spirit of God never intercedes for anything which is not according to God's will, we are sure that our heavenly Father will grant every Spirit-indited prayer! 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." [See Sermon #159, Volume 3--THE TRUE CHRISTIAN'S BLESSEDNESS.] Almost everything in this world looks to us to be in confusion, but to God's eyes, all is in order. One wave dashes this way and another that, but they are all working together, and they are all working with one great purpose, too. Say not, Christian, "All these things are against me." Ah, poor Soul! This is the verdict of your unbelief, but you will know better than that one of these days! All things are working for you, and not one of them is working against you--therefore, be not dismayed. They are all working together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. [See Sermons #355, Volume 7--PORTRAITS OF CHRIST and #1043, Volume 18--GLORIOUS PREDESTINATION.] That was the very end and object of their predestination that they might become like Christ, their great perfect elder Brother-- "'Christ, be My first Elect,' He said, Then chose our souls in Christ our Head Before He gave the mountains birth Or laid foundations for the earth!" 30. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called [See Sermon #241, Volume 5--predestination and calling.] My Soul, have you been called of God? Has the Spirit of God ever called you? If so, rejoice in your predestination! Have no doubts and fears concerning that matter, for He would never have called you if He had not intended to save you from before the foundation of the world! 30. And whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. My Soul, do you believe in Jesus? Have you trusted in His precious blood? Then you are justified! Never give way, then, to any fears concerning your eternal salvation, for as surely as there is a Heaven, you shall be a partaker of its glories--for never was there a soul justified who was not afterwards glorified! 31. What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against uss'[See Sermon #580, Volume 10--god is with US.] Have you the world against you, Christian? What is the opposition of the world when God is on your side? Is your own heart against you? What then? God is greater than your heart! Is the devil against you? Ah, he is mighty, but God is Almighty and He shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Paul was no fanatic--he was a man of great experience and of sound sense--yet he makes nothing of all our foes when God is on our side! 32. He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him, also freely give us all things?When God gave us Christ, He gave us everything, for all the blessings of this life and of the life that is to come lie hidden in Christ as the kernel is within the shell of the nut! What encouragement we have here for believing prayer! Christian, Christ is the golden key of God's treasuries! You have but to use Him aright, and whatever you need shall be yours! 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?Here is true boldness! Paul, who called himself the very chief of sinners dares to challenge anyone to lay anything to the charge of God's elect! Surely God can do so. "No," says Paul-- 33. It is God that justifies. He is both Just and the Justifier of all who believe in Jesus, and they are "God's elect." 34. Who is He that condemns [See Sermons #256, Volume 5--THE BELIEVER'S CHALLENGE and #2240, Volume 38--A CHALLENGE AND A SHIELD.] "Why," says one, "Christ, the great Judge, will condemn." No, that He will not, for-- 34. It is Christ that died, yes, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Christian, as Christ makes intercession for you, He will never condemn you! Did He shed His blood for you and yet will He cast you into Hell? Did He rise from the dead for you, and yet will He leave you among the dead and the lost? Think not so strangely of the Christ of God who is the same yesterday, and today, and forever--and who will never condemn those who trust in Him! 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? They have been tried again and again. 36. It is written, For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. What was the effect of this persecution? Were the saints turned away from Christ by it? 37-39. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord [See Sermon #2492, Volume 45--PAUL'S PERSUASION.] __________________________________________________________________ Scales Taken From the Eyes (No. 3205) A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 7, 1910. DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales." Acts 11:18. THIS means that the film upon Saul's eyes was comparable to the scales of a fish, or else that it fell off as scales might fall. When the blinding film was gone, light broke into the darkness of Saul. In different men, sin manifests its chief power in different parts of their nature. In the case of many, sin is most apparent in their eyes. That is to say, ignorance, error and prejudice have injured their mental sight. Some have the withered hand of conscious inability, others have the deaf ear of mental obtuseness, but there are far more who hear the joyful sound and display much energy, but they hear without understanding and are zealous without knowledge, for they are blind. This was Saul's condition. He was thoroughly honest--we might say of his heart, when it was at its worst, that it was always true to its convictions. He was no deceiver and no timeserver. He went in for what he believed to be right with all his might--lukewarmness and selfish policy were alien to his nature. He dashed with all his might against the Doctrine of the Cross because he thought it to be an imposition. His fault lay in his eyes and so, when the eyes were set right, Saul was right. When he perceived that Jesus was, after all, the Messiah, the man became just as earnest a follower of Christ as before he had been a persecutor! We will talk about scales falling from men's eyes. I want to address those who would be right if they knew how. Those who are earnest, but in the wrong direction, for they do not see the truth. If the Lord, in His Infinite Mercy, will but touch those sightless eyeballs and remove the film, so that they discern the right way, they will follow it at once. May the Lord remove many scales while we are proceeding! First, we will speak of scales which men fail to perceive because they are inside. Secondly, we will show what makes these scales come to the outside so that men do perceive them. Then, thirdly, what instrumentality the Lord uses to take these outside scales away And, fourthly, what did Saul see when the scales were gone I. First, then, THERE ARE SCALES WHICH MEN DO NOT PERCEIVE. Saul had scales upon his eyes when he was on the road to Damascus, but if you had looked at his face, he would have appeared to have as bright an eye as any man. Scales on his eyes? Why, he was a sharp-sighted philosopher, a Pharisee and a teacher of others. He would not have believed you for a minute if you had said to him, "Saul, you are blind." Yet blind he was, for his eyes were shut up with inside scales--the worst sort of scales that can possibly cloud the sight. Saul had the scale of selfto darken his eyes. He had a great idea of Saul of Tarsus. If he had written down his own character, he would have begun it, "A Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law of God, a Pharisee." And then he would have gone on to tell of countless good works, fasts, prayers and have finished with, "concerning zeal, persecuting the church." He was far too great in his own estimation to become a disciple of Jesus Christ! How could the Rabbi who sat at the feet of Gamaliel become a follower of the despised Galilean? Poor peasants might follow the Man of Nazareth, but Doctor Saul of Tarsus--a man so educated both in the knowledge of the Hebrew literature and of the Greek philosophy--it was not likely that he would mingle with fishermen and peasants in adoring the Nazarene! This is the reason why a great many people cannot see the beauties of Christ and cannot come to Him that they might have life, namely, because they are so great in their own esteem! Ah, my lord, it might have been a good thing for you if you had been a pauper! Ah, good Moralist, it might not be amiss for you if you would sit by the side of those who have lost character among men and discover that after all, there are not many shades of difference between you and them! Great "I" must fall before the great Savior will be seen! When a man becomes nothing in his own estimation, then Jesus Christ becomes everything to him, but not till then. Self is an effectual darkener of the windows of the soul. How can men see the Gospel while they see so much of themselves? With such a noble righteousness of their own to deck themselves with, is it likely that they will buy of Christ the fine white linen which is the righteousness of saints? Another scale on Saul's inner eye was ignorance, and learned ignorance, too, which is by far the worst kind of ignorance! Saul knew everything but what he ought to have known. He was instructed in all other sorts of learning, but he did not know Christ. He had never studied the Lord's claim and Character--he had picked up the popular rumors and he had thought them to be sterling truth. Ah, had he known, poor Soul, that Jesus of Nazareth really was the Christ, he would never have hauled men and women to prison! But the scale of ignorance was over his eyes. And how many there are in this city of London, in what we call this "enlightened" 19th Century, who know a great deal about a thousand things, but nothing about the one thing necessary! They have never troubled to study Christ and so, for lack of knowledge, they grope about as the blind! With ignorance generally goes another scale, namely, prejudice. The man who knows nothing about truth is usually the man who despises it most. He does not know and does not want to know. "Don't tell me," he says, "don't tell me." He has nothing but a sneer for you when you have told him the Truth of God to the best of your ability. The man has no candor. He has made up his mind, he has! Besides, his father before him was not of your religion and do you think he is going to be a turncoat and leave the old family faith? "Don't tell me," he says, "I don't want to know anything of your canting Methodism," or, "Presbyterianism," or whatever it is that he likes to call it. He is so wise! He is wiser than seven men that can render a reason! O Prejudice, Prejudice, Prejudice, how many have you destroyed! Men who might have been wise have remained fools because they thought they were wise. Many judge what the Gospel ought to be, but do not actually enquire as to what it is. They do not come to the Bible to obtain their views of religion, but they open that Book to find texts to suit the opinions which they bring to it. They are not open to the honest force of the Truth of God and, therefore, are not saved by it! Oh, that this scale would fall from every eye which it now closes! Saul's soul was also darkened by the scale of unbelief Saul had seen Stephen die. If he saw the martyr's heavenly face, he must have noticed the wondrous peace which sat upon his countenance when he fell asleep amid a shower of stones. But Saul did not believe. Though no sermon is like the sight of a martyrdom, yet Saul was not convinced. Perhaps he had heard about the Savior more than he cared to remember, but he did not believe it. He counted the things rumored concerning Him to be idle tales and cast them under his feet. O Brothers and Sisters, what multitudes are being ruined by this cruel unbelief towards Christ! Some of you, too, whom I have been addressing for years, are Believers in the head, but unbelievers in the heart, not really putting your trust in Jesus! Who can see if he refuses the Light of God? Who shall find salvation if he will not trust the Savior for it? Unbelief is as sure to destroy those who are guilty of it as faith is sure to save Believers! Then the scale of habit, too, had formed over Saul's inner eyes, for he had been for a long time what he then was. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" If so, then he that is accustomed to do evil may learn to do well. They say that use is second nature and when the first nature is bad, the second nature is like the first, only it goes further in wrong. Ah, dear Friends, some of you have been so accustomed to refuse the Gospel, so accustomed to follow after the pleasures and the vices of the world, that it does not seem possible that you should follow after Christ! Habits of secret sin are peculiarly blinding to the soul. May this scale be speedily made to fall! Another scale is worldliness, and Saul had that upon his inner eyes, for he loved the praise of men. He had his reputation to maintain, for he had profited beyond most of his brothers and was reckoned to be a most hopeful and rising teacher of Israel. It was not likely that Saul would believe in Jesus Christ, for then he would have to lose the esteem of his countrymen. The fear of man and the love of man's applause--how they prevent men from seeing the Truth about Jesus and recognizing Him as the Son of God! "How can you believe, which receive honor, one of another?" How can men bow themselves before Jesus Christ when, all the while, they are bidding high for the homage of their fellow sinners? The love of adulation, which is a form of worldliness, blinds the eyes and so will any other love of things beneath the moon! Let but the heart be set upon this blinding world and there will be little sight for things Divine. II. These scales were upon the inside of Saul's eyes when he was on the way to Damascus, but now we have to notice them BROUGHT TO THE OUTSIDE. Those outside scales revealed in type and figure what had always been the matter with Saul--they were the material index of the spiritual mischief under which he had long labored! Only now they were brought outside so that he knew they were there, and others could perceive that they were there. Now there was hope that they would be removed from the eyes! Now that he was conscious of them, the evil was half cured! What brought those scales to the outside and made Saul know that he was blind? Well, first, it was the exceeding Glory of Christ. He says, "About noon, suddenly there shone from Heaven a great light round about me," and he adds, "I could not see for the Glory of that light." Let my Lord Jesus Christ only manifest Himself to any of you and you will be well enough aware of your blindness and you will say to yourselves, "What a strangely blind being I must have been not to have loved such beauty as this--not to have yielded myself to such Grace as this--not to have trusted myself to so complete a Savior as this!" Oh, the Glory of Christ! It has even laid the saints prostrate when they have seen it! Those who dwell nearest to their Lord are frequently overcome with the exceeding brightness of His Glory and have to confess with those favored three-- "When in ecstasy sublime, Tabor's glorious steep we climb, At the too-transporting light, Darkness rushes over our sight." So it is with the sinner when he gets his first view of a glorious Christ--the inrush of the Glory makes him mourn his native blindness--he perceives that he has had no perception and knows that he has known nothing! Another thing which made the scales pass to the outside of Saul's eyes was that unanswerable question, "Why do you persecute Me?" That brought home to him a sense of his sin. "Why?" That was a "why" for which Saul of Tarsus could not find a, "because." When he discovered that the Man of Nazareth was the glorious Christ of God, then, indeed, he was "confounded." He could make no reply to the demand, "Why do you persecute Me?" Oh, that the Lord would fix such a "why" in some of your hearts! Why should you live in sin? Why are you choosing the wages of unrighteousness? Why are you hardening your hearts against the Gospel? Why are you ridiculing it? Why do you sneer at the servants of God? If the Holy Spirit drives that "why" home to your heart, you will begin to say, "What a blind fool I am to have acted as I have done, to go kicking against the pricks, fighting against my best Friend and pouring scorn on those whom I ought most of all to admire!" The whyfrom the lips of Christ will show you your blindness! The scales were on the outside of Saul's eyes, now, because his soul had been cast into a terrible bewilderment. We read of him that when his eyes were opened, he saw no man, but trembling and astonished, he asked the Lord what he must do. Some of us know what that experience means. We have been brought under the hand of God till we have been utterly astonished--astonished at our Savior, astonished at our sin, astonished that there should be a hope remaining for us, astonished that we should have rejected that hope so long! With this amazement, there was mixed trembling lest, after all, the mercy should be too great for us and the next word from the Lord would be, "You have kicked against the pricks so long that, henceforth, the gates of mercy are shut against you." May the Lord fill some of you with trembling and astonishment! And if He does, then you will perceive the blindness of your soul--and cry for light! I have no doubt the scales became all the more perceptible to poor Saul when he came to those three days and nights of prayer, for when you get a man on his knees and he begins crying for mercy, he is in the way of being more fully taught his need of it! If relief does not come at once, then the penitent cries more and more intensely--his heart all the while is aching more and more and he perceives how blind he must have been to bring himself into such a condition. It is a good thing, sometimes, when the Lord keeps a man in prayer, pleading for the mercy and pleading, and pleading, and pleading on and on, until he perceives how great his need of that mercy is! When he has bitterly felt the darkness of his soul, he will be exceedingly bold in bearing light to his fellow men. May God bring many of you to agonizing prayer! And if that prayer should last days and nights and you should neither eat nor drink for anguish of spirit, I guarantee you that you will thoroughly learn your blindness and the scales upon your eyes will be painfully evident to you! III. Now thirdly, and here I should like to stir up the people of God to a little practical business--we have seen Saul with the scales outside his eyes. He now knows that he is blind, though he did not know it before when he was a proud Pharisee. He can see a great deal better, now, than he could when he thought he could see. But still, there he is, in dark- ness--and we long for the scales to be removed! WHAT INSTRUMENTALITY DID THE LORD USE TO TAKE THE SCALES AWAY? It was not an angel, nor was it an Apostle, but it was a plain mannamed Ananias, who was the means of bringing sight to blind Saul! We do not know much about this useful Brother. We know his name and that is enough. But Ananias was the only person whom the Lord used in taking off the scales from this Apostle's eyes. Dear Brothers and Sisters, there are some of you, if you are but alive to it, whom God will bless in like work! Perhaps this very night, though you are unknown and obscure Christian people, He may make you to be the means of taking the scales from the eyes of somebody who will be eminently useful in future years. The Holy Spirit blessed the great Apostle to the Gentiles by Ananias and He may lead another of His mighties to Himself by some obscure disciple! Ananias was a plain man, but he was a good man--you can see that Ananias was a thorough man of God. He was one who knew his Lord and recognized His voice when He said to him, in a vision, "Ananias." And he was a man whom the Lord knew, for He called him by his name. "I have called you by your name: you are Mine." The Lord will not send you on His errands unless you are sound, sincere and living near to Him. But if you are that, no matter how feeble you may be, I beseech you to be looking, even tonight, for some blind soul to whom you may be as eyes! Notice that this Ananias was a ready man, for when the Lord spoke to him, he said, "Behold, I am here, Lord." I know many professors who would have to answer, "Behold, I am somewhere else, Lord, but certainly not here." They are not "all there" when they are in Christ's work! The heart is away after something else. But, "Behold, I am here, Lord," is a grand thing for a Believer to say when his Lord bids him seek the wanderer. It is well to say, "Behold, I am here, Lord, ready for the poor awakened one. If he needs a word of comfort, I am ready to say it to him. If he needs a word of direction, here am I, as You shall help me to speak it to him." My Brother, be you like Ananias was, a ready man! And he was an understanding man, for when the Lord said to him concerning Saul, "Behold; he prays," he knew what that meant. He well understood the first indication of Grace in the soul! Beloved, you must have a personal experience of the things of God, or you cannot help newborn souls! If you do not know what it is to pass from death to life, and do not know the marks of regeneration, you are useless. At the same time, he was a discerning man--an enquiring, discriminating man, for he began to say, "Lord, I have heard by many of this man." He wanted to know a little about Saul, so he enquired of the great Master as to his character, and whether it was a genuine work of Grace in his soul. It will not do to pat all people on the back and give them comfort without examining into their state. Some of you must know by this time that indiscriminate consolation does more hurt than good. Certain classes need no consolation, but rather require reproof. They need wounding before they can be healed! And it is a good thing to know your man, and especially to wait upon the Lord and ask Him to tell you about your man, so that you may know how to deal with him when you do come to him. As Ananias did, use all diligence to know the case. But when once he had made his enquiry, he was an obedient man. He was told to go into a house where I do not suppose he had ever left his card in his life, but he did not stop for an introduction--he went off at once to the house of Judas, and enquired for one called Saul, of Tarsus. He had Divine authority--the Lord had given him a search-warrant, and so he entered the house-- "Thus the eternal mandate ran, Almighty Grace, arrest that man!" Ananias must be the sheriffs officer to go and arrest Saul in the name of the Lord! And so away he went. And you will notice what a personal-dealing man he was, for he did not stand at a distance, but, putting his hands on him, he said, "Brother Saul" Ah, that is the way to talk to people who are seeking the Lord--not to stand five miles off, and speak distantly, or preach condescendingly, as from the supreme Heaven of a sanctified Believer, down to the poor sinner mourning below! No, go and talk to him! Call him, "Brother." Go and speak to him with a true, loving, brotherly accent, as Ananias did, for he was a brotherly man. Ananias was also a man whose subject was Christ. As soon as ever you do speak to the sinner, let the first thing you have to say be, "The Lord, even Jesus." Whatever you say next, begin with that, "Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus." Have something to say about Jesus, but say it personally and pointedly, not as though you were alluding to persons living in Australia seven hundred years ago, but as referring to Brother Saul, and intending the word for him! Among Christian people there are mighty hunters before the Lord who strive after souls, but I wish that a hundred times as many really cared for the souls of their fellow men. Some church members never speak to anybody about spiritual things. You come into your pews and you like two seats if you can get them--like gentlemen in a first-class carriage, you want a compartment to yourselves! And then, after service, no matter who is impressed, many of you have not a word to say. Should it be so, Brothers and Sisters? We should always be on the lookout to seat strangers comfortably and afterwards to drive home, by personal remark, any Truth of God which may have been advanced. "Ah, says one, but I may speak to the wrong person." Suppose you did? Is it such a mighty misfortune to miss your mark once? Ah, Brothers and Sisters, if you were to address the wrong person 50 times and ultimately meet the right one once in a year, it would well reward you! If you were to receive rebuffs, and rebuffs, and rebuffs, and yet at last you should find out the Brother Saul who is to have the scales removed by you--and by none but you--you would be well rewarded! A plain common-sense word from a common-sense Christian has often been the very thing to set some able critic at liberty! Some man of profound mind--a Thomas of abundant doubts and questions--has only just needed a simple-hearted Christian to say the right words and he has entered into peace and liberty. You must not think that learned persons, when the Lord touches them in the heart, need to be talked to by Doctors of Divinity. Not they! They become as simple-hearted as others and, like dying kings and dying bishops, they ask to hear a shepherd pray because they find more savor, more plainness, more earnestness, more faith and more familiarity with God in the humble expressions of the lowly than in the language of courtly preachers. Do not, therefore, Brother Ananias, say, "I cannot go and talk to anybody. I have never been to college." Do not, Sister in Christ, stay back because you are a woman, for oftentimes the Lord makes the sweet and gentle voice of women to sound out the music of Grace! God grant that many of us may be the instruments of taking the scales from men's eyes! IV. LASTLY, WHAT DID SAUL SEE WHEN THE SCALES WERE GONE? The first person he saw was Brother Ananias. It was a fine sight for Saul to see Brother Ananias' Christian countenance beaming with love and joy! I fancy he was like one of our elders, a fine old Christian man with love to souls written on his face. When Saul opened his eyes, it must have done him good to see just such a face as that--a plain, simple man full of holy zeal and intense anxiety for his good. Dear Friend, if the Lord opens your eyes, you will see the brotherhood of Christians. Perhaps you will enjoy that among the first delights of your Christian experience and, for a little while, your faith, it may be, will hang upon the testimony of an instructed Christian woman and your confidence will need confirmation by the witness of a more advanced Brother in the Lord. But, my fellow worker, the saved one will never see Brother Ananias unless Ananias goes to him and becomes the means of opening his eyes! And if you will go and do that, you will win a friend who will love you as long as life lasts. There are some of you between whom and myself there are ties which death cannot snap. I wil